Maybe one day you could look this thoughtful. via the Seattle Times

On MLK Day, we’re challenged to rise above out usual pettiness and smallness to work towards a better, more equal future. Well, that and argue about whether or not he was a conservative. Easier said than done, of course, but MediaBistro has found a hack for you to start emulating the good doctor on the cheap: a list of the books that shaped his worldview that you can download for free. (more…)

Dirty bird

This post is sponsored by Clarkson Potter.

Clarkson Potter is the dedicated lifestyle group within Random House, Inc.

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Fingerlickin’

This post is sponsored by Clarkson Potter.

Clarkson Potter is the dedicated lifestyle group within Random House, Inc.

All that Christian Grey-inspired babymaking got you and your lover hungry? Don’t worry — FL Fowler has some sexy food ideas for you with a new cookbook called Fifty Shades of Chicken.

Fifty Shades of Chicken is a double entendre-filled cookbook with recipes like “Mustard-Spanked Chicken” and “Dripping Thighs.”  Billed as “food porn you can actually use” — as if there’s unusable food porn —the book goes on sale Nov. 13 for $19.99.

From November 8 – 22, there’s a HUGE book giveaway. Just log in with your Facebook account or email address below to enter to win one of 25 copies of the book. The grand prize is a signed copy of Fifty Shades of Chicken along with two feathery toys from Babeland–a Starburst Tickler and a Pleasure Feather. Extra chances to win are available if you follow @50shadeschicken on Twitter and share the video above with #foodporn.

You can also follow Babeland to keep up with the store’s ongoing giveaways. Check out @therecipeclub to stay abreast of cookbook news and see pictures of delicious-looking food that you are not eating.

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Poster by Meghan Doherty.

Are you ready to get readerly? Right after the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday night, there’s a gathering of the Brokelyn Bookswapper’s Club to satisfy those all-aflame literary desires. What to bring? Some guidance partly based on our own current cravings: How about buzzy fall titles like D.T. Max’s David Foster Wallace bio, Every Love Story is a Ghost Story; Emma Straub’s Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures or Junot Diaz’s new short story collection? You finished with Michael Chabon’s latest yet? (If you already have any of these to swap, you get a banquette in the VIP section.) Non-trashy, still-relevant summer books also welcome; bring Wild or Gone Girl so we can all (spoiler alert!) complain about the ending at the next club, or Robert Caro’s Lyndon Johnson bio because you know you never even finished The Powerbroker.

The whole point is to share and talk about books you’re excited about, not just clear off space on your shelves. See these titles people brought to our “hot beach reads” swap? For the love of Czar Nicholas III, leave these in the sidewalk “free”  bin: (more…)

Ryan Malarkey, a 23-year-old designer, says she spent “probably close to $10,000″ on ink. Photo (c) Paul Nathan / Generation Ink.

How many people do you know with epic tattoos? Of those people, how many of them are in a pretty much constant state of fiscal-overdrawnery and/or unemployment (AKA: “freelancing”)? Do they live in Williamsburg? Do they wish they did? They might be in photographer Paul Nathan’s new coffee table book, “Generation Ink: Williamsburg, Brooklyn,” featuring portraits of walking canvases who have spent upwards of $10,000 on their ink. Who are these people, where did they get $10,000 and why did they spend it on tattoos? And who are you to judge? You have a Louis Vuitton bag but are a month behind on rent! Oh, wait, that’s me. Did these people get their money’s worth? And what’s your number? (more…)

Photo via The New York Times.

At the intersection of Neat and BAWWWWWW in Prospect Heights sits the Little Free Library, one of those good-faith-in-your-fellow-neighbors community swapping posts. The box has been there since May and has been a hit with residents. It’s pretty simple: bring a book, take a book, don’t throw up in the box or anything else jerk-ish.  “It’s a marker of the increasing friendliness. It offsets some of the new, young commerce,” a longtime neighborhood resident told The Times. “It’s real and it’s humble.” Read the whole story here. (more…)

The fiction may be pulp, but these ladies are all skin.

Have you guys noticed that it’s been really effing hot lately? Like, so hot you just want to walk around with as little clothing as possible? The women of the free Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society have noticed, and are beating the heat with the kind of casual nudity we can all get behind. Their mission statement, “Making reading sexy” is accomplished pretty simply. Show up in a park, take out a book and ditch your shirt. And why not? The law says they’re well within their rights, and who can argue that lying out in the grass and reading Mickey Spillane is scandalous? Heartbreakingly, they currently only meet in Manhattan. But since a love of reading isn’t restricted by borders, I spoke by email with a member of the society who mysteriously gives her name only as A.A. about how and why to go topless and the eternal optimism of the male half of the species. (more…)

When you tell people you’re vegan, you get variations on one of three responses: 1) “I’m sorry to hear that you will be  the first person in the Western world to ever die of protein deficiency;” 2) “But if we don’t eat the cows, won’t there be too many cows?” and 3) “I would be vegan myself, but I can’t afford to shop at Whole Foods!” (often said while scarfing $15 chorizo-stuffed olives from Brooklyn Larder). So we could sit here and argue over whether vegans smell bad or what will happen with the bovine reckoning after the cows rise up; but the idea that it’s more expensive than a meat-based diet is a silly one. So author Victoria Moran argues in part of her new book Main Street Vegan, her effort to meld vegan diet ethics into everyday life. Moran, who’s been vegan for 28 years, since back in the days when you had to mail-order soy milk powder from a guy in Ohio, has seen the pursuit of a plant-based diet shift from a fringe idea into a mainstream movement. The Harlem-based author talked to us about how a vegan diet can save you $4,000 a year. Want to know more? We’ve got three copies of her book — which contains cover quotes from Russell Simmons and Michael Moore — to give away! Find out how below. (more…)

If Jay McInerney had written The Great New York Novel 30 years later, it would have been called Bright Lights, Mom and Dad’s Garage in Mamaroneck. Being in your 20s and shacking up with your parents is not only a growing census category but a literary thing this year, as evidenced by two new novels by first-time Brooklyn authors, and who knows how many more. Tonight, powerHouse Arena in DUMBO hosts Kris D’Agostino and Leigh Stein, who tackle the expanding phase between kidhood and grownupdom in very different ways. (more…)

There’s an event tonight in Dumbo that no self-respecting brokavore is going to want to sit out: Zak Pelaccio’s cookbook launch, featuring food by Fatty Crab and Williamsburg’s Fatty ‘Cue, drinks provided by Tiger Beer, and live music by Woods. In his new book, Eat With Your Hands, the Brooklynite, Maylasian-trained chef and culinary punk rock star shows you how to bust out your own badass kitchen moves with his Southeast Asian-influenced dishes. This sounds like an event these people should not miss. Here are the details on Zak Pelaccio’s book launch.