Because sometimes you just need someone who will throw knives at you

I enjoyed La fille sur le pont way more than I thought I would. After reading the description on the Netflix sleeve, I despaired: what on earth had made me request a film about a suicidal, sex-crazy French woman who falls for a gambling (possibly telekinetic) knife-thrower (played by the great Daniel Auteuil)?

I still don't have an answer for you, there. But, I can tell you that La fille is a great, fun summer film: it pokes fun at its own noir-ish ambitions and, amidst all the lusty jokes (somewhat irritatingly at the female character's expense), the movie somehow succeeds in portraying a love story based on mutual need rather than overwhelming physical desire.

It strikes me that this clip is a little Moulin Rouge-ish, though the film itself is not. Allez-y.

Summer like a fire sale -or- I'm feeling kind of list-y

Summer means big books and ridiculous pop music...as soon as I can pay attention long enough to do anything about the pile of novels I've been meaning to read and (imaginary) CDs I've been meaning to crank through my nifty globular speakers. Also on the summer agenda:

• vegetables
• Zumba
• Research Assistant-ing
• apartment hunting
• my Southern Odyssey (Lancaster/Philadelphia [whatever; it's the Mason-Dixon line], Virginia, and Florida [twice!])
• silly French movies

Since I can only seem to think in lists right now, here's the line-up for summer reading here at paper alphabet:

The Fortress of Solitude
Jonathan Lethem

My friend Jessica swears by this book, and I love Jessica, so I'm reading it. Despite my reservations about the whole Brooklyn publishing phenomenon. Also, I like superheroes.




A Fraction of the Whole
Steve Toltz

Recommended months and months ago by the great Maud Newton (who also lives in Brooklyn...). I've been itching to read it all year. Jail. Australians. I have to do something now that House isn't on anymore.




The Manual of Detection
Jedediah Berry

Jed Berry is a UMass MFA alum, so I've had the opportunity to listen to him talk a few times since being here. He was especially encouraging about working with/for small presses, which I think is admirable and exciting. Also, Jensen wants people to read this book, and I love him, so I will.


Delicate, Edible Birds And Other Stories
Lauren Groff

I've sort of had a girl crush on Lauren Groff ever since I met her at the Emerging Writers Festival in Lancaster two years ago. Her novel, Monsters of Templeton, hadn't even come out at that point; I've been following her ever since (you know, on foot, and everything. [I probably shouldn't joke about these things on the interwebs.])


Pretty Monsters
Kelly Link

I've been meaning to read Kelly Link for two years now, and I think I'll start with her YA collection of stories, since the summer makes me want to write stories with magic and monsters and people carrying their own heads. Her other collection, Magic for Beginners, is available for download (for free!) over at Small Beer Press--also where Jed Berry works as an assistant editor (the world is a small place.).


The Withdrawal Method
Pasha Malla

I think Pasha Malla is great. I think this interview with Pasha Malla, conducted by his mother, is possibly greater.

Did I mention that I love Canadians?




Super Natural Cooking
Heidi Swanson

Heidi Swanson knows how to make great food--and how to take beautiful photographs of the great food that make cooking look glamorous instead of time-consuming, and, if you're me, kind of a messy, tasty disaster. What I've read of this book has since become an indispensable resource for many of my cooking endeavors. A lot of these recipes are available for free on her website, 101 Cookbooks, but the book is worth getting--even if I don't think I'll ever purchase quinoa flour, she makes developing a pantry sound like quite the adventure.

I also plan to read lots of George Eliot. And Virginia Woolf. And July will be devoted to finally reading Ulysses cover to cover. Because I wouldn't be in grad school if I weren't a huge, huge nerd.

Bicycle Cure-All

On Sunday I went for a bike ride in the best kind of weather: the gray skies of almost-rain that make the whole world explode with color. I had no idea that the little town I live in extends so far to the west of the north-south road I travel everyday. Although at times it felt like I was in Amherst suburbia, there were also old farmhouses, tilled fields, horses, chickens, rabbits.


And the roads were quiet and flat, good for a jaunt. In many ways it felt like riding through a shrunken version of home: town and country all in a few square miles.

Biking cleared the air in my head, let some bugs out. This week still looks like: grading free-for-all seminar paper seminar paper presentation collapse repeat.