Busy Busy Doing Lots of Writing Lots of Shoppin...

Busy, busy, doing lots of writing, lots of shopping (so much shopping that my credit card company actually called me to make sure someone else wasn’t going nuts on the Internet in my name).

I was part of Salon.com’s “ask our favorite writers about their favorite books of 2006.” Sadly, I didn’t realize that it wasn’t also an invitation for Salon's faves to say slightly snarky things about the highly praised books we didn’t like or understand. Thus, I will pass on my endorsements of Ken Kalfus’ A DISORDER PECULIAR TO THE COUNTRY and Stephen King’s LISEY’S STORY and not pass along my complaints about Cormac McCarthy’s punctuation.

I’m also reading with interest Sam Tanenhaus answering readers’ questions about how the Book Review choses what books to write about and who gets to write about them.

In non-book news, Adam and I got tickets to a preview of Dreamgirls tomorrow night because we are incredibly cool and well-connected (and by “incredibly cool and well-connected,” I mean “we subscribe to Entertainment Weekly and they sent us a pass”) I’m pretty excited, even though I saw Dreamgirls on Broadway when I was twelve, where Jennifer Holliday played Effie Melody White. I have never in my life seen a performance like her “And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going." I’m not sure I’m ready to see anyone else play the role. Very interesting story about Holliday's post-Dreamgirls career here.

Okay, I’m blogging while watching Barbara Walters interview Jay-Z. Barbara Walters should never, ever say the word “bootylicious.” It’s just wrong.

UPDATE: Now she’s talking to the crocodile hunter’s wife about her marriage, and she said, “It was instant animal attraction.” Argh!