Voices: Silver Lining: A Letter to You

Thankfully, in the middle of our feeling disturbed or bothered or anxious or stagnant there is a silver lining to every situation that will bring all things into clarity. Recently, when my mind felt like it was being scattered to the four winds, I found the silver lining in one of the "happiest places on Earth": the bookstore.

I went to Barnes & Noble after work one Friday and gathered as many books as I could hold. Books I've wanted to read for a long time but never got around to. Books I've fingered and thumbed through over and over just because of their pretty covers. I had collected Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, Andrea Levy's Fruit of the Lemon, and lastly, Maya Angelou's Letter to My Daughter. It is this book that dug a little hole in my mind and nestled itself in the crevices of my thoughts and whispered a secret: you are human and you are free to live with wonder in your eye, courage in your spirit, and unabashed love in your heart. All of which are virtues that sometimes take longer to manifest themselves, but are nevertheless always present.

With her trademark sense of cool, Maya Angelou reveals her own life lessons with a soft yet unshakable voice. She's incredibly candid with her personal stories of being beaten by a lover, having a child out of wedlock at a young age, knowing her mother's unconditional love, and learning that being a philanthropist does not always equal being charitable.

My personal favorite was a short anecdote about how Angelou experienced her own shortcomings in humility. In a chapter entitled "Senegal", Angelou speaks of how she ventured to Senegal to visit a couple who operated in the upper echelon of the artistic and intellectual circles. She was the guest of honor in their home during a dinner party they had arranged. Angelou talks of how she walked among the dinner guests and made her way into a room that had a decadent carpet on the floor. Her mind flashed back to a woman she had known in previous years who would not allow her maids to walk on her good carpets, declaring that if anyone is going to wear down her good carpet it will be her family and friends. Angelou commences to walk across this beautiful carpet belonging to her Senegalese friends, showing that a carpet is meant to be stepped on. The guests look at her and offer hospitable smiles. Angelou finally steps away from the carpet after her attempts did not encourage more people to join her. The maids come in and roll up the carpet she had walked on, but they replace it with another--one more beautiful this time. The maids then begin placing silverware and plates and decadent dinner entrees onto the carpet, and Ms. Angelou begins to feel her face and neck burning with embarrassment realizing she has just walked across the dinner table. She offers this timeless piece of advice to women and girls everywhere:

"The epitome of utter sophistication is simplicity. In an unfamiliar culture it is wise to offer no innovations, no suggestions, or lessons."

Letters to My Daughter offers poetry and prose from one of the most giving and candid literary figures to stir up the richness inside every woman. She treats your ills with laughter, stimulates your mind with questions, and fills your heart with joy knowing that you are armed with a slightly stronger arsenal to keep you encouraged in the world. It is, among other things, a book about values and about knowing when to fight for yourself. It is also about about being daring in the face of adversity, lessons in judging others and measuring ourselves against pillars we were not meant to.

The following is a picture of a video clip that Amazon.com has provided of Maya Angelou introducing her book. If you click the following picture, you'll be directed to the video.

The Big Read

One of the biggest initiatives to help promote reading across the country is now underway. The Big Read is happening in cities large and small, and currently 208 communities are participating as the events kicked off in September 2008.

For readers in D.C, our events take place during the months of April-May with the official kick off of The Big Read D.C happening on April 25th at 11am. Writer/Co-producer of The Wire George Pelecanos will be present. The Humanities Council of Washinton, located at 925 U. Street NW started reading and discussing Carson McCullers' The Heart is A Lonely Hunter on April 1st. But be not weary oh ye anxious bibliophiles. This coming Tuesday, April 7th, at King Jordan Student Academic Center, First Floor G Area, Gallaudet University, 800 Florida Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20002 there will be another discussion of this novel. Here's a link to the list of events happening in D.C concerning The Big Read. I would love to check out the film "Deaf Characters in Popular Films: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" showing at the MLK Library on April 21st or the Dance performance happening just a few days after.

The site also lets you check what others communities across America are reading, and even offers radio clips, essays and interview excerpts for you to engage in. One of my favorites is the radio clip of Alice Walker speaking about the woman whom she helped the world rediscover: Zora Neale Hurston.

Later this year, Uptown Literatti aims to be a contributing member to The Big Read's initiatives, so be on the look out for a big announcement in the summer.

The Amazon Wish List

Dear UL readers, here is something else that you must, must know about me: I am a listmaker. I have lists for everything. Grocery lists, to-do lists, things to do before I'm 25 lists, books/stories I want to write lists, movies I want to see lists, jobs to apply for...if it can be done, then I will list it.

So, the Amazon Wish List has become a virtual smorgosboard of inspiration for me. Not only can I keep track of all the fabulous books I hear about on NPR (which never seem to make their way to my home!) or friends, I can also remember that I have to snag a pair of Vera Wang for Kohls' cute purple gloves.

If you don't have one, get one immedately. It really helps to relieve some of the anxiety you feel when you know there's good stuff out there that you keep forgetting to do/read.

Some of the books on my to-read list are:

The Book of Night Women, Marlon James: An NPR find, this book sounds fascinating. I'll actually be reading it, God-willing, once I finish The Stranger by Albert Camus.

Said the Shotgun to the Head, Saul Williams. I'm not a fan of poetry, but I am a huge Saul Williams fan. He's the sexy, artsy hustler of my dreams.

The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling. I'll admit that I had no idea one of my favorite childhood movies was a book. After Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wintz named their firstborn Bronx Mowgli, I was inspired to read the inspiration.

Click here for the full list. What books will you put in your to-read wish list?

Happy Anniversary to Uptown Literatti!!

On this day one year ago, at roughly the same hour, Whitney and I convened at her apartment on 149th st. in Harlem to discuss the themes of Silvia Plath's The Bell Jar.

We had initially gathered simply as friends with a shared interest in one of literature's great and troubled writers: Sylvia Plath. However, somewhere between the end of that stimulating and revelatory discussion of The Bell Jar, and the celebration of my 23rd birthday that followed, we had the idea to form "Uptown Literatti". The mission was simple: gather together as an intimate group of women with an insatiable appetite for books that have become known as the only name befitting of them: the classics.

When we started UL we knew there were so many women like us: twenty-somethings with a love for literature who wanted to read and discuss it with both a critical and objective eye, but also with passion and verve! Who doesn't love that moment when you experience the synergy between the parallels of your life and the fictional characters you discover? We hope to make UL apart of your circle, too. A place where you can come to share your stories, learn about someone else's, discover a new writer, add input about a book we're reading or one you've already read, or just be encouraged to write your own story. It's a community for the sassy, the quiet, the dreamers, the wish-ful thinkers and the deep thinkers, the realists, and everyone in between! We're hoping to incorporate our own list of a new generation of writers whose works will one day also be considered classics, and would love your input at any time. So pull out your book markers and highlighters because UL is just getting started!

Thanks for sharing in this anniversary, to which we hope to have many more!

Love,
Uptown Literatti

Be Still My Beating Heart!

I cannot tell you all how excited I am about this website! It's been bookmarked in my Favorites page for well over a month now, and I wanted to write about it the minute I came across it but I could never seem to find the right words to express my deep love. But like a secret romance I can't keep it to myself any longer. I have to tell somebody! And who better than the sassy, smart bibliophiles of UL, right?!

Feast your eyes on The Book Cover Archive. Seriously. This site is a visual cornucopia of amazing book covers of all genres of literature. Just as Melissa mentioned being taken by a book based on it's cover with just one glance, so is the intention of this website: to grab your eye's attention for a book by featuring covers that dazzle, inspire, and provoke. Once you're in then the enlightenment can begin. The website itself is built with a great aesthetic that allows you to view a full page of colorful book covers and then click on any one to get more detailed information about that particular title. Be prepared to set up a special folder where you can store dozens of images of books you plan to track down via Amazon or Barnes & Noble later on. (I know I have already ;) I would love to post an image of the site's homepage here, but my computer's screen shot feature is currently out of commission. But here's a sneak peek at what kind of cover designs are featured.

I thought you might like that ;)

Nicole

Lifestyle Gumbo: Celebs as Literary Figures, Hot or Not?

I ran across this slideshow from StyleList that pits modern day celebs as classic literary heroines. Here are my favorite looks from the shoot:

[Sienna Miller as Natasha from Lev Tolstoy's War and Peace]

[Marcia Cross as Marguerite from Alexandre Dumas' La Dame aux Camélias]

[Emily Blunt as Gwendolyne from Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest]

The campaign benefits Montblanc's "Signature for Good" campaign.

-- Whitney

Photos by Roger Moeniks for Montblanc

I Love a Good Gem!

Unpolished Gem: My Mother, My Grandmother, and Me
Alice Pung

Ok, UL world, I have a confession to make...ready? I am...a book cover judger. Yes, I will pick up a classic, and few new books on the block but I can't leave the library (yes library, I'm a student on a budget) without a random selection that simply caught my eye. With this being my tv-free week, (I encourage you all to try it sometime) I picked up this striking orange beauty and flipped to the back.


A quick glance and I learn about a family fleeing the Cambodian killing fields in search of the Australian dream. Wow, Oz, I've been there, never heard anyone call it the "Australian dream" though. I better read on. So I opened the intro and found:

"In 1980, my father, mother, grandmother, and Auntie Kieu arrived in Australia by airplane. They arrived with one suitcase. There was nothing in the suitcase, and the only person who was carrying a heavy load was my mother, because she was eight months pregnant with me."

I don't know about you, but I was intrigued. I was all the more inspired when I saw that the author is a young 28 and her story about being a second-generation immigrant is garnering much acclaim. Check it out.

~Melissa

And just a quick survey, am I the only one who judges books by their covers?

Oh, Zadie

[Zadie, clutching one of her books]

We're Sorry! Okay, I just wanted to get that out of the way before I commence to posting. We (as in the fabulously bookish/ridiculously busy bookworms of this blog) have completely neglected our project in favor of other delights, like starting new jobs, going to school, moving, and overall conquering the world.

So anyway, I hope that we'll be back to regular reading + posting glory soon, but until then I just wanted to quickly draw your attention to a Mrs. Zadie Smith. If you don't know Zadie, you definitely should. She's a young, biracial British author who's three novels have all been considered new classics. I've been trying to read her latest On Beauty for about a year now but always seem to get distracted. My sister (Miss Sweet Jones on The Real 7) read it and raved about it.

[On Beauty, by Zadie Smith]

Anyway, she is mentioned in a recent Guardian article about upcoming writers that actually live up to the hype. How often does that happen?

Maybe a new, fresh voice is just what we UL girls need to kickstart our book club?

-- Whitney

Bookish Chic: Recycled Book Journals

Just had to share these adorable, eco-friendly journals made out of drumroll....recycled book covers! They're fantastic and would make a great gift for a book-lover (hint, hint).

[ex libras anonymous book journals, $13]

[jack and janet journal]

Cute, huh?

Teeming with Excitement! If A Girl Can Be So...

As you all know I am a big fan of India writer Amitav Ghosh. His first novel The Glass Palace is never too far from my thoughts, and though I've tried delving into one of his other subsequent novels, The Circle of Reason, Ghosh's enormous imagination engulfed me to the point where I was exhausted by the language dealing with phrenology and had to stop. Recently, while listening to my favorite Internet radio site, NPR, I came across an interview Ghosh did for his latest book (drum roll please...) Sea of Poppies!.

I could spend forever just listening to him recount the process of writing this expansive novel, and you can too over here at NPR's All Things Considered Book Review with Amitav Ghosh. I don't quite know the gist of the novel, but NPR's introductory description "Imagine if Charles Dickens had signed on for a voyage with the Pequod" is enough for me. But if you're at all interested in the ties among India, Britain, and China during the opium trade in the 1800s then this novel promises to be a great read. An excerpt from 'Poppies' is also provided at the bottom of the NPR interview.

Okay, I'm heading out to Barnes & Noble to curl up with my copy and an apple crisp pouch. So good! Happy reading!

Nic