04.06.07
Posted in Virgin book, domesticity at 4:53 pm by Hanne Blank
I can’t possibly be the only one whose reaction to this cold snap we’ve been having here in the northeastern quadrant of the US is to want to curl up and hibernate, can I? All week it’s been a struggle to convince myself that there’s anything more worth doing than curling up on the couch or in the bed with a book and a cat and sort of gently letting myself slide into a nice cozy long nap. If there were only a Nap Olympics I would just give in and say that I was training.
Last night was the first of the Virgin book events. It was a small but warm crowd, and some friends showed up (including a few who tarried afterwards for tasty adult beverages and yummy snacks, yay!), and all in all it was a really nice mellow reintroduction to the whole part of writing books in which one goes out and interacts with readers. I’m looking forward to New York and Boston at the end of the month, when hopefully both the cold snap and my woodchuck-like reaction to it will have given way to a more vigorous installment of springiness. (Y’all know where to find the upcoming events and recent reviews, right? Virginbook.org.)
My Belovedary has purchased Guitar Hero 2 for his PlayStation. It’s pretty amusing-looking. He’s busily working on figuring out “Message In A Bottle” at the moment. I’m halfway tempted to try it myself, just for grins. I figure someone with as many years as a musician under her belt as I have might just have an edge in this one, as opposed to the many many other video games we own where the advantage is dependent on how many hours one has logged playing other similar video games. Having a sense of rhythm and a basic knowledge of how to play strummed string instruments doesn’t seem like it would hurt, anyhow. I’ll let y’all know if I end up becoming a living-room plastic-guitar Benatar.
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03.27.07
Posted in Books & Publishing, Virgin book, good things, public speaking at 7:03 am by Hanne Blank
In case you’ve been wondering where I’ve been (and let’s face it, you probably haven’t been), I’ve been listening to Tuvan throat-singing virtuoso Kongar-Ol Ondar [Link] and dealing with book release stuff, including a mess o’ reviews and interviews and whatnot. For links to the reviews that have appeared online, you can check out Virginbook.org — this past Sunday saw reviews in the New York Times and the Chicago Sun-Times both, plus a review in the New York Observer that ran on the 26th, all of which was pretty darned exciting. I hear tell that it’s reviewed in Ms. magazine’s spring issue, too, and on Thursday, it should be featured in Josey Vogels’ “My Messy Bedroom” column, which runs in a buncha different papers across Canada.
This weekend I’ll be teaching and speaking at the FORGE Forward conference in Milwaukee, WI — I’m the Friday night dinner keynote speaker. Then, on April 5, I’m reading from and signing copies of Virgin right here in Baltimore, at Atomic Pop [Info at the link]. If you’re at either event, don’t be shy! Especially because there may well be an outing to the Golden West’s Long Bar after the Atomic Pop event… signin’ books is thirsty work, pardners.
And now, because the life of a writer is one of unparalleled glamour, I must go move books around in advance of having a nice young man come to rip out a chunk of the ceiling in the stairwell.
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03.09.07
Posted in Books & Publishing, Virgin book, good things at 12:57 pm by Hanne Blank
Those of you in New York and San Francisco (well, and everywhere else, too) might want to keep a look out for forthcoming reviews and mentions of Virgin…
Sunday, March 11 — San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, and also New York Daily News
Friday, March 16 — Entertainment Weekly
Sunday, March 25 — New York Times Book Review
I’ve had a chance to see a preview of the Chronicle piece and am very happy with it indeed. It’s awfully nice to read that I seem to have managed to do some of the trickier things I set out to do! (At least as far as that reviewer is concerned. But I’ll take what I can get, ya know.)
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02.21.07
Posted in Virgin book, good things, making book, publishing, squeeeee!, writing at 7:51 pm by Hanne Blank
You can get one too… they ship in just a week or so. Ask your favorite bookstore to order you a copy!
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01.12.07
Posted in Virgin book, publishing, squeeeee!, writing at 4:38 pm by Hanne Blank
Virgin just got a starred review in Publishers Weekly!
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6407200.html?nid=2286
Virgin: The Untouched History
Hanne Blank. Bloomsbury, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-1-59691-010-2
“By any material reckoning, virginity does not exist,” writes Blank in this informative, funny and provocative analysis of one of the most elusive—and prized—qualities of human sexuality. Blank, an independent scholar, has pieced together a history of how humans have constructed the idea of virginity (almost always female and heterosexual) and engineered its uses to suit cultural and political forces. Blank has no shortage of fascinating facts: since Western virginity was symbolized by the color white, missionaries viewed nonwhite peoples as sexually immoral; late medieval and Renaissance moralists thought they could detect whether a woman was a virgin by examining her urine (”a virgin’s urine was clear, sparkling, and thin”). Blank also has a pleasing, highly readable style that allows her to convey large amounts of information with wit and agility. But she becomes most animated, and political, when she probes contemporary ideas about virginity. Taking on a range of questions—why is virginity considered sexy? how does the idea of virginity fuel violence against women?—she makes the case that contemporary culture is as obsessed with, and benighted about, virginity, as those of the past. Thoroughly researched, carefully argued and written with a sly sense of humor, this is a bright addition to the popular literature of women’s and cultural studies. (Mar.)
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