Welcome all to our bookstore blog--a place to meet and discuss books, what's happening in our intellectual lives, in the world of books, in the pages of books, and between the lines!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Welcome to our Blog
Greetings to all!
This is our first experience with a blog here at the store--please take a moment and add your thoughts on our mutual love of books and reading. Chris, Susan F., Karen, Brenda and Susan C.
Wow, the first to comment. Maybe y'all are just shy and need someone to start off so here goes.
Guess an introduction should come first. My home base is in Griffin, so close enough to visit easily. I'm retired (or just haven't worked in 21 years, but "retired" sounds so much better, doesn't it?) so I have a lot of time to read, which seems to be my favorite hobby to say the least. My taste in books runs the gamut...Elmore Leonard, James Lee Burke, Michael Connelly, Ken Follett, Larry McMurtry, Carl Hiassen are just a few that I try to read when they have a new book out. I also like Christopher Moore (Lamb is a special favorite) and most anything about dogs...Me and Marley of course, but also Merle's Door, The Art of Racing in the Rain, David Rosenfelt's series about Golden Retrievers, and there is a new one out "Dog On It" that I plan to read soon. I've never been able to explain to anyone else how I choose a book...it might be the review, the title, the author, or just that "something" that strikes my eye. At present, I'm reading The Lost City of Z with Drood and Shadow Mountain on my to-read shelf.
I've run out of bookshelves and am now stacking books anywhere I can find a place-mostly in my daughter's room since she's married and lives out of state. Thank goodness, she had a large room..LOL.
Well, if you're not totally bored out of your mind by now, that should be enough to get us started.
Now, tell me, what are YOU reading and have on your to-read shelf??
WEll, I guess I am number 2! I have been living in this area for 30 years. I am an avid reader of almost any genre since I was a child . A BIG kid at heart, I loved all the Harry Potter books! My posted picture is from the bookstore's Harry Potter party. I came dressed as the Garden Witch! I have a passion for organically grown gardens, so I spend a good deal of my time perusing gardening design, catalog and how-to-books and magazines. My all time favorite reads are Trinity by Leon Uris, Pillars of the Earth [pre-OPRAH thank you] by Ken Follett, Thornbirds, The Education of Little Tree, and The Little Prince just to name a few. I just finished FIRE by Catherine Neville,and have started The Omnivore's Dilemma after hearing Michael Pollan speak at the Georgia Organic's Conference in Atlanta this past week. I too enjoy James Lee Burke, and also all the dog books that Gail listed. I esp. liked Racing in the Rain. Add to that list: The Dog That Found Me . Charles Martin is a favorite author of mine: When Crickets Cry, The Dead Don't Dance, and Maggie. Get your crying towel ready for those. I enjoyed the Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and The Bookseller of Kabul but I am about ready to turn away from oppressed women's roles in fanatical Islamic nations. I have a stack of at least 12 new books that I will get around to reading. Always looking for good new authors. so......next!
It's so exciting to see some responses! Still can't figure out how this works, where this will show up but I'm going to keep posting and learn by doing...we all have a soft spot for dog books..I loved Sight Hound for the wonderful voices of the dogs, cat, and humans in a story about taking risks despite fears of losing those you love. The main character is a Irish Wolfhound. I just got done reading Buffalo Lockjaw by Greg Ames--we met him in SLC when we went out there for a bookseller's conference. Story is about a late 20's guy who returns home to Buffalo, grey, depressed, rustbelt city that it is, to kill his mother who is suffering from early Alzheimer's and in a nursing home. Don't let this scare you off--it's tender,funny, and has really important things to say about quality of life, family relationships, finding yourself as a young person, and more. Also read a great historical romance that a customer said was "the best one" she had ever read--and I sold it the very day I finished it (after finishing it at 4:30 a.m.) without writing down the name. Help, you romance lovers! It's about a duke who has a stroke and falls in love with a Quaker woman who cares for him in an insane asylum (put there, of course by his grasping sisters and brothers-in-law). It was well written, accurate about the stroke part, and the heroine was very interesting--she wasn't totally focused on loins, although she did appreciate the guy--hey, it's a romance! I wonder what they would say about that book in Kabul...
I read everything I can get my hands on, when I have time, but I don't have much of that these days...right now I'm finishing "To Dance with the White Dog" in preparation for Thursday's Guilt-Free Book Club meeting, which it turns out I'll have to miss, due to unexpected out-of-state summons. I'm feeling terribly guilty that I never finished "Team of Rivals" so I may pick that up again next. I'm with Weeder regarding my childlike love of Harry Potter books (and the Eragon series and other books geared to 'way younger readers). My all-time favorites include "To Kill a Mockingbird", which I consider THE Great American Novel, Louisa May Alcott's works, because I devoured them half a century ago the way young readers devour J.K. Rowling now (add Geraldine Brooks' "March" to that portion of my list -- it helped my appreciation of Alcott's characters mature), and Leon Uris' books, which helped me find my adolescent self. Lately, I've appreciated, if not always liked, everything ANE's Book Club has gotten me to read! (And I scarfed up the Twilight Series, which kept me reading, even as I realized what "not-literature" it is -- told you I'm a kid at heart)........
And I write run-on sentences when I'm tired. And run-on paragraphs....
OK, Karen, hope you're happy...I've been driven mad by your Name That Book entry. I mean, it SOUNDS like The Naked Prey, but that was never a book, was it? Just a Cornell Wilde movie (kinda cheesy, at that)?
I'm on self-imposed book-buying detention (not what you want to hear, I know), but I counted up the books I have but have not read yet and it's an embarrassing three-figure amount. Hello, my name is Katie, and I'm an addict.
What a civilized blog you have going! I used to participate in the local newspaper's blog in my mayoral role, but the regulars are damn near illiterate (the spelling is just appalling), vociferously anti-liberal anything, and deeply, deeply misogynistic. Ick.
I'd much blather on about books than the need for 6" water pipes anyway.
I confess that I didn't get far into "Team of Rivals," before a friend expressed interest in it and I gladly lugged the hefty tome over to her. Instead, I read T.C. Boyle's "The Women," which was much more entertaining. I ADORE T.C. Boyle and have for years harbored a fascination with Frankl Lloyd Wright, so what's not to like?
It was fab. He just wasn't much to look at, you know?, so it must have been his overlarge personality that made women throw their lives away and join him in the various boonies he selected as home sites. Frankly (ha! I made a funny!), I don't think I would have liked him very much. Way too controlling, manipulative and high maintenance for my tastes, and the way he treated his first wife and their passel of children was appalling.
Which is not to say this wasn't a terrific read. I'd recommend it without reservation.
Another terrific book to recommend: Sacred Hunger, by Barry Unsworth, about the British slave trade and the ships that carried the human cargo. This book actually co-won the Booker Prize with Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient.
It is a sorrowful, gripping, elevating read. The characters are so well-defined it wasn't long before I had them, fully-fleshed, in my head as I read.
I had A Novel Experience hunt a copy down for me after I heard about it on NPR (where else?), and they may have a copy or two still on the shelves. If so, scarf it up!
Katey--I am reading Sacred Hunger now and it is a huge book--hard to read during "the Middle Passage" but just so well written with big things to say that seem very tuned in to our day and time.I picked up Racing in the Rain the other day and remembered how much I enjoyed it--my wonderful Catahoula/Border Collie Roy Rogers had to be put to sleep this Tuesday and it just floored me--truly a one-in-a-million (but all of our dogs are, aren't they...) Strangely enough, I felt better reading about Enzo the dog in that book...I love the choices of the other bloggers.
We've had two dogs in the last 12 months--FloJo, a black dog of indeterminate lineage so named for her ability to (I am not kidding)scale 12 foot fences, and Sally Rocket, a small black dog with back legs like booster rockets. She could go from zero to 60 before the other dogs could even think about giving chase. My fear is the remaining dogs are all roughly the same age (the running joke in our family is whatever rescued animal we bring to the vet is 8 months old) and we're going to experience a couple of years of serious attrition...
I'm just a couple of nights' worth of reading away from the end of Acts of Faith by Philip Caputo, about the Sudan conflict, NGOs, the UN, bush pilots, Muslims and Christians, tribes, clans within tribes, whew! It's a novel (the kind with a map on the inside binding...I just love books with maps in them) that while totally engrossing as a work of fiction is also making me much, much more intelligent about that conflict.
I'm on my 27th day of not smoking. Part of the process is to avoid places where you smoke, so I haven't been on my porch in 27 days...I never smoked in bed, so you'll find me in my jammies in the only air-conditioned room in the house by 7:30 most nights, reading up a storm. Slowly but inexorably reducing the Haven't Read These Yet pile...
Finished "Telex from Cuba" by Rachel Kushner, about Americans running the cane plantations and nickel mines in Cuba in the late 1950s, just as Batista and the Castro brothers were duking it out. I've always been fascinated by Cuba and things Cuban and this book didn't disappoint. The writing style almost makes one suspect that there's a lot of autobiographical stuff in there, but the author's way too young...THAT's how good she is!
Now I'm on a Muriel Spark kick, reading "A Far Cry from Kensington," about a rooming house full of disparate characters in early 1950s London, as England gets back on its feet after WWII. Mrs. Hawkins, from whose viewpoint the story is told, is absolutely delicious and unforgettable.
Day 55 of not smoking. As someone said recently, "It's not that I don't want a cigarette, it's that I don't NEED one." Big diff.
Bad news first: I'm smoking again but, as I've said in the past, I'm a habitual quitter again.
Good news: With my mayoral term coming to an end, my piles and piles of unread books are taking on a burnished "come hither" glow and I have visions of cozy, toasty nights with tea and books--what bliss.
So, I've been working on that pile since I put myself on book-buying restriction several months ago. I had well over 100 books I hadn't read and I prohibited myself from bringing anymore into the house until I'd read at least half of them.
Each and every one I've picked up is the gem I thought it would be when I brought it home eons and eons ago: "Smilla's Sense of Snow," by Peter Hoeg, "John Henry Days," by Colson Whitehead, "Acts of Faith," by Phillip Caputo, and "Waxwings," by Jonathan Raban. Smilla had been around so long, the pages were turning brown on the edges!
I perused the piles and selected "East of the Mountains" by David Guterson for the book du jour. I love love LOVED "Snow Falling on Cedars," and am hoping this novel keeps my flame burning for Mr. Guterson.
Also, I broke my rule. But with just cause. Richard Russo has a new book!! I've read 'em all, loved 'em all...I don't think I've laughed harder than I did reading "Straight Man." And Thomas Pynchon, too! Woo-hoo! The only thing better would be a snowy winter. A girl can dream, can't she?
Hey, here's one for the indie booksellers! Great article in the NYTimes about the Pulitzer Prize for Literature ("Tinkers") that received almost zero attention from the big guys, but which was embraced and touted by folks like you--hats off to you all! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/books/19harding.html?ref=books
Chris strong-armed me into getting "Cutting for Stone," said it was the best book she read last year--good enough recommendation for me!--and, man, was she ever right! I simply could not put it down. I read it in one week (700-some pages), reluctantly putting it down only to go to work each day. Now, I've turned into a proslytizer myself, foisting my copy on the guy who takes care of my car (you find readers in the most interesting places, don't you?) and encouraging him to pass it on when he's done.
It's one of those books that are so beloved, so vivid and so enthralling that I would refuse to see a movie adaptation. I've got the visuals in my head and to see someone else's vision is to be disappointed, you know?
Now, for something completely different, I'm reading John Avlon's "Wingnuts: How the Fringe is Hijacking America." It's a fast and pretty un-biased look at the distortion artists and provocateurs who ramp up the fiery rhetoric and feed it to the already-converted. It's nothing new, but there is a twist this time around: For the first time in American history, whites are on the verge of becoming a minority and plenty of them are running scared at that thought. Enough, perhaps, to go beyond the ugly posters and chants.
Then, to counter that bit of heaviness, I've also started "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand," a charming and delightful story of a widowed Englishman confounded by his relatives and his changing world.
13 comments:
Wow, the first to comment. Maybe y'all are just shy and need someone to start off so here goes.
Guess an introduction should come first. My home base is in Griffin, so close enough to visit easily. I'm retired (or just haven't worked in 21 years, but "retired" sounds so much better, doesn't it?) so I have a lot of time to read, which seems to be my favorite hobby to say the least. My taste in books runs the gamut...Elmore Leonard, James Lee Burke, Michael Connelly, Ken Follett, Larry McMurtry, Carl Hiassen are just a few that I try to read when they have a new book out. I also like Christopher Moore (Lamb is a special favorite) and most anything about dogs...Me and Marley of course, but also Merle's Door, The Art of Racing in the Rain, David Rosenfelt's series about Golden Retrievers, and there is a new one out "Dog On It" that I plan to read soon. I've never been able to explain to anyone else how I choose a book...it might be the review, the title, the author, or just that "something" that strikes my eye. At present, I'm reading The Lost City of Z with Drood and Shadow Mountain on my to-read shelf.
I've run out of bookshelves and am now stacking books anywhere I can find a place-mostly in my daughter's room since she's married and lives out of state. Thank goodness, she had a large room..LOL.
Well, if you're not totally bored out of your mind by now, that should be enough to get us started.
Now, tell me, what are YOU reading and have on your to-read shelf??
WEll, I guess I am number 2! I have been living in this area for 30 years. I am an avid reader of almost any genre since I was a child . A BIG kid at heart, I loved all the Harry Potter books! My posted picture is from the bookstore's Harry Potter party. I came dressed as the Garden Witch! I have a passion for organically grown gardens, so I spend a good deal of my time perusing gardening design, catalog and how-to-books and magazines. My all time favorite reads are Trinity by Leon Uris, Pillars of the Earth [pre-OPRAH thank you] by Ken Follett, Thornbirds, The Education of Little Tree, and The Little Prince just to name a few. I just finished FIRE by Catherine Neville,and have started The Omnivore's Dilemma after hearing Michael Pollan speak at the Georgia Organic's Conference in Atlanta this past week. I too enjoy James Lee Burke, and also all the dog books that Gail listed. I esp. liked Racing in the Rain. Add to that list: The Dog That Found Me . Charles Martin is a favorite author of mine: When Crickets Cry, The Dead Don't Dance, and Maggie. Get your crying towel ready for those. I enjoyed the Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and The Bookseller of Kabul but I am about ready to turn away from oppressed women's roles in fanatical Islamic nations. I have a stack of at least 12 new books that I will get around to reading. Always looking for good new authors. so......next!
It's so exciting to see some responses! Still can't figure out how this works, where this will show up but I'm going to keep posting and learn by doing...we all have a soft spot for dog books..I loved Sight Hound for the wonderful voices of the dogs, cat, and humans in a story about taking risks despite fears of losing those you love. The main character is a Irish Wolfhound. I just got done reading Buffalo Lockjaw by Greg Ames--we met him in SLC when we went out there for a bookseller's conference. Story is about a late 20's guy who returns home to Buffalo, grey, depressed, rustbelt city that it is, to kill his mother who is suffering from early Alzheimer's and in a nursing home. Don't let this scare you off--it's tender,funny, and has really important things to say about quality of life, family relationships, finding yourself as a young person, and more. Also read a great historical romance that a customer said was "the best one" she had ever read--and I sold it the very day I finished it (after finishing it at 4:30 a.m.) without writing down the name. Help, you romance lovers! It's about a duke who has a stroke and falls in love with a Quaker woman who cares for him in an insane asylum (put there, of course by his grasping sisters and brothers-in-law). It was well written, accurate about the stroke part, and the heroine was very interesting--she wasn't totally focused on loins, although she did appreciate the guy--hey, it's a romance! I wonder what they would say about that book in Kabul...
Glad to be here and glad this blog is here!
I read everything I can get my hands on, when I have time, but I don't have much of that these days...right now I'm finishing "To Dance with the White Dog" in preparation for Thursday's Guilt-Free Book Club meeting, which it turns out I'll have to miss, due to unexpected out-of-state summons. I'm feeling terribly guilty that I never finished "Team of Rivals" so I may pick that up again next. I'm with Weeder regarding my childlike love of Harry Potter books (and the Eragon series and other books geared to 'way younger readers). My all-time favorites include "To Kill a Mockingbird", which I consider THE Great American Novel, Louisa May Alcott's works, because I devoured them half a century ago the way young readers devour J.K. Rowling now (add Geraldine Brooks' "March" to that portion of my list -- it helped my appreciation of Alcott's characters mature), and Leon Uris' books, which helped me find my adolescent self. Lately, I've appreciated, if not always liked, everything ANE's Book Club has gotten me to read! (And I scarfed up the Twilight Series, which kept me reading, even as I realized what "not-literature" it is -- told you I'm a kid at heart)........
And I write run-on sentences when I'm tired. And run-on paragraphs....
OK, Karen, hope you're happy...I've been driven mad by your Name That Book entry. I mean, it SOUNDS like The Naked Prey, but that was never a book, was it? Just a Cornell Wilde movie (kinda cheesy, at that)?
I'm on self-imposed book-buying detention (not what you want to hear, I know), but I counted up the books I have but have not read yet and it's an embarrassing three-figure amount. Hello, my name is Katie, and I'm an addict.
What a civilized blog you have going! I used to participate in the local newspaper's blog in my mayoral role, but the regulars are damn near illiterate (the spelling is just appalling), vociferously anti-liberal anything, and deeply, deeply misogynistic. Ick.
I'd much blather on about books than the need for 6" water pipes anyway.
I'll check back soon!
I confess that I didn't get far into "Team of Rivals," before a friend expressed interest in it and I gladly lugged the hefty tome over to her. Instead, I read T.C. Boyle's "The Women," which was much more entertaining. I ADORE T.C. Boyle and have for years harbored a fascination with Frankl Lloyd Wright, so what's not to like?
It was fab. He just wasn't much to look at, you know?, so it must have been his overlarge personality that made women throw their lives away and join him in the various boonies he selected as home sites. Frankly (ha! I made a funny!), I don't think I would have liked him very much. Way too controlling, manipulative and high maintenance for my tastes, and the way he treated his first wife and their passel of children was appalling.
Which is not to say this wasn't a terrific read. I'd recommend it without reservation.
Another terrific book to recommend: Sacred Hunger, by Barry Unsworth, about the British slave trade and the ships that carried the human cargo. This book actually co-won the Booker Prize with Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient.
It is a sorrowful, gripping, elevating read. The characters are so well-defined it wasn't long before I had them, fully-fleshed, in my head as I read.
I had A Novel Experience hunt a copy down for me after I heard about it on NPR (where else?), and they may have a copy or two still on the shelves. If so, scarf it up!
Katey--I am reading Sacred Hunger now and it is a huge book--hard to read during "the Middle Passage" but just so well written with big things to say that seem very tuned in to our day and time.I picked up Racing in the Rain the other day and remembered how much I enjoyed it--my wonderful Catahoula/Border Collie Roy Rogers had to be put to sleep this Tuesday and it just floored me--truly a one-in-a-million (but all of our dogs are, aren't they...) Strangely enough, I felt better reading about Enzo the dog in that book...I love the choices of the other bloggers.
We've had two dogs in the last 12 months--FloJo, a black dog of indeterminate lineage so named for her ability to (I am not kidding)scale 12 foot fences, and Sally Rocket, a small black dog with back legs like booster rockets. She could go from zero to 60 before the other dogs could even think about giving chase. My fear is the remaining dogs are all roughly the same age (the running joke in our family is whatever rescued animal we bring to the vet is 8 months old) and we're going to experience a couple of years of serious attrition...
I'm just a couple of nights' worth of reading away from the end of Acts of Faith by Philip Caputo, about the Sudan conflict, NGOs, the UN, bush pilots, Muslims and Christians, tribes, clans within tribes, whew! It's a novel (the kind with a map on the inside binding...I just love books with maps in them) that while totally engrossing as a work of fiction is also making me much, much more intelligent about that conflict.
I'm on my 27th day of not smoking.
Part of the process is to avoid places where you smoke, so I haven't been on my porch in 27 days...I never smoked in bed, so you'll find me in my jammies in the only air-conditioned room in the house by 7:30 most nights, reading up a storm. Slowly but inexorably reducing the Haven't Read These Yet pile...
Finished "Telex from Cuba" by Rachel Kushner, about Americans running the cane plantations and nickel mines in Cuba in the late 1950s, just as Batista and the Castro brothers were duking it out.
I've always been fascinated by Cuba and things Cuban and this book didn't disappoint. The writing style almost makes one suspect that there's a lot of autobiographical stuff in there, but the author's way too young...THAT's how good she is!
Now I'm on a Muriel Spark kick, reading "A Far Cry from Kensington," about a rooming house full of disparate characters in early 1950s London, as England gets back on its feet after WWII.
Mrs. Hawkins, from whose viewpoint the story is told, is absolutely delicious and unforgettable.
Day 55 of not smoking. As someone said recently, "It's not that I don't want a cigarette, it's that I don't NEED one." Big diff.
Bad news first: I'm smoking again but, as I've said in the past, I'm a habitual quitter again.
Good news: With my mayoral term coming to an end, my piles and piles of unread books are taking on a burnished "come hither" glow and I have visions of cozy, toasty nights with tea and books--what bliss.
So, I've been working on that pile since I put myself on book-buying restriction several months ago. I had well over 100 books I hadn't read and I prohibited myself from bringing anymore into the house until I'd read at least half of them.
Each and every one I've picked up is the gem I thought it would be when I brought it home eons and eons ago: "Smilla's Sense of Snow," by Peter Hoeg, "John Henry Days," by Colson Whitehead, "Acts of Faith," by Phillip Caputo, and "Waxwings," by Jonathan Raban.
Smilla had been around so long, the pages were turning brown on the edges!
I perused the piles and selected "East of the Mountains" by David Guterson for the book du jour. I love love LOVED "Snow Falling on Cedars," and am hoping this novel keeps my flame burning for Mr. Guterson.
Also, I broke my rule. But with just cause. Richard Russo has a new book!! I've read 'em all, loved 'em all...I don't think I've laughed harder than I did reading "Straight Man." And Thomas Pynchon, too! Woo-hoo! The only thing better would be a snowy winter. A girl can dream, can't she?
Hey, here's one for the indie booksellers! Great article in the NYTimes about the Pulitzer Prize for Literature ("Tinkers") that received almost zero attention from the big guys, but which was embraced and touted by folks like you--hats off to you all! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/books/19harding.html?ref=books
Chris strong-armed me into getting "Cutting for Stone," said it was the best book she read last year--good enough recommendation for me!--and, man, was she ever right! I simply could not put it down. I read it in one week (700-some pages), reluctantly putting it down only to go to work each day. Now, I've turned into a proslytizer myself, foisting my copy on the guy who takes care of my car (you find readers in the most interesting places, don't you?) and encouraging him to pass it on when he's done.
It's one of those books that are so beloved, so vivid and so enthralling that I would refuse to see a movie adaptation. I've got the visuals in my head and to see someone else's vision is to be disappointed, you know?
Now, for something completely different, I'm reading John Avlon's "Wingnuts: How the Fringe is Hijacking America." It's a fast and pretty un-biased look at the distortion artists and provocateurs who ramp up the fiery rhetoric and feed it to the already-converted. It's nothing new, but there is a twist this time around: For the first time in American history, whites are on the verge of becoming a minority and plenty of them are running scared at that thought. Enough, perhaps, to go beyond the ugly posters and chants.
Then, to counter that bit of heaviness, I've also started "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand," a charming and delightful story of a widowed Englishman confounded by his relatives and his changing world.
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