Friday, May 31, 2013

Why I'm Not Posting Armchair BEA Stuff


I have lived in Michigan for more than thirty years. Yesterday I became a real Michigander when I struck and killed a deer. It is a rite of passage but not a particularly happy one.

Although I am fine, having my first accident EVER was a disconcerting experience and has interfered with my concentration and reading.

Here's what my car looks like.


You can see that the deer actually ran into me. It was the middle of the day on a four lane highway.

Everyone from the tow truck driver to the police officer to the body shop manager was more than kind. My car can be fixed, but you can imagine the time it took to take care of all the details yesterday.

Therefore, I am most likely not going to be catching up with everyone participating in Armchair BEA. I will try to do some commenting to cheer everyone onward!


Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Armchair BEA 2013 or What am I Doing Here?


Design credit: Nina of Nina Reads

Armchair BEA is a virtual event created for book bloggers unable to attend
the BEA Bloggers Conference or Book Expo America (BEA) in New York City,
My Reading Chair 
Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?

I am known by my glasses

I have kept a book journal of one sort or another going back to the late 1980s. When I retired from the library world in 2007, it seemed appropriate to create an online way to keep track of my reading and share it with friends and colleagues. Books have been a major part of my life since I was a child going to the library with my father. In third grade I won the prize for reading the most books over summer vacation.

Where in the world are you blogging from? Tell a random fact or something special about your current location. Feel free to share pictures.

Tiger Lilies by the pond
In the palm of the Michigan mitten, I can curl up in my chair and gaze out the window at the Grand River not far from its headwaters, where it is neither grand nor what one would call a river.

Have you previously participated in Armchair BEA? What brought you back for another year? If you have not previously participated, what drew you to the event?

At BEA I actually met Hello Kitty!

Until discovering Armchair BEA last year, I had been a solitary blogger. I had attended BEA in the past, not as a blogger, but as a librarian, and found it a wonderfully stimulating experience. The idea that I could continue to be part of the event from home was exciting!

What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2013? 



I feel extraordinarily blessed by the reading choices I have made this year.  Kate Atkinson's LIFE AFTER LIFE had an enormous effect on me, but I am a total fan girl for Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series. (You can see the books I have read if you look on the right side bar.)

Tell us one non-book-related thing that everyone reading your blog may not know about you.  




I am passionate about theater and especially musical theater and watched the television program SMASH to the bitter end!

Monday, May 27, 2013

Reconstructing Amelia (2013)


Reconstructing AmeliaReconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Everything you have read about Reconstructing Amelia is true especially the part about the inability to put the book down once you start reading.

Bottom Line: Highly recommended

Amelia has apparently committed suicide. How could that be? When a text shows up saying she didn't jump, the search for the truth begins. This mystery kept me up past my bedtime.

Told alternately by Amelia and her mother Kate, additional parts of the story are interspersed through a  student gossip paper and email exchanges. At first the past/present sections can demand extra attention but that becomes a natural part of the progression moving through the story.

If only we didn't keep secrets from each other especially when sometimes those secrets aren't as terrible as we think and may not even be the truth. Unraveling the mystery of Amelia's death is a fascinating study in relationships.

Nicole Kidman has already optioned the book for an HBO project she will star in and produce.

Kimberly McCreight attended Vassar College and graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. After several years as a litigation associate at some of New York City's biggest law firms, she left the practice of law to write full-time. Her work has appeared in such publications as Antietam Review, Oxford Magazine and Babble. She has lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with her husband and two daughters for the past seven years.

Monday, May 20, 2013

The Banks of Certain Rivers (2013)


The Banks of Certain RiversThe Banks of Certain Rivers by Jon Harrison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am leery about original E-books. I was encouraged to review this one  by a colleague, realized I could use my Prime membership at Amazon to 'borrow' it, and reluctantly started to read.

There is nothing more magical than discovering a new author with the gift of memorable storytelling.  The Banks of Certain Rivers, Jon Harrison's debut novel, is well-written, plotted, and edited! The characters that Harrison has carefully drawn for us are our friends, family and neighbors.

Read the introduction that sets up the story and you will be hooked. Immediately you become vested in this very special family.

Bottom Line: Highly Recommended

After his wife Wendy suffers a tragic accident and is institutionalized, Neil Kazenzakis is left alone to raise his son Christopher. Neil is a respected and well-loved high school teacher, but his world goes spiraling out of control when he is accused of attacking a student. Complicating matters is his secret relationship with girlfriend, Lauren, that he has hidden from Chris for two years.

With great humor and a sure hand, Jon Harrison attempts to answer these questions: What do you do when your beloved wife is in a nursing home and will never recover? How do you hold your life together when you are falsely accused? How do secrets impact relationships with those you love?

Written in the first person, we take the journey with Neil. The author uses an interesting technique to allow Neil to communicate with his wife.

Since I have been a Michigander over thirty years, the fact that this story is set here is an added bonus. The author describes recognizable places in the northern part of the mitten. He has a keen eye for the details that matter and sketches them with words in ways that make them come alive. Over and over again things in this story connected with my own life.

Some of the plot twists at the end of the book are a little over-the-top but by that point, it's irrelevant. This is a book you will want to recommend to your friends whether they have a connection to Michigan or not.

You can purchase the book from Amazon for $2.99 and it's worth that and much, much more. It was published March 19, 2013.

Biographical information on Jon Harrison is limited. "A native of the Midwest, JON HARRISON currently lives with his dog Jasper in the Northern Rockies. When not writing, he enjoys skiing, running, and climbing." from the book and from the website.

View all my reviews
 

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Bob and Ray, Keener Than Most Persons (2013)


Bob and Ray, Keener Than Most PersonsBob and Ray, Keener Than Most Persons by David Pollock
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I haven't laughed so much in a long time. David Pollock's story of Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding, seminal comedians for five decades, is funny and  fascinating. He has included reminders throughout the book of the wonderful routines and pranks these two pulled off. One of my favorite recurring characters was Charles the Poet, who read flowery poems until he dissolved in giggles. I loved that as a child.

Bottom Line: If you remember Bob and Ray, you will find this investigation of them and the long list of other performers they inspired a most worthy read.

This was my first request on Net Galley. I remembered Bob and Ray from growing up listening to radio with my mother, and I thought I would be more likely to get accepted for a pre-publication copy with a specialty book rather than popular fiction everyone else was requesting. I thought I was doing the publisher a favor when in fact they were doing one for me.

David Pollock did a ton of research and parts of the book can be confusing and a bit repetitive. The reader has the same problem of differentiating the two men who were Bob and Ray in the book as apparently people did in real life, but eventually that gets sorted out. I have a much better sense of them as individuals and what each brought to the comedy team.

What struck me was so much of my humor was centered around words. We listened to the radio. We listened to comedy albums. As the world embraced television, the visual aspect of comedy took over until today humor is 'funny home videos' of people hurting themselves and/or doing stupid physical things.

Pollock has provided not just the story of Bob and Ray but a history of the shift in radio to television. For someone my age, recognizing so many names of the people Bob and Ray inspired and performed with is a wonderful journey down memory lane.

Disclaimer: A copy of Bob and Ray, Keener Than Most Persons was provided to me by Applause Theatre and Cinema Books/Net Galley for review purposes.

Title: Bob and Ray, Keener Than Most Persons
Author: David Pollock
Genre: Entertainment/Non-Fiction/Biography
Publisher: Applause Theatre & Cinema Books
No. of Pages: 320 pages
Copyright: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 1557838305
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: NetGalley

David Pollock, with writing partner Elias Davis, has written for The Steve Allen Show, The Don Rickles Show, The Carol Burnett Show, All in the Family, M*A*S*H, Cheers, and Frasier, and wrote nightclub material for Jack Benny. Their play, Points in Time, was produced by the South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, Calif. They have won an Emmy, a Peabody, a Writers Guild and two Humanitas awards. Pollock lives in Los Angeles and is available for interview.

View all my reviews

Sunday, May 12, 2013

50 Great Books That Will Change Your Life


Real Simple, the magazine, has put together a list of 50 books that can have a real impact on your life. Click HERE to visit the site.


Thursday, May 9, 2013

The Burning Air (2013)


The Burning AirThe Burning Air by Erin Kelly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Somewhere I must have read a review of Erin Kelly's first book The Poison Tree and then forgotten about it until it showed up on the book sale shelf at my local library. I bought it and have let it languish. Then I saw her newest book The Burning Air on NetGalley and quickly requested a copy.

Even though suffering from a miserable cold, when I finally started reading The Burning Air, I was immediately drawn into the complex story and finished this page turner in just a couple of days. Highly recommended. 

At the family's weekend home in a remote area of the English countryside, the MacBrides gather for the first time since losing their beloved wife and mother. Instead of a healing and comforting time, an unexpected and chilling event takes place and evil shatters their world.

Erin Kelly is a marvelous writer and story teller. She spins her tale of obsession and revenge with great skill drawing the reader in to her web. I can't wait to read both The Poison Tree and The Dark Rose.

Oh, and one final bit of advice. Make sure to keep the lights on and the door locked when reading this book!

Erin Kelly is an author and freelance journalist. She lives in North London with her husband and daughter. Her previous books include The Poison Tree and The Dark Rose. (from AMAZON)

Replay (1998)


ReplayReplay by Ken Grimwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What if you could live your life over again? That's the question at the heart of Ken Grimwood's cult classic. Even though we have the movie Groundhog Day and now Kate Atkinson's masterpiece of a book Life After Life, Replay comes from a slightly different angle. It took me less than two days to read because I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended.

In Groundhog Day, the same day day is lived over and over again until a lesson is learned. In Life After Life, choices made and the resulting circumstances conspire to cause death and rebirth with a possible goal to be achieved. But in Replay the reader is treated to the possibility of exploring completely different lives knowing the exact time of death if not of rebirth. It's a fascinating conceit and the author has written a variety of options one might choose in such a situation.

This is not science fiction. This is speculative fiction that asks "What if?" And it is a heck of a good story.

If like me, you were in college in the 1960s, you will have the fun of recognizing details and differences in the world we live in today.

A middle-aged man, with a less than satisfactory existence, has a heart attack at his desk and awakes to find himself eighteen again. What choices will he make that will change the trajectory of his life?

My daughter suggested this book to me when I pitched Kate Atkinson's Life After Life to her. I finally picked it up the other day because it was due back at the library and I had already used up all my renewals. One day later  I was finished reading but not finished thinking about this amazing book, which for me falls under the heading Books You Might Have Missed.

Ken Grimwood died in 2003 at the age of 59 of a heart attack at his home in Santa Barbara, California.


These 9 Book Visualizations Deserve Contemplation


Check out this website, EBook Friendly, to find out how creative a book visualization can be.


Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Ephiphany




I've had an epiphany.

I began to wonder why I was writing reviews of books everyone was reading anyhow.

Why?

As a librarian I tended to read less well known titles so I could recommend them. Popular books didn't need me to introduce them to readers.

Now this doesn't mean I'm not going to read the books I want to read. Instead I will read them, enjoy them, comment on them (perhaps) but not 'review' them.

Instead I will be looking to feature books that might have been missed.

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
― Haruki Murakami

 

The Burgess Boys (2013)


 The Burgess BoysThe Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Although it took me a few pages to identify and relax into the slower pace of Strout's story, after a steady diet of thrillers and lighter weight reads, I found myself ultimately absorbed in this exploration of human relationships.

Back in 2008 I attempted to read the top ten fiction books according to Entertainment Weekly. Elizabeth Strout's collection of short stories featuring Olive Kitteridge was on the list and I loved the book. Then it won a Pulitzer. So The Burgess Boys was of great interest.

Bottom Line: A worthy read but make sure you are prepared for lots of introspection and sadness with just a flicker of hope.

The original tragedy of the story has occurred years earlier when children are left in a car and one releases the brake causing their father's death. Now grown-ups, oldest son Jim is a well-known celebrity lawyer while his sad sack brother Bob, is also a lawyer but for Legal Aid. They live very different lives in New York City.

There is another sibling, Susan, the youngest, and Bob's twin. She has continued to live a divorced life in small town Maine with her inscrutable son Zack.

Zack commits what many consider a 'hate crime' directed at Somali refugees living in Shirley Falls. The family comes together in response to this crisis but things spin out of control.

Without being judgmental, Strout sketches the contrast between life in a small town with that of the big city. She creates a world  where we can examine our own family relationships. We also learn something about what it must be like to be a refugee in a foreign country and Strout handles all the characters with grace and compassion.

One of my favorite quotes : "And it was too late. No one wants to believe something is too late, but it is always becoming too late, and then it is."

Disclaimer: I got my copy of The Burgess Boys in electronic format from NetGalley after seeing a number of mentions and reviews.


Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Random House (March 26, 2013)
No. of Pages: 336 pages
Copyright:
ISBN: 1400067685
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: pre pub from NetGalley

A Pulitzer Prize winner for Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout is also a New York Times bestselling author who has won a number of awards. Interested in writing, she earned an undergraduate degree in English and later a law degree. She lives in Maine and New York City.



Sunday, May 5, 2013

A Charming Interview with a Bookstore Owner



Even though this will be the year her bookstore closes forever, read this interview that was in the Detroit Free Press. Click HERE to go to the article published on May 5, 2013.


Why Do We Pick The Books We Do (Book Riot)



Have you ever thought about what motivates you to choose to read a particular book? This post from Book Riot makes a good case for five things that motivate the author. Do you agree? Read the post HERE.


Publishers Weekly: So You Think You Want to Be a Librarian


There's an interesting article in Publisher's Weekly that I came across on Twitter today. It talks about the desire to be a librarian and what that might mean in these times. You can read it HERE.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Jackson, Michigan Gets a New Bookstore




The local newspaper has confirmed the rumors circulating about a new bookstore after folks driving in the Summit Oaks area reported having seen a sign for something called the Book Cottage! Owner Nancy Oakley will open her shop at 2108 Horton Road to the public tomorrow morning.