Category: Books

October 10, 2010, 06:29 PM ET

Snappy Advice From Classic Authors

Packed with frantic passion, psycho ardor, manipulation, betrayal, faux class and, of course, money, money, money, classic works of fiction offer advice galore--if the reader knows the right questions to ask.

Timeless novels are more richly nuanced than television, more carefully plotted than films, and more reliable than mere celebrity-based self-help books.

Most readers already have a relationship to them, but they haven’t yet discovered how to make them into problem-solvers.

We can help.

Like “The Dummy’s Guides” series but for smart people—and based entirely on the writings of great authors while ignoring their usually rather dismal actual lives entirely so as not to muddy to literary waters—the books would be divided into categories.

These categories would include but not be limited to dating, education, weight loss, money management, leadership, friendship, family,...

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September 28, 2010, 06:40 AM ET

Can't Get Out of Your Own Way? Me Neither.

By Gina Barreca

It's one of those days: I can't believe how trapped I feel, how overwhelming every task appears, and how lousy my hair looks. It's all tangled together, of course, this sense of being unequal to the task of making it through the day. Trapped, overwhelmed, and unattractive: The Monday Trifecta. The fact that it isn't even Monday only makes it worse.

And I'm the humor lady, right? The irony isn't lost on me. I'm the one who spends her time talking about how fabulous everything is if only you can only see how the absurdities of life add to—rather than detract from—our lives. Hahaha. Ha.

OK, so let's figure this one out, shall we?

Let's start with the hair. It probably looks no different to anybody except for me, if only because not one person on earth is thinking about the top of my head. So what if I think I make Elsa Lancaster in The Bride of Frankenstein look like she's...

September 8, 2010, 03:09 PM ET

Summer Reading

By Stan Katz

One of the greatest pleasures of my summer each year is the opportunity to read books that I do not feel I have time for during the school year. I am sure that I am no busier than any other academic during term-time, but am usually preparing classes or otherwise working during evenings and weekends. So I collect books from September to May in anticipation of turning to them come June. My taste is pretty eclectic, and I am usually surprised when I review my summer reading in September.

I have been addicted to Swedish detective stories ever since I was turned on to them long ago by the work of Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall. More recently I have enjoyed the Kurt Wallander novels of Henning Mankell, though I have been less interested in his more recent work. But I am now reading his new collection of stories that create Wallender's pre-history, and I like them quite a lot. I guess I...

September 8, 2010, 10:00 AM ET

Book Burning for Fun and Profit (Prophet?)

By Gina Barreca

You know how when you’re working a lot, not sleeping enough, and 50 things are swirling around your head as if somebody just flushed your brain? That’s how I’m feeling right now because I have to finish—really finish (not just pretend finish, which is what I’ve been doing)—the projects I’ve been working on all summer.

And it’s probably because I’m slightly delirious with work that I started wondering in the middle of the night whether Amazon would find a way to connect with Terry Jones—the pastor in Florida who’s encouraging people to burn the Koran on September 11th—to see whether he might encourage his followers to burn their Kindles instead.

(I take nothing lightly when it comes to September 11th, 2001. I am from New York and even though I’ve lived in Connecticut for 23 years, I will always be from New York. On that day, my husband and I had most of our family in the city; we spent the ...

August 23, 2010, 12:00 AM ET

Sex Book: An Update

By Gina Barreca

So I’m actually finishing this sex anthology—remember that I wrote about it earlier this summer?—and I can tell you one thing: compiling an anthology about sex is as complicated—almost, sort of—as having sex: You have to make choices, decide who’s in and who’s out, consider alternatives, and hope that enlightenment, pleasure, and perspective will follow.

The difference for me is that actual money is exchanged.

I know that will come as a shock to some.

I try not to take such remarks personally.

Here’s the scoop: The Great Books Foundation asked me to edit the first in their “Vital Ideas Series” which is described in their catalog as “a new series of compact, inexpensive anthologies they hope will be used in college composition and reading courses, as well as in developmental-level courses in two and four-year colleges.”

Allow me, please, to simplify my task and continue to quote from...

August 15, 2010, 11:20 PM ET

Condensed Chicken Soup for the Condensed Soul

By Gina Barreca

I have a couple of friends who are from wildly different backgrounds, who live in wholly different circumstances, and who nevertheless have a great deal in common.

If we’re really being honest here (and why not?) sometimes what they have in common makes me envious while it simultaneously brings me heartache.

What they have in common is the belief that, if they buy the right book, find the right past life, discover the right weight-loss program, employ the right combination of aromas, dress in the right colors, eat the right fruit, sleep the right number of hours—in addition to lighting the correct candles, watching the best movies, shenging the right fui, chanting the best mantra, consuming the highest fiber, eating the most fat, eating the least fat, pressing the right pressure points, and breathing the proper way—everything in their lives, from child care to pay grade to dress size,...

August 2, 2010, 12:26 AM ET

As Soon As I'm Finished With . . .

By Gina Barreca

Having spent several hours this weekend talking in person, on the phone, or via email with friends about the reasons we have not accomplished what we meant to accomplish—no, what we were absolutely certain we would have accomplished by the beginning of August—I decided it might be useful to collect these truly excellent reasons in one place and “share” them.

(Now, for those of you who don’t know me well, one of these old friends pointed out that it was imperative for me to explain the degree to which I loathe the word “share.” He thinks it's pathological. True, in polite conversation, I refer to it as the “s” word and refuse to use it. And, yes, I also announce at the beginning of my classes that the one thing we will never do during the semester is “share” our ideas. We might articulate, exchange, discuss, explain, support, undermine, illustrate, delight in, or rip to shreds ideas, but...

July 29, 2010, 07:00 PM ET

Happy Birthday, Emily Bronte, Sex and Romance Expert!

By Gina Barreca

Please can we start a group called "What Would Emily Say?" I mean, Emily Bronte's birthday is July 30th and heartsick lovers everywhere need to celebrate—or at least consult.

Members of WWES already exist, even if they don't have an official name or offer official T-shirts (yet). This was proven to me by the fact that I was asked to complete a series of questions concerning love and romance in Wuthering Heights for a popular online dating site. With an eye towards making my comments revelant to what are somtimes called "singles" in today's world, I accepted the challenge because it was too funny to pass up.

Here, in celebration and in lieu of balloons (I don't think Emily Bronte would have been a balloon type, frankly) is my opening statement for newly-minted "WWES?" fans:

1. What's up with the whole class issue deal? The issue of class distinctions is an important one...

July 17, 2010, 02:37 PM ET

Obscene Economics: Part 2

By Teresa Ghilarducci

graph from treehugger

Last week, I wrote that excessively paid CEO's are bad for the economy. Now we have more evidence that an extremely top-heavy economy hurts us all. Five percent of the people represent 30 percent of our consumer spending.

Top-of-the-fold NY Times front page story reports the rich spent more and faster last year than the rest of us, but they are slowing down now.

So is it logical that the rich should have lower taxes, more subsidies, and anything else they want so their spending buoys the economy? The answer is no, for four reasons known to all economists.

One: Taxing the rich and using revenue to build bridges, schools, and extend unemployment benefits will make the economy grow faster. The rich spend a fraction of what they make, the middle class spends a larger share, and the poor and working class spend all their income. A dollar in the pocket of the...

July 6, 2010, 10:30 PM ET

At the Writers' Dinner

By Gina Barreca

As they enter, they shower one another with air kisses and big hugs. A virtual catechism of exclamations ensues: “You look fabulous; did you lose weight?” is followed by “Your hair is amazing; what have you done to it?” and accompanied by “I swear you look better every time I see you; can you please tell me what it is that keeps you this way?” The ritualized greetings are evidence of, rather than a substitution for, affection; these women like one another.

Having known each other for years, they look forward to their now infrequent meetings. When they were younger, it seemed they had all the time in the world. Time these days is spent on work both fulfilling and exhausting, on children young and old, on partnerships both business and personal. Their time is always borrowed or begged from elsewhere.

The dozen women shrug off their jackets or scarves as a handsome young waiter takes...