Jackpot review in ABR

A new Jackpot review in the current (July/August) issue of American Book Review.

meme baton

Patry Francis has passed the meme baton to me, and since it's all about books, I agreed. So, here are my answers:

You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451. Which book do you want to be?
Dostoevesky's, Notes from the Underground

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Yes, quite a few, and most of them female. The protagonists of:
Jelinek's The Piano Teacher
Jelinek's Wonderful Wonderful Times
Ellen Miller's Like Being Killed
Nathalie Sarraute's Do you Hear Them?
Lisa Lerner's Just Like Beauty
Veza Canetti's The Tortoises
Jane Bowles' Two Serious Ladies
Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway

The male protagonists:
Jiri Weil's Life with a Star
All of Thomas Bernhard's
All of Samuel Beckett's


The last book you bought is?
Cows by Matthew Stokoe - great book


What are you currently reading?
Addition & Subtraction by Richard McNally - in manuscript form at the moment. Loved his collection of short stories, Velocity (2001, Curious Rooms).


Five books you would take to a deserted island

1. The Bible

2. Wallace Stevens' Collected Poems

3. Musil's The Man Without Qualities

4. Flaubert's Bouvard & Pecuchet

5. Three Novels by Samuel Beckett: Molloy, Malone Dies, the Unnamable

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?

I'm going to pass the meme to Bev Walton, Book Coolie, and S.L. Cunningham, because i think they will pick up the baton and run with it.

Tsipi

go visit

hello gang,
go visit a great site - http://dog1net.blogspot.com/ - read about Jackpot, and more.
tsipi

Velocity - by Richard McNally

and an ABSOLUTELY MUST READ, Velocity, by Richard McNally. It's a collection of short stories, a bit difficult to find, but worth whatever trouble you'll have to go through to get your hands on it. It was published in 2001 by Curious Rooms, the ISBN # is: 9710046-1-7. There's a saying in Hebrew that since the Temple was detroyed, prophecy was given to fools and children. Call me a Fool, call me a Child, but I prophesy that McNally will be read long after all of us are gone.
Tsipi

cows by matthew stokoe

Finished reading Cows - an amazing book from start to finish - read it!
tsipi

Jackpot Review - PaperFrigate

Pat Cummings, Books Editor of BlogCritics, has posted his review of Jackpot on the following sites:

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/06/23/155124.php

http://paperfrigate.blogspot.com/2005/06/claustrophobia-in-paradise-jackpot-by.html

These are two good sites for literature, pay them a visit.
Tsipi

Ron Hogan of the Beatrice.com blog - 6/22/05

This is what Ron said about Jackpot and Book Coolie. Please visit his blog for more about books and literature:

"I also started dipping into Tsipi Keller's blog after reading Jackpot, a tight downward noir spiral of a sexually and emotionally frustrated twentysomething woman abandoned by a friend at a Bahamas resort. From her site, I stumbled onto a guest essay on writing in non-native English at the excellent literary site Book Coolie, which appears to focus primarily on what might most easily be referred to as "world literature."

poetry

for ye poetry lovers -

http://www.cipherjournal.com/html/greenberg_keller.html

my essay Guest in the House of English on the Book Coolie blog

For all of you baseball and language lovers: this is what my friend Carol wrote in response to the "bullpen" comment in the essay:

On "bullpen", I found the following:
In baseball(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball), the bullpen is the area where pitchers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitcher)warm-up before entering a game. Depending on the ballpark, it may be situated in foul territory down the baselines or just beyond the outfield fence. Also, the group of relief pitchers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relief_pitcher) for a team is collectively referred to as the bullpen. These relievers usually wait in the bullpen when they have yet to play in a game, rather than in the dugout (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugout)
with the rest of the team.

The origin of the term bullpen is debated with no one theory gaining unanimous, or even substantial, prevalence over another. The term first appeared in wide use shortly after the turn of the 20th century
[1] (http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorb.htm)
(http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorb.htm) and has been used since in roughly its present meaning. Some of the most common theories are:
1. The bullpen symbolically represents the fenced in area of a bull's pen, where bulls wait before being sent off to the slaughter. The relief pitchers are the bulls and the bullpen represents their pen.
2. Late arrivers to ball games in the late 19th century were cordoned off into standing room only areas in foul territory. Because the fans were herded like cattle, this area became known as the bullpen, a designation which was later transferred over to the relief pitchers who warmed up there.
3. At the turn of the century, outfield fences were often adorned with advertisements for Bull Durham Tobacco
(http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bull_Durham_Tobacco&action=edit)
Since relievers warmed up in a nearby pen, the term bullpen was created.
4. In the 1800s, jails and holding cells were nicknamed bullpens, in respect of many police officers' bullish features -- strength and a short temper. The term was later applied to bullpens in baseball.
5. Casey Stengel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Stengel)
suggested the term might have been derived from managers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manager
getting tired of their relief pitchers "shooting the bull http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shoot_the_bull&action=edit)
in the dugout (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugout_(baseball))
and were therefore sent elsewhere, where they wouldn't be a bother to the rest of
the team -- the bullpen. How serious he was when he made this claim is not
clear.
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullpen
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullpen)

links to JACKPOT reviews

Review excerpts at: http://spuytenduyvil.net/fiction/jackpot.htm

These reviews are available on line:

http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews2/0972066217.asp

http://www.brooklynrail.org/books/oct04/offtheshelves.html (please scroll down the page to "Fiction")

http://www.uta.edu/english/tim/lection/041205.html

http://trashotron.com/agony/news/2005/06-13-05.htm#061505

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/06/23/155124.php

http://paperfrigate.blogspot.com/2005/06/claustrophobia-in-paradise-jackpot-by.html

http://dog1net.blogspot.com/

http://careo.elearning.ubc.ca/weblogs/ebbandflow/

http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/shire15/

links to literary blogs

This list will be updated periodically:

The Agony Column
The Rolling Shelves
Fresh Eyes: A Bookseller's Journal
Alleged Gravitas
Paulmcd.net
About a Girl
Beatrice.com
BlogCritics
Eric Berlin at: http://www.dumpsterbust.com
Buzz, Balls, & Hype by M.J. Rose
Bookangst 101 by Mad Max Perkins
book coolie
bookninja
Booksense
Bookslut
English Space
Ebb and Flow
Flogging the Quill by Ray Rhamey
The Elegant Variation by Mark Sarvas
Rants, Raves, & Random Thoughts
Chekhov's Mistress
LitFreak
Flirty Kitty
Toth World
The Chatelain's Poetics
MobyLives
Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind
Inky Girl
Scribequill
Elemental Musings
Southern Comfort
Paper Frigate
Nipposkiss
Summer of Gloves
Likha
Kinja
Throw Novel from the Train
Tequila mockingbird
Publishers Marketplace
Adrian's Lemon Juice Blog
Scarletmuse by Karen Junker, Writer's Weekend
Maud Newton
Galley Cat
Emerging Writers Network
a reader's journal
ArtsJournal
Anthem Book Blog
Toth World

other links of interest:
http://www.thunderburst.co.uk
www.blasmanueldeluna.com
www.theyor.blogspot.com
http://uta.edu/english/tim/lection/041205.html
http://www.scripter.net/backpages/jackpot.htm
The Northshire Bookstore (Vermont)
The St Marks Bookshop (NYC)

new Jackpot review by Rick Kleffel

For those of you who do come here and take a peek, here's a link to a new review on Jackpot:

http://trashotron.com/agony/news/2005/06-13-05.htm#061505

Also, am reading a fascinating novel: COWS by Matthew Stokoe (Creation, 1999).
Here's the info i cut and paste from Amazon. Apparently, there's another novel after Cows, titled: High Life, which i'm putting on my list.

Cows
by Matthew Stokoe
Avg. Customer Rating:
Rate this item)
Other Editions: Hardcover | Paperback
Usually ships within 1-2 business days
Used & new from $9.00


2. High Life (Little House on the Bowery)
by Matthew Stokoe (Paperback - July 1, 2002)
Avg. Customer Rating:
(Rate this item)

Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $16.95
Buy new: $11.53
Used & new from $10.49



tsipi

back

was a little swamped yesterday, but here i am now, tuesday morning, blue skies, a few white clouds, getting ready for work. thanks to those of you who went to Book Coolie and posted comments on my essay, Guest in the House of English. A few friends called these past few days to explain why they WON'T go to Book Coolie, or any blog, mine included. They're anti-blogs, still, and are astonished that i have a blog. So. To work now.
Tsipi

away

will be away for a couple of days, hope to be back late sunday/early monday.
tsipi

non-bloggers friends

so, my friends, all writers, came here once, wrote back, by email, to say, Wow!, but never bothered to write comment, and, for all I know, never came back. Blog-shy?
Anyway, for those who do come here, incognito, and want to read a short essay I wrote about Writing in a Language Not Your Own, please visit http://bookcoolie.blogspot.com/
where it will be posted, starting tomorrow.
Adios for now.

physical blogs

In colorful dream last night, i visit various blogs, not virtual, but physical, like people's homes, and lots of bright colors, and feeling of party and enchantment. And on the reading side: Finished reading Lullaby/Palahniuk - didn't actually "finish" it, read the 1st half - very good - and 2nd half, as often happens, repetition of first, so skimmed the 2nd half to the predictable conclusion. Recommend Will Self to you, who is good from beginning to finish. You may also want to check out Ursula LeGuin's Unlocking the Air. Adios for now.

hello again,
prepared a glorious list for you, but, to make long short, they allow you space of only 600 characters. So had to shorten the list and take out the author's name. If you want to know author's name, write to me. Also, with Thomas Bernhard, read all his books (except for his memoir) - you can't go wrong. Same goes for all of Samuel Beckett's novels (and plays), Jiri Weil (wrote only 2 great books as his life was cut short by the Nazis), Natalie Sarraute, Jean Rhys, Flannery O'Connor. Also, didn't have room for Cesare Pavese, Juan Goytisolo, Raymond Queneau, Flaubert's Bouvard & Pecuchet, Robert Pinget. Also, Ellen Miller's Like Being Killed, and Lisa Lerner's Just Like Beauty, and Jim Krusoe's Blood Lake.

the tsipi keller book blog: favorite books

the tsipi keller book blog: favorite books

the tsipi keller book blog

http://www.scripter.net/backpages/jackpot.htm

favorite books

hello again,
prepared a glorious list for you, but, to make long short, they allow you space of only 600 characters. So had to shorten the list and take out the author's name. If you want to know author's name, write to me. Also, with Thomas Bernhard, read all his books (except for his memoir) - you can't go wrong. Same goes for all of Samuel Beckett's novels (and plays), Jiri Weil (wrote only 2 great books as his life was cut short by the Nazis), Nathalie Sarraute, Jean Rhys, Flannery O'Connor. Also, didn't have room for Cesare Pavese, Juan Goytisolo, Raymond Queneau, Flaubert's Bouvard & Pecuchet, Robert Pinget. Also, Ellen Miller's Like Being Killed, and Lisa Lerner's Just Like Beauty, and Jim Krusoe's Blood Lake.

couple of announcements

First, thank-you to Jennifer for her commment re favorite books not listed. Well, i did write in the appropriate box: List too long, will mention favorites as I go along. But, apparently, the program didn't recognize it as answer. So, a list - long long list - will appear shortly.

My good friend and writer Roberta Allen asked me to post this for her:

Roberta Allen is offering a private 4 session Summer Writing Workshop in Chelsea.
Monday evenings 7:30 -10 PM, June 13, 27, July 11, 25.

"Roberta's exercises and insightful comments on my revised work help me discover what is most essential and true about my writing."
-Elizabeth Smith, Writer & Teacher,Brooklyn, NY

Roberta also teaches at New School University.
For info, email Roberta at roall@aol.com and visit her website
http://www.robertaallen.com

And my good friend and artist Helene Aylon asked me to tell you all that she has to move out of her artist studio by July-end. If any of you know of a studio she can rent - she is willing to share - please let her know. The studio must be in Manhattan. Her telephone: 212-924-4133. Thanks.

I moved to West Palm Beach thinking I'll have a nice quiet life - no such luck, but am not complaining.

till later, tsipi

Karen Kramer's new documentary

Well, back sooner than I thought. Received email from filmmaker Karen Kramer regarding her new documentary, The Ballad of Greenwich Village. I saw it at a private screening and recommend it highly. Please visit her website to learn screening dates in NYC, and more:

www.balladofgreenwichvillage.com

finally doing it

Morning, Sunday, June 5, and am dipping my fingers in blog waters. I hope to come here once a day, and, on rainy days, maybe more often. Will tell you mostly about the books I am reading, and, occasionally, may vent a little about absurdities, and/or tell you about a bird I saw, or a manatee, on my morning run. Friends, those of you who resisted blogging as I have until now, please reconsider. It's a platform, it's a promotional tool, and it's fun, too. I've said my word.
Tsipi