All Sex, All the Time

Day 124 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project. My dad is reading The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge, by David McCullough, because he enjoys learning the history and background politics of great events. Dad is particularly fascinated by the figure of Boss Tweed, finally getting caught in various shenanigans, and thereby helping to tell the larger story of this great engineering feat.

Sounds like a good family story, too, as the son takes over work begun by his father, Washington Roebling.

And Father's Day is coming up, you all!

My mother has finished her latest book, so she is reading Glimmer Train and Granta, two of the print magazines she subscribes to. Glimmer Train is all stories, all the time. Granta is an always fascinating literary magazine, each issue generally exploring a particular theme, and I am lucky enough this year to have received a gift subscription to it from my parents.

Yes, my mom is reading the sex issue. Is it all sex, all the time? I asked, using different words.

"Yes," was her answer, after a pause to calculate. "Some were remotely about sex."

Tesla, Pigeons, Slice...of Houdini Pie

Day 47 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project.

Paul is reading The Invention of Everything Else, by Samantha Hunt, who talks about her book in an interview in Slice Magazine.

It's historical fiction about Nikola Tesla, an eccentric Serbian inventor famous for his work with electromagnetism and the alternating current. Even though some people consider Tesla to be a prime example of the "mad scientist," Wikipedia reminds us that Thomas Edison wished he himself had recognized the true value of the alternating current.

But wasn't there a film about what can go terribly wrong with the alternating current? Yes, the film is The Prestige. But, whoa, thank you again, Wikipedia! There is a whole article there, separate from the biographical and scientific info on Tesla, reminding us about his importance in popular culture, from Superman comics to Disney to video games.

Not to mention how the alternating current can be used, or imagined, as a death ray!

Tesla was celibate and loved pigeons. (I've linked you to the paperback at Amazon, but Slice shows pigeon cover.)

Paul Auster in Moon Palace and Thomas Pynchon in Against the Day also used Tesla as a character in novels. And Lynn Pattison has a book of poems called Tesla's Daughter. (Although--see celibacy above--this is an imagined, figurative daughter.)

(Just as I am Emily Dickinson's great-great-great-great-granddaughter.)

Paul Michel, the reader above, has his own novel coming out soon, mentioned here earlier but now available for pre-order at Amazon, ready to ship around April 10, and available at the AWP Conference, which Paul will be attending. It's Houdini Pie, and is about buried treasure, among other things!

And I just read Paul's sweet story "Not the King of Prussia" in the current issue of Glimmer Train.