Bookburger

reminder: fetch a free fitch

We'll be giving away a copy of Janet Fitch's new novel Paint It Black to a member of our B-List---and a SET of Paint It Black and Fitch's BIG (we're talking Oprah-pick big) bestseller White Oleander to a new member (everyone who signs up anytime between today and October 31 will be eligible). Just fill out the "we deliver" box on the right side of this page to join. Oh yes, and you'll also get our occasional (not at all spammy) bulletins which we think you may just love. 

bookburger scoops wall street journal (again)

...but to be fair, we really can't expect those poor necktied WSJ boys to be as light on their feet and fabulously in-the-know as we burger-flippers. Twouldn't be fair!

We just want to note that we filed a Janet Fitch interview a full two days before the Journal boys did. However, they got her on video, which we WOULD have done, were it not for the unfortunate grease fire that destroyed our video studio (maybe it was not so smart to set it up next to the french-fryer). See Janet interviewed by a WSJ editor on video here. But first, sign up for the b-list over there on the right side of this page--you'll be entered to win a SET of Ms. Fitch's novels White Oleander and Paint It Black. And you can bet there ain't no free prizes at the Wall Street Journal!

janet fitch..between the buns

Janet Fitch wrote White Oleander first, then Paint It Black, her awesome new novel about a young punk-rock chick in Los Angeles who loses the love of her life.  We have a big crush on her and her work...so we popped our quiz at her. Here's what she tossed back. She's given us enough reading suggestions to keep us busy until we're elderly ladies browsing the large-print section of the bookstore..and what amazing suggestions, from big names to, let's face it, writers we've REALLY, TRULY never heard of...wow! we feel empowered! Thanks Janet.

Who is your favorite writer that most people have never heard of?

Silvia Warner Townsend, Lolly Willowes
Sei Shonagon, The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon
Les Plesko, The Last Bongo Sunset
Mikhail Bulgakov, Heart of a Dog, The Master and Margarita
Steve Erickson, Our Ecstatic Days
Joy Williams, The Living and the Dead
Anne Carson, The Beauty of the Husband, a novel in poems
Eve Babitz, L.A. Woman
Ann Nietzke, Windowlight
George Irwin, Exquisite Corpse
Kem Nunn, Pomona Queen
Diane Wakoski, Looking for the King of Spain (poems)
Mary Rakow, The Memory Room
Denise Nicholas, Freshwater Road
Rita Williams, If the Creek Don’t Rise
Donald Rawley, Slow Dance on the Fault Line

What kid or teen books rocked your world growing up?

Kid Books:

King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry
The King Must Die by Mary Renault
Edgar Allan Poe short stories
The Book of Marvels by Richard Halliburton
The Sword in the Stone  by TH White
The Thirteen Clocks by James Thurber
Traditional Haiku

There were very few “teen books” per se when I was growing up, but books that appealed to me were:

The People Yes by Carl Sandburg (first book I bought with my own money)
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg
The Diaries of Anais Nin
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Doestoyevsky
The poetry of Diane Wakoski
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? By Horace McCann
Double Indemnity by James M. Cain
The Spy who Came In From the Cold by John Le Carre
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

What one thing do you wish you could say to your 15-year-old self?

Do something that’s brave for you, every day. Just in small ways. Take more chances, dare to be incompetent, look stupid or be rejected.

Your life is a TV series. Name the theme song.

Talk of the Town by the Pretenders.

Burger-flippers want to know: have you ever had a job that required you to wear a geeky uniform? Details, please!

Office worker outfits. I was a Manpower Temp and wore pleated skirts and high heels, nylons. I could get dressed in ten minutes-- I had two skirts and two pairs of heels, which was usually fine because I normally was only on a job for a day or two.   But sometimes I was at a company for a couple of weeks, and people would start dropping hints…

We'd like to name a burger in your honor.  What kind of fixins should it have?

The Persephone Burger.  It should have a hole in the middle, filled with something dark, like olives. There's always a certain darkness at the center of my books.

PS... GIVEAWAY SPECTACULAR: We'll be giving away a copy of Paint It Black to a member of our B-List---and a SET of Paint It Black and White Oleander to a new member (everyone who signs up anytime between today and October 31 will be eligible). Just check out the "we deliver" box on the right side of this page to join...

we've been talking to janet fitch...

...and we'll be posting the interview this week, just as her new book, Paint It Black, hits the shelves. (Keep an eye out for it--it's the one with the pre-mommy Gwen Stefani clone on the cover.) The novel, her first since White Oleander, rocks in a sad and very poetic way. If you've ever wanted to be a penniless punk-rock grrl living in LA, but you know deep down that you could never abide the greasy tacos, unwashed hair, and the smell of ashtrays in the morning, you should read this book.