John Adams (2001)

It is finished! I have completed my reading of David McCullough's incredible John Adams before the year end. Friends and neighbors encouraged me to begin reading this mighty tome before the November election.

Why didn't we learn these things in school I asked over and over? This worthy book explains so much about why our country is like it is today but at the same time had me tearing up over deaths in a family of individuals I came to care about.

I have to thank pseudo family Gary (and Mary Beth) for not only playing Stephen Hopkins brilliantly in 1776 but also lending me his copy of John Adams.

If any author had dared to have two Presidents, who were friends until the end of their lives, one who wrote the Declaration of Independence and one who spoke the words that forged a new nation, die hours apart on the same day, which just happened to be the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration, critics would complain loudly. But that is just what happened. What a wonderful story of a man and the country he helped to birth!

EW's Top Ten Fiction Reads for 2008

All right. I admit it. I have been reading Entertainment Weekly for years. It has led me to some of my favorite books beginning with Smilla's Sense of Snow and including Stephen King's accolades for Ron McLarty's The Memory of Running and Kate Atkinson's Case Histories.

So for 2009 I am making a resolution to read all 10 of the fiction books listed as the best of 2008. Make that 9 since I have already read and loved #3 on the list.

1. SAY YOU'RE ONE OF THEM, Uwem Akpan
2. THE BOOK OF DAHLIA, Elisa Albert
3. OLIVE KITTERIDGE, Elizabeth Strout
4. LUSH LIFE, Richard Price
5. BOTTOMLESS BELLY BUTTON, Dash Shaw
6. THE HOUSE ON FORTUNE STREET, Margot Livesey
7. DISQUIET, Julia Leigh
8. THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE, David Wroblewski
9. AMERICAN WIFE, Curtis Sittenfeld
10. WHAT HAPPENED TO ANNA K., Irina Reyn

Save Money in 2009 - Use Your Library

"A study cited in Parade Magazine says a family of four can save up to $2,500 a year by borrowing just 10 items a month from the public library. That’s 120 items a year, averaging $20.83 each."

Check out Stephen's Lighthouse to read more about how libraries help in tough economic times.

The Book Exchange

My friend Kathy came back to town today as promised and challenged me to meet her at the Book Exchange in downtown Jackson (Michigan). I quickly suited up and was out the door. How could I have missed this HUGE used bookstore that is steps from the Jackson Coffee Company and what used to be the Nomad Book House?

A really nice gentleman held the door for me as he was on the way out. He turned out to be Kathy's husband, who was giving her extra time to find treasure while he and their daughter relaxed at the Jackson Coffee Company.

What an awesome place! It goes on and on. Just when you think you may have seen every room, you turn a corner and find MORE. There are over 60,000 organized magazines, books on tape, cassettes, DVDs, videos, and BOOKS. The store is clean and spacious. The staff is friendly and so are the customers.

Visit the website, which includes hours, pricing information, testimonials from happy book lovers and even a video tour.

Prices are reasonable even without book credits, which you can acquire by bringing in items to exchange. I know where I will be taking the mysteries I bought at Jackson District Library's Eastern Branch book sale last month when I am finished reading them.

On today's trip I picked up a copy of Barbara Vine's (AKA Ruth Rendell) The Minotaur, which turned out to have been donated by Kathy and dated 7/18/07. How did I manage to pick that up out of all those books? I also finally got a copy of Bel Canto (Ann Patchett) and Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (Barbara Ehrenreich), which seemed scarily appropriate. I'm really excited about the cassette tape of 80s Hits but my triumph of the day was Sir Thomas Beecham conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Handel's Messiah (1959). I popped the first CD into the car player on the way home and sang along with 'And the Glory of the Lord", which we sang at last week's concert.

Introducing me to The Book Exchange was Kathy's present to me. I can't think of anything better. Thanks, Kathy!

Outliers: The Story of Success (2008)

When we were visiting family in the Philadelphia area at Thanksgiving, our hotel turned out to be located directly across the street from a Barnes & Noble. What luck! One book I had to have and read immediately was Malcolm Gladwell's newest - Outliers.

Not only have I read both The Tipping Point and Blink, but they sit proudly on my book shelves. I even underlined important passages in Outliers so I could find them again. There is nothing more invigorating than having someone point out a new way of thinking about or looking at a situation. A new way of explaining 'why' something happens. I devoured the book.

I actually was lucky enough to hear Gladwell speak in person a couple of years back and was quite taken with his presentation. He is a fascinating thinker and communicator.

Now it's back to John Adams.

And now for something completely different. . .

"If you are renting a large part of the building, tell the landlord to get from the mortgager a letter saying the mortgage is current and that the mortgager has not sent a notice of default to the owner." (Elder's Will it Make a Theatre)

Well, it may not be exciting but it is good advice. See instructions for playing below:

David Sedaris in When You Are Engulfed in Flames.

Rules:
* Get the book nearest to you. Right now.
* Go to page 56.
* Find the 5th sentence.
* Write this sentence - either here or on your blog.
* Copy these instructions as commentary of your sentence.
* Don't look for your favorite book or your coolest but really the nearest.