Take Your Child To A Bookstore Day

What are you reading?

Fifty Shades of Grey

source

I've been hearing a lot of "flack", in the bookstore, about the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.   Smut and porn have been common comments.  I don't do book reviews anymore, but I thought I'd tell you what it's about, and you can make up you mind, to read it or not.

First of all, it's a love story.  Second it's not porn or what I consider smut, it is erotic.

Unfortunately the man Christian Grey in the love story, is incapable of love.  As a young child he was physically abused by his mother's string of male friends.  Beatings and cigarette burns were part of his life, until his mother died from an overdose, when he's a pre-schooler.  The only name he calls his mother as an adult is "crack whore".  When he's orphaned, he's eventually adopted by a successful pair of physicians, and re-located far from his nightmares.  Because of his experiences, he can barely stand to be touched, especially in the areas of his scars.

In his teens he was abused by a sexual predator, who was a close family friend.  The relationship was consensual, but he was still a child, so it was sexual abuse.  His predator was a dominatrix and he was her submissive.  This was his introduction to sex, and it didn't involve much touching, except with pain.  It didn't involve love, either.  It was all about control and pain.

Christian thinks he's unlovable he puts all his energy into being a successful business man.  He's billionaire successful, and rumored to be gay, because he never has a woman in his life.

Enter Ana, a college grad, on the cusp of a grand life.  She falls for him but finds she can't live with his lifestyle of domination/submissive.  She knows this isn't going to work, so she leaves.  He goes crazy/mad without her, and agrees to try it her way, you know, consensual sex and love.  It takes awhile, but they get to the spot where it's good for both of them.

This is a well-written trilogy, not fabulous, but good.  I read the whole trilogy and enjoyed it.  Believe me it didn't make me want to change the way I do things.  I also downloaded them to my nook, so I could read discretely on the plane and in the airports.

What are you reading?

Quote of the Day

The Book, Greatest Weapon in War Against Stupidity




"The book is second only to the wheel as the best piece of technology human beings have ever invented. A book symbolises the whole intellectual history of mankind; it's the greatest weapon ever devised in the war against stupidity."

--Author Philip Pullman in a speech at the Library Campaign's conference, printed in the Bookseller

I couldn't agree more.

What are you reading?

Fellow Book Blogger

There are thousand of book bloggers.  I met Lisa of Starmetal Oak Book Blog, while standing in line at the BEA.  We talked while waiting in line for John Scalzi's Fuzzy Nation.  I really liked her and thought I'd pass along her book review blog for you to check out.  If you enjoy Fantasy and/or Science Fiction, YA or Historical Fiction check Starmetal Oak out.

What are you reading?

Banned Books

From Shelf Awareness:

Yesterday, the American Library Association released its list of the top 10 list most frequently challenged books of 2010. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins made the list this time in "what's become a virtual rite of passage for young adult sensations," the Associated Press (via theWashington Post) reported.

"I've read in passing that people were concerned about the level of violence in the books," Collins said. "That's not unreasonable. They are violent. It's a war trilogy."

This year's top 10 are:

1. And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson Reasons
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
3. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
4. Crank by Ellen Hopkins
5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
6. Lush by Natasha Friend
7. What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones
8. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
9. Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie
10. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

"It almost makes me happy to hear books still have that kind of power," Alexie said. "And there's nothing in my book that even compares to what kids can find on the Internet."

The ALA reported 348 challenges to books in 2010 and at least 53 outright bans. According to Barbara M. Jones, director of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, some books on the list "reflect current trends and changes in technology, includingHunger Games, inspired in part by reality television; Aldous Huxley's classic Brave New World, which anticipates antidepressants and artificial fertilization; and a work of nonfiction: Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich's despairing account of trying to get by as a waitress, maid and Walmart worker," the AP noted.

"The closer books come to things that are really happening in a lot of lives, the more they become a reminder of what people don't like to think about," Jones said, adding that Ehrenreich's book "really hits hard what it's like to have a low paying job."

I've only read 4 of these, in red, how about you?

What are you reading?

                                                                                            

Cartoon

This is the BEST!  Stolen from here.  Please go over there to read it.

 

Some times I feel as if parents may be like this.

What are you reading?

World Book Day

Today is World Book Day.  All of the events I could find, associated with this and World Book Night, appear to be in the UK; my theory is - we should celebrate books where ever we are.  Yippee, for books.

Read more books,

Amazon has named the most romantic cities in the U.S.

After compiling sales data since New Year's Day for romance novels and relationship books, romantic comedy movies, Barry White recordings and sexual wellness products on a per capita basis in cities with over 100,000 residents. Amazon's Top 20 most romantic cities in the U.S. are:   

1. Alexandria, Va.
2. Knoxville, Tenn.
3. Orlando, Fla.
4. Miami, Fla.
5. Ann Arbor, Mich.
6. Columbia, S.C.
7. Cincinnati, Ohio
8. Murfreesboro, Tenn.
9. Gainesville, Fla.
10. Tallahassee, Fla.
11. Vancouver, Wash.
12. Round Rock, Tex.
13. Pittsburgh, Pa.                   
14. Salt Lake City, Utah 
15. Arlington, Va.
16. Las Vegas, Nev.                     
17. Clarksville, Tenn.
18. St. Louis, Mo.
19. Dayton, Ohio
20. Frisco, Tex.

Although we sell tons of Romance novels at our bookstore, California didn't make this list.  I guess we're more about Rock and Roll, Murder and Mystery, and just plain good fiction.

What are you reading?

Nancy Pearl's Revised 'Rule of 50'

I think I need to follow this rule.  There are so many good and great books waiting to be read, to waste time on a poorly written one.  I can only think of two books I didn't finish, once started.  I even suffered through to the end of the Da Vinci Code.  Speaking of that, Bob recently picked up a mass market book called The Age of Odin, by James Lovegrove.  The title caught his attention, our grandson's name is Oden.  On the back of the novel is this quote, "The kind of complex, action-oriented SF Dan Brown would write if Dan Brown could write." - the Guardian

Nancy Pearl's Revised 'Rule of 50'

"On the spur of the moment, with no particular psychological or literary theory in mind to justify it, I developed my Rule of 50: Give a book 50 pages. When you get to the bottom of Page 50, ask yourself if you're really liking the book. If you are, of course, then great, keep on reading. But if you're not, then put it down and look for another....

"This rule of 50 worked exceedingly well until I entered my own 50s. As I wended my way toward 60, and beyond, I could no longer avoid the realization that, while the reading time remaining in my life was growing shorter, the world of books that I wanted to read was, if anything, growing larger. In a flash of, if I do say so myself, brilliance, I realized that my Rule of 50 was incomplete. It needed an addendum. And here it is: When you are 51 years of age or older, subtract your age from 100, and the resulting number (which, of course, gets smaller every year) is the number of pages you should read before you can guiltlessly give up on a book. As the saying goes, 'Age has its privileges.' And the ultimate privilege of age, of course, is that when you turn 100, you are authorized (by the Rule of 50) to judge a book by its cover."

--Nancy Pearl (librarian, author and action figure) in the Toronto Globe & Mail.

 

I've changed this blog address to http://www.lovesbooksandtea.com/.  Same blog, same everything, just easier to remember.  I like easier.

What are you reading?

A good quote for today, or any day.

 

Read more books,

"So I read books"

From Shelf Awareness, today:

Noting actor Kevin Bacon's philosophy of reading--"You can sit around and complain that Hollywood doesn't make any good movies. But you can generate your own material. So I read books."--Word & Film recommended a checklist of Bacon's movies "to find great reading material." 

Read more books,

I agree

I saw this on Shelf Awareness this morning.  I try to avoid shopping at Amazon, as much as possible.

Melville House Publishing is "withdrawing from any future involvement with the Best Translated Book award" in the wake of a recent announcement that the prize "would now be underwritten by none other than Amazon.com, with the University of Rochester and Open Letter Books, administrators of the award, getting $25,000 to divvy up between promotional costs and cash prizes for the translators and authors," MobyLives--the publisher's blog--reported. 

This year's BTB prize for fiction went to The Confessions of Noa Weber by Gail Hareven, a Melville House book, and MobyLives observed that "we here at Melville House were particularly proud to win an award that had been voted upon by a judging panel made up of representatives from some of the country's best independent booksellers, not to mention some great indie bloggers and critics. And from its inception, we have always thought of the two-year-old award as a good thing for little indies trying to champion good books in a difficult market and culture--a market and culture made difficult in many ways by the predatory and thuggish practices of Amazon.com."

MobyLives also noted that "most of us here at Melville House have also worked at indie bookstores--including such biggies as Booksoup, Shaman Drum, Brookline Booksmith and others--we feel this especially keenly: Taking money from Amazon is akin to the medical researchers who take money from cigarette companies.... we mean to make a more genuine statement of support for the independent publishing and bookseller community."       

Score!

I've been reading all kinds of good things about Crooked Letter, Crooked letter, by Tom Franklin.  I just scored an ARC!  Yeah!  I stopped by the bookstore to check my schedule for next week, and there the ARC was,  on the break room table, just waiting for me.  I'm excited.

I also scored Buzz, A Year of Paying Attention.  I love a good memoir.  I'm very happy.

I've been sewing all day, maybe I need a reading break.  Right now, I'm reading Man In Woods by Scott Spenser.  I'm really enjoying it; I'll finish it before starting anything new.  I'm not much for jumping back and forth between books.

Vacation reads

As promised, there's going to be a slew of reviews. I've finally had time to catch my breath after our vacation. Some of the reviews won't post until closer to their release dates. If you haven't read Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, do it now; the follow up, Catching
Fire, is a page burner.

Vacation reads

We're just back from a 3 week vacation. These are the books I read while we were gone:

3 by John Sanford, Death Watch, Dark of the Moon and Eyes of Prey. I've just started reading him and really enjoy his writing. He writes police/mysteries, based in Minnesota. I keep reminding myself- these are works of fiction. No modern PD would operate like his characters do, but I'm hooked. He's a good, very funny writer.

Straight Man, Richard Russo

Deadville, Ron Koertge

The Way Home George Pelecanos

The Scarecrow, Michael Connelly

Gone tomorrow, Lee Child

German for Travelers, Norah Labiner

Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys

Bones to Ashes, Kathy Reiches

Who by Fire, Diana Spechler

I'll be doing reviews on some of these, soon.

Good news for Sci-Fi/Fantasy fans.

This a very interesting piece of news.

Jane Belson, the widow of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams, has given permission for a sixth book to be added to the series. The Guardian reported that And Another Thing . . . will be written by children's author Eoin Colfer, who said being chosen by Belson for this task was "like suddenly being offered the superpower of your choice."

The book, which is scheduled to be published next fall by Penguin, will "make no claims for Eoin being Douglas," said Joanna Prior, the publisher's marketing and publicity director. "It's not Eoin Colfer writing as Douglas Adams, as was the case with Sebastian Faulks [who wrote as Ian Fleming]. It's absolutely about him being himself--Eoin the author, but with the cast of Hitchhiker."

Book Expo America

I have an exciting time coming up. Today, I'm leaving for Book Expo America, or as we booksellers call it, The Book Show. All the publishers are there to tell us about their new books, and give us copies of unpublished ones; and many of my favorite authors will be there to chat and sign books. This will be my 6th year attending the BEA.

This year the BEA is in Los Angeles, so I don't have too far to go; I'm staying at the Holiday Inn, right across the street from the L.A. Convention Center. Here are some of the things I'm looking forward to:

Today, I'm attending a Luncheon for African American Bookselling Professionals, it's being underwritten by Random House, and RH said it was OK for me to attend. The speakers are Nikki Turner, Donald Welch, Bertie Bowman, Halima Bashir and Terry McMillan. Terry McMillan is the only one I've read, so it'll be a great opportunity to discover new authors, and met other booksellers.


On Friday, I'm having breakfast with Sherman Alexie, Judy Blume, Neil Gaiman and Eoin Colfer. I'm most excited about Neil Gaiman, he's like a Rock God for booksellers; even if you don't normally read fantasy, you should read him.


On Saturday, there's Speed Dating with Children's Authors and Illustrators. I try to never miss this one, it's always fun.

On Sunday, I'm having breakfast with Dennis Lehane, Ted Turner and Azar Nafisi. Dennis Lehane is my all time favorite author, and it's been too long between books. I'm so excited.


Then, on Sunday, I'm having lunch with Micheal Connelly and Dean Koontz.



In between there will be lots of activities, and chances to stroll the aisles, and be given as many ARCs, as I can handle. The publishers want booksellers to have a chance to read their upcoming books, before they're released, so that we can hand-sell their book to you the public. I usually come home with hundreds of books, a few signed.

Hopefully, I'll have something exciting to tell about when I get home, and some photos to share. This is the first year I've gone, that I'll have my camera with me. I always come home good and tired, books are heavy. This is the first year I'll be attending alone, Bob's not up to it this year.

Don't worry, I've traveled alone, a lot, some weekends, a driving trip to Yosemite, and once I went to Hawaii by myself, Bob didn't want to go, he went the next time.

All photos, from the publishers.