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Evangeline Bianca Logan decides to clean the house. She washes the kitchen. She cleans the bathrooms. She tidies the bedrooms. And she finds--under her mother’s bed--the romance novel that will turn her into a serial kisser. Entitled The Crimson Kiss, the book inspires Evangeline to give herself a makeover, change her outlook, and go on a mission to find her own perfect, crimson, Grayson-and-Delilah kiss.

As Evangeline sets off on her mighty quest, she encounters a series of obstacles. Namely, bad kissers. Robbie Marshall attacks. That guy at the coffee shop was a bulldozer. Stu Dillard wants a rating of all things (hoping to out-man Robbie at something). And let's not even talk about Blake Jennings.

But bad kissers aren't her only problem. For one thing, her jerk of a two-timing father won't stop calling. For another, people have started magic-marker-ing her phone number onto urinals. Her grades have started slipping. And, to top it all off, a mistaken kiss leads Evangeline's best friend Adrienne to call their friendship quits.

I must admit, I was worried.
You see, I grew up reading (and adoring) Van Draanen’s Sammy Keyes series (about a snaky and intelligent girl-detective with an affinity for high-tops [a breath of fresh, hilarious, and thankfully Nancy Drew-free air]), which seemed a far, far cry from this pink-covered, lipstick-print-ed, so-very-scarily-titled book. But I just couldn’t resist. And guess what?…I loved it. It made me laugh out loud. It made me cry. It referenced The Princess Bride. And Evangeline was nice and real, just the way I like my characters.

All in all, Confessions of a Serial Kisser is a great book. Perhaps not the deepest piece of literature I've ever read, but it certainly wasn't mindless drivel, either. I still like the Sammy Keyes books better, though (Even though they are middle-grade).

Four out of Five daggers


Relieved...

About this time two years ago, my son and I visted the StoryCorps booth in Grand Central Station and he interviwed me, asking the most amazing questions. An edited clip of that interview was played a month later on NPR's Morning Edition, to an absolutely incredible response.

Last week I went back to the StoryCorps booth and finally got to meet Michael Garofalo in person. Michael is a Senior Producer at StoryCorps, and he's the guy who worked so hard to edit our interview down from 40 minutes to 3 minutes in compelling yet extremely sensitive way. He asked me some follow up question about how we came to do the interview, what it felt like to hear ourselves on the radio, and how we were affected by the response to the piece. Some of this will be used for a promotional clip on NPR.

Michael told me how everyone at StoryCorps loves J and wanted to meet him, and since it's vacation week I offered to bring the star of the show to the StoryCorps offices in Brooklyn. So yesterday Son, The Webmeister and I headed into Fort Greene.

It was incredibly cool to get to meet the people who get me crying practically every Friday morning when I hear the StoryCorps clips on NPR. Michael showed us how they edited our piece - and the authors amongst us will related to the fact that for this 3 minute piece they did 19 edits! J really enjoyed seeing how they bleeped out the name of his 7th grade nemesis.

In a world obsessed with celebrity, the work that StoryCorps does is critically important, because every week when we listen to these brief recollections from the lives of everyday, average people we realize that everyone has a story to tell, and, perhaps more importantly, that everyday, average people are anything but everyday and average. The word heroism has become overused in recent years, but when listening to clips on StoryCorps I find myself marvelling at the quiet fortitude of people I might never otherwise have known.



Here's J and me with StoryCorps founder Dave Isay (the tall one) and Michael Garofalo (the less tall but still taller than me one).

Meanwhile, Daughter was at home with Mary Poppins and she decided to surprise me by making dinner. It was all very secretive, but she ended up creating what we shall hereinafter refer to as Kick Butt Meatloaf. (I'm sure you were wondering how meatloaf and StoryCorps were related...) I've never been a big fan of meatloaf (the dinner meat, not the singer, whom I found somewhat entertaining) but Daughter's meatloaf was a culinary delight that might make me rethink my previous antipathy.

And now, Reasons to love the Webmeister number #189: He's a techno-geek. (He, J and I had a conversation in the car on the way to Brooklyn about the difference between a nerd and a geek. Conclusion: A Geek is a Nerd with fashion sense.)

So I'm writing this blog from the car as we travel along I-80 heading towards Scrotum Scotrun , PA. You will, no doubt, be relieved to hear that I am not driving at the same time. The Webmeister managed to rig up this thing so we've got wireless internet in the car. Pretty Kewl, huh?

Last year to celebrate the holidays we asked our co-workers what their favorite books were. This year we asked some of our favorite people from all around publishing. They were kind enough to take a few minutes in this busy holiday season to share with us. To thank them I am going to make it my goal to read all of their suggestions by next year. Throughout the week we will be sharing favorite books from our favorite people so be sure to check back for updates and let us know what your favorite books are in the comments!

Andrew Goldberg is the Managing Editor of Thesmokinggun.com.

While this has not been a banner year for me when it comes to the quantity of books I have made it through–I have read a few that are entertaining, funny, informative, and moving. (more…)

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Faithful readers might remember that back in March 2006, a clip of my son's StoryCorps interview of me was broadcast on NPR's Morning Edition , to an overwhelming response (we were one of the top three most responded to stories on StoryCorps that year).

StoryCorps was founded by Dave Isay, whose radio documentary work has won nearly every award in broadcasting including five Peabody Awards, two Robert F. Kennedy Awards, the Edward R. Murrow award, and two Livingston Awards for young journalists. He recently came out with a book of StoryCorps interviews called Listening is An Act of Love. (And if you buy this gift set from Starbucks, you'll get the booklet "10 beloved stories" which includes our interview!)

Anyway...last night our local NPR station, WSHU had an event with Dave Isay, and I GOT TO MEET HIM!

Even better, when I called WSHU to see if I could meet Mr. Isay before the event started so I could get him to sign the zillions of books I've bought as presents, and explained that J and I were in the booklet, they invited me to the VIP fundraiser reception beforehand. (Since I never get invited to VIP anything, I'm going to just keep repeating VIP, VIP, VIP. Did I mention that it was a VIP reception?)

And even better, he played our interview to the assembled VIP's and then asked me to speak to them. So I was a VIP VIP - with a mic, no less!

The best part was hearing how everyone at StoryCorps just adores J - showing that they are all people of great wisdom and judgment.

I brought my camera but was too excited to take a picture. So you'll just have to imagine short little me standing next to tall Dave Isay:

So after almost $2,000 in vet bills, we still don't have a definitive diagnosis for what is ailing Sandy. Not only that, the poor dog had surgery last Monday, and because she started worrying her stitches, Mary Poppins had to fly over to the vet on Friday afternoon to get one of those flowerpot things to put around the dog's neck.

Needless to say, Sandy was not impressed:



So far we no what it isn't: there isn't a tumor in either her gut, intestines or liver.

She does have inflammatory bowel disease, which means a different prescription dog food from the one she's already on. And she had high levels of steroids in her liver, which means she might have something called Cushing's Disease. We have to take her back to the vet tomorrow for an all day blood test that will give us a definitely answer to that.

In the meantime, she's bashing into things left right and center. It's semi-comical.

Speaking of chronic medical conditions, yesterday was the three year anniversary of my daughter's diagnosis with diabetes. Did I ever mention how much I HATE that disease?

To "celebrate", although I don't think that's the word I'm looking for, she and I had a "date". We went to see "Martian Child" with the wonderful John Cusack, on whom I've had a geek crush ever since "The Sure Thing".. Although it dragged in parts, it was a really touching film, and daughter and I were both sniffling and hugging through much of the second half.

Afterwards, we had dinner at Daughter's fave resturant, Panera (she's a cheap-ish date, unlike her mother).

Today I hit the gym while A was at Hebrew school. Ok, here's what I don't understand. I'm doing 45-50 minutes more cardio than I was before three times a week (on top of the two times I play tennis) and I'm PUTTING ON WEIGHT. HOW!?!! WHY?!!!

I think I should just go eat some more chocolate to console myself. What do you think?

But I've been very industrious on the writing front. And on the desk cleaning and on closet cleaning fronts.

Oh! And next time you're in your local Starbucks picking up a latte, pick up one of the special boxed gift sets of Listening is an Act of Love by Dave Isay. Besides the book you'll get a little pamphlet of "!0 Beloved Stories from StoryCorps" with an audio CD. And guess you you'll see/hear? Yours truly and Son! I've been hitting my local Starbucks' and buying them out of the sets, to give away as Chanukah and Xmas presents.