Books Reading Tonight
posted by March 14 at 9:58 AM
onHey! Don’t you just love advice about your (heterosexual, natch) relationship? Good news! There’s a reading for you tonight!
Okay, I haven’t read this book (but, um, can it really say much more than the column it’s adapted from?), but the upshot is: men in relationships can and should be trained using positive reinforcement, and women should be the trainers. Actually, from this write-up in the PI, it doesn’t sound like the worst advice book ever, and it does seem to address more than heterosexual relationships, but I’m still pretty over books that are marketed by emphasizing the differences between men and women and their supposed inability to communicate, because it’s pretty much bullshit. Anyway, there’s probably more to it, but if you want to know, you’ll have to get to Third Place Books at 7:00 tonight to ask Amy Sutherland yourself.
Moving on! Did you know it’s women’s history month? Women often get glossed over in the history you learn in school, so if you’d like to fill in one of those gaps, Glynda Schaad will be talking about her book Women to Reckon With: The Untamed Women of the Olympic Wilderness at the U Bookstore at 7:00 tonight.
Lastly, if you’re the mood for an intense work of fiction, Michelene Ahoronian Marcom will be reading from her new novel Draining the Sea at 7:30 at Elliot Bay Books. Quick summary: “Cross-cutting between the stories of a half-Armenian man in Los Angeles and a brutalized young woman in Guateamala, Marcom beautifully mines the undercurrents that suffuse their lives.” Sounds like a good way to kick off an evening of drinking.
For more info and locations, check out the Reading Calendar
PS Okay, technically it’s out of my jurisdiction because it’s tomorrow, but I can’t not tell you that Lois Lowry is coming to town. That’s right, Lois motherfucking Lowry, author of such classics as Number the Stars, The Giver, and the Anastasia books, will be at Town Hall at 1:00 on Saturday. Town Hall is not saying it’s sold out yet, but I’m pretty sure Lois Lowry is on KUOW as I type this, so get your tickets now.
Comments
That's some fine work, Exelizabeth. I'd like to second the Marcom reading. I have a friend in Oakland who takes a class that she teaches, and she sent me a text last night telling me I should go to the Marcom reading because she is "beautiful and terrifying" and also that "She is my horrible and holy dictator." That's some sort of great endorsement.
I tried following Shamu's example and letting out haunting moans all winter on the corner of Broadway and Harrison to attract women. It was very, very successful.
You know, I bet "She is my horrible and holy dictator" could also work for the Shamu book.
TSM: sounds hot.
To be fair, like Shamu, I tend to stand erect at the scent of raw fish.
I think I read something by the Shamu lady in the NY Times a couple of years ago. Intriguing, but my husband won't cooperate -- even with the promise of sardines and krell.
Lois Lowry was great on KUOW and now I feel compelled to go see her in person.
Hurrah for you, very well done. (And if the secret subtext was "Remember this if Paul Constant gets crushed by a bus or hired by Harper's," point taken.)
@Schmader, I don't think those two options--the bus and Harper's--are mutually exclusive: When Stephen King got hit by a truck, he wound up finally being published by the New Yorker, in what was the literary equivalent of a pity fuck.
I read about the Shamu book a year ago, and it didn't seem particularly hetero or women must train men or women and men can't communicate. She tried training techniques on her husband (because he was conveniently there) and they worked, and then when she explained it to him, a couple of weeks later, he used the same technique to 'train' her. She used it on her kids too.
Actually...
The whole point of positive reinforcement training (i.e. clicker training) is to ignore behavior you don't want and reward behavior you do. This also teaches YOU patience and how not to sweat the small stuff.
BTW, this is also the theme of an odd little 1962 flick called "If a Man Answers", with Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee.
The only thing I learned from Shamu is that a large warm wet tongue is helpful, but when you bite, bite down hard and rend.
I don't think it's working.
I read The Giver at least twice a year. One of the best YA books ever published.
@7
Stephen King had a few stories in the New Yorker in the '90s, pre-hit-by-van-man-with-dogs.
Coincidentally, Paul Constant, did you know that Stephen King constantly addresses his reading audience as "Constant Reader"?
@hairyson: I didn't know that. I thought the NY did a better job of keeping the riffraff out. But Stephen King didn't really get the critical approval until he got hit by the crazy man. (He still doesn't deserve it.) And I did know that he refers to his audience as Constant Reader, but we are all of us in the shadow of Dorothy Parker, godblesser.
Not to be a twit, but I'm guessing that the publishers got Amy's last name right on the cover of the book. But maybe they messed up and you're using her real name?
@Paul Constant: I'd say he's gotten some praise but not much approval. I enjoy a lot of his stuff. I don't know Dorothy Parker. But after millions of NYer words on olive oil and metal recycling, some occasional humor, in addition to Anthony Lane, is welcome.
@14, whoops, point taken! I've emailed them to ask them to fix it. I'm going on about 3 hours of sleep right now, so expect more and even more egregious errors.
And David, my not-so-secret subtext is generally just, "I am awesome" (though prone to types), but if people translate that into giving me jobs, I have no objections. But I wish no ill towards Paul Constant.
Erm, "typos," not "types." Though I think I illustrated my point.
amy sutherland was on npr a week ago talking up the shamu theory, and while it's my tendency to ignore women talking about men as though they're animals to be molded by their significant other, she did have some good things to say about the importance of letting people know what you want from them and not being too distracted to react positively when someone does something you like. makes sense.
@18 yes I agree.
psychology is the science of common sense
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