July 8th, 2006
Yesterday Ann and I drove from Minneapolis to Madison. Here I am driving her Saturn crossing the hot, flat expanse of Wisconsin.
In Madison, I did a radio interview with Matt Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive. Then I raced over to A Room of One’s Own, the excellent feminist bookstore here, where a hot, throbbing crowd was waiting.
That woman front and center is Rachel, who wore her Mo shirt for the occasion. Someone counted about 130 people. It was an utterly delightful audience. One woman, likely an English professor, compared my writing style to Melville. And being the radical Madisonians that they are, there was some discussion about the ethics of doing readings in the bookstore chains–Bounders, and Bunns and Noodle.
Here are the intrepid booksellers who brought me here. Nancy on the left, (me), Sandi, Hilary, and Sashe.
After the reading I went over to Ann’s house, the woman who’s been driving me around on this junket. We had Chinese food with her girlfriend Michele and their exceedingly charming, talented, and rather adorable neighbors. Here’s Gwen, Anna, and Michele.
Here’s Rachel and Ann.
Gwen showed us photos of a crazy taxidermized rodent museum that she recently went to. I think you can see them too on her myspace page. Lemme tell you, Wisconsin is a happening place.
July 7th, 2006
Fun Home is on the NY Times Book Review bestseller list. They only list the top 15 in the magazine. But the “extended list” goes down to number 35. And Fun Home is number 30. The latest version isn’t up yet, but on last week’s it’s number 35. Ann Coulter, alas, tops the chart. But I’m stunned to be on there at all.
July 7th, 2006
Tonight I read at Amazon Bookstore in Minneapolis, the oldest independent feminist bookstore in North America. My publisher wasn’t planning to send me to the midwest on my book tour, but this group of four women’s bookstores got together and said they’d pay my airfare if I’d come to Minneapolis, Wisconsin, and Chicago. Isn’t that amazing? Here’s the jar Amazon put out tonight for donations.
It’s a remarkable grass-roots effort. Here I am in the car with Ann Seidl who picked me up at the airport. She’s a librarian and filmmaker, who totally volunteered to drive from Madison to Minneapolis and back again, ferrying me to my readings. She’s working on a wild documentary called The Hollywood Librarian.
The reading tonight was pretty great. I used to live in the Twin Cities, so there were a bunch of old friends in the audience. Plus I have a special fondness for Amazon because it was the inspiration for Madwimmin Books, the women’s bookstore in my comic strip. Here’s Barb Weiser, who’s worked at Amazon at least since I lived here in the late eighties. She’s my bookseller idol.
There was an overflow crowd–not everyone could fit into the space.
While I was signing books inside, Ann apparently amused herself by convincing people to pose with my book on the sidewalk. Aren’t they handsome, though?
