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30B - The Michigan Daily - WeeeL, ek. - Best of Ann Arbor - Thursday, April 18, 1996
The Michigan Daily - W, c;
wer
A4
Funniest Reading:
T. Coraghessan Boyle
In October, the audience at
Rackham loved his blackly come-
dic story, "Termination Dust,"
about a matchmaking scenario that
goes strangely awry. And hey, the
guy has a cool skull ring, too. You
gotta love that.
Most Difficult Reading
to Attend:
Jamaica Kincaid
While her novel "The Autobiog-
raphy of My Mother" is definitely
memorable, its intense and unspar-
ing plot is not for everyone - es-
pecially when in the overflowing
Pendleton Room, listening to a too-
lengthy excerpt, in January. Read-
ings should be fun, and this wasn't.
Most Overlooked
Reading:
Mark Winegardner
His debut novel, "The Veracruz
Blues," about a 1946 Mexican base-
ball league, is a realistically told
and fascinating story. It was also re-
cently lauded in The New York
Times BookReview, butunfortu-
nately, Borders gave it almost no
publicity. Wait a second, maybe this
was a clever little marketing strat-
egy - if you don't go to the read-
ing, you gotta buy the book, right?!
Best Place for Readings:
Shaman Drum
They host some of the most
unique and offbeat poets and writ-
ers to come to Ann Arbor - and
they give you food. Another wel-
come touch is that Shaman Drum
allows listeners to look at copies of
the book during the reading, and
usually has signed copies for sale
months after the event. Readings
here are always crowded, but at-
tending them is well worth sitting
on the floor.
Worst Place for
Readings:
Borders Books and
Music
Here's an odd situation: Borders
lures in some extremely famous au-
thors (Hillary Clinton, Robert
Shapiro), but relegates its readings
to a small,inadequate corner of the
second floor. Not to mention the
fact that Shapiro's scheduled talk at
Borders was reduced to a book sign-
ing, since Borders couldn't accom-
modate the crowd that came to hear
him. Better arrangements are defi-
nitely needed here.
Funniest Book:
Jane Smiley's "Moo"
A deadpan-hilarious satire about
students and faculty at a
midwestern agricultural university.
Let's just say that a central motif in
the book is a massive pig hidden in
an empty campus building. Too
hard for you to suspend disbelief?
Come on, now, at Orientation you
believed that one about stepping on
the "M"...
Best of.Results
Best of the University:
Best of Restaurants:l
Best of Entertainment:l
Best of Dating:l
Best of Business:l
Best of the Rest:l
Best of Photo:
Best of Music:l
Best of Film:l
Wedt toe
Page 4, 6
Page 9-11
Page 15
Page 18
Page 20-22
Page 23
Page 16-17
Page 24-25
Page 26-27
Best of Theater:
Best of Books:
Also: The List
Page 28-29
Page 30
At the end of every year, the Daily sends oui
let people in the community vote on what they
of Ann Arbor - everything from certain aspect
your favorite places to go to be entertained. T[
our official Daily Arts Snide Commentary" app
etc.. which sadly enough, you are holding in y
moment.
it's been rough sometimes and also very re"
There have been a few changes of editors, ma
shoplifted stereos (oh, were we supposed to k
be hard to believe, even an occasional error. B
every week, and we'd like to think that most of
Thank you to all our readers and everyone wh
they thought of the section. Complimnents were
also thoroughly taken into account (read: laugh
there. We, really did try our best to put out an e
enough of this sappy blubbering. You can judg
for yourselves .._ We're going to Disney World.
Page 31
Jamaica Kincald's memorable book didn't make for a memorable reading.
Next Famous Writer
from Ann Arbor:
Laura Kasischke
All bets here are on this author
of two books of poetry and a re-
Express your love with Gold
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cently published novel -- the sus-
penseful and disturbing "Suspi-
cious River." Kasischke is also a
University alum who won a mind-
blowing 12 Hopwoods as an
undergrad. If you were fool enough
to miss her two March readings at
Shaman Drum, cross your fingers
that there'll be more.
Most Likely to Have a
Few Scotches Before the
Reading:
Martin A mis
He was witty and whimsical as ex-
pected, and his reading was a joy to at-
tend. But a few stumbling slurs and a
few disjointed, off-the-wall and hard-
to-follow ramblings indicate that he
may have been a wee bit pissed.
How Did Such a Little
Guy Write Such a Big
Book Award:
Kazuo Ishiguro
He packed Rackham with a read-
ing from his lengthy and plodding
"The Unconsoled." But it was hard
to believe this was a leading British
novelist: He was nice and sober.
Most Academic "Non-
Academic" Writer:
Arwulf Arwulf
He's not a professor, he's an LSA
projectionist, but he's probably read
everything in the Graduate Library.
Best Place to Browse for
Books:
David's Books
On the corner of State and Liberty.
towering stacks and shelves encom-
pass everything from Camus to King.
This makes the independent book-
seller a bookw'oim's'dream. -
Best of Columns
Dean Bakopoulos: Page 8
Alexandra Twin: Page 12
U UMNI
Brent McIntosh:
Kari Jones:
Greg Parker:
R&a
Weekend, etc. Editors:
Kari Jones
Staff: Dean Bakopoulos, Melissa Rc
Brian A. Gnatt, Elizabeth Lucas, Brent
Joshua Rich, Alexandra Twin and TedI
Photo Staff: Tonya Board, Diane Cc
Kichanantha, Stephanie Grace Lim, Jo
and Kristen Schaefer.
Page 13
Page 14
Page 19
Biz Asts% A
b
REALlAN
RESTAURANT
*This is dedicated to former Weekend co-editor Jen Buckley.
11
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