Dan Kennedy « Algonquin Books Blog

Posts tagged with Dan Kennedy

December 8, 2009

Our Fruitcake-Free Holiday Gift Guide

Don’t want to give Dad a pair of GoldToe socks again this year? We don’t blame you. That’s why no matter who’s on your list, Algonquin has the perfect gift…

For Her

Going Away Shoes
By Jill McCorkle

Eleven short stories, full of longing and laughter, from the “guardian angel of short fiction.”

The Dinner Diaries: Raising Whole Wheat Kids in a White Bread World
By Betsy Block

A humorous, life-changing book on mom’s mission to achieve the ultimate of all makeovers: improving the family meal. Complete with helpful charts, food lists, recipes, tips, and suggested culinary and farm programs for kids.

Last Bite: A Novel of Culinary Romance
By Nancy Verde Barr

Casey Costello, an executive chef at morning television show, is too busy for men…that is until she’s unexpectedly whisked off her feet by the adorable Danny O’Shea, a rising chef from Ireland who seems like he may be more trouble than he’s worth.

For Him

Hard Work: A Life On and Off the Court
By Roy Williams with Tim Crothers

An inspiring memoir from the head coach of the UNC Tar Heels Men’s Basketball team.

Boone: A Biography
By Robert Morgan

This rich, authoritative biography offers a wholly new perspective on a man who has been an American icon for more than two hundred years.

Far Bright Star: A Novel
By Robert Olmstead

Napoleon Childs, an aging cavalryman, leads an expedition of inexperienced soldiers into the mountains of Mexico to hunt down Pancho Villa and bring him to justice.

For the Gardener

Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
By Amy Stewart

An A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend.

A Rose by Any Name: The Little-Known Lore and Deep-Rooted History of Rose Names
By Douglas Brenner and Stephen Scanniello

With full-color art throughout, this eclectic little volume is a marvelous miscellany starring what is arguably the world’s most popular flower.

The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden
By William Alexander

Part humor tale and part garden memoir, The $64 Tomato follows Bill Alexander on his journey from organic idealist to pragmatic food producer, and from eager backyard gardener to tired gentleman farmer–taking time along the way to reflect on ecology, nature, and the meaning of it all.

For the Foodie

The Feasting Season
By Nancy Coons

Meg Parker is a harried mom in a lackluster marriage until she lands a dream assignment: to write a guidebook about French history. Follow her adventures as lamb daube, paella and rosé, bull steak and anchioade, Brebis and strawberries awaken her senses.

Southern Belly: The Ultimate Food Lover’s Companion to the South
By John T. Edge

Spark a delicious road-trip with this guide to savory, Southern restaurants!

Seasoned in the South: Recipes from Crook’s Corner and from Home
By Bill Smith

Structured around the seasons and the freshest seasonal foods, this cookbook offers up marvelously uncomplicated recipes— Tomato and Watermelon Salad, Fried Green Tomatoes with Sweet Corn and Lemon Beurre Blanc, Pork Roast with Artichoke Stuffing, and his signature dish, Honeysuckle Sorbet—the new bistro food of the South.

For the 20-Something

Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, the Indie Label That Got Big and Stayed Small
By John Cook with Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance

The exuberant story–in words and pictures–of a much-loved indie record label that, despite the odds, has become a major success story.

Hemingway & Bailey’s Bartending Guide to Great American Writers
Illustrated by Edward Hemingway; Text by Mark Bailey

The perfect blend of classic cocktail recipes, literary history, and tales of the good old days of extravagant Martini lunches and delicious excess.

Rock On: An Office Power Ballad
By Dan Kennedy

Kennedy chronicles his misadventures at a major record label. Whether he’s directing a gangsta rapper’s commercial or battling his punk roots to create an ad campaign celebrating the love songs of Phil Collins, Kennedy’s in way over his head in this power-ballad to office life and rock and roll.

For the Travel Enthusiast

A Thousand Days in Tuscany: A Bittersweet Adventure
By Marlena de Blasi

In search of the rhythms of country living, Marlena and her husband move to a barely renovated former stable in Tuscany with no phone, no central heating, and something resembling a playhouse kitchen. They dwell among two hundred villagers, ancient olive groves, and hot Etruscan springs. Together, they discover the soul of Tuscany and explore all the land has to offer.

Very Washington DC: A Celebration of the History and Culture of America’s Capital City
By Diana Hollingsworth Gessler

A travel guide with character, this fact-filled keepsake offers all the history, beauty, charm, and culture of our nation’s capital city. Also included are an index of sites and a useful appendix of addresses, Web sites, Metro stops, and phone numbers.

New Orleans, Mon Amour: Twenty Years of Writings from the City
By Andrei Codrescu

New Orleans has been author Andrei Codrescu’s hometown for over twenty years. This collection of essays is an epic love song , a clear-eyed elegy, a cultural celebration, and a thank-you note to New Orleans in its Golden Age.

For the Pet Lover

My Therapist’s Dog: Lessons in Unconditional Love
By Diana Wells

An intriguing exploration into the rewards of relationships–both the canine and human varieties–begins when the author agrees to dog-sit for her therapist. What follows is an exploration of our canine connection: what we name our dogs, how we breed them, how we’ve explored the wilderness with them, the kinds of literature we write about them, why we love them, and, most important, what we can learn from them.

First Dogs: American Presidents and Their Best Friends
By Roy Rowan and Brooke Janis

A lighthearted romp through American history, packed with drawings and paintings from early America, plus photographs, starting with Abraham Lincoln’s Fido all the way to Obama’s Bo.

Enslaved by Ducks
By Bob Tarte

Bob gets more than he bargains for when he marries Linda and moves to rural Michigan: there’s Binky, a belligerent rabbit who craves high voltage wires; Ollie, a tyrannical parakeet who brutally attacks the Tartes; and Stanely Sue, the gender-bending parrot; and more. This hilarious account gives us the other side of animal ownership: the complicated logistics of blending species under one roof, the intricate routines that evolve before you realize it, and ultimately, the distinct and insistent personalities of every animal inside—and outside—the house.

-christina

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November 2, 2009

Algonquin Astrology

Dan Kennedy tells us what the stars have in store for November…

CAPRICORN (December 22 – January 19)

My hat is off to the pudgy girl dressed as a sexy maid this Halloween. She was all quiet confidence and acceptance. You see a bunch of skinny young hot girls doing Halloween all half-assed; putting on fishnet stockings and carrying around a little plastic pitchfork all night and saying they’re going as the devil. As if Satan has ever been that lazy about anything. Sometimes I pity the genetically fortunate, I really do. And this isn’t me trying to pump the rest of us up with some pep talk. Look, perfectly proportioned symmetrical biological containers are often the ticket to outsized earnings, dizzying nights in St. Barths, and praise comes to them without the burden of bearing talent– they’ve got it good and I’m not here to convince anyone otherwise. I don’t even know what the hell I’m doing at this point – did I even give you a horoscope thing, Capricorn? Do me the favor of scouring this for the message, moral, or clue.

AQUARIUS (January 20 – February 18)

Your life is huge and maybe you see that. Or maybe you don’t – maybe you think nothing is important until there’s a picture of it in a magazine. And you won’t ever fade away, and I’m not talking about time and mortality and the rest of it as much as I’m talking about the impact you’ve had here on this mortal coil. Right, and look at you, already shrugging and changing the subject. Then again, maybe that’s how one becomes so indelible, all of this giving and never expecting anything back. And the rest of us start with the reward in mind, farming and nurturing the kind of heart that brings the world things like American Idol and junk mortgages. We end up making the kind of friends that made dotcom millions and then outsourced their small business – they even outsource their part-time office assistant. The dot org people aren’t nearly this ugly and money driven; I’m not talking about them. And the dot net people are generally brainy and pleasant. Anyway, you’re here forever, so relax.

PISCES (February 19 – March 20)

Had a friend like you once, but he was a runner. Ran marathons. Ran, ran, ran. Had a friend like you once that was a traveler, too. Flew away often and flew away fast. I think the first step toward fighting the good fight is just keeping your feet in one place for a few minutes. It’s not really even so much about fighting as it is about planting your feet firmly and waiting to see what’s next. It’s like those dreams you have where you finally just stand there and face what you were so afraid of – turns out to be nothing. Every time. So stand still to go further. Slow down to go faster. Why does it say I’m only supposed to be using this glue in a well-ventilated room? Anyway, I love you.

ARIES (March 21 – April 19)

Everyone talks about waking up early, but if you really want to seize the day, wake up late and catch it by surprise. In this life the waiter says he’s an actor and every bartender you meet is a novelist, you know what I mean? Decide what you want to be and start calling yourself that thing, but more importantly be that thing. It’s about at the point where the guy putting shocks on your car tells you he’s an orthodontist. And here I am, a writer, a comedian, a middling outdoorsman – and I’m acting like I’m qualified to be dishing out some sort of horoscope or advice – a con, indeed – and I’m asking you to buy into it?

TAURUS (April 20 – May 20)

Let me tell you this: if you should happen to casually toss a firework out your window – and let’s say, hypothetically, that you’re living in downtown New York – there’s a pretty good chance the thing is going to rocket right into a huge dumpster and start a giant fire. You know this. You seem to understand the weightiness of someone having to dispatch almost a dozen fire trucks to be sure the thing is put out quickly and nobody is hurt. I need to tell you here that you’ve got the plan half right; get something started, let it get bigger than you ever thought it would, but as the co-op board and local precinct says: you’re a grown adult, you should probably be doing something a little more constructive with your time.

GEMINI (May 21 – June 20)

You’re a racist. I’m kidding. I just don’t know where to go with this one. If you need any clearer evidence of my imminent retirement from doing things I’m not qualified to do, consider the previous installment of this column wherein I basically called you a drunk smothering your talent and potential as a means of remaining hostile. It’s not so much your sign and fate that vexes me, it’s that yours happens to fall toward the end of the column; the point at which I’ve beating myself up for posing as insightful and full of mystical fixes. In a weird way I’ve told you something here, though: don’t believe everything that you read, dear Gemini. And if I might revise the maxim slightly: Question the expert authority.

CANCER (June 21 – July 22)

Hey, you want to know the secret to writing? The secret to writing is that there’s no secret to writing. I don’t know why I gave this one to you, Cancer, but it’s huge and it’s all for you. It’s a brief stab at my little astrological grift – not so long at all – one little sentence, one big secret. But this secret could heat your house for the rest of your days. Or at least warm your heart.

LEO (July 23 – August 22)

The rock band has a 270 ton stage. The fashion model is on billboards the size of buildings. Of the tens of thousands of people running the marathon, the guy from the sitcom who ran it is getting interviewed again. I say this to you: if you can type your name into Google and not get results, you’re living the 21^st Century dream. In the future anonymity will be the new fame. They’ll not recognize you and they’ll come running. You should be slick and walk away; go on your way the way you’ve gone on it for years or decades.

VIRGO (August 23 – September 22)

People always talk about this larger force in the universe. It’s there, I’m sure. But let me tell you this about it: it doesn’t give a damn if you find a parking place. Magic is afoot, to be sure, but it’s busy and tired, lonely in a hotel room full of magazines, hoping it’s still doing the right thing. You, Virgo, are advised to see the larger force in the universe and continue on doing what it is you do and realizing you’re doing the work yourself for the most part. The universe throws you a bone when it’s easy to do so, past that you better show up and get some shit done. Incidentally, you are loved. Whether you like it or not.

LIBRA (September 23 – October 22)

The only Libra I knew did this art. Pretty basic art, though…it’s not like I’m an art pro. But pretty cool paintings, pretty cool sketches – a lot of it seemed kind of influenced by travels to the middle east. Anyway, then his big thing was that he’d glue a knife or oxygen mask to the painting. I guess the idea was that this made it somehow more interesting or avant-garde. Anyway, what’s this have to do with you, right? This is what I’m trying to say, Libra: you’re fine the way you are. And when you add the metaphorical oxygen mask or knife, it feels like you’re convinced you aren’t fine the way you are. I’m not saying you can’t jazz your life up with a hard left turn here and there. Get the tattoo on a lark. Chop the family ride into something lower to the ground. Whatever, just make sure it’s part of the whole picture.

SCORPIO (October 23 – November 21)

If you read the Libra horoscope above, then you’ve realized I can’t do horoscopes. You’ve realized that this filthy beatnik word jazz is a hoax at best. I mean, I just told people born between September 23 and October 22 to get tattooed and turn their family sedan into a low rider. I also harshly criticized some guy’s art. My girlfriend, by the way, thinks it’s the worst thing in the world that I tamper around with the stars like this; she told me it is sacrilege. That’s what I mean, Scorpio — you can be semi-fraudulent, under qualified, and not have any support at home, but if it feels right to you then you should do it. You know what I’m saying?

SAGITTARIUS (November 22 – December 21)

Bam! Another year almost done for you, and half of the time when you do that math, you’ll be convinced it’s all adding up wrong. Which is why you should stick to anything but math. Which is why you should get advice on living from anyone but you. Which is why when you go and explore the fertile creative trenches in your mind, you should leave word with a loved one about when you’re leaving to go into your head and when you plan on coming out. There are a ton of worthwhile finds, but there’s a handful of stupid and deadly ideas in there, too. But a lot of things that can kill you (your mind, in this instance) can make your life amazing, too. As my friend’s mid-divorce newly-minted Hell’s Angels Dad once told me when we were nine: “Nothing wrong with a motorcycle as long as you respect the power of it.” Word, Mr. Kellis.

Dan Kennedy is the author of Rock On: An Office Power Ballad. His essays appear regularly in GQ Magazine, and he’s a regular host of The Moth StorySLAM events in New York as well as the Moth podcast, and radio hour. Twitter: @dankennedy_NYC

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October 2, 2009

Algonquin Astrology

Please welcome guest author and Algonquin Astrology Editor, Dan Kennedy. We’ve invited Dan to contribute a monthly horoscope installment for three reasons:

to help you, the reader, maintain celestial harmony
we could only remember like 9 of the zodiac signs ourselves
he’s friggin’ hilarious

So read on. And if you can’t bear the thought of waiting a whole month for your next dose of Dan, go check out his book Rock On: An Office Power Ballad.

Happy birthday, Libras!

-christina

LIBRA (September 23 – October 22)

Fact: There are animals that are essentially hermaphroditic. Fact: A spider wastes no time with worry, it simply operates continually and forever on instinct. Fact: Warren Commission. Fact …wait. I don’t know where I’m going with this one. I started out with a point and now it fees like crazy talk from the stressed-out dude in the basement trying to start a revolutionary magazine. I think this is my way of saying I’m not worried about you. You, you’ve got the stars right where you want them. You, you’re easy and ripe for the universe’s picking. Consider the spider, though, and what I was mentioning about it. I’m sorry if at first this all came off like a stoner creep manifesto.

SCORPIO (October 23 – November 21)

You stole a car from a photo shoot once and almost crashed it drunk. You totaled your father’s sedan sober as a nun. You smoked cigarettes on a lark and quit while you were still young. And now you’ve made a decent showing in adulthood. Well, you and I have much in common. [long pause] Did I get any of that stuff right? Don’t be a jerk, just tell me. And have the decency to consider that maybe I got it all right for you, but metaphorically.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22 – December 21)

Lately you’ve been haunting every place you’ve ever been and a lot of the time you haven’t even left the room you’re in. The people that love you have felt you near and at times you’ve physically been hundreds or thousands of miles away. Jesus, I’m kind of freaking myself out with this one. It’s like I took this horoscope writing gig and made a big joke of it then all of a sudden tapped into something bigger than both of us and I’m really in this, getting the information to pass along whether I want it or not. Like when a Ouija board louses up a good camping trip when you realize the devil is controlling it instead of the ghosts of peaceful and insightful American Indians.