The Drawing Room

Circles/Stars for Your Wall Calendar

2011 is off to a lovely start, and there are a lot of new and amazing things happening this year, here are a few I have to shout from the rooftops about:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close the movie! Expected in 2012, but if the director has it his way it will be released this September to mark the tenth anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Book review here

The Great Night Expected 4/26 2011 Chris Adrian’s new novel. Author of Gob’s Grief, one of my favorite novels yet. The Great Night is a modern re-telling of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Surely, this novel will be nothing short of a literary dream.

Atlas Shrugged Part 1 The first part of the much anticipated trilogy, out 4/15 2011 it appears the masterminds behind the film are doing the epic novel great justice, watch the trailer here

Jane Eyre Expected 3/11 2011. What could be greater than another rendition of such a beautiful classic? Watch the trailer here

Vetiver will be debuting a new album this summer. Tight Knit from 2009 was a long time favorite, but left me wanting more for.. years now. I am understandably quite excited. SubPop signs some of the best.

Foster the People I have a great fondness for this brand spankin new band, and their album is rumored to be due this spring, watch pumped kicks- it’s a jam.

Mumford and Sons By now, if you haven’t heard Mumford & Sons .. honestly where have you been? They played the Grammys alongside Bob Dylan and the Avett Brothers, of course- amazing. We know they plan to complete their new album this year, and lets cross our fingers it will also be released to further sweeten 2011. I vote liar should be included- Marcus, wanna date?

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

It’s a shame that we have to live, but it’s a tradgedy that we get to live only one life.

(179)

Oskar Schell: Inventor, jewelry designer, jewelry fabricator, amateur entomologist, francophile, vegan, origamist, pacifist, percussionist, amateur astronomer, computer consultant, amateur archeologist, collector of: rare coins, butterflies that died natural deaths, miniature cacti, Beatles memorabilia, semiprecious stones, and other things

So reads the business card of Oscar Schell, a young boy whose father died in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close engages a national tragedy in the raw, unbrandished emotion and insight of a child. Oskar is brash and logical, not to mention extremely hilarious. His feelings are described by either feeling like one hundred dollars, or having heavy boots. His youth and innocence all too perfectly highlight the devastation of an abrupt, tragic loss. 

There is a greater generational story being told as well, Foer is a marvelous story-teller and I hope to learn much from his work. 

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close was just plain fun to read, various pages burst with color and pictures, and text manipulation is implemented to convey ideas and feelings, literally establishing this book as a work of art.