Old Shoes - New Trip

So, I think I'll post a list of the books I'm in the middle of right now.

Then I can just update the list, change the date and top it.

At least I think that is how it will work.

After that I can post individual discussions of the books as I either finish them, or don't as the case may be.

I find that there are a lot of books I don't finish any more. Maybe it is my advancing age. I just don't have time to spend, reading something I don't just love. Or maybe it is because I spend my days surrounded by more than 100,000 books. Too many temptations to keep me from remaining loyal to the book at hand.

So, from the bottom up, here is what is currently stacked on my nightstand (top of the stack is what I'm most recently focusing on):

I Remember Nonna, by Eleanore Berra Marfasi - Combination folk wisdom, superstition, homage, photo album and cookbook.
A Year in the World, by Frances Mayes - I KNOW, I'm the only person left on the planet who hasn't read it yet. Other books keep finding their way on top of it.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver - I'm really enjoying this book. I especially like the way I can put it down and come back to it without an impact on my enjoyment.
Little Heathens, by Mildred Armstrong Kalish -- Think Little House on the Prairie only in depression era Iowa farm country.
The Amateur Gourmet, by Adam D. Roberts -- A book version of his great website. www.amateurgourmet.com. Just because I identify myself is "untrained cook" with gourmet aspirations.
the seems: the glitch in sleep, by John Hulme and Michael Wexler (coming out in October) -- One of the advanced reader copies I need to get through. And YET another attempt to create the next Harry Potter phenom. Actually, the first three chapters are pretty interesting, in a 10 year old boy kind of way.
Fablehaven, by Brandon Mull, Another HP wanabe. Book one, with book two also in print. I've got a signing with the author in a few weeks, so this one is tops on my priority list. Good thing I'm REALLY enjoying it.

I'm participating in three book clubs right now. Add to that the fact that I have to read the books associated with all the events we have in the store and I've got more on my night stand than I'll ever be able to finish.
All I can say is, I'm grateful for the Evelyn Woods Reading Dynamics course I took when I was in high school in the 1960's.
Anyone out there remember Evelyn Woods? What ever happened to her and her speed reading course, anyway?
Here's my nightstand at the moment.

From the bottom up:
Umberto Eco - He is one of those authors that you really want to brag about reading and understanding. I've been slogging my way through this book for 6 months. I really enjoy it, but it is such hard work to read. I can only manage a couple of chapters at a time. However, I feel so superior after reading and comprehending every chapter.

Italia Calvino - This is such fun reading. Folktales are so universal. The themes are the same no matter what country they come from. It is really fun to read something from Italy that sounds like it came right out of Grimms fairy tales.

Philosophy Made Simple - This looks like a good book. Just haven't gotten around to even cracking the cover yet.

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan - This is my "Foodie" book group selection for February. PLEASE Everyone- Read this book. You will never look at the food you buy in a grocery store the same again. I promise!

A Version of the Truth - This is for my "Views from Venus" book group. I don't lead that group. I just read what they pick. haven't started it yet. Views from Venus is a book group that reads books with a strong female central character or a female author. We've read some very cool books. My favorite so far was Twelve Little Cakes by Dominica Dery.

A Stranger's Supper - I'm reading this because of our upcoming trip to Montenegro. A professor from one of the Ivy League Schools on the East Coast went to her native Montenegro and interviewed several dozen women who were each over 100 years old about their lives. It is a facinating book!

Realm of the Black Mountain - Another book about Montenegro. Haven't started it yet.

No Vulgar Hotels by Judith Martin - About Venice

The retail book business, even though we don't think of it as hectic, IS. Sometimes, in a single day, I find myself struggling to switch gears. Once in a while, I feel like I'm in a Twilight Zone of disorientation.

On Monday, I spent the morning driving more than 70 miles to deliver book and gift card orders to several of my school accounts.

Then I rushed back to the store to finalize the arrangements for a book signing I have coming up on May 7th. A reading & signing for the book "Buddha and the Terrorist" by Satish Kumar.

I am beyond excited to be hosting Satish in our store. I don't expect a huge turnout because midwest USA is not a hotbed of nonviolent Buddhist thought - even in a city the size of St. Louis. I'm honored to have Professor Kumar in my store and the story of how we met is worth a blog entry of its own. Please click the link below and check out his organization.
http://www.resurgence.org/satish/index.htm

After those arrangements were complete, I turned my attention to getting a shipment ready to be delivered for a dinner event downtown that evening. I had staff members going down to set up and I would join them as soon as I could. (I still had an author event in my store before I could leave)

What was the downtown event? Oh, just a little dinner party hosted by rap star, Nelly and his charity 4Sho4Kids to celebrate the dedicated women who are foster mothers.

His keynote speaker was actress Victoria Rowell, whose wonderful book "The Women Who Raised Me" was being given as a gift to each attendee at the dinner. My job was to supply the books and assist Ms. Rowell at the signing table.

Here is a pic of Nelly introducing Victoria ....

And another of Victoria with our store's assistant manager, Mary and me.

OK --- Back to the author event I was doing before I headed downtown to the dinner.....
The most exciting new author on the scene (in my humble opinion), with a chance to fill the void left by the end of Harry Potter in the children's fantasy genre, is Brandon Mull and his series: FABLEHAVEN. You really need to check out his website!!! http://fablehaven.com/

Fablehaven is about a magical creature preserve in the woods of Connecticut. Book one is in screenwriting at the moment, having been purchased by New Regency Pictures and producer Avi Arad (the same people known for screen adaptations of Marvel Comics). The great thing about this series. like the Potter series, has readers from 8 to 80 who have become diehard fans.

Brandon was at my store last year for book two and again this year for book three. He will be coming back in October to visit some of my area schools and then do another signing. The attendees at this event, were educators from all the schools who were all hoping to have their name drawn to win one of the free school visits we are sponsoring.

If you want to know what magic milk has to do with anything, you'll just have to pick up a copy of Fablehaven for yourself.

It's been a long time since I took a picture of my night stand. I decided to take the picture before I went back to my last blog entry to see how much it had changed.

So here we go...from the bottom up...

IN THE WAKE OF THE PLAGUE, The Black Death & The World It Made, by Norman F. Cantor
Every since I watched the movie, "Dangerous Beauty" I've been interested in learning more about the Plague. So I bought the book a couple of months ago, I just haven't been in the mood to read it yet. That's why it has ended up on the bottom.

SALT, A World History, by Mark Kurlansky
I read Salt when it first came out in 2002, so when our Foodies book group was looking for something more about the history of food to discuss, I thought "What can be more basic to food history than salt?" (Plus, I didn't have to work very hard to re-read it.)

BASILICA, The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter's by R. A. Scotti
Like all booksellers, I've succumbed to the syrene's call to try my hand at writing the next great novel. This book is research.

Philosophy Made Simple by the author of Sixteen Pleasures, which I liked. But I haven't gotten around to this one yet.

So Brave, Young and Handsome by Leif Enger
This was a promotional copy sent to me by the publisher. Once in a while they send me hardcover books that don't have the advance reading copy caution plastered all over them. So if those look interesting I bring them home, even if I don't have to read them because the author is coming to my store.

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen. (Advance reader copy)
This is the follow-up to her NYT bestselling debut, Garden Spells. I loved Garden Spells and am hoping Sugar Queen will be sprinkled with the light touch of everyday magic that made Garden Spells such a hit.

Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix (Advance reader copy)
This is by the author of the Shadow Children series. I'm so enamored with the Fablehaven series, it is really hard for me to get interested in any of the other "next great kid's fantasy" offerings. Haddix is a good solid young reader author. So I'm hoping that this will be the first of another hit series for her. We shall see.

The Groom To Have Been by Saher Alam (Advance reader copy)
Saher is having her release signing in my store in late July. She is an amazing writer and I'm really honored to host her debut. The Groom to Have Been is about a young Indian Muslim man who is facing the choice of a traditional arranged marriage or a love match. with the backdrop of NYC shortly after 9/11. This is a love story inspired by Wharton's "The Age of Innocence"

God's Middle Finger by Richard Grant
My Armchair Travellers book group is reading this for our May selection. It is quite a page turner memoir written by a British journalist who decides to travel the entire 900 mile length of lawless Serra Madre mountains in northern Mexico. The book begins with the account of the end of his trip, with him being chased for sport by a couple of killers who are gorked out on cocaine. Then it goes back and tells the tale of how he got himself into that situation.

The Recipe Writer's Handbook by Barbara Gibbs Ostmann
Someone told me about this book because the author was the food editor for the St. Louis Post Dispatch and lives in the St. Louis area. This is actually a style reference book and is a valuable tool used by many famous cookbook authors. Who knew?!?
I have no intention of becoming a professional recipe writer -- the field is way too crowded already. But, this is a great reference book for recipe READER's too.