Dear Reader

Trying to ban words and more

2010-02-22T19:16:00.003-05:00

Sadly the drumbeat against books remains steady. Despite seeing this crop up repeatedly, I’m always surprised when I read about people challenging books. The fight over who can read what is usually most intense in schools.

Some recent cases:

I recently read on the blog Jezebel about mother in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin who recently sought to have six books banned from the school library arguing the content was too advanced for middle schoolers. She wanted the following books removed:

"Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants " by Ann Brashares.
"The Second Summer of the Sisterhood" by Ann Brashares.
"Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood" by Ann Brashares.
"Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood" by Ann Brashares.
"Get Well Soon" by Julie Halpern.
"What My Mother Doesn't Know" by Sonya Sones.

The kicker: the school has software that enables parents to list materials they don’t want their children to read. If the child tries to take out restricted materials, the librarian receives an alert.

In a truly bizarre case, one school district in California yanked the dictionary from classrooms. Yes, the dictionary. The Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary was pulled after a parent complained that the definition of oral sex was included and was inappropriate material for younger students. According to reports, the dictionaries were being used by students in the fourth and fifth grade.

It takes an incredible amount of hubris to think we have the right to dictate what books other people and other people’s children should be allowed to read. If you’re concerned about your child reading books you don’t approve, speak with your child’s teacher or school librarian. Don’t assume it’s okay to impose your moral standards on everyone else and infringe on the learning process.

According to the Northwestern.com, author Sonya Sones wrote, "If Ms. Wentworth thinks the book is inappropriate for her own child, then by all means she should not allow her child to read it. But it would be unfair and inappropriate for her to try to force her own personal beliefs on every family with children attending Theisen Middle School, or any other school in the district."

Revisiting the dictionary.

It’s extremely naïve to think that kids today won’t be able to learn what oral sex is because they don’t have access to a dictionary with the definition. If they are curious enough I’m sure there are plenty of sources they can turn to.

The fight continues to ensure that a few don’t dictate what many, can or can’t read.

Additional Reading
Riverside school goes too far in banning dictionary

Parent adds 6 books to those she wants banned from school library

Traveling Pants Stays Put: A Parent's Failed Book Banning

Parent loses fight to get books banned at Fond du Lac middle school

Vacation Reading

2009-08-16T17:42:00.006-04:00

The bookworm is back from vacation. I read three books while on my annual family vacation and while I didn't dislike any of them, I woudn't say I was blown away either.

I'll start with my favorite: Alva & Irva by Edward Carey is told mostly by Alva. Alva are Irva are twins leaving in the imaginary city of Entralla. While Alva dreams of travel (she has a map of the world tattooed on her body), Irva is more reclusive. When Irva stops leaving the house, she and Alva undertake recreating the entire city in plasticine. Irva promises to leave the house once they've made a model of the entire city. Interspersed between Alva's recollections, the novel is narrated by one of Alva's friends. The novel is structured like a tour guide/ memoir, which the main narrator providing information about Entralla and the twins. It also includes images of the plasticine models of Entralla Alva and Irva created. While a tad bleak, I thought it was a quirky read.

One Word: Plasticine

Florida by Christine Schutt. Florida is told in short bursts by Alice Fivey, who is shuttled between relatives when her mother, Alice, goes into a sanitarium. Uncle Billy and Aunt Frances take Alice to the desert vacation home. Their regular house is full of collections and not very child-friendly. Uncle Billy's driver, Arthur, ferries the family around and is one of Alice's favorites. He creates a tinfoil box for her mother to sunbathe in. Her mother, who dreams of goting to Florida, calls the contraption Florida.The novel is told in mostly short passages that seem more like connected vignettes. I thought it was bittersweet and engaging.

Finally Stephen King's Gunslinger (volume one of the Dark Tower series). I'm not sure what I've gotten myself into here. I somehow managed to miss that this is part of a seven-book series. Yikes! I'm not sure if I'll make it through the whole series. Gunslinger traces Roland's quest across the desert to find the Man in Black. Along the way, he stops at a desolate town and meets Jake, a boy from New York City, which Roland has never heard of. I'll have to see what the other books are like before I decide whether I like the series or whether not enough happens to keep my interest.

Morsels: Library Funding

2009-07-19T22:12:00.012-04:00

Rep. Thomas Stanley has a compelling defense of library funding over at the Boston Globe.
Stanley: Protecting libraries from budget cuts

According to Stanley, he and 109 colleagues have signed a letter supporting an override of Governor Patrick's Deval's veto of state aid to regional public libraries, which reduces the amount of funding by 2.25 million.

Unfortunately, many agencies, groups and services in Massachusetts are facing funding cuts. Libraries aren't the only deserving group facing painful choices about budget cuts and service reductions. However, I have a sweet spot for the library and think many people don't realize the breadth of services and and programs libraries run. They do so much more than just check books out.

"Public libraries are important to our communities, especially in these tough fiscal times" Stanley notes.

Library services can include classes, English as a second language and even job training. Job hunters can search online for job postings and print out their resumes.

For more on libraries in tough times, I blogged about this topic months ago - Libraries in tough economic times.

I've tallied how much money the library has saved me this year (based on prices listed on Amazon):
Books I've read:
Elsie's Business - $17.95
Revenge of the Spellmans - $16.50
Curse of the Spellmans - $10.98
Hunting and Gathering - $16.00
The Help - $24.95

Books I'm reading:
The Man Who Ate the World: In Search of the Perfect Dinner - $15.00
Middlesex - $7.95

Total: $108.88

This list doesn't even include a few books that I just could not get through. Many of these books were also shipped to my library as part of library exchange program.

According to Stanley, more than 28,000 Waltham residents have library cards.

Do you?

Elsie's Business - Frances Washburn

2009-07-07T22:03:00.005-04:00

On a recent trip with a friend, I happened to glance at some books her daughter had brought home after her freshman year at college. Despite the grim description, I was intrigued by Elsie's Business by Frances Washburn.

The novel begins with the brutal attack of Elsie, who is beaten and raped by a group of white boys. Elsie, is half African American and Native American. The narrator of the book pieces together Elsie's life from various people he talks to including Nancy Marks, who befriends Elise. Elsie, like her mother cleans homes and makes beaded moccasins and other crafts from deer hides.

After leaving the town where she is attacked, Elsie is murdered. The mystery of who killed her is never solved. There are several other questions raised that are never answered.

I have to admit, this was a tough book to read. I think I sniffled/ cried through at least half of the book.

Morsels - A literary look at Massachusetts

2009-07-07T21:58:00.004-04:00

Sunday’s Globe rounds up literary references to Boston. Literary Boston Neighborhoods includes Dennis Lehane, Roland Merullo and Nathaniel Hawthorne. There’s a handy map that accompanies the article.

From Revere Beach Boulevard:
“The language of racing felt like my true native tongue. And the track itself - Suffolk Downs, with salty breezes shifting in off the ocean, and the sweet smell of cigar smoke, and crowds of bettors … lining up at the windows - felt like my truest home, a place where the rules were as familiar to me as my own face in the mirror.”

The Times Travel section visits Provincetown – The Land and Words of Mary Oliver, the Bard of Provincetown. The story focuses on poet Mary Oliver and the inspiration she draws from Provincetown.

Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris

2009-06-21T19:42:00.014-04:00

The newest Sookie Stackhouse is out. Just in time for season two of True Blood.

I enjoyed Dead and Gone more than the last Stackhouse novel, which I thought had too much crammed in there. There's still plenty going on but it felt more manageable. I'll keep it vague to avoid spoilers - the shifters including werewolves come out and no shock, not everyone's happy. Sookie is also drawn into a growing conflict involving her grandfather.

There's intrigue, mystery, danger and a little bit of romance. All the things I look for in a Sookie Stackhouse novel.

Speaking of drama -- True Blood season two is on HBO. I've been taping it but am reluctant to watch. I fear I may be disappointed. I thought last season veered too much of the book. I'm understand wanting to add subplots, but I felt the characters that they fleshed out were made too one dimensional. I'll just say it, Tara annoyed me.

We shall see.

Some interesting reading in Fast Company

Did HBO's 'True Blood' Campaign Achieve Immortality or Just Plain Suck?

Q&A with Pop Candy

Fun video with Tom of Top Chef fame.

What are you reading about True Blood?!

Crazy about Isabel Spellman

2009-06-21T19:28:00.004-04:00

I'm not usually big into mysteries. I have a bad habit of being impatient and flipping to the back of the book mid-way in. However, I recently picked up the Spellman Files on a whim after reading about how it's being made into a movie.

And with that became totally hooked. I just finished the third book -- Revenge of the Spellmans and don't know if I can wait until March 2010 for next book!

The Spellman books center around Isabel Spellman, a wise cracking private investigator who works for her parents' detective agency. The Spellmans don't understand the concept of boundaries -- in this family blackmailing, eaves dropping and convert surveillance are the norm.

The mysteries are almost secondary to Izzy's jokes and pratfalls. But the mysyteries are also engrossing and the answers have also completely surprised me.

For more information about Lisa Lutz and news, check out her Web site: http://lisalutz.com/

Book vs. Movie: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

2009-06-12T19:11:00.005-04:00

Another installment in Book vs. Movie ... although technically, today's entry was a tv series. I recently watched The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency on HBO. I really enjoyed the series, so when I saw the first book in the series I snapped up.

Typically, I dislike watching something and then reading the book, because I hate picturing the characters as they are on tv or in the film. The book and series centers around Precious Ramotswe, who opens a detective agency after inheriting any money. She tackles crimes small and big from a missing dog to looking for a child who disappeared.

Overall, I thought the series really captured the book very well. It seems that the series included some mysteries/ plot developments that might be in later books. If you have HBO on demand, I would definitely recommend watching the series

April reading

2009-05-12T22:17:00.006-04:00

I enjoyed a relaxing week in southwest Florida last month and was able to read several books. Overall, I was happy with my choices.

Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda-- I read about this book on ShelfTalk (http://shelftalk.spl.org/). It centers around a group of misfits who end up sharing an apartment and forming unlikely friendships. This book felt like a rich meal. I had the crazy impression that I should be reading it while having a picnic with a crusty baguette, cheese and tiny pastries. Overall, an absorbing read.

Away by Amy Bloom & The World to Come by Dara Horn -- Both of these had superficial similarities. The World to Come starts off with Benjamin Ziskind stealing a Chagall picture during a singles event at a museum. He believes that his family, who used to own the painting, were swindled out of it. The book flashes back and forth between Benjamin and his grandfather, who met Chagall when he was at an orphanage in Russia and a writer who also taught at the orphanage with Chagall. I found the Yiddish folktales that were interspersed in the novel interesting. I was a little put off by the ending. I felt like I was left wanting to know what was going to happen next. In Away, Lillian Leyb flees Russia after witnessing the slaughter of her family. When she finds out her daughter is still alive, she travels across the country to try to find her. It was a quick read and I found the description of times and the characters engrossing.

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penny - Takes place in Canada during the 1860s. The novel focuses on the murder of a trapper. When her son disappears at the same time as the murder, Mrs. Ross sets out to find him and clear his name. I enjoyed it but did think it had a few bumps along the way. I liked the characters but sometimes felt that I was missing something because of the way things were just implied or hard to understand.

Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch -- the plot centers on Sarah Walters - a southern debutante. I thought this was a quick read, but wasn't really blown away. I felt like it was unconnected short stories/ vignettes versus a cohesive novel. For some reason, I found Sarah also irritating and since she narrated most of the book that was problematic. I didn't think she was particularly sympathetic or likable.

A Town Like Alice

2009-03-26T20:00:00.005-04:00

If you've ever come across BBC's list of 100 books, you've probably spotted A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute. A Town Like Alice centers around Jean Paget, who was a prisoner of war during World War II in Malaya, and the man she met and fell in love with.

This book starts off incredibly slow, I would recommend really giving it a chance. It opens with a lengthy description of the will preparations for one of Jean's relatives (the book is narrated by Jean's lawyer). The beginning is very dry and technical. This is the second time that I've tried reading A Town Like Alice -- I couldn't get through it the first time. There is also some outdated language as well.

During the war, Jean and fellow women prisoners walked for thousands of miles while their captors look for a camp in which to keep them. She meets an Australian soldier, whose also a POW and risks his life to help Jean and her fellow prisoners.

An interesting read and well worth the effort.

Belong to Me

2009-03-26T19:47:00.004-04:00

I may have been ::er:: lax with the blogging as of late, but I have been doing fairly well on the reading front. Recent reads include Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos. Belong to Me follows the intertwined lives of Cornelia, Piper, Lake and her son Dev.

I didn't pick up on the fact that Belong to Me is a continuation of Love Walked In. One of the main characters -- Cornelia -- was also in Love Walked In. Cornelia and her husband, Teo, have moved to the suburbs. Their neighbor, Piper, is caring for her terminally ill family and Dev -- Lake's gifted child -- struggles with understanding why his mother has uprooted them while finally feeling at home at school.

Like Love Walked In, Belong to Me alternates between the characters with Piper, Cornelia and Piper narrating chapters. I typically don't like that that type of narration, but in this instance I liked the voices of each of the characters.

A few pet peeves: I still find Cornelia and the overall writing style a little too precious. The main plot twist or revelation towards the end also annoyed me. It felt too forced and stretched credulity to a certain extent. I enjoyed reading about the friendships like Piper's relationship with her sick friend, Elizabeth -- and how our connections with people can cause sadness, but also joy and comfort.

Kindred goes graphic

2009-03-09T21:57:00.001-04:00

I was very excited when I saw this news via Feministing. There are plans in the works to make a graphic novel of Kindred.

According to Racialicious, Beacon is celebrating the 30^th anniversary of Kindred with a proposal to create a graphic novel of Kindred. If done correctly, this could be really awesome.

For those unfamiliar, Kindred is about a woman who time travels between the 1970s and the south when slavery was at its height. She finds herself pulled back in time every time her ancestor (a white son of a slaveholder who had her ancestor with a slave) is in danger.

You can read my take on it here: http://dearreader-bookworm.blogspot.com/2008/12/kindred.html

Announcement: Beacon Press Seeks an Illustator for Kindred

http://www.racialicious.com/2009/03/03/announcement-beacon-press-seeks-an-illustator-for-kindred/

Sarah's Key - Tatiana de Rosnay

2009-03-02T10:15:00.005-05:00

Despite the sadness of the story, I had a hard time putting down Sarah's Key, which focuses on the Vel d'Hiv roundup in 1942 in Paris.

Around 12,884 Jews were arrested and imprisioned in the Vélodrome d'hiver - an indoor track -- for five days before being sent to camps in France. Utlimately, they were sent to Auschwitz.
.
According to Wikipedia, The roundup accounted for more than a quarter of the 42,000 Jews sent from France to Auschwitz in 1942, of whom only 811 came home at the end of the war.
Sarah's Key centers around two women - Sarah, whose family was taken in the roundup and Julia, an American living in Paris decades after the war.

When the novel starts, Sarah locks her four-year-old brother, Michel, in a secret cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that they'll only be gone for a few hours.

The book alternates between Sarah's story and Julia's. Julia becomes drawn to Sarah's tale after being assigned to write a story about the roundup's 60th anniversary.

I usually don't like it when books flash back and forth like Sarah's Key does, However, in this instance I felt like it helped break up the unrelenting sadness of Sarah's tale. I thought this was an interesting look at love, redemption, secrets and forgiveness.

Olive Kitteridge -- Elizabeth Strout

2009-02-25T19:08:00.003-05:00

Ordinarily I don't care much for short stories. However, after hearing my sister rave about Olive Kitteridge, I picked it up when I was at her house. I was instantly drawn in. The structure of the book is short stories -- but one character, Olive Kitteridge, runs through them all. She may be the subject, a secondary character or just a passing thought.
Olive can be abrasive, difficult and outspoken, she can also be funny and caring. The stories take place in a small town in Maine.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. The format suited the type of reading I was looking for -- something I could put down and pick up without feeling like I lost the plot thread. My only pet peeve is why is modern fiction so bleak? Adultery, divorce, suicide, estrangement, eating disorders, etc. Sometimes when I read, I need something happy and upbeat to counter the negative news I'm inundated with on a daily basis.

A look back at Praise Song for the Day

2009-02-03T21:16:00.002-05:00

When Elizabeth Alexander participated in the inauguration, she joined a small group of poets that includes Robert Frost and Maya Angelou and Miller Williams. The poem – “Praise Song for the Day” received quite a bit of critical feedback.

I have to say that I enjoyed the poem the second and third listen. Initially, I felt her delivery was a little flat. However, there are several parts of the poem that I felt were very striking.

"We encounter each other in words, words

spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,

words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark

the will of some one and then others, who said

I need to see what's on the other side."

The Chicago Tribune weighs in: “And that's OK. A poem, like any other piece of art, doesn't have to be perfect or universally loved to have value. The mere fact that Obama mingled poetry with the day's political rhetoric sends a message: Language matters. Language from the heart matters.”

I’ve included the poem below and links to coverage on the poem.

Praise Song for the Day

by Elizabeth Alexander

A Poem for Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration

Each day we go about our business,

walking past each other, catching each other's

eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise. All about us is

noise and bramble, thorn and din, each

one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hem, darning

a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,

repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere,

with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,

with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer considers the changing sky.

A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.

We encounter each other in words, words

spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,

words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark

the will of some one and then others, who said

I need to see what's on the other side.

I know there's something better down the road.

We need to find a place where we are safe.

We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain: that many have died for this day.

Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,

who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,

picked the cotton and the lettuce, built

brick by brick the glittering edifices

they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.

Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,

the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,

others by first do no harm or take no more

than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,

love that casts a widening pool of light,

love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air,

any thing can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light.

Links:

Big stage amplifies poet's critics - http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-schmich-bd-25-jan25,0,5305166.column

Obama inauguration poem: Elizabeth Alexander - http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/books/blog/2009/01/obama_inauguration_poem_elizab.html

Praise Song for the Day - http://features.csmonitor.com/books/2009/02/02/praise-song-for-the-day/

Elizabeth Alexander: Barack’s bard on problem poetry - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article5626669.ece

Book vs. Movie: Tale of Despereaux

2009-02-03T19:57:00.003-05:00

I recently took my niece and nephews to see a Tale of Despereaux. Now I try to always read the book before I see the movie. I really enjoyed the book - I thought it was sweet and fairly complex for a children's book.

For the uninitiated, Tale of Despereaux takes place in a kingdom that has banned soup and rats after an unfortunate rat in the soup incident. The rats have been banished to the dungeon where there's no light. Despereaux finds himself banished to the basement and likely death after he breaks a cardinal rule and talks to a human.

Some favorite passages:
"Quest
Say it, reader. Sa the word "quest" out loud. It is an extraordinary word, isn't it? So small and yet so full of wonder, so full of hope."

"Is it ridiculous for a very small, sickly, big-eared mouse to fall in love with beautiful princess named pea?
The answer is ... yes. Of course, it's ridiculous.
Love is ridiculous.
But love is also wonderful. And powerful."

Wonderful book. The movie. Eh. Let's just say I fielded several questions from nephews mostly along the lines of 'Is this movie over already?'

The animation was great. However, I felt like they changed the story way too much - they drastically shortened Mig's backstory and altered what they left in. I felt like some of the changes were odd. For instance, they made the female cook a male cook, how Despereaux met the princess, how he met the jailer and... Really I could go on, there were so many changes.

I didn't really understand why the filmmakers felt they had to change so much, but it really prevented my enjoyment of the movie.

Inaugural Poem

2009-01-22T17:39:00.002-05:00

In case you missed it, Elizabeth Alexander's poem, "Praise Song," which she recited at Obama's inauguration.

Wrinkle in Time -- Madeleine L'Engle

2009-01-17T11:04:00.003-05:00

I hate to admit I've never read A Wrinkle in Time. It seems like one of those books everyone should read. I have to say I wish I had read it years ago.

Wrinkle in Time centers on Meg, her precocious brother, Charles Wallace, and their friend, Calvin, as they try to rescue her father. There's a lot packed in the book -- there's time traveling. The children's father had been working on a tesseract, which is a wrinkle in time. There's also an evil thing -- the black thing -- that is threatening earth and other planets. There's the battle of the individual versus the group/ freedom of thought.

Parts of the book reminded me of 1984 -- full disclosure it's been years since I've read it -- such as when they visit a planet where everyone acts identically. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Libraries in tough economic times

2009-01-12T19:59:00.002-05:00

I think we can all sadly agree that times are tough. But there’s still a place that’s free. It doesn’t cost to check out a book, read a magazine, surf the Web or work on your resume.

It’s the library.

According to the Boston Globe’s Derrick Jackson the Boston Public Library has seen a surge in visitors and activity.

“New library cards are up 32.7 percent from July to November of 2008, compared with the same period in 2007. Visits are up 13 percent, from 1.4 million visits to 1.6 million. Checkouts of books, CDs, and DVDs are up 7.2 percent overall over the last fiscal year. More telling is that checkouts have soared between 27 percent and 37 percent at the Egleston Square, Fields Corner, Jamaica Plain, and Orient Heights branches.”

The library is more than just books these days. Most libraries have tickets to museums, aquariums, etc. You can also take out music, movies and books on tape. My library has access to hundreds of other books and media at other libraries. There’s also a plethora of events geared towards families as well as activities like book club.

Unfortunately, many cities and towns constantly grapple with having enough financing to keep school and town libraries open/ fully functioning. When I was a reporter I saw too often the struggle towns went through to convince citizens that libraries are worth funding.

While many immediately understand the benefits of say police, fire or public works, the intangible benefits of a library can often be hard to understand. I think that libraries pay a crucial role in the community that can’t be underestimated. I’ve outlined a variety of services libraries offer, but most importantly they offer knowledge. There’s thousands of worlds in the library.

To quote a poem:

“Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!”

The library - a recession sanctuary - http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/01/03/the_library___a_recession_sanctuary/

Reading Resolutions

2009-01-07T18:27:00.006-05:00

Shelf Talk has some great New Year’s Reading Resolutions and inspired me to create my own. Some may be similar to Shelf Talk's (they were good!)

1. I will read some children’s classics I’ve never read.
I’m currently reading A Wrinkle In Time, which I regret to say I’ve never read.

2. I will not feel guilty for reading children’s books/ lighter fare.
I have been dying to read The Invention of Hugo Cabret. There I said it.

3. I will finish series that I’m in the middle of.
This will be year I finish His Dark Materials and the Twilight series.

4. I will read more poetry.

5. I will read at least one classic.
I have plenty of Dickens and Virginia Wolf I need to read.

6. I will read a book I’ve had for a very long time.
There’s Phil Ochs and two Woody Guthrie biographies that have been languishing in my apartment for too long.

7. I will use the library more often. First step: Start participating in the book club again.

8. I will continue to try not to hoard books as much as I do.
I could currently open my own lending library. I literally have BOXES of unread books. And #7 should remove the need to hoard.

9. I will enjoy reading and try not to make it a chore.
Too often I feel like I focus on how many books I read versus just enjoying the books I’m reading. I tend to be down on myself if I don’t finish a book “fast” enough.

10. I will make sure to regularly blog.
It’s not reading per se, but connected to my reading. I truly enjoy blogging about one of my favorite things – reading.

Do you have any “reading” resolutions?

Angel at the Fence debunked

2008-12-30T19:16:00.004-05:00

Turns out what was dubbed the Holocaust's 'greatest' love story was not quite what it was billed.

If you haven’t read about Angel at the Fence, in it Herman Rosenblat claims that his future wife would toss him an apple over the fence of the concentration camp where he was interred during World War II. He claimed that they met years later on a blind date and have been married for 50 years.

People were entranced – his story appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul, he was on Oprah and a book and movie were in the works. The publisher has since pulled plans to publish the “memoir.” A children’s book based on part of the story, “Angel Girl” was pulled from the shelves.

According to CNN, Rosenblat issued the following statement: "Why did I do that and write the story with the girl and the apple, because I wanted to bring happiness to people, to remind them not to hate, but to love and tolerate all people. I brought good feelings to a lot of people, and I brought hope to many. My motivation was to make good in this world.”

One of the many sad aspects is that it sounds like Rosenblat probably could have told his story without the lies. He really did survive a Nazi concentration camp and has been married for 50 years.

A lot of people have egg on their face right now. Others probably feel hurt and betrayed.

And sadly it seems like much of the heartache could have been avoided. After A Million Little Pieces and Love and Consequences – two recent high profile memoirs that were exposed as fakes – publishers really need to place more safeguards in place. I realize a New Yorker level fact checking may not be feasible or affordable. However, there should be some fact checking/ verification process. When something carries the label non-fiction it should mean something.

Apparently some scholars had questioned the veracity of Rosenblat’s tale. According to CNN, Professor Ken Waltzer, the director of Michigan State University's Jewish Studies program, tried contacting the publisher with his concerns, but got no response.

Reading The New Republic’s story that raised the alarm bell, it certainly seems like the writer, Gabriel Sherman, made numerous attempts to reach the publisher and was rebuffed.

It’s unfortunate all around. It’s another black eye for the publishing industry, which once again fell for a story that really was too good to be true. It’s damaging to others who really do have amazing/ moving tales to tell. And sadly, it gives ammunition to Holocaust deniers.

Deborah Lipstadt, the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University is quoted telling The New Republic: "If you make up things about parts, you cast doubts on everything else. … When you think of the survivors who meticulously tell their story and are so desperate for people to believe, then if they're making stories up about this, how do you know if Anne Frank is true? How do you know Elie Wiesel is true?"

I even feel sorry for Herman Rosenblat, who sounds like he got caught up in forces beyond his control. I’m sure he never imagined when he sent his love story to the local newspaper that he’d wind up on Oprah and the subject of a movie.

But at the end of the day, a lie is a lie. There are no winners in this story and I worry what harm will come of this. There are some brilliant/amazing/moving stories to be told, but will fiascos like this make publishers and readers more leery of them. Hopefully, publishers will start more closely vetting memoirs and pay attention when red flags are raised.

********************************************

Lerner Pulls 'Angel Girl' -- http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6625433.html?desc=topstory

Anger, sadness over fabricated Holocaust story –

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081 228/ap_on_en_ot/books_holocaust_memoir

Colby Cosh: The fraud of Angel at the Fence

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/12/30/colby-cosh-the-lie-of-angel-at-the-fence.aspx

Holocaust 'greatest' love story a hoax

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/30/holocaust.hoax.love.story/index.html

Kindred

2008-12-29T18:34:00.005-05:00

This was the second book that I've read by Octavia Butler and like Fledgling, it almost defies description.

Kindred centers around Dana, an African-American woman in the 1970s. When Dana and her white husband, Kevin, are moving into their new home, Dana finds herself transported in time/space. When she sees a child drowning, she jumps in and saves his life. That boy is Rufus -- one of Dana's ancestor -- and the son of plantation owner/slave owner.

Dana keeps finding herself transported back in time every time Rufus' life is in danger. While she may be there for months, her time away from home is only hours. She needs to keep Rufus at least until her ancestor -- Hagar -- is born.

The novel, although it's considered science fiction, never delves into the mystery of time travel or how it is that Dana is transported back in time. It does focus on Dana's experiences of being treated like a slave. While she's there she goes through many of the hardships slaves went through -- working in the fields, being whipped, seeing close friends sold away. When her husband is transported with her once they have to lie about their relationship, since interracial marriage was illegal.

Dana's life on the plantation is grim and Butler explores the true brutality of slavery. I thought it was interesting that the time travel aspect was downplayed and the book focused more on race and slavery.

eclipse ::DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK YET::

2008-12-10T21:11:00.003-05:00

For some reason, it took me forever to finish eclipse, the third book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. I don't want to give away anything for those still making their way through the series. The time it took me to read it isn't necessarily a reflection of the book, more of a reflection on my recent reading habits.

::spoiler alert!!::

For those of you unfamiliar with the series, it follows Bella and her involvement with Edward Cullen, a vampire, and his "family" of vampires. Book three explores Bella's relationship with Edward and her friend, Jacob. As usual, danger is always lurking around the corner.

My own complaint with Meyer's books is a find them overly melodramatic and feel like most of them are too long. I felt the latest could have been pared down 50-100 pages.

However, this comes from someone whose favorite book has this passage:

"I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you -- especially when you are near to me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous Channel, and two hundred miles or so of land, come broad between us, I am afraid that the cord of communication shall be snapped; and then I've a nervous notion I should take to bleeding internally. As for you - you'd forget me."

Jane Eyre.

I find it interesting how Bella loves reading Wuthering Heights, by another Bronte. I'm hoping to re-read it. I think it'd be interesting to read with Meyer's love triangle in mind.

Children's board books for the holidays

2008-12-08T19:01:00.008-05:00

One of my favorite gifts to buy are children's books. There are so many wonderfully illustrated books now as well as some timeless classics. Here are some of my favorite board books.

The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. Perhaps best known for Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. The Little House is a charming tale of a house in the country that gradually becomes neglected and lost amongst the developments of a big city.

Hug by Jez Alborough. I saw this book a few years ago and fell in love with it. As Amazon.com says "How can it be that a book with only one word--hug--repeated throughout, can be so good? The proof is in the pudding (or the wilds of Africa) in Jez Alborough's picture book Hug, a delightful mini odyssey of a baby chimpanzee on the hunt for his mum and a cuddle."

Just a very sweet book and a great gift.

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems. Disaster ensues when Trixie can't find Knuffle Bunny after a trip to the laundromat. The illustrations are really cool. My niece and nephews used to love this book.

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein tells the true story of Philippe Petit's tight rope walk between twin towers. "Once there were two towers side by side. They were each a quarter of a mile high... The tallest buildings in New York City."

This Land Is Your Land by Woody Guthrie/ Kathy Jakobsen (Illustrator). A great introduction to Woody Guthrie's famous song.

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost/ Susan Jeffers.

NY Times Gift Suggestions

2008-12-08T18:59:00.001-05:00

The holidays are a great time to gather reading recommendations and gift ideas. Almost every publication has round up on best books of the years and/or gift guides

The New York Times has several lists:

The Book Review’s Top 10 books of 2008: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/books/review/10Best-t.html?_r=1&ref=arts

Michiko Kakutani's 10 Favorite Books of 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/books/2008holidayKakutani2.html?ref=arts

Janet Maslin’s 10 Favorite Books of 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/books/2008holidayMaslin.html?ref=arts

100 Notable Books of 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/books/review/100Notable-t.html?ref=arts

I haven’t delved too deeply into any of the “adult” lists, but was not wowed on my first pass through. I would like to read Ten Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, which is currently with a stack of books I meant to read this year.

I also bought: Lincoln: The Biography of A Writer for my dad after reading about it. According to the Times, “This resonant biography looks at the role that Lincoln’s avid reading of the Bible, Shakespeare and other works played in shaping his gifts as a writer, and how his literary skills in turn helped him articulate — and promote — his vision of a new America rising from the ashes of the Civil War.”

Kids:

Best Illustrated Children’s Books 2008: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/11/06/books/20081109ILLUSTRATEDBOOKS_index.html

Notable Children’s Books of 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/books/review/KidsNotable-t.html?ref=arts

Book vs. Movie

2008-12-02T20:38:00.009-05:00

I always get excited when a book I enjoy is turned into a movie/ tv series, but that excitement inevitably turns into disappointment when I see the final product. I'm not sure why this is. Maybe books are too nuanced to successfully translate onto the screen. Or perhaps my expectations are too high.

Recent disappointments:

True Blood. I had really high expectations for HBO's series, which is based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels. I was irritated that there wasn't more Sookie. While there were some quotes/ passages lifted directly from the book, there were new subplots that weren't in the book. I understand the need to pad the book a little, but at the same time felt that the weakness of the subplots were due to how one dimensional the characters were.

I was particularly peeved with the ending. In the book, Bill is not brought before the tribunal for killing another vampire. Rather he's away securing his position amongst the New Orleans vampires to have more independence from Eric and he does not try and rescue Sookie from the killer. He's out of town.

Silver lining: If more people are reading Charlaine Harris because of this show, that makes me happy. I also discovered Octavia Butler as a result of the documentaries HBO did before the show. (Seeing Stephen Root aka Jimmy James on tv is also a plus!)

Twilight. I just felt like it really didn't capture the essence of the book and rather came off as kind of cheesy. The low-budget special effects and giggling teenage girls might have distracted me. I also wasn't crazy about the makeup job for Edward and the music was slightly grating.

Some movies really capture a book ... Antonement, A&E's Pride & Prejudice and Masterpiece Theater's Jane Eyre and Anne of Green Gables. But the clunkers are what stand out. I still wonder if the people involved with Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont ever read the novel they "based" their movie on.

Maybe a book's appeal lies in the fact that your imagination shapes what you read. After creating an image of the characters and becoming emotionally attached, it's difficult to accept someone else's vision. Perhaps the magic of books can't be captured in a tv series or movie. Doesn't mean I'll stop going to the movies though, I'm just resigned to that fact that I'll probably leave the theater feeling let down.

Do you have a favorite movie adaptation or a real stinker you can't get out of your mind?

Bookworm returns

2008-12-01T19:14:00.004-05:00

Dear Reader,

Let's call the abysmal absence of posts a hiatus. Life got a little bit in the way bringing reading (and blogging) to a screeching halt. But just in time for the holidays ... did some say gift suggestions?! I'm back.

I'm hoping to post gift suggestions, tackle why is the movie/ tv show NEVER as a good as the book and resume my usual rambling, er, pontificating.

So welcome back!
Bookworm

Reading on the cheap

2008-10-13T08:40:00.002-04:00

While the economy continues its free fall, many of us are trying to cut down on unnecessary expenses and looking for ways to save. I've started clipping coupons again and have now vowed not to look at my 401K statement for a long time.

What about those books, hmm? To paraphrase a famous quote, "Give me bread and books."

Here's a few ways I try to keep my book spending under control.

*Swapping - There are a plethora of swapping sites out there. Some specialize just in books, while others include books, CDs, DVDs and games. My personal favorite is Paperbackswap (www.paperbackswap.com). To get started you need to post 10 books and get two credits. If someone requests one of your books, you pay to mail it to them earning a credit. You can use that credit to request a book from someone else.

One feature I use on the site is the wish list - I've listed several books that I would like that are currently not in the system. When that book becomes available, I can either set it up so that it's automatically ordered or I receive an email alerting me. (For example, I recently received Neptune Noir, which is all about my favorite girl detective, Veronica Mars. PS: CW you still suck.)

When I read a book, I try to be very critical about whether I want to keep it or swap it. I've also picked up books for cheap along the way that I had a feeling would be in high demand with the sole aim of swapping them.

*The library - I wish I took more advantage of my library instead of too often giving into my book hoarding impulses. What could be cheaper than free?! Most libraries these days also have books on tape, CDs, DVDs and good old VHS tapes. If your library doesn't have what you're looking for, there's a good chance that they're part of a network. For instance, my library is part of the Minuteman Library Network, which means I can request materials from dozens of libraries. Many libraries also have museum passes available and free Internet access.

Libraries are also host to a variety of events: ESL lessons, movies, children's story time, book clubs, lectures, music, etc. I could go on!

* Used books - I occasionally hit a used book store new my house, Annie's Book Stop. The books are usually significantly cheaper than brand new books. With Annie's, I'll return books that I bought there previously for store credit.

Over the years, I've picked up used books many places along the way: garage sales, thrift stores, sidewalk carts and library sales. I LOVE the book sale the Friends of group does at my library. I've been able to pick up some neat, quirky books that were very inexpensive.

* Friends/family - I tend to freak out about lending books, especially ones I like, for fear I'll never see them. I have been lending more lately ... baby steps. But sharing books with friends and family is a great way to get more exposure for books and authors you enjoy. It's also a great way to find new authors/ books that you might not have picked up on your own.

Happy reading!

fledgling - Octavia Butler

2008-10-07T18:51:00.006-04:00

For some reason it's taking me forever to finish a book lately. I'm so tired by the time I get home, that I'm ready for tv. We'll play an "old person's card" and chalk it up to the change in the weather.

I finally finished fledgling by Octavia Butler, which I learned about watching a HBO special before True Blood.

Fledgling centers around Shori, a 53 year old vampire, who wakes up hungry, alone and badly injured. Someone is targeting Shori's family and anyone who tries to protect her. While Shori is a vampire (or Ina), she's also the product of genetic engineering. A mixture of human and vampire, it's believed her black skin and human DNA enable her to stay awake during the day and also go into the sunlight (although her exposed skin does burn).

I really found Butler's take on vampires interesting - unlike some books vampires can have children and mate, live in communities - men and women do live in separate communities and have a unique relationship with the humans surrounding them. Ina are bound to the humans they regularly take blood from and suffer a horrible loss if that human (symbiont) dies. This is a far cry from the dangerous, blood thirsty vampire who callously discards humans after feeding on them.

There were some parts of the book that dragged a little for me, but that might have been my reading state of mind. Overall, I found this an interesting take on vampires and a stirring look at racism and bigotry.

True Blood update

2008-10-06T22:04:00.008-04:00

So, I'm sticking with True Blood but mostly at this point for the hope that it will actually achieve it's full potential and because I love the Sookie Stackhouse books so much.

Maybe I'm too literal but I find it jarring how one minute they have dialog verbatim from the book and the next minute they're adding subplots that aren't in any of the books. I don't if they felt they had to pad it because the first book was too short for a whole season.

Things that annoy me:

The Tara subplot - don't know why they have to make Tara so grating and abrasive when in the books she's actually successful and owns her own clothing store. The unrequited love for Jason... yeah, that's never been done before. And sleeping with Sam, ugh, do NOT get me started.

V juice - Yes people drink vampire blood and its sold on the black market. Last week's episode with Jason drinking a whole vial of vampire blood to me was ridiculous and over the top.

Sookie's abilities - Yes Sookie can read people's minds, but it's only explicitly acknowledged by a few people. For the most part, Sookie tries to downplay her ability and others attempt to live in a state of denial about it.

That said, the actor who plays Bill is growing on me and I think Anna Paquin is great. I also like the feel of the show. There's been some great images and scenes like when Bill wiped his tears and they flashed on his hankerchief with a smear of blood on it.

Mice and Men Under Fire

2008-09-25T20:02:00.007-04:00

A Kansas City mother is pushing to have John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men removed from the school's required reading list. She objects to the book's use of the n word.

According to UPI, Dana Washington said: "The N-word is used more in this paragraph than most rap songs, and I think that's absolutely ridiculous .. I'm not asking for the book to be banned, but for it to be removed from the list of required reading in the USD 500 school list. ... I want them to find another book that doesn't use the word so violently and profusely."

The school's response: "It's not a pleasant part of our history," David Smith, a spokesman for the school district, told KMBC-TV. "But kids these days need opportunities to learn about it, understand it, not in a sanitized 21st-century way, because that's how we move forward in society."

Let me preface any discussion with this caveat: I’m in no way saying that the use of n-word is acceptable. However, I don’t think the answer is removing Of Mice and Men from the reading list.

John Steinbeck’s classic focuses on two migrant workers during the Great Depression. One of them has limited capabilities that result in the book’s tragic ending. Although it’s painful to read racist words it also reflects what was happening in our country at that time. Instead of pushing to have the book removed from the list, why not approach it as a chance to discuss racism in our country and the power/harm of racist words? If we ever hope to learn from history it’s not by ignoring it or shying away from the unpleasant bits.

What do you think?

What banned books do you want to read

2008-09-23T19:01:00.003-04:00

Shelf Talk has an interesting post on banned books they'd like to read -

http://shelftalk.spl.org/2008/09/18/reading-those-censored-books/ . The post was inspired by a hilarious Onion article, Nation's Teens Disappointed by Banned Books, http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28619.

"Desensitized to sex and violence from an early age, today's teens simply expect more out of their banned books than previous generations," said Naomi Gould, director of the D.C.-based National Education Consortium. "For the teens of yesteryear, access to novels like Tropic Of Cancer, Portnoy's Complaint, and Lady Chatterley's Lover was an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime thrill. But for teens raised on Cinemax and Def Comedy Jam, it just doesn't cut it."

tee hee.

Like Shelf Talk, I haven't read The Awakening in years. I wouldn't mind picking it up again.

I went through a list of 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000.
http://staging.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/100mostfrequently.cfm
and banned novels/ challenged novels
http://staging.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/reasonsbanned.cfm

My pick's include from this list include:
The Chocolate War - Robert Cormier's tale of the fall out from one teen's refusal to participate in the school's annual chocolate sale repeatedly shows up on challenged book lists. I kind of like to see what the fuss is about.

A Wrinkle in Time - I've been meaning to read this for years. I feel like it's a must read in the scifi/ fantasy cannon.

Bless Me Ultima

Catch 22 - I've been meaning to read this for years
Slaughterhouse Five - Is another classic I feel remiss in not having read.

Must Read Books

2008-09-23T18:12:00.003-04:00

In response to Esquire's Greatest Books Ever Written, Jezebel polled readers on must read books by women. As Jezebel pointed out there was just one woman author on Esquire's list:
http://www.esquire.com/the-side/feature/75-books?src=rss

Jezebel's list is compiled mostly of female authors - http://jezebel.com/5053732/75-books-every-woman-should-read-the-complete-list

I've included the list below. Which books have you read? Which ones do you want to read? (I've bolded the ones I've read and the ones I'd like to read are in red. Sadly, I have not read a lot of these books.

The Lottery (and Other Stories), Shirley Jackson (I know I read The Lottery in high school)
To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
White Teeth, Zadie Smith
The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende
Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion
Excellent Women, Barbara Pym
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
Beloved, Toni Morrison
Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
Like Life, Lorrie Moore
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
The Delta of Venus, Anais Nin
A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley
A Good Man Is Hard To Find (and Other Stories), Flannery O'Connor
The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx
You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down, Alice Walker
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Fear of Flying, Erica Jong
Earthly Paradise, Colette
Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt
Property, Valerie Martin
Middlemarch, George Eliot
Annie John, Jamaica Kincaid
The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
Runaway, Alice Munro
The Heart is A Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston
Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
You Must Remember This, Joyce Carol Oates
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Bad Behavior, Mary Gaitskill
The Liars' Club, Mary Karr
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith
And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie
Bastard out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison
The Secret History, Donna Tartt
The Little Disturbances of Man, Grace Paley
The Portable Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker
The Group, Mary McCarthy
Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
The Diary of Anne Frank, Anne Frank *I've read this in school but would like to re-read it.
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag
In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez
The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
Fun Home, Alison Bechdel
Three Junes, Julia Glass
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft
Sophie's Choice, William Styron
Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann
Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin
The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
The Face of War, Martha Gellhorn
My Antonia, Willa Cather
Love In The Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Harsh Voice, Rebecca West
Spending, Mary Gordon
The Lover, Marguerite Duras
The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
Tell Me a Riddle, Tillie Olsen
Nightwood, Djuna Barnes
Three Lives, Gertrude Stein
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith (I've seen the movie, I'd like to read the book)
Possession, A.S. Byatt

Banned Books Week

2008-09-21T09:59:00.005-04:00

This coming Saturday kicks off Banned Books Week. I was very disappointed to learn that there are no events planned in Massachusetts. Check out the Web site, you may find some events in your area. They are also doing things in Second Life.

http://bannedbooksweek.org/

According to the Web site, Banned Books started more than 25 years ago in response to a sudden increase of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than 1,000 books have been challenged since then. The challenged books range from children's to reference to adult fiction. They include classic works such The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and popular works like the Harry Potter series.

While I understand some parents' concerns with books are serious, some border on the ridiculous. One parent wanted YA Lois Lowry's books removed because she'd objected to references to stuffing and snapping bras in the series. Really?

However, challenging books is not the answer. Just because one person finds a book objectionable does not give them the right to prevent others from reading it. It's important, I think, to remember that books are still under attack and we should continue to fight for the freedom to read.

Dear CW: Take a note, look at HBO

2008-09-19T21:18:00.004-04:00

Wow, that was fast. Only after two episodes, HBO is renewing True Blood. Based on Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse novels. Regular readers, may recall I have ambivalent feelings. In all fairness, rare is the tv/ movie adaption I like 100 percent.

I have some problems with the series ... it plays a little loose and fast with the novels, I sort of detest the Tara/ best friend subplot. However, I'm hanging in there. I think Anna Paquin is great as Sookie.

True Blood goes for second bite

Five Reasons: True Blood

* The post title refers to my bitterness about CW's habit of canceling my favorite shows. Oh, bookworm Rory and super sleuth Veronica, tv is not the same without you.

Any True Blood watchers out there. What do you think?

Geek Gear

2008-09-17T20:40:00.008-04:00

When I saw Peeramid's bookrest pillow, I fell in love with it. Shaped like ... wait for it ... pyramid, it's designed for reading books when you're lying in bed, sitting on the couch or traveling. It has a bookmark attached to it.

I came soooo close to buying this tonight, but I currently can't justify sending $30 something on it. My inner, let's be a responsible adult is like, save those pennies and use a pillow for reading. That said, I just think this looks adorable and looks so handy. I hate trying to find a comfortable spot reading a book when I'm sitting on my couch. http://www.peeramid.com/

Help save Bitch magazine

2008-09-17T20:40:00.003-04:00

The woes that the publishing industry is facing are well. Magazines and newspapers are losing revenue, advertisements are down and layoffs continue. Hopefully we can all agree that a diversity of voices is beneficial for everyone.

I don't recall when I began reading Feministing, but I quickly began hooked. I don't agree with everything they post, but find it a refreshing/ provocative view on issues, news and culture. In a similar vein is a magazine called Bitch, which describes itself as commentary on the media-driven world from a feminist perspective. http://bitchmagazine.org/

The magazine is currently in financial trouble and needs to raise $40,000 to survive. I have to admit that I’ve never read Bitch – I read their blog, but for some reason haven’t been able to find it on the newsstand. However, I’m blogging about it because I think It’s so important that we support a diversity of voices.

Bitch magazine needs your help!
http://www.feministing.com/archives/011064.htm

The "Save Bitch" campaign: 28 days and $24K to go

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2008/09/save-bitch-magazine.html

Help Us Keep Bitching

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/09/16/help-us-keep-bitching/

Bitch Editors Ask Readers for 40K: Feminist Mag's 'Fate Is In Your Hands'

http://www.observer.com/2008/media/bitch-editors-ask-readers-40k-feminist-mags-fate-your-hands

Will Bitch Go Broke?

http://www.motherjones.com/riff_blog/archives/2008/09/9754_and_i_said_list.html

New Moon

2008-09-16T20:40:00.006-04:00

I've caught Twilight fever. I recently packed New Moon the next book in the series to read on a recent long weekend trip. I could not put it down. It's one of those rare books where when it was too late to read, I'd find myself skimming several pages because I was just dying to know what happened next.

Now, I'm not saying Stephenie Meyer's books are perfect. There's something that bothers me about them, I can't quite put my finger on it. I think they do tend to be a tad overly melodramatic. However, there's something I really like about Bella's character. They tend to be very engrossing books.

I have Eclipse, but am taking a break. I don't want to finish the series too quickly. I do, however, have quite a large stack of vampire books that I'm hoping to tackle.

A Lion Named Christian

2008-09-16T19:42:00.003-04:00

I'll admit I'm a sap. I've been known to tear up at Hallmark ads, cry every year when I hear Happy Christmas (War is Over) and definitely was, ahem, misty eyed when I watched A Lion Named Christian.

If you have not seen this video, it's definitely been making the rounds lately. The video is about two Londoners who bought a lion cub at Harrods. Eventually the lion - Christian - grew too big for them to care for. He was introduced back to the wilds of Africa. A year later, they decided they wanted to see their pet again despite warnings that he might not recognize them and that it was dangerous. In the video, we see Christian embracing the two men.

According to Short Stack, a book the two men wrote about their experiences is being republished, A Lion Named Christian.

I'll admit that the video is a tad cheesy, but very sweet. I find it interesting that after all this time there's a resurgence of interest in their story.

By the way, Short Stack will now be posting daily.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adYbFQFXG0U&eurl=http://voices.washingtonpost.com/shortstack/2008/09/awwwwww.html

True Blood merch

2008-09-15T20:25:00.005-04:00

I'm still on the fence about HBO's True Blood, but I don't know if that's because it seems like it's not completely true to the book. I know they probably need to add some elements that aren't in the book, but the Tara subplot is wearing thin on me.

I'm realizing I'm going to have to view separately from the book. However, I am love with these bar glasses. The glasses are from Merlotte's, the bar Sookie works at.

Links!

True Blood

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20222109,00.html

Our Second Date With True Blood Leaves Us Confused But Wanting More

http://io9.com/5050185/our-second-date-with-true-blood-leaves-us-confused-but-wanting-more

TV Review: TRUE BLOOD - SEASON ONE - 'The First Taste'

http://www.ifmagazine.com/review.asp?article=2741

HBO's new vampire series "True Blood" doesn't suck

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/entertainment-general/index.ssf/2008/09/hbos_new_vampire_series_true_b.html

The Review: True Blood Needs to Sharpen Its Fangs

Give HBO Some Credit

http://www.newsweek.com/id/158744

HBO's 'True Blood': What did you think?

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/09/true-blood-hbo.html

Election Reading Habits

2008-09-11T10:43:00.007-04:00

Amazon has a neat feature up to examining political reading habits by state.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000261611&tag=omnivoracious-20

I would not say there's any big surprises here. In my home state - Massachusetts -- 58 percent are reading Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Obama. 42 percent are reading McCain's Faith of My Fathers.

In Palin's state, Alaska, 64 percent are reading Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska' Political Establishment Upside Down.

I thought it was interesting that in formerly staunch red state NH, 45 percent were reading Zinn's A People's History of the United States.

Regardless of your party, there's a lot of books out there on both candidates. I just downloaded Obama's biography. I'm interested in hearing it.

Geek Gear returns

2008-09-10T20:10:00.002-04:00

One a recent trip to New York, my friends and I went to a store called Fishes Eddy. Now, what with an unfortunate habit of routinely breaking glasses/ aversion to cooking, I tend not to buy a lot of things for the kitchen.

However, I fell in love with these glasses – based on fairy tales, there’s Little Boy Blue and Red Riding Hood. I bought a set of four glasses and a really cute t-shirt with the Red Riding Hood design on it.

I’ll just have to be extra careful drinking from these.

http://www.fishseddy.com/

A New Superhero: The librarian

2008-09-08T21:35:00.003-04:00

Look beneath the covers and you may be surprised at all libraries do. For instance, libraries are currently the front lines in skirmishes over civil liberties. As part of the Patriot Act, the FBI can look at citizens’ library records such as books checked, etc. They don’t need probable cause to get a court order from a secret court.

Mother Jones has a tale of several librarians who fought the FBI and won (this short article is definitely worth reading).

The FBI presented Connecticut librarian George Christian with a National Security letter and told him that he had to turn over records on library patrons. According to Mother Jones, NSL are “…are a little-known FBI tool originally used in foreign intelligence surveillance to obtain phone, financial, and electronic records without court approval. Rarely employed until 2001, they exploded in number after the Patriot Act drastically eased restrictions on their use, allowing nsls to be served by FBI agents on anyone—whether or not they were the subject of a criminal investigation. In 2000, 8,500 nsls were issued; by contrast, between 2003 and 2005 the FBI issued more than 143,000 nsls, only one of which led to a conviction in a terrorism case.”

Christian and his fellow librarians decided to fight the order with the help of the ACLU.

"People say very confidential things to our reference librarians," explains (librarian Peter) Chase. "They have medical issues, personal matters. What people are borrowing at a public library is nobody's business."

The courts ended up siding with the librarians that the NSL was unconstitutional and lifted a gag order that prevented Christian and his fellow librarians from discussing the case in public.
*********************
Threats to libraries can also come from unlikely places. Take Maine resident JoAn Karkos. She looks like an unthreatening older woman.

Karkos, however, has taken upon herself to determine whether a book was fit for public consumption. Karkos checked out two copies of It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health and then refused to return them.

According to Boing Boing, Karkos wrote the library saying: “I have been sufficiently horrified of the illustrations and sexually graphic, amoral, abnormal contents. I will not be returning the books.”
NPR reports that the library took this seriously: “The librarians were not amused. "This has never happened before," Rick Speer, director of the Lewiston Public Library, told the Sun Journal. "It is clearly theft.”

Karkos was eventually charged a $100 fine (that a minister paid off.)
**********************
These stories while seemingly different both have my blood boiling.

If you think a library book is offense, it’s simple: DON’T CHECK IT OUT! To think that you have the right to dictate what other people read is offensive and arrogant.

The thought that the government wants to pry into what books/magazines you read or movies you watch or even what Web sites you visit, is a chilling one. Say I check out The Anarchists Cookbook, read about explosives or say serial killers, that does not mean I’m a terrorist in the making or a female Ted Bundy. If we turn a blind eye to the erosion of civil liberties, we start down a dangerous path. People should be able to go to the library and read without fear of prying eyes and be able to check out whatever book they want.

So, kudos to librarians for fighting challenges on every front. I’ve waxed poetically about libraries before, but I want to stress what an important role librarians play. They’re an incredible asset and are increasingly vocal in the fight to protect our unfettered access to information.

America's Most Dangerous Librarians
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/09/exit-strategy-americas-most-dangerous-librarians.html
Library Cards
http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=9244
Judge orders woman to return two library books or go to jail
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/28/judge-orders-woman-t.html
Protest over 'Pornographic' Book Raises Interest
http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2007/09/protest_over_pornographic_book.html

True Blood premieres! Sookie is on TV

2008-09-08T18:41:00.010-04:00

I’ve been lax about blogging this past month; I’ve also been lax about reading. Hopefully, that’s about to change. Just in time to justify subscribing to HBO, True Blood premiered last night!!!

I thought the "documentaries" before hand were interesting. One thing I pondered this summer is how various authors interpret the vampire myth. Reaction to sunlight, Holy Water, crucifixes and vampires vary depending on the author. For instance, Charlaine Harris’ vampires can’t go out in the sunlight and cannot enter someone’s home unless explicitly invited.

Overall, I’m excited about True Blood, which is based on Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse novels. For the uninitiated, True Blood is the name of the synthetic blood that allows vampires to “come out of the coffin” and openly participate in society. Sookie is a barmaid in a small Louisiana town (she's also telepathic). She becomes enmeshed in the vampire world after meeting Bill.

I’m horribly picky when it comes to movie/ television adoptions. I thought this seemed pretty true to the spirit of the book.

Nit picks first. I did not like how they’ve changed Tara’s character and downplayed Arlene’s. In the first book, Arlene, a fellow waitress/ friend plays a more prominent role. I thought the way they handled Sookie’s telepathy was a little heavy handed. Most of her close friends do not know she can read their minds, they just think there’s something off with her. Although, I can see why HBO went in that direction. Her ability plays a crucial role in the story, but she can’t read her boss Sam’s mind as clearly as other humans (and this will be important later).

I also really can’t picture the actors who play Sam or Bill as these characters. I picture Sam as a little more stocky, with reddish/blonde curly hair. And Bill (pictured left/ played by

Stephen Moyer), for some reason I pictured him with ink black hair and alabaster skin.

After reading the description again I realized I substituted my own image for how the character is really described. I still would have liked to see Henry (Kyle Schmid) from Lifetimes Blood Ties as Bill. I thought he was great in that series, which was based on Tayna Huff’s novels. (BTW: Still not over Lifetime canceling this series. BOOOO)

Now, it probably sounds like I didn’t like the first episode. However, that’s not the case. It’s just that I’ve enjoyed the Sookie Stackhouse books so much, that I’m probably way too critical. I think it’s great that someone recognized the potential for these books to be turned into a gripping series. There’s excitement, mystery, romance and the supernatural. They’ve also had some pretty creative ads and seem to be really promoting this series.

HBO, please don’t disappoint me like some other networks cough ::Lifetime:: cough did.

Amazon grows even bigger

2008-08-26T21:16:00.005-04:00

Amazon has been busy, busy lately. While other large booksellers like Borders and Barnes & Noble are struggling, Amazon is on buying spree.

Amazon is buying AbeBooks, which specializes in used and hard-to-find books. Amazon is planning on keeping AbeBooks as a stand-alone unit. Prior purchases include Fabric.com and Audible.

I hope they leave AbeBooks alone. I think competition in the marketplace is a good thing and think AbeBooks is a great resource for out-of-print books.

The ecommerce giant also bought social networking site, Shelfari. I’m not too familiar with this site but I think they’re behind the facebook application that lets you share a visible bookshelf. (For what its worth my favorite book social media/community site is Good Reads, www.goodreads.com)

The pressures on Barnes & Noble and Borders, which is just getting its Web site off the ground and for Amazon to successfully juggle all its various offerings/applications.

Amazon acquires book community Shelfari - http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9794

Amazon.com to Buy Social Network for Book Lovers - http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_852573C400693880002574B10059EF02.html?ref=technology

Amazon Buys Social Network For Book Lovers - http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/retail/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210200911

Amazon plans to have AbeBooks continue as a standalone - http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/retail/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209901708

Mad Lib Novels

2008-08-25T19:20:00.001-04:00

The Financial Times has a fascinating story on computer software programs that can help you write a novel. Aspiring writers can get suggestions on plot or character names and a suggested structure to follow. If you think about it many genres do have a structure that can be followed. For instance, in a traditional romance novel, couple meets, there’s usually some kind of misunderstanding/ obstacle that gets in their way, hi jinxes and problems ensue, misunderstanding/ obstacle overcome/solved, true love realized.

However, I wonder how accurately a computer software program can replicate creativity. There’s a difference between a paint by numbers and a Monet.

Click Lit -http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto082220082220576827&page=1

In Revere, In Those Days - Roland Merullo

2008-08-14T21:53:00.006-04:00

The library book club’s most recent pick, In Revere, In Those Days was another book that I wouldn’t have picked up on my own.

I was glad that I did. I don’t want to give away anything. In a nutshell, follows Anthony Benedetto growing up in Revere, Mass. I thought this was a good hearted novel, that was almost free of wrinkles. (There were a few, but not enough to disrupt the flow.)

Tonio experiences a lot of tragedy in his life, but with the love and support of his large, close knit Italian family he’s able to overcome it. This was a goodhearted novel full of beautifully written scenes and vibrant characters.

Tonio’s closest relationships are with his grandparents and his Uncle Peter. Each of them, in their own unique way, shelters Tonio and helps him thrive. I particularly liked his grandmother.

“So are you happy here?” she asked when we were climbing the small rise to the dirt road that ran past the gym.

“Three out of every four days,” I said. It was a line I borrowed frommy grandmother, who believed the secret to happiness was to expect some disappointment, sorrow, and pain, not to resist it too strenuously, to think of it as the fourth day.”

Despite some hiccups, In Revere, In Those Days was a hit.

After several enjoyable books, I’m at a loss what to read next. Too many choices!

Waltham Public Library goes high tech

2008-08-12T19:38:00.004-04:00

My local library is embracing the brave new world of technology. Waltham Public Library has been blogging for quite awhile. There are three blogs: general blog, library book blog and suggestions blog.

They’re also twittering now. If you want to follow them, the twitter handle is walthamlibrary.

For those unfamiliar with this concept, twiiter is a microblogging system that people use to send out notes or updates.

I think it’s pretty cool that the library is doing this. It’s a great way to engage young people who are social media savvy. My only complaint is that they don’t have that many tweets up yet.

There are a lot of ways to disseminate information these days and more people are turning to new social media tools like twitter to share information. By spreading the net wide, hopefully the library can garner even more attention and lure more visits.

Waltham public library:

http://waltham.lib.ma.us/

http://www.waltham.lib.ma.us/blog/main/

http://waltham.lib.ma.us/blog//

http://waltham.lib.ma.us/blog/suggestions/

It’s great to see more libraries embracing technology to become more mainstream. One of my favorite book blogs is the Seattle Public Library’s Shelf Talk, http://shelftalk.spl.org/

The Prosecutors

2008-08-11T19:20:00.001-04:00

I read about The Prosecutors in a roundup on narrative fiction. Similar to books like Courtroom 302 and No Matter How Loud I Shout, Gary Delsohn spent a year taking an insider’s look at the justice system.

In this instance, he spends a year in the Sacramento’s District Attorney’s Office. In that year, prosecutors will try several men who were involved in a robbery where a young man was shot and killed. They’ll deal with a man who hung his girlfriend on video tape, an immigrant who murders his wife, two-year old son and several other members of his family.

Overall, it was a pretty interesting fly on the wall account of what it’s like to prosecute. It was often grim due to the nature of the crimes the DA’s office dealt with.

However, I felt like at times the book lacked the overall depth of Courtroom 302 and No Matter How Loud I Shout, which both included extensive research and placed the issues in greater context. However, I realize that The Prosecutors seemed like it was envisioned as an inside look at justice along the lines of a non-fiction Law & Order.

Deafening

2008-08-11T18:57:00.001-04:00

I may have been overly ambitious with the number of books that I brought on vacation, but I did manage to finish two books that I’ve been reading for awhile – Harbor and Deafening.

Deafening was one of the books I picked for the ORBIS TERRARUM Challenge – Canada. The main character in the book, Grania, loses her hearing as a child after she has Scarlet Fever. The first part of the book focuses on her grandmother Mamo’s devotion to teaching her to read lips and speak. She’s eventually sent to a school for deaf children. Grania later falls in love with Jim, who goes off to fight in World War I. The novel alternates between Jim’s experiences as a medic and Grania back at home.

I can’t remember enjoying a novel as much as I did Deafening. There wasn’t a false note in it. I also found it interesting reading about World War I from a Canadian perspective.

My grandfather was born in 1901 and lived in Kemptville, Ontario. I remember him talking about the great flu epidemic, which Itani writes about. My grandfather had the flu – many died of it. When he was recovering, there was an armistice parade and someone moved his bed, so he could watch the parade out the window.

I found it interesting how the language in the book changed as Grania grew older. It was also fascinating how she interacted with the hearing world and saw things that others didn’t because her heightened attention to detail.

In on scene she tells her brother-in-law the way she sees the people in their town:

“Mr. McClelland, the baker, has a stern face and a pucker at the side of his mouth. He holds his wife’s hand in the summer. They sit on the stoop at the side of their house on Main Street, and he doesn’t looks stern at all when he’s with her…”

This a rare book where the characters and story linger. The type of book that I want to buy multiple copies of to urgently press in friends’ hands and say ‘You must read this.”

AUTHOR PROFILE: Frances Itani, http://www.quillandquire.com/authors/profile.cfm?article_id=2701

Harbor -- Lorraine Adams

2008-08-01T09:40:00.004-04:00

Ah the magic of T-Mobile Hot Spots, not free... but INTERNET! I finished reading Harbor by Lorraine Adams on my first day of vacation. The library book group read this last year and I wish I had read it with them. It's definitely a book that I'd like to hear other people's thoughts on.
Aziz smuggles aboard a tanker and illegally enters the country. He's fleeing his home in Algeria, where he was a solider. I was a little unclear on this part, but he apparently was a double agent in the Army.
He falls in with Rafik, someone he knows from Algeria. His brother legally immigrates and they are also joined by several fellow Algerians who also snuck into the US on tankers.

The novel follows Aziz as he struggles to fit in, his flashbacks to his time in the Army – a brutal, terrifying experience. While Rafik is clearly involved in illegal activities – credit card fraud, identity theft, smuggling – Aziz and his friend Ghazia are not. Yet, they end up getting caught in the net when Rafik and his friend Kamal come under suspicion.

This novel raises several troubling questions:

How can we effectively combat terrorism, if we don’t understand the language and culture?

How much do we know about other cultures/ places like Algeria?

Can we even accurately identify the real terrorists versus people desperately looking for a better life and trying to stay hidden from scrutiny.

To what extent has involvement by the US and other countries like France created atmospheres of chaos, violence and ultimately resentment/ hatred against Western and US governments?

The nature of good and evil?

Clearly, Aziz is conflicted about the things he did in the Army. However, he did those things to survive.

Overall, a fascinating but at the same time unsettling book.

Bookworm is hitting the beach

2008-07-28T21:04:00.005-04:00

Dear reader,

There will be lull in posts because Bookworm is going on vacation. The wireless connection/ ability to go online is very spotty so I don't know if I'll be able to post much. I'm hoping to figure out my wireless router thingy (thats the technical term!) before I leave.

I hopefully will have much to write about it when I get back. The combination of the fact that the television set remains off for my entire vacation and my family members' early bed times means I usually end up reading a lot. I set aside six books to bring, but think that might have been overly ambitious.

(The above picture is the view of Lake Ontario we have at night.)

Happy reading! I'll be back on August 11.

Sally Lockhart returns to TV

2008-07-28T21:01:00.002-04:00

Philip Pullman may be best known for his Dark Materials series, but he also wrote another well performing series of books. The Sally Lockhart series is completely different genre. It’s a mystery series set in Victorian times.

PBS Masterpiece Mystery will be re-airing The Ruby in the Smoke and then showing The Shadow in the North

New Life for Pullman’s First Series - http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6581475.html

Reading poll

2008-07-25T18:07:00.001-04:00

I saw this on a blog I like to read – A Cat and Twenty (http://acatandtwenty.blogspot.com/). I thought it sounded like fun and although no one tagged me :p I thought I’d do it. So the rules are:

1) Bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own blog.

I guess I should get cracking on my Dickens and Austen reading!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (I’ve read Golden Compass. Two more to go!)
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Ronald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Chime in on the comments about books you've loved on this list or want to read. Or feel free to mock some of these books - The Five People You'd Like to Meet in Heaven. ::shudders::

Pinch me, I'm dreaming!

2008-07-23T19:33:00.003-04:00

Pardon me while I squeal like a crazed fan girl for a minute. WHHEEE!!!

Ahem. So Comic Book Tattoo comes out July 29.

Spinner interviews one of the artists involved in the project.

Comic Book Tattoo: Colleen Doran – http://www.spinner.com/2008/07/21/comic-book-tattoo-colleen-doran/

Tori Amos Inks Her 'Comic Book Tattoo' – http://www.spinner.com/2008/07/21/tori-amos-inks-her-comic-book-tattoo/

Tori’s doing a musical!

Tori Amos Is Writing a Musical – http://www.film.com/celebrities/story/tori-amos-writing-a-musical/11784156/21865972

Speaking of swooning (somebody catch me quick!), HBO has some videos for True Blood are online. True Blood are based on Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books.

http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=HBO&search_query=blood%20copy

Twilight Midnight parties

2008-07-22T21:21:00.003-04:00

Move over Harry Potter, there’s some competition in town – Bella Swan. The last book in Stephenie Meyer’s comes out the first Saturday next month. Like Harry Potter, a number of midnight parties are in the works for the release of Breaking Dawn.
According to the Associated Press, the first printing of Twilight was 75,000. Two books later that number was bumped up to 1 million for Eclipse. The series has taken off. Meyer’s The Host is also on the New York Times bestseller list and Twilight is ranked number four according to Amazon’s sales rankings.

Vampires at midnight! Parties for last 'Twilight' – http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080710/ap_en_ot/books_midnight_madness;_ylt=ApUhuAxvuHH1rKQFdlM0jb9REhkF

http://www.bordersmedia.com/meyer/events.asp

The library in tough times

2008-07-22T20:23:00.000-04:00

I’ve written about my respect/ love of libraries. They are great resource for people from all walks of life. Over at the Consumerist today, there was a post about how the library is a great resource in tough times.

They are:

You can get pretty much any book at the library

Yes, we have movies

Kids Activities

Save Money and maybe your life!

Make new friends

Find a new job

Libraries listen to consumers!

The post touts that many libraries have inter-library loans, rent videos very cheaply ($1-2) or for fear and have a plethora of services and activities.

Many libraries also have passes to local attractions such as museums or aquariums.

So whether times are tough or you’re flush, the local library is a gem.

http://consumerist.com/5027723/7-ways-your-public-library-can-help-you-during-a-bad-economy

Morsels

2008-07-21T21:00:00.002-04:00

For just $25,000-plus you could own a first edition copy of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and the typewriter Douglas Adams used to type the scifi classic.

Buy the typewriter on which Douglas Adams wrote Hitchhiker's Guide for $25,257.94 – http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/07/16/buy-the-typewriter-o.html

This Hemingway look alike contest cracks me up. That’s a lot of a Hemingway doppelgangers.

Florida man wins Hemingway look-alike contest – http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hgVbSG8INlQEUxDc712XZqKUnfIAD921VR481

The LA Times is cutting back its book staff and may be shuttering its standalone book review section.

LA Times to Fold Standalone Book Review – http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6580103.html?desc=topstory

"DISMAYED AND TROUBLED..." – http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/2008/07/dismayed-and-troubled.html

Publishers Weekly has a write up on the upcoming Comic Book Tattoo, which is a collection of comics inspired by Tori Amos songs. I already pre-odered my copy!!

Image Comics and Tori Amos Ink Comic Book Tattoo – http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6578629.html

Books on tape goes high tech

2008-07-20T19:36:00.001-04:00

I’ve been on the hunt for audio books lately. I have several long car rides this summer and there’s only so much music you can listen to during an eight hour car ride.

Here’s the thing: Books on CD are expensive and they’re also pricy on iTunes. So they’re usually something I don’t want to buy.

Audiobooks are also a rare time that I don’t always go to the library. I feel like it’s usually difficult to find what I want and it involves too much browsing in hopes of finding something worthwhile. My library has some sort of program where you can download books for free, but they’re not compatible with iPod.

I’m picky about some things … I wanted an audio book that I can put on my iPod or burn on a compact disc. I thought that if I had books on my iPod it might actually get me out walking. (We shall see…)

eMusic to the rescue.

The service also has audiobooks. For about $10 per month, I get two credits. I downloaded Are You There Vodka, It’s Me Chelsea. I can burn it on a CD or put it on a MP3 player. I burned several chapters on CD, so I could give my iPod a break when I went away this past weekend.

Are You There Vodka? Is currently selling for $18.95 on iTunes. So I feel like I’m already ahead money-wise.

I was also impressed with Border’s audiobook selection – they have great prices and a variety of options. I just downloaded Into The Wild for free and uploaded it on my iPod.

There’s something relaxing about listening to a book while driving.

Happy listening!

www.emusic.com

http://audiobooks.borders.com/

Reading under fire

2008-07-15T07:47:00.004-04:00

File under: Say what now?

Keith John Sampson, a janitor and student, at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis was accused of racial harassment after a coworker complained about Samspon reading a book on the Ku Klux Klan.

The book: Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan. As the title hints, the book was about the students' and university’s struggle against the KKK.

Sampson tried explaining that he was reading a historical account, the book was actually anti-KKK and that the book came from the university’s library. To no avail. He was told his actions were the equivalent of racial harassment and similar to bringing pornography.

After outside pressure the university has apologized to Sampson.

One would hope of in all places an institution dedicated to higher learning, one could read a book without fear of persecution or offending others. How can we learn from the past and plan for the future if reading about events that have taken place is offensive?

Indeed, if Sampson had been reading say Hustler in front of a female coworker I would have said no, no, no. Not allowed. But a non-fiction history book?!

When we crack down on freedom of expression even if it’s just the act of reading, we all lose.

(Note: the book cover shown was apparently not the same as the one of the book Samspon was reading.)

IUPUI says sorry to janitor scolded over KKK book - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080714/ap_on_re_us/kkk_book_apology;_ylt=Avcpuf72BlMEdaNLpJk6gVRvzwcF

American Politics Aren't 'Post-Racial' - http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB121538889902431161.html

Library theft on a grand scale

2008-07-14T20:48:00.002-04:00

There probably won’t be a CSI Library any time soon. If there was, however, two librarians at Western Washington University should definitely star.

Thanks to the duo’s observations and quick thinking, a Montana man faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

I stumbled upon this fascinating and infuriating story when looking up another library thief – Thomas Pilaar, who was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison and a $53,549 fine. According news reports, Pilaar, who lives in Denver, had seven library cards under his name and other people’s names for multiple libraries in the Denver area. He used those cards to “borrow” more than 1,000 books and DVDS that he sold online.

The Rocky Mountain News breaks down the costs to the libraries:

“Denver Public Library last year estimated its losses at $35,000, while Douglas County reported that Pilaar had $11,000 worth of overdue materials, mostly pricey coffee-table books and DVDs.”

According to the Associated Press, a woman who purchased books on Craigslist notified authorities after spotting librarian identification.

I have to admit this intrigued me because a number of online booksellers/ swapping sites feature old library books – presumably ones the library or friends of organization sold. I’ve bought old library books online. The friends of library group for my library also has an amazing sale every year and I’ve bought CDs and books that I’ve posted on my paperbackswap and swap a cd accounts. To stress I legitimately bought those items.

Not too long ago I purchased a hard cover Charlaine Harris book at half.com, which is owned by eBay, that was marked as an ex-library book. I’m taking this seller at the word and have no reason to doubt them. As did the people I sent CDs to on Swap A CD. But, it does make me wonder, how can you really tell that these books/CDs/records/ movies were sold by the library?

I would think this could be a very tough challenge especially for sites like eBay, Half.com, Amazon or Craigslist where the volume of items being sold is mammoth.

Target: rare and priceless works

James Lyman Brubaker was also selling pilfered items on eBay, but his theft was much more sinister and insidious than Pilaar’s.

This is quite the tale. According to the Calgary Sun, after librarian Julie Fitzgerald thought a patron was acting strangely near the rare books she made to sure to examine them.

“When the man left, the books -- government material dating back to and possibly handled by President Abraham Lincoln -- were found to have been cut with a razor, with some 648 pages gone. “ (Source Calgary Sun, emphasis mine).

In a truly tv twist, fellow librarian Rob Lopresti, who writes mystery novels, was on the case. They were able to track down items on eBay that matched what was missing and set a trap using third party bidders.

Once a crime lab verified the library books were the source of the auctioned goods, police had enough for a warrant.

And folks, it just gets crazier from there.

Police discovered about 1,000 books – of which 832 may have been stolen. Included in that collection, were a number of priceless, one-of-a-kind first editions. Records showed that Brubaker had 9,000 eBay sales and made out with a half a million dollars.

The Great Falls Tribune reported that investigation indicated 108 volumes of government books were vandalized and 648 pages of maps and colored plates were missing.

You Don't Love Me Yet - Jonathan Lethem

2008-07-14T00:25:00.005-04:00

Billed as a romantic comedy – You Don’t Love Me Yet – takes place within the isolated inner circle of a group of LA hipsters. Lucinda is working in a friend’s art exhibit – a complaint center. The artist, Falmouth, posts signs seeking peole to call and complain. Lucinda soon becomes entranced by a man who regularly calls. Lucinda shares the "complainer's" insights with her band’s songwriter.

After hearing them play at an “aparty” – they were originally supposed to play inaudibly – the complainer asks to play in the band. He thinks he has a stake in the band because their new songs incorporate his complaints.

It seems everyone’s life is in a state of flux or confusion. The singer, Matthew, kidnaps a depressed kangaroo from the zoo where he works. Lucinda careens around, making foolish choices.

Some of the language was very evocative and there are some interesting concepts such as the creation of art. If art like music is collaborative who owns the songs? The one who came up with the ideas, the one who melded them into words or the one who puts music to the words?

Overall, I was a little disappointed in You Don’t Love Me Yet. I really liked Motherless Brooklyn, but felt this didn’t really compete. At times I felt like the hipness or edginess was too forced and I couldn’t really relate to the main character Lucinda. It reminded me of a lot of new independent movies I’ve seen that seem to be strange and weird just for the sake of being quirky.

A Walk in the Woods

2008-07-10T21:47:00.003-04:00

I finally was organized enough to make it to the library book club. This month we read A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. In it, Bryson chronicles his adventures on the Appalachian Trail.

Overall, I found this enjoyable. There were many very funny, light hearted moments like when his hiking companion suggests that instead of using backpacks for the second part of their trip, they use newspaper delivery bags. He says have you ever seen a newspaper delivery boy with a hernia?!

There’s a lot of interesting information about the history of the trail, environmental damage such as chestnuts dying off due invasive species and the communities near the trail.

He goes to one coal mining community that had to be evacuated because the coal underground started burning. Highways crack because of the fire. Apparently coal fires can burn for years.

There was also some neat facts about nearby Mount Washington (NH) – it gets 246 inches of snow every year, snowpeaks of 20 feet. According to Bryson, one storm in 1969 dumped 98 inches (8 feet) on the summit in three days.

In the end, Bryson doesn’t hike the entire trail. I did find that a little disappointing and felt the end was anticlimactic with Bryson and his friend bailing before they finished hiking the Maine portion.

Overall, an interesting at times hysterical read.

Sookie's coming to TV

2008-07-10T21:30:00.003-04:00

Hmmm… I may just have to check with the lovely folks at RCN to see how much HBO is because… deep breath … True Blood is coming this fall! True Blood is based on Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse books.

HBO’s site: http://www.hbo.com/events/trueblood/

Pop Candy, http://blogs.usatoday.com/popcandy/2008/07/thirsty-for-blo.html#uslPageReturn

Anna Paquin is Sookie Stackhouse. Hmmm… the actor who plays Bill was in the Starter Wife. I was picturing a non-blond playing this role. Someone sort of like Rupert Everett.

Anyway, I cannot wait!!!

The Times weighs in on Film Club

2008-07-07T19:45:00.001-04:00

I always find it interesting to read a review after I’ve finished a book. Sometimes I enjoy it even more than reading it before the book because I’m entering the book without any preconceived notions or on the lookout for some perceived flaws.

I recently finished Film Club by David Gilmour, which overall I thought was a pleasant read. The Sunday Times book review tackled it this weekend.

Overall it’s a positive review with Douglas McGrath noting: “…it’s a heartfelt portrait of how hard it is to grow up, how hard it is to watch someone grow up and how in the midst of a family’s confusion and ire, there is sometimes nothing so welcome as a movie.”

I agreed with him that the book does stumble every once in awhile. I was also curious why Gilmour didn’t demand more from his son, say that he work part-time or pay for groceries.

McGrath also had troubles with some of Gilmour’s writing: “Gilmour has a fondness for simile that sometimes exceeds his gift for it.” I didn’t notice this as much, but I think if I re-read it, some of the wording might stick out at me more.

Home Screening - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/books/review/McGrath2-t.html?_r=1&ref=books&oref=slogin

Geek Gear

2008-07-02T20:19:00.003-04:00

A friend recently surprised me with this really cool gift (to celebrate my…shhh… birthday). It’s an iPod ca se that looks like a cheesy 1970s sci-fi book – Scavengers in Space. “Intriguing and fast paced declares the American Library Association.

The pictures wouldn’t come out but when you open it (it can open like a book), there’s like a library flap with a card that says property of with due dates.)

This gift is layers of cool people: It’s a neat iPod cover, it ’s also a groovy book knick knack. And, apparently there was really such a book. Scavengers in Space was written by Alan Nourse and came out in 1958.

According to Wikipedia, Nourse wrote science fiction to help finance his schooling. He also wrote a novel titled Blade Runner, but while the movie is called Blade Runner the movie’s plot and characters came from Philip Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

And I’ve learned something new!

Back when I used to go to tag sales and the local thrift store more often, I used to keep an eye out for campy books like The Plants. Ohh, killer plants. So I get a kick out of it for the reason too.

Many many layers of coolness!

New bookshelves

2008-07-02T20:12:00.002-04:00

I was behind on loading pictures from my digital camera. I bring you ::cue the horns:: my new bookshelves. I actually have an entire shelf devoted to vampire lit (pictured here), which surprised me a little.

I even had room to display some pictures like the family photo to left. Guess which one I am? (Hint: I'm rocking the plaid and bowl cut)

I got them at the wonderful Woodstuff, who I'm going to plug. I think they look pretty!

Woodstuff

Address: 349 Moody St, Waltham, MA 02453

Phone: (781) 647-3688

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

2008-06-29T22:30:00.000-04:00

I was feeling a little stir crazy facing another grey/ rainy weekend, so my folks and I went to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The Gardner museum was thrust in a limelight in the early 1990s when thieves made off with several pieces of priceless artwork.

To this date the theft remains unsolved and the art work which included paintings by Rembrandt, Manet and Degas have still not been uncovered. According to Gardner’s will, the museum could not be altered. For this reason, empty frames hang where the stolen art work is. It’s a very strange feeling seeing an empty frame.

Fellow Mass residents who have never been I would recommend going to the Gardner. The highlight for me is the courtyard, which is just amazing. In addition to the mosaic center piece, there are dozens of plants and flowers, including gorgeous hydrangeas. Every room is like a treasure hunt, the wallpaper, the tops of the wall and even the ceilings have artwork.

There’s a documentary about the thefts (it’s on Netflix) called Stolen.

My father also recommended Mrs. Jack: A Biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner by Louise Hall Tharp.

Further reading: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: A Companion Guide and History by Hilliard T. Goldfarb.

http://www.gardnermuseum.org/

Film Club - David Gilmour

2008-06-27T18:40:00.001-04:00

When I first heard about Film Club on NPR I was intrigued. When David Gilmour’s son, Jesse, begins to have trouble with school, David swaps houses with his ex to live with Jesse. It soon becomes apparent that Jesse is miserable in school and Gilmour fears he may lose his son.

“I also knew in that instant – knew it in my blood – that I was going to lose him over this stuff, that one of these days he was going to stand up across the table and say, “Where are my notes? I’ll tell you where my notes are. I shoved the up my a#@. And if you don’t lay the f*@k off them, I’m going to shove them up yours.” And then he’d be gone, slam, and that’d be that.”

Gilmour takes the unusual step of telling his son that he can drop out of school. In return, his son has to promise not to do drugs and to watch three movies a week with his father.

So, begins three years of movie watching. While his father grapples with ups and downs in his career, Jesse suffers several misadventures in love. They watch a wide and eclectic mix of movies from Annie Hall to the Exorcist to Show Girls.

This is a sweet and tender story about a father and son. It’s also has several interesting insights in to movies. Among the things I found interesting, Stephen King did not like the Shining (movie version).

“King went to an early screening of The Shining and came away disgusted; he said the movie was like a Cadillac without an engine. “You get, you can smell the leather, but you can’t drive it anywhere.” In fact, he went on to say he thought Kubrick made movies to “hurt people.”

I got a kick out of the fact that after they watched The Exorcist, Jesse slept on the couch that night, with a light on. I remember seeing that movie in college. My roommate was gone for the weekend. I was so freaked out I slept on the floor of my friend’s dorm room.

Gilmour’s love and deep knowledge of films and the love he has for his son comes through on every page.

His son ends up going back to school. Although it may sound strange that he let him drop out, it’s clear that Gilmour was conflicted about his decision but did it because he thought it was the best thing for Jesse.

Here’s one passage I liked about picking movies (I can relate to this. I also feel it can apply to books. “Sooo this was one of your favorite books. Hmmm. Interesting.”

***************

“Picking movies for people is a risky business. In a way it’s as revealing as writing someone a letter. It shows how you think, it shows what moves you, sometimes it can even show how you think the world sees you. So when you breathlessly recommend a film to a friend, when you say, “Oh, this is a scream – you’re going to really love it,” it’s a nauseating experience when the friend sees you the following day and says with a wrinkled brow, “You thought that was funny?”

Father-Son 'Film Club' Keeps Teen on Track, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90225967&ft=1&f=1032

Betsy gets an unnecessary makeover

2008-06-26T20:46:00.004-04:00

Another vampire series that I enjoy reading is Mary Janice’s Queen Betsy series. It started off with Undead and Unwed and is now up to number seven with Undead and Unworthy. I don’t enjoy these books as much as Sookie Stackhouse – I don’t feel they’re as rich and complex. They are, however, are fun, light reads. Perfect summer reading and although I hate to use the term very chick lit.

When I received the latest book in the series, I did a double take. Past covers featured whimsical illustrations. I don’t even know how to describe the new cover – it almost felt YAish. I don’t know what prompted this change, but not a big fan. I thought the illustrated covers really matched the writing style.

Morsels

2008-06-26T20:41:00.001-04:00

Jezebel had a great post today on cheesy 1980s romance novels that might have had more than a hint of misogyny.

From Jezebel:

In what I can only assume was a backlash against the feminist movement and increasingly independent portrayals of women, these romances contained an appallingly misogynistic bent made even more disturbing when you think that they were written both for and by women. The plots feature doormat heroines and sadistic, domineering males who see through their feeble protests and know that 'no' means 'yes.'

Just so we're clear though, the works of Betty Neels - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Neels - remains beyond reproach. Why do I mention Betty Neels? Um, no reason in particular…

http://jezebel.com/5019950/1980s-romance-novels-hair+raising-lip+mashing-horror-shows

Morsels

2008-06-25T19:41:00.001-04:00

USA Today’s "Authors fixate on their extreme passions" takes a look at authors who are willing to test their limits for their craft.

For instance, Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages chronicles Ammon Shea’s year long read of the massive, exhaustive, ENORMOUS OED. (Have I mentioned lately that word lovers should really check out The Professor and the Madman? If you’re interested in the OED, it’s a must read).

One author who is a mainstay in this genre if you will is A.J. Jacobs. He wrote Know It All about his quest to read the encyclopedia and The Year of Living Biblically.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2008-06-23-extreme-authors_N.htm

Fine Lines finds a publisher

2008-06-25T19:24:00.001-04:00

One of my favorite haunts online is Jezebel. I think it’s quirky, cutting, insightful, and interesting. Sure it’s also sometimes befuddling and infuriating, but definitely worth checking out.

One regular feature is Fine Lines, which Jezebel describes as “a sentimental, sometimes critical, far more wrinkled look at the children’s and YA books we loved in our youth.”

Lizzie Skurnick's take on The Secret Garden: But The Secret Garden, more than anything, is about those who are locked up, and those who grow — both literally and emotionally

Jezebel posted this week that Harper Collins will be publishing a book featuring previously published Fine Lines and new material.

I wonder why some of the fondest memories we have of books are the ones we read in our childhood. For instance, some of my favorites are Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain series. Is it because we start learning the true magic of reading when we’re young. That when have less pressures and worries it's easier to find time to read? I still remember being teary eyed at the end of Charlotte’s Web (and so a lifetime of crying while reading sad stories began).

Other childhood favorites: For some reason The Donkey Prince was a favorite. A prince is under a curse where he’ll remain a donkey until he finds true love. The Little House – LOVE IT. New favorite would Hug, which I usually always include as part of baby gifts.

I would love to see a Fine Lines on that often overlooked girl detective – Trixie Belden. Move over Nancy Drew! Unfortunately, the series was out of print for a number of years. While Random House has reissued the first five, the series had many, many more books – 39 to be exact.

Speaking of Nancy Drew: Nancy Drew: Curious, Independent and Usually Right - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91753085&ft=1&f=1032

To All Our Fans, With Love, From Lizzie, http://jezebel.com/5019004/to-all-our-fans-with-love-from-lizzie

Fine Lines

The Chocolate War: Life’s Tough Kid, http://jezebel.com/378750/the-chocolate-war-lifes-tough-kid

A Wrinkle in Time: Quit Tesseracting Up, http://jezebel.com/5013495/a-wrinkle-in-time-quit-tesseracting-up

The Secret Garden: Still No Idea What A Missel Thrush Is, http://jezebel.com/381385/the-secret-garden-still-no-idea-what-a-missel-thrush-is

Update: Amazon weighs in too.
http://www.omnivoracious.com/2008/06/a-book-about-bo.html

Future reading: Bruce Campbell

2008-06-24T18:40:00.001-04:00

While I eagerly await the new season of Burn Notice, I got an email the other day that brightened my day. I had put If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell on my paperbackswap wish list. It was available and is one its way to my house!

You might remember Campbell from Evil Dead, Xena or Hercules. He was also in the Majestic, a gem of a movie starring Jim Carrey.

I think Campbell is hilarious and so great on Burn Notice. Campbell describes Burn Notice as "Highway to Heaven with carnage and mayhem." Brilliant.

Patti Lupone's memoirs

2008-06-23T20:01:00.000-04:00

The fabulous Patti LuPone is penning her autobiography. I love musicals. I think fabulous musicals like Singing in The Rain or Gigi are so much fun. There’s maybe romance, maybe danger or thrills, dancing and singing. Does it get much better?

Patti was also in Life Goes On. Where is the rest of that cast these days?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080617/ap_en_ce/books_lupone;_ylt=AsKmBDgvLue.co3PpifcZBpREhkF

Write 2.0?

2008-06-23T19:51:00.000-04:00

Author Kit Reed weighs in on the world of Web 2.0 – Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, blogs, etc. While I do follow several reading blogs I haven’t found that many by authors that I slavishly follow.

Reed writes science fiction, fantasy and horror.

There’s some interesting food for thought here. What impact is the Internet having not just on reading and writing? Is it possible to be too connected/ plugged in and can that divert from the creative process.

It can be found at: http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/

I'm not into this movie

2008-06-22T20:51:00.001-04:00

When I went to the movies this weekend, I saw a truly horrific trailer. The cast looked okay. Well, Bradley Cooper formerly of Alias and some big names like Ben Affleck, Drew Barrymore, her squeeze Justin Long ("I'm a Mac") and Scarlett Johansson are in it. It was ::shudder:: He's Just Not That Into You, based on the self-help book that apparently aims to tell women if men are sending mixed signals, maybe it's a sign he's not that into you and you should move on.

I won't bash the book because I've never read it, but in general I'm not a fan of taking something like a self-help book and turning it into a movie. Is there really enough gist for a movie here? And, ugh, do I really want to watch another movie/tv show/ etc. where intelligent successful women pine after emotionally unavailable man-children? Let me guess... women are needy, men are commitment phobes without the guts to tell women they aren't interested. Fascinating.

The clips below. Judge for yourself. I'll be watching the next Batmen movie or Hellboy 2 (the trailers for both were awesome!). HELLBOY!!!!!

100 years of Anne

2008-06-21T16:30:00.000-04:00

I’ve posted of my love for Anne of Green Gables before so I won’t bore you. Well, Anne turns 100 this year so to speak.

Novel Journey weighs in:
http://noveljourney.blogspot.com/2008/06/anne-girl-turns-100.html

Here’s the link to my rant on the Anne of Green Gables prequel (ugh, I’m still shuddering).

http://dearreader-bookworm.blogspot.com/2008/03/not-anne.html

Junot Diaz on Colbert Report

2008-06-21T16:22:00.000-04:00

Junot Diaz was on Stephen Colbert last week. I didn't know that the Pulitzer was like a Peabody... interesting :-p

The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch

2008-06-21T16:11:00.000-04:00

Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to judge a book by its cover. I stumbled across The Highest Tide: A Novel by Jim Lynch, when poking around the Concord Bookstop. For some reason, it drew me in.

The Highest Tide centers on Miles O’Malley, whose home nestles along the Puget Sound. Miles – A 13-year-old insomniac, who’s small for his age – is obsessed with the ocean and Rachel Carson. During one summer he comes across a number of unusual finds. It begins with a giant squid. Soon Miles is the center attention from scientists, the media and even a cult.

I found the characters more compelling than the overall plot. To me, it seemed more like a character study with the ocean being one of them. I found the passages about the water and the things Miles finds such as sea slugs, skate egg pouches and sea stars very interesting.

There’s also Miles cohort – air guitar playing Phelps, the elderly neighbor who has visions of the future and the troubled girl next door that Miles has a crush on.

Overall, I thought it was a sweet, engaging story.

**************

“Those shells, as unique and timeless as bones, helped me realize that we all die young, that in the life of the earth, we are houseflies, here for one flash of light.”

“I eased toward the door to check on Florence and to step into a night where beauty loitered and the sun took its time setting, as if it, too, didn’t want to miss anything.”

Summer reading

2008-06-21T15:55:00.000-04:00

We’re not done yet!

The Boston Globe weighs in with recommendations. Their list aims to be “quirky.” Their criteria were that the books had to be short – 250 words or less, overlooked and while not traditional beach fare were picked because “while none is a "beach read," all are more for pleasure than improvement.”

http://www.boston.com/ae/books/gallery/2008_quirky_books/

My summer reading list

2008-06-14T10:23:00.000-04:00

As promised, here's my summer reading list. I've included some books that I've wanted to read for years and two books for the Orbis Terrarium Challenge, which I'm a little behind on. I tried to limit it to 15 books so there's room for random surprises or the occassional reading slump. There's a mixture of fiction and non-fiction.

Drum roll please....

1. 100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
2. Deafening - Francis Itani
3. The Wind Up Bird Chronicles - Haruki Murakami
4. The Fortress of Solitude - Jonathan Lethem
5. You Don't Love Me Yet - Jonathan Lethem
(I really enjoyed Motherless Brooklyn and have been putting off reading The Fortress of Solitude for years. I decided to move it up the list)
6. The Yiddish Policeman's Union - Michael Chabon
7. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
8. One Good Turn - Kate Atkinson (Sequel to Case Histories)
9. Harbor - Lorraine Adams
Non-Fiction
10. The Prosecutors - Gar Delsohn
(In addition to my love of Law and Order, I'm addicted to shows like Cold Case or Forensics Files. The writer spent a year in the Sacramento DA's office.)
11. The Corner - David Simon and Edward Burns
(Another year in the life of. This time, it's a neighborhood in Baltimore struggling with crime and drugs.)
12. The Ten Cent Plague - David Hajdu
13. The Big Box Swindle - Stacy Mitchell
(A meaty look at the high cost of low-price, big box stores.)
14. Amusing Ourselves to Death - Neil Postman
(An old book, but still relevant with the increasing glut of information and media sources.)
15. Tulia - Nate Blakeslee
(This is another paperbackswap gem. I had my eye on this for years and put it on my wish list. Victory! The book examines the arrest of 47 people in a Texas town. All were charged and convicted for dealing cocaine despite the lack of any real evidence.)

What's on your summer reading list?

Can't get enough summer reading!

2008-06-13T10:52:00.000-04:00

I liked the opening of Short Stack's “Five Books That Have Summer Written All Over Them.” Summer’s a mixed bag – the days are longer, there’s fresh vegetables and fruit, the beach. There’s also the heat, bug bites and sunburns.

But don’t forget there’s also summer reading!

To continue the summer reading suggestions, Short Stack has books with a summer feel including Ray Brabury’s Dandelion Wine.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/shortstack/2008/06/five_books_that_have_summer_wr.html

Life Sucks

2008-06-13T10:45:00.001-04:00

I wish I could say that I’ve plowed through a bunch of books on my vacation. I did learn that you can get chemically induced leukemia after years of selenium poisoning. (Thanks Lifetime Movie Network! Keeping women afraid of marriage/ poisoning/ stalking/ murder for years!)

I did finish Life Sucks, a compact graphic novel that was Clerks meets Angel. Dave is a vampire stuck in a dead-end job working for his master at a 24-hour convenience store. He and obnoxious, rich surfer dude fall for the same goth chick, Rosa.

I thought it was entertaining. It’s a quick, light read. Vampire slackers.

Dave refuses to drink blood from humans relying on bottled blood or expired blood bank blood. As a result his vampire powers are weakened. The way he explains the vampire life to Rosa makes it out to be one of mundane tasks, working a dead-end job at the mercy of your master.

The ending really cried out for a sequel. I want to know what will happen with Rosa and Dave. Will true love save the day?

First Second blog: http://comics-and-more.blogspot.com/2008/05/life-sucks.html

DeCordova Visit

2008-06-12T18:17:00.000-04:00

I've been lax about posting lately. I'm on a "staycation" but have been kind of lame. Give me snow, rain or very cold weather, I'm fine. Give me really hot and humid weather and I'm a puddle. The heat finally broke (at least outside, it's still an oven in my apartment). I decided to head somewhere I've never been before - the DeCordova Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Mass.

The park is about 35 acres and has a wide variety of sculptures. According to the Web site, the park is the only large ongoing exhibition of contemporary outdoor sculpture in New England.

www.decordova.org/index.html

I think my favorite sculpture was Cones. It was placed in a clearing in a patch of woods and featured an gathering a cone people in a circle filled with cones. The sculpture is made of steel and pine cones (I don't think my picture fully captures how cool it was.) The above pictures also include hearing trumpet, which captured my fancy, Reflex and Listening Stone.

Even more summer reading

2008-06-03T22:17:00.001-04:00

We're still keeping an eye out for those summer reading lists. (It's like Christmas in July, er, June!)

NPR’s book critic Alan Cheuse weighs in with his recommendations for summer reading.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90995424&ft=1&f=1032

Jennifer Haigh @ the Waltham Public Library

2008-06-03T21:45:00.000-04:00

I had the pleasure of hearing Jennifer Haigh speak on Tuesday night. Haigh, a Mass resident, wrote Baker Towers and Mrs. Kimble. She was joined by Jon Papernick.

If you haven’t read Jennifer Haigh, run, I say run to the library/bookstore, etc. Baker Towers is told from the perspective of different members of the Novak family, who live in a coal town. In Mrs. Kimble, we see the fall out from Ken Kimble, who seems to blithely lie to and discard his wives.

Haigh has a new book coming out. The Condition revolves around a family whose daughter has Turner syndrome.

Some interesting factoids: Haigh writes her novels at her kitchen table using white legal pads. She said she felt that her writing was more thoughtful and the process more deliberate when she writes longhand versus typing it.

I hadn’t heard of Jon Papernick, who’s a fellow Waltham resident. He read from his new book Who By Fire, Who By Blood. In Who By Fire, Who By Blood, a son sifts through his father’s books and discovers various passages underlined. He becomes drawn into a possible terrorist plot. Papernick’s book is only available on Amazon Canada and through his Web site.

All in all an enjoyable evening and it was completely free!

Jennifer Haigh: http://www.jenniferhaigh.com/

Jon Papernick, http://www.jonpapernick.com/

Haigh’s books:

http://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Kimble-Novel-Jennifer-Haigh/dp/B0007UDYX8/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212543105&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/Baker-Towers-Novel-Jennifer-Haigh/dp/0060509422/ref=pd_bbs_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212543105&sr=8-3

http://www.amazon.com/Condition-Novel-Jennifer-Haigh/dp/0060755784/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212543105&sr=8-1

Jon Papernick’s book:

http://www.amazon.ca/Who-Fire-Blood-Jon-Papernick/dp/1550961020/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212543878&sr=8-2