tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76310607513083589872024-03-20T08:08:47.021-07:00the bumpidee readerwhat you readin' now?Tobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.comBlogger197125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-42063340810820085622015-01-24T21:57:00.000-08:002015-01-28T12:57:27.475-08:00dear readers
I guess it's been a few years since I have updated the bumpidee reader...I was away writing about music & interviewing bands and didn't keep up with blogging. But I didn't quit reading. Here's a list of some of the books I read since I last posted:
2012 (May-Dec)
Double Happiness by Jason Shiga
Empire State: A Love Story by Jason Shiga
Love Rock Revolution: K Records and the Rise of Tobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-81510570831622516762012-05-25T20:07:00.002-07:002012-05-29T13:20:42.668-07:00The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
I've had this one on hold at the library for months so when it finally arrived yesterday I reluctantly put aside my other reading material to make sure I could get through this one and pass it on to the next person who has been waiting to read it for months. What started as a chore quickly became a joy as I found myself reading the book in two sittings in less than 24 hours unable to put it Tobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-58085050234052529702012-05-25T20:03:00.001-07:002012-05-25T20:14:59.154-07:00The Time of the Doves by Mercé Rodereda
The Time of the Doves tells about the Spanish Civil War from a working class female point of view using stream of consciousness prose and grippingly vivid storytelling that assaults the senses. It takes place in Barcelona and was written in Catalan. This is maybe the best novel ever, even in translation, like Woolf meets Stein crossed with Graham Greene. Rodoreda seems to carve words as if Tobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-82687650806604091142012-05-22T18:18:00.000-07:002012-05-22T20:37:39.998-07:00Violence Girl by Alice Bag
Alice Bag wrote her memoir Violence Girl as a series of blog posts. She doesn't consider herself a writer. In that sense, this is a DIY punk book!
Growing up in the 80's hardcore era, The Bags were not well known to me for some reason. I don't know if their records were out of print or what but I don't remember hearing them until after Bikini Kill started. At the time, the NW was extremelyTobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-50581846266668165412012-05-22T17:30:00.000-07:002012-05-22T20:43:23.579-07:00The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
The House of Mirth (1905) by Edith Wharton centers on Lily Bart, a woman who is disempowered by society but tries to use her femininity to get what she wants. In that sense, the plot evokes the question so famously posed by Audre Lorde: Can the master's tools be used to dismantle the master's house? Although I agree with Lorde's anti-racist critique of feminism, I have never quite made up my Tobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-69061610246763447642012-05-22T13:26:00.000-07:002012-05-22T16:45:56.724-07:00The Gospel of Anarchy by Justin TaylorThe Gospel of Anarchy goes from a sexist softcore porn male fantasy tale of dumpster diving Floridian punks in Gainesville to magical realism...that centers around a cultish version of anarchist-Christianity...? After taking that turn it gets really boring. Like Jonathan Franzen or Mary McGarry Morris, the writing style is bleak, dystopic, vacant…not so much my thing...if this is a critique or Tobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-25165883867818881042012-05-22T12:00:00.001-07:002012-05-22T16:48:07.643-07:00Cambodian Grrrl by Anne Elizabeth MooreWhat happens when punk rock feminism travels across international borders?
Cambodian Grrrl: Self-Publishing in Phnom Penh tells the story of Anne Elizabeth Moore's trip to Cambodia to teach zine making to teenage girls. I saw Anne read at the Olympia Timberland Library before I read Cambodian Grrrl. I remember feeling like the audience for the book was white, privileged Americans and wondered Tobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-46481836189370765212012-05-21T22:55:00.000-07:002012-05-21T23:32:47.107-07:00Jimmy James Blood by Missy AnneThe best novel about working class northwest youth.
Jimmy James Blood by Missy Anne is a self-published first novel from a local Mason County author. The Total Bummer Bookclub called Jimmy James Blood "Shelton, Washington's version of Bastard Out of Carolina" and that's pretty accurate. It is a coming of age story that uses the natural landscape of the pacific northwest to explore the theme Tobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-5148734351318159592012-05-21T22:07:00.000-07:002012-05-22T13:41:01.777-07:00Summertime by J.M. Coetzee
I guess I'm supposed to know who this writer is since he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2003 but really I don't know, I just happened to pick up the book for some reason and decided to read it on vacation. I wish I could say that I'm up on contemporary fiction but actually I'm not. I remember thinking I should probably be paying attention to small press fiction instead of wasting my timeTobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-52031987586015126642012-05-21T21:47:00.000-07:002012-05-22T16:44:28.245-07:00Salvation CIty by Sigrid Nunez
This is the first novel Sigrid Nunez has written from the point of view of a male character and, while she does a great job, there are so few fiction writers that are as good as she is at writing female characters that I felt a little sad to be missing out on that aspect of her work this time around. But so what, right? She is a writer and her job is to tell stories and this proves that she isTobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-67128724948953590992012-05-21T21:32:00.001-07:002012-05-22T16:50:53.557-07:00Out of the Vinyl Deeps: Ellen Willis on Rock Musicthis book review was published in maximum rock-n-roll may 2012
Ellen Willis was a feminist and a rock critic back when rock-n-roll and feminism were generally thought to be opposed to one another. Growing up in the 70's and 80's, I remember this dichotomy well. As a teenage punk rocker I went through a heavy rock-n-roll stage in the mid-80's -- Black Flag had long hair, Red Kross and The Tobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-39968566202060606042012-05-21T21:10:00.000-07:002012-05-21T23:11:58.849-07:00Sempre Susan by Sigrid Nunez
Sigrid Nunez is one of my favorite living novelists. It turns out she briefly dated Susan Sontag's son David when they were very young. Her memoir of that time is fascinating and lets you get to know Sontag more than reading Sontag's own diary does, which is stiff and does not feel true to life or intimate in comparison. The glimpse into Sontag's character was memorable but this is mostly Tobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-19208726026042643812012-05-21T20:39:00.000-07:002012-05-22T16:51:24.945-07:00She Came To Stay by Simone de Beauvoir“Each conscience seeks the death of the other" - Hegel
She Came To Stay by Simone de Beauvoir uses the love triangle to explore the philosophical concept of The Other. People, maybe especially feminists, seem to find it annoying. The main character, Francoise, loses her mind when her partner, Pierre, falls for Francoise's attractive young student Xavierre, even though Francoise and Pierre Tobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-70543722828845577472011-04-10T22:11:00.000-07:002011-04-10T22:20:23.229-07:00Alice Walker on The SisterhoodFrom "Outlaw, Renegade, Rebel,Pagan", an interview with Amy Goodman from Democracy Now (2006) in Conversations with Alice WalkerAmy Goodman: Alice, I want to ask you about the Sisterhood. Who was this group of women writers in the 1970s that you gathered with?Alice Walker - The Sisterhood was the brainchild of myself and JuneJordan, because we looked around one day -- we were friends -- and we Tobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-53130486469299498952011-02-16T13:12:00.000-08:002011-02-16T14:40:43.180-08:00King Kong Theory by Virginie DespentesOn recommendation of both Kanako and Tobi I read this book. As of late with the mass media look back at riot grrl I've been wondering what feminism in punk rock is today. Does it exist? Is there a purpose? What is it's function? Is there a cohesive movement? Judging by critics and sound bites this seems to be being hailed as the new punk feminism. It's got some good points, it's got some bullshitmarissa magichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15679078614506619335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-78043228757805926592011-01-15T21:41:00.001-08:002011-01-16T00:04:01.340-08:00Hi Bumpidee Readers, it is 2011hello readers...I am going to try and be better about updating the bumpidee reader in 2011, I read a lot last year that I didn't review here and I need to stop doing that! I often don't read a whole book and am always reading more than 5 books at once...maybe I have A.D.D., maybe I should read a book about it! or A.D.H.D. or whatever it is...but guess what? NO EXCUSES!here's a short list of stuffTobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-1922937713037489882011-01-15T17:10:00.000-08:002011-01-15T17:31:57.842-08:00WOMEN OF UNDERGROUND MUSIC interviews by Zora von BurdenI picked this up in the hopes that it would be similar to re/searchs ANGRY WOMEN, which is one of my favorite books ever, and was sadly disappointed by this. It has an amazing line-up of interviews - Laurie Anderson, Nina Hagen, Adele Bertei, Deanna Ashley, Patricia Morrison, Moe Tucker and the list goes on. It's pretty interesting but it's more because of the subjects rather than how the marissa magichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15679078614506619335noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-72605343277615978352010-11-27T09:10:00.000-08:002010-11-27T09:11:43.894-08:00Marx at the MarginsIt is one of history’s ironies that in some ways it took the death of Marxism as an orthodox political movement for scholars to undertake serious philological study of all of Marx’s work. There are, of course, notable exceptions to this characterization. But in many ways, the work on Marx that has taken place since the 60s has been marked by the first attempts to provide an understanding of Marx COhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861992765412450808noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-58850015900990227992010-11-07T22:37:00.000-08:002010-11-08T16:31:26.840-08:00This Week=Rock-n-Roll vs. FeminismThis week has been funny. I've been reading Life by Keith Richards, which Liz Phair reviewed in The New York Times on ThursdayThen the new translation of The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir came in at the library and now the two books are at war with each other for my attention. This is literally "Rock-n-Roll vs. Feminism" happening in my apartment. Of course, Rock-n-Roll is winning! I learned Tobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-50010332186788455602010-11-07T22:32:00.000-08:002010-11-07T22:36:30.663-08:00BISAR is backBISAR is back and they are reading Moby Dick...if you want to join you have to email Slim Moon I've already read Moby Dick but I plan to join in at some point.Tobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-34173175766656827282010-10-30T12:51:00.000-07:002010-10-30T13:25:51.811-07:00Fanzines by Teal TriggsThis came in the mail today:I got this email from the author back in August:I wanted to let you know that I have included covers of your zine Jigsaw 5 and 5 1/2 in FANZINES (Thames & Hudson) which talk about the history of riot grrrl fanzines. The book in general covers a history of zines from science-fiction to present day. The book is due out in September an I hope it will help celebrate the Tobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-53180715930405626012010-10-28T17:46:00.001-07:002010-11-06T16:57:56.517-07:00Girl Power by Marisa MetzlerI expected this book to have more of a focus on just punk but it was much more an overview of women in nineties music in general. It was also a slightly bizarre read because not only is this ladies name marissa too (though spelled differently) she grew up in the Bay Area and then attended Evergreen, which eerily sounds a lot like my life story. The book kind of chronicles the rise of riot grrrl marissa magichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15679078614506619335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-64629859079824153562010-09-28T23:59:00.000-07:002010-09-29T10:20:05.214-07:00In The Beginning There Was Rhythm!Girls To The Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus came out today. I read it straight through when it came in the mail without stopping. It took about six hours. I thought "oh I'll write a review, but I have plenty of time, it's not coming out for a few months". Then I got an email from Johanna Fatemen where she mentioned she was reviewing it for Book Forum, so I Tobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-81597691534683216352010-09-18T22:21:00.000-07:002010-09-19T13:45:00.867-07:00summer is nearly ok really over, what did you read?It has been a month or two since I've been posting and I keep meaning to...but this summer totally sucked and I have been a little off in my own world. I did still manage to read a lot, here's a short list off the top of my head and maybe I'll get it together to write up some proper reviews in the next few weeks:I started the summer out reading and re-reading a lot of feminist theory, which led Tobi Vailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02052149126555935296noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7631060751308358987.post-78204517450509253632010-08-14T11:23:00.000-07:002010-08-14T12:14:32.987-07:00Summer Reading: abandoned books and The Slave Ship: A Human History.I go through phases where I don't finish reading what I started. Right now I'm in one of these phases. I have a pile of books beside my bed. Half lie open where I abandoned them.I haven't come up with a satisfactory reason for why I go through these phases. Its certainly not that my taste suddenly and inexplicably turns to shit or that I hit a patch of bad books. All but one of the abandoned COhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861992765412450808noreply@blogger.com1