Reading is Sexy: Traveling Death and Resurrection Show

Today is my rest day. I’ve worked out the last six days in a row, so I have to take a break — even though I don’t want to. I missed my outdoor socialization time this morning! (It’s a rest day on CrossFit.com, too, so I don’t feel so bad, I guess.)

On my way out the door, I grabbed a book for the bus ride. I’ve been re-reading the Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva, but the next installment isn’t due to arrive from Amazon until Wednesday, so I decided to finally read The Traveling Death and Resurrection Show, which has been sitting on my “to read” stack for a few months. It’s by Ariel Gore, who also wrote the memoir Atlas of the Human Heart and The Hip Mama Survival Guide and How to Become a Famous Writer Before You’re Dead (the last of which was recommended to be by my pal Erin and offers some pretty awesome advice to stop the whining and start the writing.) (And, may I also add — don’t you just love multiple parentheticals?! — that A.G. is just showing off my writing good fiction and nonfiction. Hmmmph.)

Despite its somewhat grim title, Resurrection Show is entertaining and fun. It pulled me right in. One minute I was waiting on the corner of South First for the bus, and the next, I was getting into the elevator at the office. Just like that, my commute evaporated.

I decided not to re-read the blurb on the back cover so I could enter the story uninformed. No spoilers! So far, all I know is that the Traveling Death and Resurrection Show is a religious traveling circus sideshow and the protagonist — named Frankka — can create stigmata on her palms at will, WHEN SHE’S HUNGRY, by thinking about forcing the hunger out down her arms and through her palms. I know! It sounds creepy. But it’s not. It’s magical. And Frankka’s storytelling voice is wry and inviting… like, it would be fun to toss back a few drinks with her at a dive bar.

I got to the office at the end of chapter four, and the book is sitting on my desk, tantalizingly just next to my elbow and a million miles away. All that stands between me and the open road of the traveling show is eight hours of testing and proofing a web site.There’s gotta be a more appropriate way for me to keep myself in cute clothes, healthy food, and CrossFit workouts. Can you please all go buy another copy of my book?

[Whoa! I just google-stalked Ariel Gore and found a) her blog (she’s holding a writing workshop in Mexico in December!) and b) this kinda trippy but neato video from MTV of her reading a snippet from Resurrection Show against the backdrop of a Beastie Boys soundtrack and color-saturated visuals.]