It's a Cover Up

I loved this article in particular because of my recent discussion with 16 fourteen year old girls about the book cover to The Unwanteds.

In books, like wine, the label sometimes sells.

Peter Mendelsund (whose name was not known to me before today) has designed numerous book covers (including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and is soon to publish his book What We See When We Read.   The NYT has the story.

Bring me a Dream Catcher

Driving out of the Exxon station Saturday, I saw a picture frame upside down in the drive.  It looked accidental so I stopped to pick it up.  A few minutes earlier, my receipt had not printed from the gasoline pump so I went inside to see the cashier.  On the way out of the store, I noticed a gentleman with a pickup truck full of a variety of items.  (It was the three stuffed deer heads that drew my attention.)  Forgetting any Southern manners, I yelled "HEY" across the lot to get the guy's attention and walking toward him asked if the picture could be his.  I held up the wood and he said, "oh, wow, did that fall?"  He took the frame from my hands and said as he dusted off the glass, "That's my home."  We both stood there for a few seconds in silence admiring the aerial photo of the farm house and the surrounding lands, both nostalgic for our ideas of home.  He offered me a wind catcher for the find and told me how much he loved them but he lost most of them driving along the interstate. (I declined his gift hearing that he had lost most.)   He said, "if you find one, pick it up.  It's the prettiest thing you'll ever see."

Today, I left yoga and walked through petals of crape myrtle trees falling like rain and I thought of his wind catchers, spiraling through the air, like petals.

It is Now Safe to Turn on Your Portable Electronic Devices (but we don't want to do so)

On the international flight home today, I was completely surrounded by people reading.  It was the quietest flight I have been on in ages.  The enrapt passengers were evidently hooked on their titles.  The most fascinating thing to me (besides this noiseless ascent to 10,000 feet) was that everyone was reading a paper copy.

Across the aisle, a woman was reading about altruism.  A woman at the window was skimming the latest issue of Cosmo.  I saw a book in Spanish, a book on math, and my little novel that I've carried around (despite the fact that I was also flying with five electronic devices*).  Just to my right, the woman who accidentally left a dozen banana muffins cooling on her stove** instead of packed in her bag was reading Jame Bowden's gem, A Street Cat Named Bob.  The scene was refreshing.


*  The author acknowledges this does seem excessive.  
**Not to worry, her father will pick them up.

The Way We Were...Are

My plane rides are translating into very nice progress through The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope.  The characters are all interesting in their own way and I'm still having difficulty selecting my favorite.  The title is available free on the kindle, but I've rather enjoyed toting around the 800 page book around.  There's a comfort in the weight of it.

Climb Every Mountain

Humphrey's Peak, AZ
June 2012

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.”

― John Muir, The Mountains of California

Ratios and Highlights

It could be post-exercise elation or the caffeine, but I found this excerpt from The Guardian particularly amusing today:  Can the Hawking Index tell us when people give up on books?  It's a tongue and cheek reference to this WSJ article from Dr. Jordan Ellenberg, a professor of mathematics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Both are great reads over your morning coffee or afternoon tea.  

For me, it's not the Kindle reads I fail to finish.  It's the random library book or hard copy in hand.  Perhaps I could start a model of probability to finish a book based on its library shelf position.  I have 28 shelves containing books neither arranged by author nor title but loosely arranged by genre.  If I cataloged the read vs unread (and indeed read more than once), would I find anything interesting?    I might need to check yours as well to be statistically significant.

Have a great mathematical Monday.

In the Summertime II

I got hooked on volunteering a few years ago and have been fortunate this year to support a great organization called Girls' Inc.  This summer's project has included a book club for a group of 18 young ladies preparing them for next year's school session by completing their summer reading assignment.  Our book is The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann.  We will finish up the session this week (which means I have a lot of reading to do to catch up with them)!  

Have a great weekend!  

Rusty Nails and Marigolds

If you've got four minutes to spare, it's worth the time to listen to Linda Wertheimer's voice from Sunday's  Weekend Edition.  She interviews Ms. Fornari about her new book, Coffee for Roses: ...and 70 Other Misleading Myths About Backyard Gardening. My favorite snippet from a review is "it's an argument settler."

Happy gardening!

Choosing Hope

I hope everyone had a fantastic long holiday weekend and avoided sunburns, poison ivy and water-ski injuries.  I hope you laughed with old friends, made new friends, and enjoyed moments alone when you needed them.  I hope you had cupcakes and reading water as a splurge dinner while you made cookies (though this is not recommended as a nightly activity).  I hope car trips were filled with great shuffles of random bands and that all are safe and happy.

We're not far away from the July read The Beekeeper's Apprentice.  I hope you're making great progress.

Wait a Minute Mr. Postman

I'm in love

100 Postcards of Book covers from Penguin.  I can't even begin to describe how awesome these are.  (Okay, some are a little odd, but collectively, I can't wait to send these.)

Expect mail.

Have a great weekend ahead:  happy reading, happy writing, have a happy time with the ones you love.

Lucky 13

The end of July brings one of my favorite events during summer:  the Man Booker Longlist for 2013 has been announced.

My fall reading list has another thirteen.

The Sundays

After a holiday away, it doesn't take long to fall back into the regular routines.  Alarms and schedules take precedence and reading becomes something I do during the random quiet lunch or in the evening hours once the sun has gone down.   Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok is still pending. Here's hoping for a rainy day so I can give her the time she deserves.

Random II

Some books are summer books because they are light or whimsical.  I hold others to be summer books because they would likely be too dark to read in winter.  Swimming with Maya by Eleanor Vincent was a random Amazon suggestion generated from a fresh browsing session with no cookies (physically or electronically).   This book chronicles the journey of a mother who has lost her daughter in a horse-riding accident.  I'm not certain as to how easy or difficult this might be to read, but I'm playing it safe and adding to my list for summer.

In Need of Train-ing

Book #3 began and could have been finished on the train.  Though completely enthralled with the story since pulling out of the station, with 15% remaining, I felt I would have done my life an injustice for keeping my head down reading rather than head up gazing out the train window at the Alps as they neared view.  Looking down was only for the strong of hearts and heights.  Instead, Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple was finished with a glass of Swiss wine on my top floor room with a blanket knocking the chill of my not appropriately dressed for the weather exposed knees.  (Not too shabby.  Nod in thanks to the Universe.)

This book was a recommendation of a college friend who was confidant, co-conspirator, teacher of poster-making bubble letters, and partner on a vacation which included the "two beer flip flop shower".  I knew it was going to be good for a laugh and an adventure.

The story has a few voices and my thoughts on several characters oscillated between "how did s/he get there?" to "oh, no s/he didn't".  Of course he or she did, and this made for one heckuva fun read.  Bee is ever endearing and I adored the relationship between her and her Mom.  I'm debating whether or not to suggest this book to my own mom as she already has a few Bernadette-like tendencies.  I could imagine her making a sign similar to that in the book (though she'd make it herself).  [Does anyone else's parents have separate tool boxes?]

This was a great summer read.  In addition, you'll be doing yourself an injustice if you don't check out her website. [Awesome!]  Sad that I missed her at Parnassus earlier this year.

Hope a great weekend!  I should be back on track with the postings soon.

I Go Out Walking After Midnight

I've had a small hiatus from writing.  During that time I was reading, traveling, and walking in the woods.  Between trains and planes, I devoured four books over the journey.  (More to come later on those).  For now, the memories I'm holding onto are my walks in the woods.

For hours, I'd follow small trails, hoping I was on the right path and eager to see the small yellow signs which had my destination village.  These signs also had a small snowman on them which I never quite managed to make out.  I didn't see any snowmen.

Since returning, I've had Robert Frost's "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" and Thoreau's Walden mulling around in my brain.  The item which sticks with me most:

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life..."

- Henry David Thoreau

I'll Have a Double

I found the tipping point with the book.  Somehow I crossed the point of no exit.  I had to finish.

Having stayed awake to finish it last night, I can't say I quite understood how the loose ends were tied up (so to speak).  I also can't say currently if it was worth sacrificing that additional hour of sleep.  I think I need a double espresso to decide that.

Seeing Stars

Happy 4th (and 5th) -

Americana
Nashville, July 4, 2010

A Time to be Social

There were a number of things I enjoyed about "Alice Munro Puts Down Her Pen to Let the World In" by Charles McGrath:  the title of the interview, Ms. Munro's reenactment photo taken on the railroad tracks, her numerous quotes throughout, and her electric blue toenails.

She's an 82 year old after my own heart.  

Pickup In Aisle 5

If you have ever been enamored (or trapped) by someone on a plane, The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger might draw you in.  Freudenberger notes in this Guardian interview that the inspiration for the book was, in part, drawn from her plane encounter with an engaged couple en route to Rochester.  An excerpt of the story, or more accurately, the original story (which grew to book) was published in the New Yorker in 2010 with the book launching the first day of May 2012.

The couple's story:  Bangladeshi woman meets New York man via dating website.  Online courtship ensues.  Woman leaves all to become American wife.  Even the "average" marriage has material for a book (or a reality show) but this more extraordinary beginning certainly gives lit potential after "I do."  The New York times review can be found here.

Moral of the story:  don't talk too much to the person in the seat next to you.  You just might emerge a protagonist.

Not Chasing Cars

I can change a tire on a bike.
Nearly though ran over a tike.
Exhausted body but mind still races.
Grateful today for the quiet places.