Sweetney

Meet my daughter's (imaginary) boyfriend

Our good friend Justin was featured in this week's Baltimore Citypaper for his new book Secondary Sound. Well that and because he's just generally freakin' awesome, and has excellent taste in both clothing AND preschoolers. For that alone legions of journalists should write about him and sing his praises, don't you think?

Okay, clearly I'm biased. But this excerpt from the Citypaper article about his book objectively shows just what a rad, smartypants fella he is:

Communication--in language and ideas--is the medium and the message of Sirois' recently published book, Secondary Sound. In it, the narrator creates two peculiar lists. One includes "text, pictures, sound, video, liberation"; the other "development, marketing, immersion, adaptation, obsolescence, art." Sirois says these lists are stages in the development of new media and technology, and he admits to being fascinated by the paths they trace.

OW! MAH BRAINZ! Why you gotta be so smart, homeboy?

Anyway, I just wanted to give him a shout-out, and tell him we love him, cuz we do. ESPECIALLY a certain 5-year-old, who shall remain nameless.

PS: Psst! Buy his book on amazon here. okthxbai!

The Ghost In The House.

One of the great things about doing this here blog thingy is that I get wonderful opportunities offered to me that I wouldn't otherwise. For example, recently I was asked to be a part of the MotherTalk book tour series, and I jumped at it. Because, c'mon people, FREE BOOKS! But above and beyond that, I get the chance through the series to not only write about books that actually interest me, but to connect with the authors behind them. I can ask any questions I might have about their book -- stuff I wondered about while reading it, things that I wanted to know more about or needed clarification on -- and, miraculously, the authors answer. OH THE POWER.

So the first book -- The Ghost in the House: Motherhood, Raising Children, and Struggling with Depression -- is a great one on a subject I happen to know something about personally. If you've been reading sweetney for any length of time you know that I've struggled with depression my entire life, and that its something I continue to struggle with as a mother. Reading this book, I saw almost too much of myself in it, having that eerie, unsettling feeling of self-recognition every few pages as I read about other mother's experiences with depression and trying to parent through depression. I am, apparently, a textbook case, albeit one medicated into serviceable working order. Yet I'm aware of how close I am, always, to tumbling back over into depression, even with medication (which has, for me, always served to temper or mute those states-of-being -- functioning as a sort of road block lodged between myself and the abyss -- but has never completely rid me of them). I have good and bad days still, and its incredibly heartening to know that so many other women are struggling from one day to the next, just like me. If any of this sounds familiar to you and your own experience, you really should read this book. No, really.

After finishing it, I had some questions for the author, award-winning journalist Tracy Thompson (who, lo and behold, HAS A BLOG!), and she was kind enough to humor me with her thoughtful responses:

Literary Notes.

Ooooh! Literary! Fancy!

[Book-related stuff after the jump... lots of pix... ]

don't look back, like dylan in the movies.

the new mcsweeney's comes -- at least to subscribers -- with a sample of wholphin, a “dvd magazine of unseen things.” for the sake of brevity, their self-description:

Wholphin is our new quarterly DVD magazine, featuring short films, documentaries, animation, and instructional videos that have not, for whatever reason, found wide release.

in this issue there's a documentary circa the 2000 election by spike jonze on al gore, and it is freaking heartbreaking. it shows gore, without pretense, in the exact light america needed to seem him in: warm and human, with real passion and depth. you walk away from viewing it thinking: a) this is the guy we could have had. WE SUCK. and: b) if they'd shown this after Friends one thursday back in the day, things might have gone differently in 2000.

[bangs head slowly against wall]

it burns! BURNS!!!

one sentence book review.

1776 -- by David McCullough: Contrary to popular belief (and high school textbooks), the American Revolution was quite interesting.