Not the New York Times Book Review

Close Encounters of the Authorish Kind

2012-02-09T18:58:00.000-08:00

A customer placed an order with us. When books on order come in, we print a paper with the customer's last name in large block letters that we place on the spine of the ordered book. Books on hold are arranged by customers' last names.

Customer's book came in, and a hold slip was printed. Her last name is an unusual one, one shared by a famous author. (Famous Author wrote a book that might have a title that rhymes with Might Flub, and Famous Author might live in Portland. Famous Author might have written other books about potentially disturbing subjects.)

Seeing the book on hold with Customer's (and Famous Author's) last name, several booksellers wondered if Customer was any relation to Famous Author.

I placed the call to Customer.

"Hello, this is Barnes and Noble, you ordered a book with us, and it's here for you."

"Oh, right. What was the name of the book I ordered?", she asked.

"Um, let me see," I said, unwrapping the book. "It's called the HALLELUJAH DIET," I told her. "We'll have it here for two weeks; you can come and get it any time."

"Oh, that's right." She paused. "Oh, dear, we're leaving the state tomorrow afternoon for a trip and tonight we have Bible study...my husband might be able to pick it up after he stops off at the church tomorrow...but I don't know if he can. Darn, I really want it, too!"

"We can hold it a few days longer for you if you'd like," I said.

"Oh, that would be great! Thank you so much! God bless you!"

After the call I didn't think that Customer and Famous Author were related. (But you never know.)

******************************

I had my coat on and had gathered my things to go at the end of my shift today. C. was gathering up all the copies of DEFENDING JACOB from the back room and putting them on a V-cart.

"Why are you getting all of those?" I asked.

"The author is here and he's signing them," C. said.

"The author of DEFENDING JACOB is here?", I asked.

"Yeah, he's at Info."

I walked out of the backroom and headed toward our Info desk. A dark haired man in a black, grey and white jacket was bending over copies of DEFENDING JACOB. Another man in a grey jacket was standing to the side of the Info Desk, talking to a bookseller.

I walked up to the Info desk and the dark haired man looked up. "Hi," I said, diving in. "I work here. Did you write DEFENDING JACOB?"

He smiled. "Yes, I did."

"Well, I just wanted to tell you that I read it and I loved it."

His smile got bigger. "Thank you very much."

"You're welcome. Thanks for stopping by the store. It's good to meet you," I said.

"Sure!", he said. "Thanks for reading it!"

I left the store, tickled to have met William Landay.

DEFENDING JACOB is a courtroom drama, a family drama with psychological aspects. It's narrated by Andy, a prosecutor who starts out investigating the murder of a 14 year old boy. Well done.

This is one of those great books where it's good not to know too much about it before reading it. So don't read reviews! It's too easy for there to be spoilers. And just so you know? You're going to want to talk about it when you're done. Let us know what you thought of it!

Clicking on the underlined book title will take you to the Barnes and Noble page for each book. Clicking on the book cover will take you to Amazon's page for each book. Purchasing through the blog links help support the blog. Thanks for stopping by!

How do you spell "Alzheimer's"?

2012-02-07T12:30:00.000-08:00

"How do you spell Alzheimer's?", one of the booksellers asked me as she was typing a query into our Info Desk computer.

"A-L-Z-H-E-I-M-E-R-S", I said. "With an apostrophe," I said, knowing how finicky our in store search is. "Are they looking for a specific book?"

"No, we just want to see if you have anything about Alzheimer's," said the woman. She and the man with her looked to be in their early 60's, graying hair, wearing jeans.

"We have a section," I said. "Let me take you over there."

I show them THE 36 HOUR DAY. "This is a really comprehensive book about dementia that talks about how it progresses, how it is for people caring for the patient as well as the patient itself. I found it really helpful when my mom had dementia."

"We just had to move my mom into a facility. She couldn't live on her own any more." They looked like they were still in shock.

"That's hard. Does she know who you are?"

"Yes, she knows us," the woman said. "But she forgets what she's doing. And there was once she didn't seem to know who my husband was."

I nodded. "Another book I wish I had when my mother was alive is this one." I show her CONTENTED DEMENTIA. "The author talks about kind of a new way to help people with dementia. What people usually do is try and make the people who have dementia understand what is going on in the here and now. The problem is, the people with dementia don't remember what's going on right here and right now. They remember the past. So they get agitated because they know they should be remembering what's going on here and now. In this book, the author recommends letting them be, in their mind, wherever it is they imagine they are. My dad was a doctor and when he had dementia it seemed as though he was remembering being in the hospital, which was a really good place for him.

"Oh, wow," she said, looking overwhelmed. "We'll take a look at these."

"I recommend both of them really highly. THE 36 HOUR DAY
gives a really good sense of what is happening and what will happen. CONTENTED DEMENTIA doesn't really deal with the physiological aspects of dementia, but provides some really great help on how to be with people with dementia."

"Thank you so much for your help," she said.

"You're welcome. Take care."

Clicking on the book cover takes you to the Amazon.com page for each book. Clicking on the underlined book title takes you to the Barnes and Noble page for each book. Thanks for checking out the blog!

The Grapes of Wrath...on audio

2012-02-04T10:00:00.001-08:00

It was time to read THE GRAPES OF WRATH. I had some significant driving time coming up so got the audio version.

One of my co-workers really likes audio books. She says that who the reader is really important. She loves the audio version of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, read by Sissy Spacek. Years ago I heard the audio version of Anna Quindlan's BLACK AND BLUE. I don't remember who the reader was (and couldn't find it for sure when I searched just now), but her voice was raspy and haunting. It was a stunning interpretation.

Dylan Baker is the reader this time, and his reading voice is soothing and at the same time gives life to Steinbeck's writing and the Joads. I like his interpretation of the characters (Tom Joad, Jim Casy, Pa Joad, even Ma Joad).

I don't do audio books very often and have usually quite enjoyed them. It's a nice change. I didn't even get halfway through THE GRAPES OF WRATH on my recent longer drives, so am listening on my way to and from work. I look forward to getting back to the story when I get in the car. I think I may have to explore some more books on audio!

Have you heard any stunning books on audio?

Clicking on the book cover will take you to Amazon's site for the book. Clicking on the underlined titles will take you to Barnes and Noble. You can purchase books through those links, which helps the blog. You can also "like" us on our facebook page, NOT the New York Times Book Review, or subscribe directly to the blog via email on this page. Thanks for reading!

Stop deprioritizing...Indeed! (part 2)

2012-01-31T00:30:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I wrote about how I'm working on re-prioritizing my wordsmithy (you can read that post by cutting and pasting this link in your browser: http://notthenewyorktimesbookreview.blogspot.com/2012/01/stop-deprioritizingindeed-part-1.html).

Part of re-prioritizing my wordsmithy is making the writing process itself a priority. Another part of re-prioritizing my wordsmithy is valuing the finished product.

When I was married, my writing took a definite backseat to almost everything else. Admittedly, part of this was because I often put it there. However, part of it was that I didn't feel as though my writing was valued by my spouse.

Years ago, after getting through a long and very difficult situation, I wrote some poems. Writing them was cathartic for me, as well as being a brief foray into writing poetry.

The year that I wrote them, I printed the poems on nice paper, bound them with ribbon, and gave them to friends and family for Christmas, including my husband. One friend said it was the nicest gift she received that year. As soon as my parents took off the wrapping paper, my dad took the poems into the back room to read by himself. My husband? He didn't read them at first. When I asked him about them, he told me he couldn't read them, so he put them away in a box. After a while I stopped asking. As far as I know, he never read them.

His not reading them made me feel as though my writing was insignificant to him, my feelings were insignificant, and that I was insignificant.

I know that I have deprioritized my own wordsmithy. And so have others. While that is painful when it happens, it is part of the writing life. I have to value my wordsmithy first. I cannot control whether others will value it, even if I tie it up with a ribbon.

It is hard and scary for me to put my writing out into the world, out there into other people's hands. Yet this is an important challenge for me to work on, another aspect of re-prioritizing my wordsmithy.

I wrote a book about seven years ago, 7 STEPS TO FINDING YOUR SPIRITUAL LIFE. My husband at the time (yes, the same one who didn't read the poems) and I developed the ideas for the 7 areas of spiritual life over about 3 years. I developed the workbook concept and wrote the book.

One great thing happened early on with 7 STEPS TO FINDING YOUR SPIRITUAL LIFE. The agency that trains drug and alcohol counselors in Oregon selected it as part of their curriculum for training drug and alcohol counselors in the state of Oregon. I am on their training panel, working with drug and alcohol counselors on how to use the book most effectively with their clients.

The book's exploration of 7 areas of one's spiritual life seems to work well with people in recovery from addiction. I didn't write it specifically to be used with people in recovery, though I am glad it is helpful for that population.

Other than that, I have not promoted the book much (there's that deprioritizing again).

For those of you new to the blog, I work at a bookstore where we've been given a challenge. We are to select a book that we think we can sell to customers, and our goal is to sell 100 copies of that title. There is no time limit, just the exhortation to do what we can (feature it with a blurb, talk to customers about it, let our co-workers know about it so they can talk to customers about it as well) to let customers who might be interested know about it.

I just finished selling 100 copies of the first book I chose. SCENT OF THE MISSING is a wonderful book by Susannah Charleson about her decision to get a puppy and train her to be a Search and Rescue dog.

This was a great choice. Puzzle's gorgeous face on the cover was an invitation to customers, people would stroke her picture and comment on her. I'd start talking to people about the book and people either became more interested in the book or they bought it. Right now we've sold over 100 copies! I was pleased that Search and Rescue was getting a wider audience, AND that I beat the 100 handsell challenge! SCENT OF THE MISSING was an easy book to sell.

My book doesn't have a cute dog on the cover (maybe I should have thought of that!), and may take a little more explaining to sell it. But if I can't sell it, who can?

Here's what I wrote for the blurb at work...
"Used by drug and alcohol counselors across Oregon to help those in recovery rediscover their spiritual lives, this book provides concrete examples and exercises for anyone exploring their spirituality. I should know. I wrote it."

Already since I've had the blurb and the book featured (less than 2 weeks), two copies have sold. (It took 3 weeks for one copy of SCENT OF THE MISSING to sell when I first started featuring it.) I'm glad to be on my way...re-prioritizing my wordsmithy!

Thank you for reading the blog! Clicking on the underlined book title takes you to the Barnes and Noble page about the book. Clicking on the book cover itself takes you to Amazon's page about the book. Purchasing through these links helps support the blog. Thank you!

Stop Deprioritizing...Indeed! (Part 1)

2012-01-28T09:30:00.000-08:00

This is a list of Things Writers Should Stop Doing (and again, I'm sorry that you have to cut and paste the link to get there):

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/01/03/25-things-writers-should-stop-doing/

Number 8 on their list "Stop Deprioritizing Your Wordsmithy", would have to be #1 on my list.

I have deprioritized my wordsithy in countless ways. I've put my writing aside when schedules have been hectic (holidays in retail) or events have been intense (parents dying). When I was married and had kids at home, I spent much of my time clearing the decks for my family - cleaning, cooking, laundry - so that the husband and kids would be able to focus on things they needed or wanted to do, while I, more often than not, neglected my writing. I often made my writing so unobtrusive as to be virtually undetectable.

I love to write. I loved writing assignments in school. At least one time in college, I confess, I wrote two different papers for the same assignment. Only after both papers were both completely finished did I choose the one I liked the best to turn in to the professor. Necessary? No. Fun? Oh yeah.

I haven't been in school for years. My kids are grown and gone and I am out of a marriage where I didn't always feel that my writing was valued.

Now I am in a relationship where my partner believes that I am a good writer. She thinks that if I need to write then I should write. It's a given. This is huge for me.

I have to admit that there are still times I allow my writing to take a back seat to whatever else is going on, falling into my own old patterns, feeling that other things are more important than writing and need my attention.

My whole life I've been in relationships where significant people in my life have had important jobs or careers. My father was a doctor, an obstetrician. Babies came whenever they came, and when I was growing up, our whole family revolved around dad's schedule. When I was married, my husband was a pastor. When a parishoner died on Christmas morning, our first Christmas far away from family and friends, he had to go be with that family. The church came first. Therapist works in a call center, dealing with life and death callers and situations every day.

So often I have felt that what I do, maybe even who I am, is so much less important than what others have done. This, I am sure, has contributed to me undervaluing my writing. (And I've never said this, even to myself in so many words. I cried when I wrote this paragraph.)

Sometimes when I've taken the time (and isn't that a telling phrase, "taking the time", as if the time isn't available to me) to write, I've felt as though I've been inconsiderate, or not seeing what's really important. Shouldn't I be taking care of something/someone else?

I do realize that this is often a feminine concern. Being a woman has often meant taking care of everyone else first, then, if there's time left over (and there hardly ever is), taking time for oneself.

And yet when I do this over and over I get frustrated.

Writing (and reading too) centers me. It makes me feel alive, it makes me happy.

Starting the blog has given me a practice and a routine for writing. Having a framework in which to write works well for me. I set deadlines for myself and put a lot of thought into what will be in my blog posts.

I have goals for my writing, both with the blog, as well as beyond the blog. One of my goals about my writing is to be more open with others about being a writer, which include taking the time to write (there's that phrase again), and also sharing the finished product (more abut this in an upcoming blog post).

In the last few weeks, I've been more open about my writing. I've told a few important people in my life about my blog and my goals.

This is a little bit scary to me. At the same time, it is who I am, what I want and need to be doing.

Thank you for reading the blog! You can subscribe to the blog here on this page, you can "like" us on our facebook page, NOT the New York Times Book Review, and you can send email to us: 2of3Rs(AT)gmail(DOT)com.

Olive Oil - Who Knew?

2012-01-24T00:30:00.000-08:00

EXTRA VIRGINITY
by Tom Mueller

I heard just the first few minutes of NPR's Fresh Air interview with Tom Mueller about this book and was intrigued. His topic? Olive oil. The whole industry, business, and history of producing olive oil is fascinating. It's not a long book, but he, as my dad would have said, has done his homework. Living in Italy, Mueller visited families and orchards and olive presses (new technologies are replacing some traditional olive presses) to taste olive oil, learn about olive oil itself as well as the business of producing and distributing olive oil.

I learned a lot - how olive oils taste different depending on which variety ("cultivar") of olive tree the olives came from, the different grades of olive oil, from lampante (the lowest, used as lamp fuel, not usually for human consumption), to extra virgin.

What was shocking for me to learn was that a lot of the olive oil sold and consumed around the world has been adulterated or refined and is not, even if the label says it is, extra virgin olive oil, or is not solely extra virgin olive oil. Olive oil producers around the world try to maximize their profits by cutting olive oil with other seed oils. In addition, sometimes in transporting olive oil it can come contaminated and still be sold as pure extra virgin olive oil. There are few hard and fast standards anywhere in the world to assure that olive oil labeled as extra virgin olive oil is in fact extra virgin, or even all olive oil. Fraud is rampant in the industry.

Much more care is taken when I look at olive oil in the store since reading the book. I keep an eye out for some of the olive oil brands he described, producers who take care in making sure that their olive oil is pure and is genuinely extra virgin. I also now know to look at expiration dates, which should be in months, not years. Oil from olives is actually juice from a fruit and is perishable. Gone are the bottles of (old and likely impure) olive oil from my cabinet!

There is a lot to be gleaned from this book...enjoy!

Clicking on the underlined book title takes you to the Barnes and Noble page for this book. Clicking on the book cover takes you to Amazon's page for this book. Purchasing through these links helps support the blog. Thanks!

Two Books

2012-01-20T14:30:00.000-08:00

Therapist gave me two books for Christmas. I love when she does this, as she usually goes to Powell's City of Books, which often features lesser known titles. Or at least, they are lesser known to me. What fun!

The first one is AFTERTASTE, A Novel in Five Courses, which is a delicious premise. The main character, Mira, is a chef who owns and runs a New York restaurant with her husband, Jake. Her world implodes when she discovers her husband with the new sexy maitress in flagrante in the office at the restaurant. A bit predictable, and I didn't always feel as though the whole 'novel in five courses' thing was tied as closely to the story as I would have liked. That said, I liked it more and more as it went on. It was an enjoyable read.

The second book is ANTHROPOLOGY OF AN AMERICAN GIRL
by Hilary Thayer Hamann. Wow.

I love Hamann's writing. On almost every page, I was struck by how she put insights/phrases/sentences/ideas together. The writing is stunning. As Therapist would say, the way she puts things "stops me in my tracks". This is writing to savor.

This is a book book, not a Nook book. I love the cover and the feel of this book. Yet, I almost wish I read it on the Nook. Remember when I wrote that one of the features I love about the Nook is the ability to highlight passages? On almost every page of this book I had passages or sentences or phrases that I've wanted to highlight. I took notes and marked pages. Here are just a few bits of this wonderful writing (chosen so as not to be spoilers to the story!). Warning: you may have to read them slowly and more than once:

"I decided to lie in bed and wait for people to come home and switch on appliances. I wanted all the machines to be on. I did not like the way the appliances were sitting there, arrogant and fat and proving through muteness that everyone was elsewhere, involved with other things, things separate from me."

"Part of my brain, the thinking part, appreciated everyone's excellent intentions. But the remainder, the loose piles of random brain shavings and brain bits, feared the lazy swag of streamers and the humiliated balloons and the smell of spilled beer on the buckling barn floor."

"The dessert carousel stood sentry at the door. It was like a phosphorescent obelisk, twirling sleepily. The pastries marched around in a demented parade - towering meringues, tilting cakes, mammoth pies and puddings, balloon-like jelly rolls, surreal mousses."

"I would become cognizant of a staffer's acne or excessive weight or hair oil or hand-me-downs when I happened to be talking to them in the hallway and the 'popular' kids would pass and stare. This put me in a difficult predicament, because I was fourteen at the time. When you're fourteen, pretty much everything puts you in a difficult predicament."

ANTHROPOLOGY OF AN AMERICAN GIRL is a gorgeous story about a girl growing up (Eveline, in the 70's, on the East Coast), growing away from her family, into her life, her body and her sexuality. And the way it is written is incredible.

This book was almost hard to read because the writing was so good. I usually read pretty quickly, but with this book I found I read and reread passages many times, and often had to stop and refocus to find my place back in the story.

I didn't necessarily love one of the messages I got from the book (which I can't share in this non-spoiler blog post! If you've read it, email me and we can compare notes!), but I did love the writing.

What book have you read that had writing that stopped you in your tracks?

Clicking on the underlined title of the book will take you to Barnes and Noble's page for that book. Clicking on the cover of the book will take you to Amazon's page for that book. Purchasing through those links helps support the blog. So does "liking" us on our facebook page, NOT the New York Times Book Review. You can send email to: 2of3Rs(AT)gmail(DOT)com. Thanks for reading!

Could we get a little more information, please?

2012-01-17T09:14:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the cut and paste thing with the link, but this it does lead to a pretty funny video about customer service in a bookstore. (Go ahead, you can go watch it. I'll wait here.)

Unfortunately, apart from the offer to hit the customer with a hardcover book, scenes like this are quite common in a day in the life at the bookstore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqph3Pm6T9E

In fact, I had one just yesterday...

A man came up to the register, bearded, about 45-50, wearing a hat.

"Where are the new hardcover nonfiction books?", he asked.

"Well, we don't have one section for nonfiction," I said. "Nonfiction is spread out into subjects, so the new history nonfiction is in the history section and the new biographies are in the biography section and so on. We do have a table for hardcover new arrivals, but most often if it's specific to a section, it'll be in the section."

"That's very frustrating. I saw a book at Powell's and I came here to buy it because I'm a member. The book I want is nonfiction and hardcover."

"Do you know the title?"

"No."

"Author?"

"No."

"Any of the words in the title?"

"No."

"Do you know what it's about?"

"No. I just saw it at Powell's and it looked interesting to me and I thought I'd be able to find it here. Your store is either not organized very well or it's organized too well; I can't find anything in here."

"Without a title or author or subject, it is hard for us to find books in here as well."

(And I'm thinking, it looked so interesting to you that you couldn't bother to remember - or write down the title, an author's name or even what it's about??)

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2011 Reads

2012-01-13T09:01:00.000-08:00

It is satisfying to me to look at the books I read last year...

The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
Incendiary by Chris Cleave
The Absent Traveler by Randall DeVallance
Bloodroot by Amy Greene
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
Chocolate Wars by Deborah Cadbury (yes, THAT Cadbury!)
Annabel by Kathleen Winter
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Delirious by Daniel Palmer
Blood, Bones, and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton
Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz and David Hayward
P.S. I Love You by Cecilia Ahern
Shadow Tag by Louise Erddrich
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simpson
Among the Missing by Dan Chaon
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum
Needful Things by Stephen King
Bossypants by Tina Fey
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman
Contented Dementia by Oliver James
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Big Girl Small by Rachel DeWoskin
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf
Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Alone Together by Sherry Turkle
Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend by Susan Orlean
The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Moonlight on Linoleum by Terry Helwig
Seriously...I'm Kidding by Ellen Degeneres
Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks
Gun, with Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
The Prank by Adam Black
Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
In the Woods by Tana French
Toast by Nigel Slater
Laura Rider's Masterpiece by Jane Hamilton
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
City of Thieves by David Benioff
Aftertaste by Meredith Mileti

...and to remember ones I really enjoyed....

IN THE WOODS
by Tana French



It took me several tries to get into this book, but once I did, it was worth it. A mystery, set in Ireland, where the main character - and narrator - is a detective...and a victim.

******************************

THE PRANK
by Adam Black



I loved this. Written as a breaking news story online through facebook "likes" and posts, blogs, news releases, interviews, etc. This book has much to say about how we ingest and interpret the information we glean online. brilliant.

******************************

THE NIGHT CIRCUS
by Erin Morgenstern



Morgenstern has created a magical world which may just sweep you away.

******************************

THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE
by Heather Gudenkauf



Callie, a young girl comes running from the forest after being missing. She doesn't speak. Why doesn't she speak? What happened in the forest? This book stayed with me long after I finished reading it.

******************************

THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy by Suzanne Collins



Even though this is categorized as a "teen" selection, this is a great story, set in a future world with characters to root for...this is excellent.

******************************

BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP
by S.J. Watson



A taut psychological thriller...the main character had and accident that caused a mental condition where she doesn't remember who she is or what her life is when she wakes up in the morning. Every morning she wakes up next to a man who is a stranger to her. She has to rediscover her life every day. really well done.

******************************

MAJOR PETTIGREW'S LAST STAND
by Helen Simpson



Set in an English village, Major Pettigrew, a proper, retired, widowed military man, discovers love, which others in the village find improper. delightful!

*******************************

WHEN GOD WAS A RABBIT
by Sarah Winman



Starting as a little girl, Elly tells her story of her family, including her brother Joe and her best friend Jenny Penny. This is endearing, , quirky, poignant and very engaging. A very good read!

******************************

ANNABEL
by Kathleen WINTER



This novel enveloped me from the beginning. Though compared to Jeffrey Eugenides's MIDDLESEX because they both deal with hermaphrodites, ANNABEL is more intimate in scope. I loved this.

******************************

THE LOVER'S DICTIONARY
by David Levithan



Such a brilliant idea - a love story told through dictionary entries. REALLY well done. This would be a wonderful Valentine's Day, engagement, anniversary or wedding gift.

Clicking on the picture of the book cover will take you to Amazon.com. Clicking on the underlined book title will take you to Barnes and Noble's website. You can read more about each book and purchase it there. Doing so helps support the blog. Thanks for reading!

Required Reading for Women's Studies Class

2012-01-09T11:32:00.000-08:00

One of my co-workers is taking a Women's Studies class in college. Here is her required reading list for the class:

THE HANDMAID'S TALE
by Margaret Atwood

THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS
by Rebecca Skloot

PEYTON PLACE
by Grace Metalious

A WOMAN IN BERLIN
by Anonymous

THE INVENTION OF HETEROSEXUALITY
by Jonathan Ned Katz

The only book on that list that I've read is THE HANDMAID'S TALE, which was dark and wonderful.

It looks like a great reading list! The one that interests me the most is THE INVENTION OF HETEROSEXUALITY. I believe that we are all on a continuum of of sexual preference, some of us strongly preferring one gender or the other, with many of us are somewhere in the middle. I'm interested to see how this author addresses hetero- and homo-sexuality.

Maybe I'll ask her if I can borrow it after she's done with the class.

This is the first blog post using Barnes and Noble's affiliate program links. Thanks again to Observant Co-Worker, who reminded me that I really needed to start representing Barnes and Noble since I work for them. Clicking on the underlined book title will take you to Barnes and Noble's page for that book. Clicking on the picture of the book cover will take you to Amazon's page for THE INVENTION OF HETEROSEXUALITY, as I don't know how to make links with book covers through Barnes and Noble. Yet.

Thanks for stopping by the blog!

Back in the Saddle

2012-01-06T13:37:00.000-08:00

Ahhhh...I am sitting in my favorite coffee shop (Longbottom Coffee Roasters in Hillsboro, Oregon). I love coming here, it's dedicated time for me to work on the blog, plus they have an amazing bumblebee latte (there's some delicious combination of honey and lavender in it).

It's been weeks and weeks since I've been here. The holidays at the bookstore have been incredibly hectic. It feels a little strange, as though I don't quite have the mentality to settle in. The only way to get back in the swing of things is to do it.

I've started brief drafts of blog entries, taken notes on what I want to write about, new customer events happen almost every day, it's a new year (shouldn't I be doing a "best books of 2011" or "books I'm looking forward to in 2012" post?); I'm a little overwhelmed and scattered thinking about what to write about.

Right now, though, it's really good to be here.

I have many things pulling to be written, but for now...IndieBound posted on the blog's facebook page (NOT the New York Times Book Review) about World Book Night...

http://www.us.worldbooknight.org/about-world-book-night/what-is-world-book-night

(And I apologize. There is a way to add a link on the blog post creation page, but it doesn't seem to work. So you'll have to cut and paste.)

I'd never heard of World Book Night before this morning and it sounds like a wonderful idea. It's interesting to me that World Book Night is on April 23. Not only is April 23 the birthdate of Shakespeare and the anniversary of the death of Cervantes, it is also St. George's Day, a holiday celebrated in Spain. It is a day on which you give your loved one a book and a rose. (J., the manager of my store and I commented a few years ago about St George's Day. We wondered why our bookstore wasn't all over this, a holiday specifically FOR giving books? It seemed like a pretty perfect opportunity to get people to buy more books.)

Maybe World Book Night is the next iteration of St George's Day, or a U.S. expression of it. In any case, it's a great idea, getting books into the hands of people who don't generally read all that much. I'm going to keep my eye on this event. I hope you'll check it out as well.

**************************************

Other bits and pieces...

I did sign up with Barnes and Noble's affiliate program. I haven't set up any links yet, but will very soon. (Thank you again, Observant Co-Worker, for reminding me to do this.)

The other day I posted on facebook that I sold my 100th copy of SCENT OF THE MISSING by Susannah Charleson at my bookstore! We'd been given a challenge, to select a book and try to handsell 100 copies of the title. I am the first in my store to make it to 100 - beating the next person by about 50 books! (not that I'm competitive). And it is pretty darn satisfying. Not only did I beat the challenge, but I know that (at least) 100 more people will be learning more about Search and Rescue. I am grateful to have had such an easy book to sell!

Some blog post ideas I am considering...

-more customer stories
-books I really liked in 2011 (I actually have a draft of this one started)
-books I'm reading right now
-other book reviewer/lover blogs
-next 100 handsell challenge pick

I really appreciate your comments and encouragement...either here on the blog or on the facebook page or by email: 2of3Rs(AT)gmail(DOT)com. Thank you for stopping by!

And still more parenting in the bookstore (or lack thereof)

2012-01-03T09:33:00.000-08:00

Sunday must have been Bring Your Screaming Child to the Bookstore Day, because we had a lot of them. Throughout the day I heard children screaming in different areas of the store. Sometimes I was able to see what was going on, sometimes not.

One mother came to the information desk with her son, who looked to be close to two years old. He wiggled and squirmed and shouted and would not stay where she told him to on the floor. She finally sat him on the counter in front of her, where he promptly grabbed the store's computer monitor screen and pulled it as hard as he could toward himself and started mouthing the corner of the screen.

"Oh, stop doing that," the mother said, as I grabbed the sides of the monitor to prevent him from pulling it over. He was still chewing on the corner. She sighed. I held on. He kept pulling.

"This is what no-nap-today looks like," she said. "Well, he slept about 15 minutes." She paused, trying to contain her young son, who had golden curls and a miniature bow tie on a black and white plaid shirt. While she was trying to manage him, she was also asking about children's book titles. I don't remember what books she was looking for. I was more focused on protecting our computer equipment.

Later, I was standing at the cash register area with J. We were chatting in between helping customers. We could hear a child screaming close to the Nook display. This child had been screaming for a long time. We couldn't hear what he was saying, just that he was throwing a major fit. J. and I made a comment that maybe it was time to take the screaming child home - or at least out of the store.

After the screaming stopped, S., who had been at the Nook counter, came over and asked, "Do you know what that kid was screaming about?" When we said we didn't, she said, "He's this little kid, maybe three years old, and he's looking at the Nook Tablet. And he starts screaming, 'I don't WANT that! I want an iPad! Get me an iPad!'"
M
y mouth dropped open. It stayed open as she continued, "And the parents? They were saying, 'All right, we're not getting THIS one. You have to wait. We're not at the iPad store right now.'"

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2011-12-28T18:25:00.000-08:00

We recently sent our dog away to boot camp. She can be a handful (my mother would have said that "she's a pistol"), high energy, easily distracted with strong ADD tendencies. We needed help. We are pleased with her intensive training, and have been working hard with her to make sure that she knows that what she learned at boot camp actually still applies at home too. This, in addition to making sure she gets a lot of exercise and our hectic work schedules plus the holidays, have meant feeling exhausted and overwhelmed.

Today was a rough day for me. Our Christmas company had just left, I felt almost no rest from my brief (oh so brief!) day off, and today was my Monday, starting at 7am. I was feeling tired and not able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. (There is a light at the end of the tunnel, right?)

When I got home after my long day at work, I let the pupper out of her crate. Therapist had taken her out to the field before she went to work. While I knew I didn't want to do an outside runaround with her, I decided to grab the dog trick book we had and see if I could work on anything with her.

I found two tricks that sounded fun. Putting her toys away, and playing hide and seek.

We recently brought her toy bin into the living room, and have wanted to teach her how to put her toys away. This book is perfect, giving step by step instructions. Many tricks have several simpler commands incorporated in them. I used what Shelby already knows, to "Bring it back!" to bring the toy to me, and then I added "Put it away!" as I held a treat over her toy bin. When she drops the toy (into the bin!) to get the treat, voila! She's done it! She put her toy away!

Of course, it didn't go quite that smoothly, she was very eager to get the treats and got so excited that she lost focus on what she was supposed to be doing, dropping her toys way before she got to me or the bin. But since boot camp, she has been much better able to stop and refocus. Yay!

We worked on that for a while, then played on hide and seek. Shelby knows "come" and "stay", two prerequisites for learning hide and seek. I had her "stay" on her "base" (which she does quite well). Then I went into the other room and told her to "Come find me!" She raced in and when she found me, I gave her a treat. She loves any game that has treats in it. "Finding" me in the next room was easy for her.

I made it harder. I went downstairs (we live in a three-story row house) and hid in the coat closet. I left the door open a tiny crack. There were no other doors open and only an empty hallway for her to explore. I called her to "come find me!" and she came racing down the stairs. She tried to open the (completely closed) door to the guest room, and she went to the (also completely closed) door to the garage. The closet door was open about half an inch, so I could see her looking around the hallway, trying to figure out where I was. Standing at attention, turning her head if she thought she heard anything, she looked very cute. I gave no signal to let her know where I was. She decided I wasn't down there, so raced back upstairs to the main floor. I heard her run from room to room, looking for me. I called again, "come find me!" She raced downstairs again. She looked around. I opened the door another half inch. She found me! (It was only her second try, I wanted her to have success.)

Then I based her and went upstairs to the third floor, hiding behind our bedroom door, and called for her to find me. She raced upstairs and jumped on the bed (which is okay in our house). She stood at attention. Looked around. Jumped to a different position. Looked around. Didn't see me. Standing at attention, oh so cute. The door closed a little bit with a draft and, she saw me! And she raced over to me to get her treat!

This was a fun game for both of us. I needed a little fun today, and I think maybe, so did she.

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Holiday Requests

2011-12-23T00:30:00.000-08:00

One of the busiest shopping days of the year...my two favorite customers of the day...

"Can you tell me where the zombie section is?", asked a young man with a crew cut and wearing a college sweatshirt.

"We don't have a zombie section," I said. "Though there are quite a few zombie books. There's the ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE and WORLD WAR Z, do you know about those? I think those are on a promo table over here...", I say, walking toward the table. I said. "There are zombie books all over the store." I start walking. I hand him the ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE and WORLD WAR Z. Into the humor section and I handed him JACK AND JILL WENT UP TO KILL and the ZOMBIE HIGH SCHOOL YEARBOOK. "Over this way there are a few more..." and I hand him the ZEN OF ZOMBIE and ZOMBIES VS. NAZIS."

"Wow, thanks," he said.

*****************************

A woman, maybe mid-50's, shoulder length brown hair, came up and asked if I could help her find the Judy Blume books.

"Sure," I said, walking further into the children's section. "They're right over here on this endcap."

"No, not these. I want the ones for teenagers."

"Ah, those are over in this other area," I said, walking toward the teen section. As I get there I see that we are out of stock on the teen Judy Blume books. "And we don't have any in right now, I can check another store? Or order them in for you?", I tell her.

"No, that's okay," she said. "Can you recommend something for a 13 year old girl? A young 13 year old girl?"

"Sure. Do you know what she's read before or what she likes?", I asked.

"She's very religious," she said.

"Ah. Do you want a religious book for her?"

The woman shook her head no and gave me a meaningful look.

"You'd like her to have something that isn't religious?"

"Yes," she said.

"Is she very sheltered?"

"Yes," she said.

"You'd like to broaden her horizons a little bit?", I asked.

"Yes," she said, seeming to be more relieved with each question I asked.

"Well, I believe that anything a child reads that lets them imagine something different or think about different things is helpful...I have a few ideas...13, and a young 13 is a little tricky, there's a lot for high school aged kids and a lot of great stuff for a little younger kids." One that's great is THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH, the boy in it is about 11, but he has some adventures. It's fun and gets kids thinking. Another great one is THE ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS. A girl is left on an island by her people, and she has to figure out how to survive. It sounds grim, but it isn't. Another great one is JULIE OF THE WOLVES. It's the story of an Eskimo girl who lives with wolves." I thought about THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND, but thought that the parents of this girl wouldn't like that one, as the main character struggles against the strict confines of her religious community.

"These are great," she said. "I'll take a look at these and decide. Thank you for your help!"

About an hour later I was up at the register and she came up to check out with another bookseller. I stopped by and asked her, "So what did you decide?"

"I decided not to get a book at all. Her parents are too strict and they wouldn't like anything I'd want to pick out. Thank you for your help, though. I'm just going to go a different direction with a gift for her."

"You're welcome. Have a good holiday."

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3 Diverse Books

2011-12-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

I"m reading three interesting (and diverse!) books right now...

CITY OF THIEVES by David Benioff
The story of two young men in war torn WWII Russia who, instead of being executed, are sent on a strange mission. They travel through the city and the countryside on their quest. Well written, a little intense at times.



WAR HORSE by Michael Morpurgo
Soon (very soon!) to be a movie by Steven Spielberg, this is categorized as a children's book. I just want to read it before seeing the movie.



EXTRA-VIRGINITY by Tom Mueller
I heard the very beginning of Tom Mueller's interview with NPR's Terry Gross on Fresh Air and was fascinated. Evidently there is much fraud in the olive oil world. What is labeled as pure and virgin (or extra virgin) may very well not be. I want to know about this.



What are you reading right now?

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Katniss vs. Bella

2011-12-13T11:00:00.000-08:00

An Asian woman, shoulder length curly black hair, came to the register with her 2 daughters, and placed THE HUNGER GAMES on the counter.

I smiled when I saw it. "This is so good," I said. "Is this for you?", I asked the older daughter, who looked about 15.

"No," the mother said. "It's for this one," she said, pointing to her younger daughter. "Is it appropriate for her? She's in fifth grade, she's 11."

"Well, it is pretty intense." I paused. "Do you know what it's about?"

"No, I have no idea," the mother said.

"It's set in the future and the Hunger Games are a competition where they choose teenagers to compete. The teenagers fight to the death. There is only one survivor. There is a fair amount of violence."

The older daughter, curling her lip, said, "She's already read BREAKING DAWN," as though that covered all the violence and intensity she might ever encounter in a book.

Looking at the younger daughter, I said, "THE HUNGER GAMES is pretty intense, it's really good, though. Are your friends reading it?"

She nods her head.

I turned to the mother, "It might be pretty intense, though she may have to read it in school at some point. Quite a few classes and schools are now having it as required reading. There is a lot to talk about in these books. It would be a really good one for you to discuss with her."

I continued, "Also, one thing I really like about THE HUNGER GAMES is that Katniss, the main character, is a strong female. Not just strong physically, though she is that too, but strong in character." Alluding to the older daughter's BREAKING DAWN reference, I said, "She's a lot different than Bella in the Twilight series. I think Katniss is a much better literary role model than Bella."

The older daughter crossed her arms and looked away, clearly not in agreement with me.

Looking at the younger daughter I said, "I hope you enjoy it!"

You can find out more about each book (and even purchase it!) by clicking on the book cover. Purchasing through this link supports the blog. Thanks for stopping by!

Can I Help You? Um...

2011-12-10T10:30:00.000-08:00

"Do you have a book with a picture of George Washington? When we show them a book that has a portrait of Washington, they say, "No, I want one with real photographs of George Washington."

******************

"Do you have a book, it can be a children's book, that is a story about a donkey named Abner? My friend has a farm and she has a donkey named Abner and I think it would be really cute to give her a book about a donkey named Abner. Do you have one?"

******************

"Do you have a book with pictures of dinosaurs (or unicorns or dragons)?" When we show them the books with illustrations, they say, "No, I want one with real photographs of dinosaurs (or unicorns or dragons)."

******************

"Do you have a book, maybe a mystery, with a physical trainer as the main character? Maybe the physical trainer solves mysteries? I really like my physical trainer and that would be a good Christmas present, I think."

******************

"I'm looking for a book. I don't know the title or the author but the main character is blonde. And the cover is blue. Do you have it?"

******************

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Customers 31

2011-12-04T22:00:00.000-08:00

I answered the phone at the bookstore and asked how I could help the caller.

In a thick African accent, the person (gender difficult to determine), said, "I want a book. This book is called DESTROYING THE WORKS OF WITCHCRAFT THROUGH FASTING AND PRAYER. It by Ruth Brown. It flat."

"Um, it's flat? The book is flat?"

"Yes. It's flat. It by Ruth Brown."

"I can order the Ruth Brown book for you, and we'll call when it comes in, would you like me to order it for you?"



"Yes. I would."

********************************

A tall woman, dyed light brown hair, faded coral lipstick, wearing a long black coat came up to the information desk.

"There's a book by Svetlana Stalin. She wrote a book about being Stalin's daughter. I heard about it on the radio. I think it's new. Do you have it? She also went by the name Lana Peters."

"Let me look, I'm not familiar with it." I search the computer, both our store-wide search and the internet. I don't find anything in our system by a Svetlana Stalin or Lana Peters. Doing a broader internet search reveals that Stalin's daughter wrote a book in 1967 called TWENTY LETTERS TO A FRIEND and her name was Svetlana Alliluyeva. I tell the customer what I find.



"She just died last week. I thought the book was new."

"I'm thinking that the book is older, though they may decide to re-release it, since she died. It would be interesting. They probably brought it up because she died."

"Yes, that's probably it. Thank you for checking on it for me."

********************************

A woman came to the register. She had long, wavy blond hair, was wearing a blue-green shirt and sweater.

She put Laura Schlessinger's PROPER CARE AND FEEDING OF HUSBANDS on the counter, and handed me the receipt. "I need to return this," she said.



"And the reason for the return?" I asked.

"It was stupid."

I laughed. She gave a small smile. I looked up as I was processing the return.

"It didn't work. After I read it my husband moved out and left me," she said.

"Oh," I said, instantly serious. "I'm so sorry."

Her face crumpled as she tried to hold back her tears.

Clicking on the book covers above takes you to Amazon's website where you can find out more about the books. Ordering them through the site helps support this blog (thank you!). You can also "like" us on facebook, or send us email: 2of3Rs(AT)gmail(DOT)com. Thanks for stopping by!

The Prank by Adam Black

2011-11-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

Have you heard about this book?

The story begins, and the town of Gill Falls, Missouri is flooding. Six-year-old Melissa Nevis is in a boat by herself, being carried by the floodwaters towards the falls. This child is in danger. This story must be told.

And so it is, told in the way that news stories are told these days, through Facebook posts, news articles, breaking news bulletins, fan pages, commentary, open letters, and interviews, etc. Reading this feels like following a real news story online.

We, as news/entertainment consumers, have learned to pay attention to information differently than we used to. We skim and scan, focusing our attention on stories or threads or posts that interest us and skipping the rest.

In addition, the news media is no longer as concerned about making sure that the facts are correct or that they are reporting accurately. “News” is now more a race to see who can reveal the story first and make the most people pay attention to their story the fastest.

Black believes that these phenomena have ramifications for how we think, how we process information, as well as how truth is presented and accepted.

Black briefly presents this in a foreword, and brilliantly illustrates it in THE PRANK. I was drawn in by the author’s premise, and following the story of Melissa Nevis was entertaining (because isn’t that what news is?), penetrating and perceptive.

The author wrote this story as if it were a breaking online news story (A Child is in Danger! What is going to happen? Here is the latest on Melissa Nevis!), and he expects that readers will read it as they would an actual online news story, skimming, sometimes skipping, reading the posts and threads and information that interest us in the moment.

As I read, there was some skimming - not much skipping - I was eager to find out what happened next in the Melissa Nevis saga. At the same time I found myself considering questions raised by his premise and the story itself...

How does reading this way inform how we perceive the world? If we gather information in this way, and if the news media races to produce information without making sure their information is correct, how do we, how can we, know what the truth is? And, of course, what’s happening with Melissa Nevis?!

This book would be a great book for a book group. It raises questions about the news and truth and how we - individually and collectively - perceive and react to what we see online.

Is this perhaps malignant phenomena of this digital age in which we live? Discuss.

I have been telling everybody about this book. I've ordered copies into the bookstore where I work and will have it featured in the store. This is a book worth reading.

Note: I find it at least a little bit ironic that I am telling you about this book in a blog...one of the media highlighted in the book. Not that blogs are intrinsically malignant, it's just another example of how we gather information. How many of you reading this right now cherry-pick your way through blogs? My guess? We all do.

Many thanks to Artless Dodges Press who sent me a copy to read and review. You can order this book by clicking on the book cover, which helps support the blog as well as this new and promising author. Thanks for checking out the blog!

"Long story short..." (?)

2011-11-22T09:25:00.000-08:00

I am a Bookcrosser, and have been a part of Bookcrossing since 2002. The Bookcrossing premise is simple...the idea is that most of us have too many books that we're never going to read again. Why not pass those books along to other people who might be interested in them, but do so anonymously, and in a sort of random, serendipitous way.

Here's how it works. Through Bookcrossing, as a (free!) member, you register a book. The book will be given an ID number. That number needs to be in the book (usually on the inside front cover). Then you can "release" the book, leaving it - strategically or randomly - out in the world somewhere, at a coffee shop, on a park bench, or, as I have done (as you'll see), in a mall. Someone else will (hopefully!) pick it up, journal it, read it, and pass it along to further the book on its Bookcrossing journey. The great thing about it is that when the book gets journalled, you get the notification and can follow it on its journey.

Anyway. I released a book at Pioneer Place mall over two years ago (Simon Winchester's, THE MAN WHO LOVED CHINA, in case you were wondering), and it never got journalled. This does sometimes happen. But then sometimes, we get lucky. I got this journal entry the other day about that very same Simon Winchester book...

19 November, 2011
Ok well, long story short- My friend found this book at Pioneer Place mall in Portland, Or. USA in January 2009. She left the book at my apartment in Vancouver, WA when she returned home to California. The book sat in the corner of my closet, obscured by the detritus of my existence. I rediscovered the book as I was packing to move out of that apartment in September 2011 in preparation for my upcoming deployment to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. "What an awesome place that would be to leave this book!" I exclaimed. I took the book with me to Antarctica, intending to find a good spot at McMurdo to leave the book. Unfortunately before this ever happened, I was horribly injured in a freak accident involving several Kiwi Army soldiers, one large weddel seal, a tri-wall container of medical waste and one entire pallet of Speight's Old Dark on the sea ice about two and a half miles off the shore of Ross Island, following the Great McMurdo Halloween Party of 2011. There may have been a violation or twelve of the Antarctic Treaty so the details of this incident will have to remain a mystery, for obvious reasons. Anyway I was medevac'd out of Antarctica before I ever had a chance to deposit the book and now here I sit, on my last night in Christchurch, New Zealand, at the public internet kiosk of The Legendary Elms Hotel, typing madly late into the night and reviewing MRI images of my mangled musculoskeletal system and suddenly the realization washes over me like the lava that any day will be begin to flow from the majestic summit of Mount Erebus, which looms over the population of McMurdo Station like the ever present blade of that great proverbial guillotine. "Holy shit!" I exclaim, "I still have that fucking book." That's right, I hand carried the damn thing all the way to Fucking Antarctica and failed to leave it behind, then I spent another week in New Zealand and never once even thought about the damn book, and now only 9 hours before I board a flight for that miserable filth hole, Los Angeles, CA where a team of highly skilled surgeons will begin the work of refurbishing my rotten corpse, I deposit the book here, on the cheap wooden veneer that lines the desk on which resides the bacteria ridden keyboard on which I type. There are others in this hotel right now who are heading the other way, down to The Ice, to that vast expanse of frozen mystery from which I just came and to which I wish I was accompanying them. I see them wandering the halls of this very hotel, wandering the streets of this very city, drinking it's beer and marveling at it's lovely Botanical Garden. I see them wide eyed in anticipation of the adventure ahead of them, the adventure which, for me, was cut short, my blood staining the ice of the Ross Sea. My hope is that one of these great explorers, the bearers of the same mad wanderlust that brought me to the bottom of the world will find this book and do with it as I had intended. I will return to my beloved Terra Incognita next year. Healed, rested and wide eyed as ever in anticipation of the new adventure that will lay ahead. And when I return, if I find this book again, inhabiting that frozen land that warms my heart like no other place, maybe then I'll get around to reading the damn thing, I'm sure it's very good.

I think this is the mother of all journal entries, at least that I've received. It's been awfully fun...AND, the best thing about it is that I met my partner at a Bookcrossing gathering over six years ago.

You can check out Bookcrossing at the home page here:
www.bookcrossing.com

And you can look at my Bookcrossing page here:
http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/2of3Rs

You can keep your eyes out for finding a Bookcrossing book...you never know when you may find one!

Thanks for checking out the blog! You can "like" us on facebook, send email to us: 2of3Rs(AT)gmail(DOT)com, and subscribe to the blog right here on this page.

A Book in Spanish...is an Insult?

2011-11-18T14:00:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite customers came in yesterday. She's a little challenging to deal with due to having some health issues that make it hard for her to speak clearly. When she calls, it's hard to understand her, though she's cheerful and pleasant to deal with. Here is the blog post about an interaction I had with her...

http://notthenewyorktimesbookreview.blogspot.com/2011/05/customers-22.html

Yesterday when she came in I greeted her warmly. She smiled and seemed glad to see me as well.

Then she noticed the book I had next to my register. We are doing a holiday book drive for a local elementary school and they specifically requested bilingual books. I had La Telerana de Carlota (CHARLOTTE'S WEB in Spanish) on a plexi display easel.

"That's an insult, is what that is," she said, her smile now gone. "Unbelievable. Why would they DO that? I wonder what he would have thought about seeing his book in Spanish," she said, pointing at the author's name.

"Maybe he would have been glad that more kids could read his story," I said. She didn't seem to hear me.

"There's no benefit to being English any more." She shook her head. "It's an insult."

I finished her transaction and thanked her for shopping with us.

wow.

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Help for Finding a Book I Loved

2011-11-15T20:05:00.000-08:00

When I was little there was a book called (I'm pretty sure), THE LITTLE WITCH. I loved this book, checking it out of the library many times. In it, a little girl is a witch. She wants to be a good witch. Her mother is a bad witch. I don't know the author, don't know the name of any of the characters, and I'm not 100% sure of the title. I do remember how much I loved this book.

I would like to find this book and read it again. I have searched for this book over the years, in used bookstores, and, of course, on the internet, with no success. There are too many books, both in and out of print, with the title THE LITTLE WITCH. Disappointing, but not surprising.

Just last night I stumbled onto Abe Books. On their website, Abe Books hosts a forum called Abesleuth, where you can post about the book you're looking for and people can post if they know it! You can also purchase books directly through their site.

http://forums.abebooks.com/abesleuthcom

This is wonderful! I haven't posted my request (yet!), but shall do so soon. I'll let you know if I find this long lost favorite book.

Thanks for stopping by the blog! You can post comments here, "like" us on facebook, subscribe to the blog, and email us at: 2of3Rs(AT)gmail(DOT)com.

Customers 30

2011-11-13T22:00:00.000-08:00

A man, greyish, thinning hair, about 6"1', wearing jeans and a blue all-weather jacket, came up to the counter.

"Can I help you?" I asked.

"I'm looking for a book about Ireland," he said.

"Do you want travel/guide books about Ireland? Or more books with photos in them? Or..."

"I'd like one with photographs in them, sort of a coffee table book," he said.

"Well, let me see what we might have. There are a couple of places to look. Often in our bargain section there are books about Ireland," I said, walking toward the section. "Yes, here's one on Italy...one on Spain...I'm not seeing Ireland right here," walking towards another bay to try and find another one.

"Did you know that Ireland was named after a goddess? The goddess Eire, E-I-R-E, was who they worshiped, so the name of the country is literally from Eire's land, which became Ireland."

"Hmmm, oh, I didn't know that," I said.

"And England," he said, warming up to his subject, "comes from Anglo-land, the people were called Anglos, as in Anglo-Saxon, so the name of the country came from Anglo-land and is now today England."

"Ah," I murmured. We were now in the pictorial book section of travel..."I'm not seeing anything on Ireland here, we have a lot that is more local. We have some books on Ireland in the general travel section, but they are really guide books."

"Yes," he said. "I don't need a guide book. Do you have any calendars?"

"We do!" I said. "And I know we have some on Ireland." I start walking towards the calendars.

"And did you know that Scotland derived its name from originally being called the Picts. The king of the Picts was originally called Rex Pictorum, but then they changed it to Rex Alban, which is translated as King of Scots, so the land became known as Scotland."

"Hmm, I didn't know that," I said. "Here are two Ireland calendars, and there might be more. This is the area they'd be in."

"Oh, that's great, just great. Thank you very much," he said. "This is just what I'm looking for."

I left him to look at the calendars. About 20 minutes later he came up to the register with two calendars to purchase, one about Ireland, the other showing Landscapes of Britain.

"Here's what I found," he said. "These will be great. Now if you want to find out more about the history of names...let's see, I was just reading about it in National Geographic, and it's right here..." He picks up a copy of National Geographic from the magazine rack that is right next to my register. "Let's see, it gives a lot of background and history..." He's flipping through the magazine... "Oh, here it is, the cover story. Anyway. It's a good article. You could look at it if you want to find out more about how places got their names. Thank you for your help."

"Sure, have a good day."

***************************

A man about in his mid 70's, blue rain jacket on, walked up to the information desk with a slight limp.

"Sandwiches," he said. "There's a book called SANDWICHES. Do you have it?"

I start searching in the computer."There are quite a few books with SANDWICHES as the title, do you know anything else about it?"

"It was featured in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago. And the author's name is Ron. I don't know the last name."

"Okay, hmm, I'm not getting anything with the title SANDWICHES and Ron, though there are quite a few books with SANDWICHES as the title...I'm going to search on the internet and see what might come up."

"Okay, I'm going to have to go sit down. I continue to search, using Google to search for the book, using Wall Street Journal and Sandwiches as search words. I find a book called SCANWICHES by Jon Chonko that has pictures of sandwiches, and print out an information page about the book.

I find him sitting in the children's section on a bench. "I did find a book called SCANWICHES that was featured in the Wall Street Journal, I'm wondering if this is the book you're looking for."

"That's it," he says. "That's the one."

"We don't have it in the store, but I can order it for you, would you like to do that?"

"Yes, I would," he says, starting to get up.

"Do you need to stay here? I can just get your information and place the order," I said.

"No, I'm okay now. I just had to sit for a bit," he said.

He follows me back to the information desk and I get the book ordered for him.

"Thank you," he says.

***************************

A woman, late 60's, dyed short brown hair, faded lipstick, comes up to me while I'm at the register. "Do you have any Christmas mysteries?"

"We do, though but they don't have their own section, they'd be mixed in with the regular mysteries, though a few of them might be on a Christmas table or in a new release display. I can get someone to help you find some."

"Oh, that's okay. I'll come back. I was already over in the mystery section. I don't usually read mysteries, only at Christmas! I don't know what that's about, really. I don't know, maybe I just like a little murder around the holidays, you know, something scary lurking behind the Christmas tree."

Cats in the Stacks

2011-11-08T11:53:00.000-08:00

I answered the phone at the bookstore where I work...”Thanks for calling, how can I help you?”

“Hello! This is Connie Billings. And your name is?” She paused barely long enough for me to tell her my name. “This is the store right by the mall, isn’t it? Oh I love it there, I live there! I’m wondering if you can help me find a book I’m looking for?” Her voice went up at the end of each sentence.

“Sure, I can help with that.” 

Almost before I finished by sentence, she started in... “Oh great! I’m reading this wonderful book and I’m wondering if there’s a second one, if it might be a series. It’s called CATS IN THE STACKS. It’s a mystery. Oh it’s wonderful! The author is Miranda James, and here’s how to spell her name, her first name is spelled M-I-R-A-N-D-A, and the last name, J-A-M-E-S. The book is CATS IN THE STACKS. There’s a picture of a coon cat on the cover. Oh, I’m really enjoying this book. I think it might be the first in a series....”

As she’s talking, I’m looking it up on the computer and find that there are indeed two books in the series.

“Yes, you’re right, there are actually two books in the CATS IN THE STACKS series, and the first one is called MURDER PAST DUE...”

“Yes! That’s the one I’m reading right now! You said that there is another book in the series? I thought that there might be! Oh this is great! Do you have the second one there?”

“The second one is called CLASSIFIED AS MURDER...”

“And does it have a picture of that cat on the cover? Oh I love that cat!”

“It does,” I said.

“So what is the second one called?” she asked, her voice still going up at the end of every sentence.

“It’s called CLASSIFIED AS MURDER. I don’t have it in the store, but I can order it for you.”

“You can? That would be wonderful! I’m reading the first one out loud to my cat and she just loves hearing about the cat in the book! Sometimes I say WOW (and her voice really goes up at the end of that word) and my cat loves that, and then I saw MEOW and she thinks I’m saying WOW but I tell her it’s MEOW, that’s M-E-O-W!” She takes a breath. “This is just great! So I can order the second book?”

“It is actually on order for the store, so I’ll get your information and we can call you when it comes in.”

“My name is Connie Billings, I’ve ordered things from you before, I live really close to your store. Oh, I’m just thrilled that there’s a second book! MY cat will be so thrilled when I read it to her! Thank you so much for your help! Have a great day!”

**********************

If you are looking for a book to read to your cat, Connie thinks that the CATS IN THE STACKS series is terrific.

Clicking on a book cover will take you to Amazon where you can find out more about each title, and even purchase it (which supports this blog!). You can also "like" us on facebook and subscribe to the blog via email. Thanks for stopping by!

Recommendations...light, short and funny

2011-11-04T21:08:00.000-07:00

One of Therapist's co-workers is in a book group and asked for some recommendations. One of my favorite questions! Her parameters were that it be "light, fairly short, and FUNNY." Here's the list I sent...

Bill Bryson is one of my favorite authors for funny and light...A WALK IN THE WOODS is his chronicle of his attempt to hike the Appalachian trail (over 2000 miles) with his buddy, neither of whom have any business being out of doors. One of my other favorites of his is his collection of essays called I'M A STRANGER HERE MYSELF, his observations about the U.S. after living abroad for 20 years. Some of the essays are poignant, some are laugh out loud funny, some are insightful. (non-fiction)



Christopher Moore...I love him. Some of his books are really wacky and out there (Roberto the talking fruit bat is a recurring character in a lot of his books...and that's not one of the really wacky characters), and he also has books that are 'about' something...LAMB is about Christianity...A DIRTY JOB is about death...FLUKE has environmental themes. COYOTE BLUE is one of my favorites...and yes, he is funny. Warning, he can be raunchy. (fiction)



I recently read DOMESTIC VIOLETS by Matthew Norman. It is fairly new, and is only available in paperback. It's pretty funny and fun...you can read my blog post about it here... (fiction)
http://notthenewyorktimesbookreview.blogspot.com/2011/09/domestic-violets.html



In that blog post I mention Jonathan Tropper...I really like him as well...his books can also be a little raunchy, so another warning. His main characters tend to get into bad situations and make bad choices...In THE BOOK OF JOE, his main character writes a best-selling novel based his people from his hometown. He did not paint the people in his novel in a very favorable light. He never intended to return to his hometown ever again. Then his father had a stroke and he had to go back. He was did not receive a very warm welcome home. Chaos (or close to it) ensues. (fiction)



Nora Ephron, I FEEL BAD ABOUT MY NECK: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman is one suggested by one of my co-workers. She said it might be funny if there are women in the book group of a certain age...or it might be funnier to woman of a certain age, as it's Ephron's reflections about aging. (non-fiction)



FUNNY IN FARSI by Firoozeh Dumas... This was also recommended by one of my co-workers who liked it. She said that the author says things like, "I'm the one they call to do an author event when they can't get that guy who wrote The Kite Runner." Funny in Farsi is the author's memoir about being Iranian in America. (non-fiction)



THE BRIEF AND FRIGHTENING REIGN OF PHIL by George Saunders was suggested by another co-worker. He said it was biting and funny. I've started to read it a couple of times (and it's really short!) and couldn't get into it...it wasn't my cup of tea, but might be someone else's! (fiction)



You can't really go wrong with David Sedaris...he is often on NPR's This American Life, and hewrites about his life. One of his first was HOLIDAYS ON ICE, where he talks about one Christmas where he was a department store elf during the Christmas season. ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY and WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES are two of my favorites of his...absolutely laugh out loud funny. In WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES, he talks about his quest to quit smoking. To do so, he moves to Japan for a few months, you know, to change his routine. (non-fiction)



Sarah Vowell, another NPR veteran, has several books. My favorite of hers is her first, TAKE THE CANNOLI. They are essays with her unique take on the world. Her more recent books are about history, she's definitely done her homework about the history, and makes it more accessible, but like I said, her first is my favorite of hers. (non-fiction)



Chuck Klosterman started out as a rock music reviewer. I first read his SEX, DRUGS AND COCOA PUFFS which are essays about all sorts of things. Music, pop culture, religion...he's great. (non-fiction)



Lots of people love THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams. It is the first in a series. I read this first one, and liked it all right. It's wacky (I don't always love wacky). It is set in space...didn't do it for me, but lots of people think it's great. (fiction)



THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH by Norton Juster is one of my all-time favorite books. Yes, it's considered a kid's book, and I think it's brilliant. Milo is bored. He comes home one day and finds a tollbooth and a little car. He starts out on a journey, accompanied by a Watch Dog, Tock. Milo discovers all sorts of things about the world and himself. It's clever and fun...this is a masterpiece. (fiction)



HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS Francois Lelord...I just saw this on the shelf yesterday and don't know much about it. I'd never heard of it. The cover has kind of 60's artwork on it. Hector is a psychiatrist. I liked how it looked and how it started. I don't know anyone who has read it. (how's that for a recommendation?) (fiction)



Lynne Truss is a British columnist. She has a collection of columns called MAKING THE CAT LAUGH which is absolutely hilarious. (non-fiction)



HAPPINESS by Will Ferguson is another fun one...in it, someone writes a self-help book that WORKS. Everyone's problems are solved after reading this book, relationships are fixed, financial problems are no more...which causes all sorts of problems, since so much of our society is built on the problems and fixing them. Ferguson is Canadian, so this book may be a bit harder to find, though it still is around. It was originally published under the title GENERICA. (fiction...Ferguson also has a few non-fiction titles, which are also good)



What would you recommend?

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Elf on the Shelf

2011-11-01T11:23:00.000-07:00

Elf on the Shelf is back!

For those of you who don't know, The Elf on the Shelf comes in a box with a book and an elf doll. The idea is that the elf comes to your house to watch your children during the holiday season and report back to Santa whether they've been bad or good. I hadn't seen these until a few years ago when they showed up in the store...and they sold like crazy.

We just put an Elf on the Shelf display in the front window at the store. A customer asked to see it, not knowing what it was. I grabbed a box and opened it to show her.

"There's an elf doll, which the parents place in the house to watch the children. At night the parents can move the elf to a different spot, so the children don't know where the elf will be when they wake up the next day. The elf is supposed to report back to Santa whether the children have been bad or good. There's also a book that tells the story," I said.

"Really?" she said. "That's kind of creepy." She made a face. "I think that might scare children."

"Some parents really like it, they like that it kind of helps as a reminder for their kids to behave," I told her. "Some people think the elf is adorable."

"Well, not me!" she said. "I wouldn't like it in my house."

We were sent a video clip to help us be able to promote it...here it is (you'll have to copy and paste)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ78McxRI6w

(One of our booksellers kept singing the song..."The elf on the shelf is watching you, what you say, what you do...")

It's up to you, is The Elf on the Shelf creepy or adorable?

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Converted to E-reading?

2011-10-28T13:41:00.000-07:00

I know you are out there, you Nook naysayers, you who decry the move to digital e-readers and e-reading. I know this, because I have been among you.

I, too, have a love of books. I love the heft and feel of a book in my hand. There's the cover art, the thickness and smoothness of the pages, how well the books sits in my hand. Books have personality and I love them. (see the recent blog post about THE NIGHT CIRCUS, a perfect example of a great book book.)

However, since one of my birthday presents a few weeks ago was a Nook, I must admit that there are things I really like about reading on the device.

I admit that at first, even though I'd borrowed a Nook before and read on it, it felt strange not to be reading a book. I missed the feel and personality of books. Books almost seemed too abstract on the Nook, much too easy to order. They are SO available and I can get them with a click of a button. And then it hardly feels as though I have anything.

So I was dubious, wondering if I would be all that enthusiastic about doing a lot of reading on an e-reader.

And then I started. Recommended by one of my co-workers, and being a book I didn't think Therapist would necessarily like (though now that I'm almost done with it I think she might like it a lot), I started reading SKIPPY DIES by Paul Murray.

And I got into the story. It didn't seem to matter that I was using a device. I was enjoying reading.

Then I made a discovery! As an active Nook seller at work, I knew the Nook has the capability to highlight and take notes. This was a feature I didn't think I'd use at all, but I do. And I love it. When I find a phrase or a passage I want to remember, I can highlight it and make notes about it. Before, when reading regular books, I'd have gotten piece of paper to mark the page. Then, when finished reading the book, I'd go back and find the phrase and write it in a notebook or on the computer. But NOW, on the Nook, I can highlight the phrase and write a note about it and it's THERE! No more pieces of paper. I love this feature.

I do this a lot when reading, so this is a boon for me. I am thrilled that it does this!

(The first phrase I found in SKIPPY DIES that I liked and wanted to remember is 'internal pandemonium'. I knew you'd want to know.)

To me, reading on a device is similar to when I started using email instead of sending letters and cards through the mail. Yes, with email there is the missing of writing an actual letter, the feel of the stationery and the look of the writer's handwriting on the paper, which is wonderful and oh-so-personal.

On the other hand, email (and texting) is so quick and easy to use. I (and I'll bet I'm not alone here) use email most of the time when communicating with others. Yes, there are downsides to using email, but there are a lot of pluses.

There are pluses to reading on an e-reader too. There's the note taking/highlighting features. I also love how portable it is. I take it everywhere with me (I have the Simple Touch, which is compact and, dare I say it, cute?) I can pull it out when I'm waiting in line at the gas station or the Starbucks drive-through, which I did not do with regular books.

Am I a complete convert to reading digitally? No. I am edging in that direction, enjoying some of the advantages of reading on a device. I can see myself going between book books and reading on the Nook. There are pluses to both. I'm glad to have the option!

You can subscribe directly to the blog via email, and you can "like" our facebook page, NOT the New York Times Book Review. You can also send us email: 2of3Rs(AT)gmail(DOT)com. You can find out more about a title by clicking on the book cover. Books are available as book books or e-books. Your purchase of books through this site helps support the blog (as well as the authors who write them!)Thanks for stopping by!

Holiday Shopping...already!

2011-10-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

People have started their holiday shopping...

A woman came up to the information desk. In maybe her late 60's or early 70's, she was wearing black slacks, black shirt, black and gold sweater, and had dark brown hair. She had black rimmed glasses.

"I need some books," she said. "I need books about chickens, roosters, dragons, tap dancing and World War II."

"Okay," I said. "Are you looking for specific titles? Or did you just want to see what we have on those topics?"

"No, not specific titles. I'm buying for certain people and they are interested in these things."

"Well, we have some books right here about chickens, these are mostly how to raise chickens...I do know of at least one picture book we have about chickens."

"No, I don't want to know how to raise them. The picture book would be good."

I retrieve EXTRAORDINARY CHICKENS and hand it to her.

"Oh! This is great! Thank you!"

"I don't think we have any books that are just about roosters," I said.

"But this one should have roosters in it, won't it?"

"I imagine so," I said.

"So dragons," she says.

"If this is a gift...how old is the person who likes dragons?"

"He's 17. He also likes to read about World War II. Dragons and World War II," she said.

"We have some books on dragons that are for younger kids, but I'm pretty sure we have a nice one here in science fiction." We have two books with dragon art, one hardcover and one large sized paperback. She opts for the paperback as it's less expensive.

"I am getting these now because my sister is coming and I can send them back with her for Christmas. That way I won't have to mail them," she said.

"Oh, that sounds like a good idea," I said. "So the 17 year old is interested in World War II also?" I take her over to the history section. There are two large bays just about World War II. "These are arranged by author, which makes it a little harder if you're looking for a specific topic in the war, but it's a fairly extensive section."

"Hmm," she says. "Don't you have anything like the chicken book, something about World War II in pictures?"

"We probably do." I take her over to the bargain section. "This one is about the Nazis..."

"Oh, we don't want to use that word in the title. I don't think his mother would approve of that."

"Um, okay. Well, here's one about the fighter planes of World War II..." I point out a few other titles, some about the weapons of the war, one of color photographs from World War II. I did not point out a copy of MEIN KAMPF. It didn't seem as though that would go over very well.

"Oh, that would just be too much. No," she said.

"Well, there are the books that are written about the war, some historical, some of first hand experiences, which are in the history section over where we were before. And then there are books here, which are mainly pictorial. They may be a little intense because they are photographing the war...he is 17...you'll have to decide what's best for him," I said.

"Well, I'll have to figure out what I want to do. Okay, so what about tap dancing?" she said, shifting gears.

"We probably don't have much about tap dancing specifically. We might have a few books about dance that include tap dancing. How old is the person who likes tap dancing?"

"He's 10. Well, he does take ballet too. And there's the sister who also likes ballet. She's 13. Do you have any books on ballet?"

"We have quite a few books for little kids on ballet, not a lot for a 10 year old or a 13 year old. We do have a dance section, we can see what's there..." I take her over to the dance section. There are a few books about dance...here's one...though I'm not sure it has anything about ballet or tap dancing...

"Oh no, that won't do," she said. "Her mother would not like her looking at that picture, you can bet on that."

"Okay, well, there isn't much here, I'm afraid. I can look up and see what we can order. I'll also check through the bargain section, sometimes there are books about ballet there." I look through the bargain section and don't find anything about ballet. I come back and tell her. "I didn't find anything in the bargain section, would you like me to see what might be available to order?"

"No, that's all right. This will be fine. Thank you so much for your help."

Whew! And it's only October!

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Jack Finney

2011-10-22T06:20:00.000-07:00

Jack Finney would have been 100 years old this month. Ah, Jack Finney...

I've always loved to read, but it was Jack Finney's TIME AND AGAIN that sparked my realization that books could change my perception of reality. In a good way.

Simon Morley works in advertising. He is approached to be part of a government experiment. He has to sign on without knowing anything about the project. They have him going back in time.

How he gets there, what he does, where he goes and what happens when he gets there are brilliantly done. Jack Finney was a master storyteller.

Sally, my extremely literate high school friend, recommended TIME AND AGAIN to me. She told me to read it carefully. I read how I usually did, by devouring the story. My reading was not as careful as it needed to be to pick up all of the plot twists that made the end make sense (Sally's dad didn't read it carefully enough either, so I didn't feel so bad). Sally had to fill me in on the bits I'd missed. (well, one crucial, mind-bending bit). It was a most delicious read.

One of my all time favorite books, I am grateful for Jack Finney's world-expainding writing.

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Customers 29

2011-10-18T10:51:00.000-07:00

A young Asian boy, about six years old came up to the counter with his 2-3 year old sister and his mom. The little boy put a copy of Magic Tree House #26 on the counter. Mom is holding the little girl, who has an I Can Read book about Spiderman.

In a loud voice, the boy says, "Hi! I've been waiting to see you! I've been waiting to see you since I got #25! Hi!"

"Hi!" I said back, not quite as loudly. "It's good to see you too! You like these books!"

"I do!" he says.

I see the girl's Spiderman book and I say, "You like Spiderman, that's cool."

She looks at me and says, "I like Superman."

I point to the superhero, "That's Spiderman there on the cover, do you like Spiderman?" I ask.

She looks at me. "Superman," she says.

Her mother says in a low voice, "She thinks that's Superman."

"Ah," I say. "I like Superman too. Superman is great. Looks like you've got a good book there."

The very next day the same family comes in. The boy puts Magic Tree House #31 on the counter. "Hey!" he says loudly. "What are you doing here again?"

"That's a very good question," I said. "That was quick, did you finish the other one?"

His mom said, "He gets a new one when he finishes reading one. I was going to discontinue that, but his dad wants to keep doing it, so..." she shrugs.

"Well, that's a pretty good deal," I told the boy. "You're reading them pretty fast. We're going to have to get you some harder books to read pretty soon, though."

"She has a question," one of the booksellers told me. A young woman, about 18 years old, pink shirt and jeans, and long brown hair came up to the Information desk.

"I'm looking for a book called Felidae," she said.

"That's F-E-L-I-D-A-E?" I asked.

"That's right," she said.

We used to get a cat food called Felidae, so I figured it had something to do with cats, though I wasn't aware of a book with that title. I found a romance novel with that title, and a couple of textbooks, both of them dealing with large cats (pumas, panthers, leopards, etc.). I asked her if any of those were what she was looking for.

"Nope," she said, not offering any other information. I kept looking. Didn't find anything else, either on the internet or in our system.

"Do you have an author?" I asked.

"No," she said.

"Is it about cats?" I asked. "Lions? Leopards? That kind of thing?"

"It is about cats, but not those kind of cats. It's about house cats. And murder," she said.

"House cats and murder? Okay, interesting!" I did another internet search with some different key words, "Felidae, cats, murder", and sure enough, came up with a novel by Akif Pirincci called FELIDAE: A Novel of Cats and Murder! I was not able to order it through our system at the store;, so I suggested that she try searching for it used online.

Thanks for stopping by the blog. Unfortunately, clicking on the FELIDAE cover will not take you anywhere for you to purchase it. I just thought it was a fun cover! You can still "like" us on facebook, subscribe to the blog on this page, or send us email: 2of3Rs(AT)gmail(dot)com.

...As a graphic novel? Really?

2011-10-15T18:00:00.000-07:00

I just saw THE KITE RUNNER as a graphic novel at the store the other day. Yes, that is Kahled Hosseini's stunning novel, THE KITE RUNNER. As a graphic novel. When I came back to the information desk after seeing it, I asked J., who is a fan of the medium (definitely more so than I), if THE KITE RUNNER should be a graphic novel. It seemed wrong to me, but maybe someone who really likes the genre has a different take on the subject...

"I just saw THE KITE RUNNER graphic novel back there. Should THE KITE RUNNER be a graphic novel?" I asked.

"No, I don't think so. Just because the medium is there doesn't mean that a book should be made into a graphic novel. Not all books translate well into graphic novels. Even Neil Gaiman (of whom J. is a huge fan) has had some books made into graphic novels and..." he shook his head. "It just didn't work."

I know that WUTHERING HEIGHTS is a graphic novel, as is PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. And JANE EYRE. And THE CANTERBURY TALES. It seems that many of the classics are being turned into graphic novels.

I do understand the inclination that perhaps in graphic novel form these stories will be more accessible to people who would not otherwise be exposed to or interested in them.

It's not that I don't like graphic novels; I have read some incredible ones. Craig Thompson's BLANKETS is one, as is Marjane Satrapi's PERSEPOLIS, and Alison Bechdel's FUN HOME. These are memoirs for which the graphic novel medium seems to be the perfect vehicle for the authors to tell their stories.

Am I a purist? Is making a book into a graphic novel any different than turning a book into a movie? That is, bringing the story to a new medium, perhaps bringing something new to it?

I don't know, I guess I can't make generalizations about all graphic novels. I just know that my heart just sinks when I hear that some books have been turned into graphic novels. And it makes me want to keep my eye out for the really good ones.

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Customers 28

2011-10-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

A man, maybe mid 30's, face stubbly, wearing jeans and a t-shirt came up to the information desk. "Can you help me? I read every night to my daughter, and we just finished A WRINKLE IN TIME and THE PRINCESS BRIDE. Do you have any recommendations with what I might read with her next?"

"How old is she?" I asked.

"She's 8," he said.

Handy that I taught third grade which is made up of mostly 8 year olds. I had a few ideas. "Have you read the CHRONICLES OF NARNIA with her?" I asked. "They are great and kind of along the fantasy vein."

"Well, she's seen the movies," he said. "Are the books good?" He seemed doubtful.

"They are great," I said. "Though if she's seen the movies...well, I think the books are really great. Maybe, though, you want to do something else with her if she's seen the movies."

I walked over to one of the young reader bays. "How about THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH?" I handed him a copy. "I love this book. I loved it as a kid and I love it now. My brother and I read it many many times when we were kids. I read it out loud to my third graders when I was teaching. I would take this book to a desert island, even now," I said.

"Wow," he said. He read the back of the book. "A tollbooth...hmmm..." he mused. "Okay." He kept reading. "This sounds perfect. Really, this looks great! I think we'll really like this! Thank you so much for your help!"



I'm glad he took THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH...I had more ideas if he didn't like that one...MRS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH, the REDWALL series...

I have added CONTENTED DEMENTIA as one of my staff recommendations. There are now more than 100 copies in the warehouses, so maybe I will be able to handsell 100 copies of this as well as SCENT OF THE MISSING!

A customer brought CONTENTED DEMENTIA to the register to purchase it.



"This is wonderful," I said.

"Oh, have you read it?" she asked.

"I'm the one who wrote the blurb for it on the Staff Recommends bay," I told her. "It's a really different way of looking at people with dementia, and I really like the approach."

"Yes, it looks interesting." Then she asked, "Have you read STILL ALICE?"



"No, I haven't been able to read it. My mother had dementia before she died. It's just been too hard for me to read that one," I answered.

She looked at me. "It is fiction," she said.

"I know that it's fiction. It still hits too close to home for me because of my mother," I said. "I've been able to read some other novels about people with dementia...TURN OF MIND, EVENING...but I just haven't been able to read STILL ALICE. Every time I've started it, it's brought up memories of my own mother."

The woman pursed her lips and almost shook her head in disapproval. "Well it's really an excellent book."

"I've only heard good things about it," I said.

She still bought the book, I thought for a minute that she was going to change her mind because I hadn't read STILL ALICE. Yet.

You can click on any of the book covers and be taken to Amazon where you can get more information about each title and purchase it if you wish. You can also "like" us on our facebook page, NOT the New York Times Book Review. Thanks for stopping by!

Tantalizing Books...What to Choose?

2011-10-09T20:00:00.000-07:00

As I drove into work today, on this dreary, heavily misting early morning, I was glad to be going to a bookstore. Is there anything better on a rainy day than being in a bookstore with some warm coffee? I don't think so either. (even though later in the day it got pretty busy and crazy and didn't feel so warm and cozy and relaxing...but that's another blog entry).

There are a lot of interesting new books that have been released or will be released soon...I'm looking forward to choosing what to read! Some that have caught my eye...

Ellen DeGeneres has a new book out...SERIOUSLY, I'M KIDDING. I love Ellen. She is one of the (relatively few, I think) comedians who can write funny as well as be funny doing stand-up. Or her talk show.



THE VERY PICTURE OF YOU by Isabel Wolff, author of VINTAGE AFFAIR is just out. I haven't read VINTAGE AFFAIR (yet!), but everyone I know who has read it has liked it, and this new one looks interesting as well.



Long anticipated, THE MARRIAGE PLOT by Jeffrey Eugenides comes out Tuesday, October 11. I'm hoping it's as good as his other books.



I've always enjoyed reading Roger Ebert's movie reviews. I know he's been struggling with cancer for quite a few years, and he has a new book out as well, LIFE ITSELF. I'd like to check it out.



I haven't read Michael Lewis yet (MONEYBALL, THE BIG SHORT, THE BLIND SIDE, LIAR'S POKER), but his new book, BOOMERANG: TRAVELS IN THE NEW THIRD WORLD, looks intriguing. His other books do too!



And of course the biography about Steve Jobs is coming out at the end of the month. A loyal Mac (and ipod and iphone) user, I'm interested to read more about his vision that has done more to make computers user friendly than anyone else.



Chris Bohjalian has a new one out, THE NIGHT STRANGERS. For me I either really like his books or not so much. We'll see how this one is.



I've loved everything I've read by Diana Abu Jaber, and she has a new one, BIRDS OF PARADISE, set in Miami. Could be interesting!



Julie Otsuka, author of THE EMPEROR WAS DIVINE, has a new one out, THE BUDDHA IN THE ATTIC, about Japanese picture brides arriving in San Francisco around the turn of the last century.



SKIPPY DIES by Paul Murray is new. Not a high profile author, it is getting good buzz. I might have to read this one. One of my co-workers said it is some of the most beautiful writing he's ever read. High praise indeed!



What will YOU be reading?

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Notes on Some Books

2011-10-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE was recommended to me by a customer. She, new to Oregon, came into our store to connect with her new neighborhood bookstore (us!). Wearing olive green cargo shorts, a matching t-shirt, and with very short brown hair, she told me that THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE was the best book she'd ever read.



I don't always pay attention when customers tell me things like that, but this time I'm glad I did. Heather Gudenkauf tells the story of Callie, a young girl who disappears into the woods and went missing for several days. Callie had stopped speaking a few years before her disappearance. Why did she stop speaking? Why did she go missing? Telling the story through several points of view, including her mother, her brother, Callie's friend, the deputy sheriff as well as from Callie's own point of view, each vantage point provided insight into Callie and her family. A very good read.

After seeing one high school's reading list, which included Emma Donoghue's ROOM, Neil Gaiman's NEVERWHERE, and Tana French's IN THE WOODS, I decided to read Neil Gaiman's NEVERWHERE. What an excellent choice for a reading list!

Richard Mayhew lives in London. He has a rather boring job and an overbearing fiance. One night he helps a girl named Door, who leads him to London Below, a world Richard didn't know existed. He gets involved in Door's quest, leaving London Above to discover a parallel life inhabited by people (and I use the word "people" loosely here) from other times and places. Great fun.



Tom Perrotta's newest, THE LEFTOVERS, has a great premise. Millions of people all over the world disappear in an instant. It seems random, the people who disappeared are all ages, all religions, all races; there doesn't seem to be a common reason for them all to have left. Called the Sudden Departure by those who remain, it is generally assumed that it was the Rapture, though many of the Christians who are left are sure it was not the Rapture, for if it was, they (obviously) would have been taken too. When I read the premise, I thought that it would be a wonderful opportunity for humor.



Tom Perrotta chose to treat the topic differently. Focusing on the Sudden Departure's effect on one family, this books was rather somber. Laurie, the mother in the family, joins a cult-like group called the Guilty Remnant, who smoke cigarettes as one way to proclaim their beliefs. Kevin, her husband, is the town mayor, and he struggles with not only the loss of friends and family, but also the loss of Laurie and Ben to a cult. Ben first bands with the Holy Wayners, following who they see as a holy man. Jill, the daughter, lost her best friend to the Sudden Departure, but more keenly feels the loss of her mother to the cult, knowing that her mother has a choice about whether to be with her or not. Maybe I wanted this book to be written by someone else...Will Ferguson, perhaps? Christopher Moore?

THE NIGHT CIRCUS was on the best seller list the first week it was released. For a brand new author, that is pretty incredible. It is there for good reason. The circus in the story, Le Cirque des Reves, is a magical venue. At least part of the reason the circus exists is for a challenge. Two children are chosen and trained to be the contestants or challengers. They both learn magic and how to create and change how the world appears. Their canvas is Le Cirque des Reves, the Circus of Dreams.



I was (willingly!) drawn into this story and did not want it to end. It is a love story between two people. In addition it is a love story between people and the circus itself. And, I found it to be a love story between the reader and THE NIGHT CIRCUS.

Did you know that clicking on any of the book covers on this page will take you Amazon's site. You can find out more information about the book and purchase it if you are so inclined. You can also like us on facebook, or send us email: 2of3Rs(AT)gmail(DOT)com. Thank you for stopping by!

Customer 27

2011-09-30T19:00:00.000-07:00

A white haired man in khaki colored cargo shorts and a bright orange t-shirt came up to the register. He had a magazine and the book PSYCHIC INTELLIGENCE.

"Did you find everything you were looking for?" I asked as he put his items down on the counter.

"Boy did I! That guy back there at the desk was GREAT, he got me exactly what I needed! He doesn't know how much he helped me out," he said, shaking his head and smiling.

"Well, good!" I said.

"My wife is in the car, and we are going to this birthday party, and this is the gift. I was supposed to get this like a week ago, and of course, I didn't get it then. I waited until now. My wife, she's in the car, and she is fuming. Before I got out of the car she told me that that book had better be in there. She's pretty mad." He paused. "You guys really saved me. Here is the book, he found it right away, and look at this!" He shows me his watch. "We won't even be late for the birthday party!"

"We do free gift wrapping too," I said. "Would you like us to wrap it?"

"Oh wow! That would be great!", he said, even more enthused than he was before. "That you had this book, the book for the present, that that guy back there found for me right away, and now you're going to wrap it? That is the best. You guys really bailed me out here. Thank you so much. You guys are the best."

I called another bookseller to come up and wrap the book for him. As soon as she got to the wrapping station, he launched into telling her how great it was that we had the book at the last minute. Glad we could help!

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Alone Together

2011-09-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

I love my iphone. I love all that it can do, I love how the texting works, I love how I can get a response to something I say to someone really quickly.

However, sometimes this technology, amazing as it is, is frustrating.

I have had times at work when a customer has asked me for help and, expecting that I had their full attention, looked up to find them them staring at their phone, reading or sending a text, or even taking or making a call. I have been put in the position of having to wait for them to finish whatever they are doing so I can help them find what they approached me for!

"Kenley" has also expressed frustration about technology. She moved from Florida to Oregon and has been a bit homesick. When she lived in Florida, she talked to her friends on the phone often. Now that she's moved across the country, they all seem to want to stay in contact by text or facebook; they don't call. She said, "I'd much rather hear their voices than just see a message from them. I don't get it." She was geographically far away from her friends, and the technology made her friends feel even further away.

I told her how I'd had similar frustrations, and that I found Sherry Turkle's new book, ALONE TOGETHER: WHY WE EXPECT MORE FROM TECHNOLOGY THAN FROM EACH OTHER.

In the beginning of the book, Turkle started talking about computers and devices designed for social interaction, and she described the development of our attachment to technology. This wasn't exactly the subject I thought it would be, but it was really interesting.

She started out talking about ELIZA, the computer program created in the 1970's to mimic some psychotherapeutic responses. When people typed in a thought, ELIZA used language that offered support or asked for clarification. All ELIZA could do was rearrange words into questions or supportive statements. If a user said "My mother is making me angry", ELIZA might respond "Tell me more about your mother," or, "Why do you feel so negatively about your mother?"

People interacting with ELIZA knew that ELIZA had no concept of what a mother was, and that ELIZA could not feel anger, and yet people wanted to interact with it and found themselves talking to the computer program and telling it things they would not share with another person.

From ELIZA to tamagotchis to Furbys to My Real Baby to AIBO the dog to Cog and Kismet, Turkle described how computer programmed devices are designed to make people want to interact with them. And they do! Turkle observed and interviewed many people, people who were often surprised by their own strong responses and attachments they had to these devices, wanting the device to respond to them, even wanting the devices to like them. People unburdened their secrets to them and shared their lives with them. This section of the book talked about technology designed for social interaction, often as a substitute for human interaction.

In the second part of the book, she talked about how we are becoming more connected to technology, technology that helps us communicate with each other more easily. Her premise is that this technology reduces intimacy or connection between individuals.

I read...

"Not that many years ago, one of my graduate students talked to me about the first time he found himself walking across the MIT campus with a friend who took an incoming call on his mobile phone. My student was irritated, almost incredulous. 'He put me on "pause." Am I supposed to remember where we were and pick up the conversation after he is done with his call?'... Mobile technology has made each of us 'pauseable.'"

Exactly! And...

"When someone holds a phone, it can be hard to know if you have that person's attention. A parent, partner, or child (and I would add, "customer") glances down and is lost to another place, often without realizing that they have taken leave."

I appreciated that she articulated feelings I've had. (And I know that I am not guilt free here, I know that I have "paused" other people.)

She says...

"When media are always there, waiting to be wanted, people lose a sense of choosing to communicate."

That seems to be the key (or a key). When it's so easy and so immediate, we feel compelled to communicate. Yet by doing so, it takes us away from being focused on what we're doing in the moment. Strange. I've felt it as a user, when I've removed myself from where I am (in a store, with someone else) to attend to a text message. And I've felt it when others have done it when they've been with me.

I so appreciated Turkle's highlighting some concerns about technology's effect on our relationships, connections and lives. I know that Kenley and I have felt the impact of technology in our lives. I hope that this book heightens awareness about how the technology people allow into their lives affects their relationships. I know it's helped me be more conscious of how I use technology to connect with others, as well as how it may be getting in the way of my connections.

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Nook book? Or book book?

2011-09-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

I have a confession. I like my gadgets. I'm not really a gadget kind of person, but there are 2 gadgets I really like. I lusted after the iphone as soon as it came out several years ago. And I longed for the latest Nook e-reader when it came out this last June. And I love my iphone (is it right to say that I love a device? well, I do.) And Therapist and Therapist's mom gave me a Nook for my birthday. Yay! Gadget fun!

I've been reading Tom Perrotta's THE LEFTOVERS and was eager to finish it so I could get my next book on my new Nook! There's a book that just came out, THE NIGHT CIRCUS by Erin Morgenstern. It's her debut novel, and has catapulted to #1 on our best seller list in the first week. Amazing. One of our managers is reading it and he really likes it. Audrey Niffenegger of TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE wrote a blurb for the back cover, she likes it. I got a free sample of it on the Nook and started reading. I liked how it started. I knew I wanted to read the whole thing.

So then the question was, get it as a book? Or digitally on the Nook?

My first inclination was to get it on the Nook, after all, it would be my first Nook book, and part of the reason I wanted an e-reader was so I wouldn't have to carry hardcovers around. The Nook is so light.

But then I thought of Therapist. She might like to read this if it's as good as the buzz seems to indicate. And she isn't all that interested in an e-reader. And if it's really good, we have friends we might lend it to.

But I just got the Nook! I have been looking forward to using it, being able to tuck it in my purse without having something extra to carry around.

The price was about the same for the digital version as for the regular book. At work I got a copy of the book to take a look at it.

It's a good cover. The book itself (under the dust jacket) is black with silver curlicues and silver writing. The facing pages for each section are black pages with stars. Striking. Black and white stripes make up the inside front cover. The whole book is beautiful.

I was still leaning toward getting the digital version. Part of me felt as though I was being ungrateful for the gift of the Nook if I didn't start using it on the next book I wanted to buy. Plus I wanted to use the Nook!

I talked to J. about my dilemma. "I just got a Nook for my birthday and I want to read this. I can get it on the Nook," I said.

"Yeah, that'd be cool," she said.

"But look at the book, isn't it pretty? These facing pages, the cover...it's so pretty. Maybe I should buy the book."

"That's true, it is pretty. Maybe you should buy it." She agreed with whatever point I was making.

T. jumped in. "Is there anyone you'd loan it to?", he asked.

"Yes, several people," I said.

"Well, there you go. And the price is about the same, so get the book," he said.

So I did. With a twinge of regret for not getting it on the Nook, I bought the book.

And I'm glad I did. I'm not that far in, but I am so enjoying the sumptuous design of the book. Sometimes books are written where the words themselves bring the story to life, draw us into the characters and the action. (And sometimes books are written where the words DON'T bring the story to life, but that's another blog post.) And sometimes the words are enhanced by the trappings surrounding them, as in this case.

The story is rich and magical, I have been drawn in and am enjoying this book, the story and the book itself. There are books I will enjoy on the Nook. And there are books I will enjoy owning as actual books. This is one of them.

Did you know that you can find out more about a title mentioned in the blog by clicking on the cover? You will be taken to amazon.com and can find out more about the book and purchase it as well!

Keep Blogging!

2011-09-20T13:33:00.000-07:00

Oregon's Willamette Week had a recent cover article about Matthew Haughey, founder of MetaFilter, who they called the Blogfather. Since I blog, I was intrigued, and was interested to see what he had to say about blogging and the future of blogging.

He talked about sites like Facebook and Twitter, and the trend toward shorter and shorter posts. He saw that there used to be more blogs, more thoughtful and longer postings by people. With the advent of websites like twitter and Facebook, there has been a move to shorter and shorter bursts of expression.

Here's what Matt Haughey said in the Willamette Week...

"Yeah, like I have an interesting thought in the morning and think, 'can I whittle this down to one sentence? I can!' Then tap tap tap, done. I feel bad because Twitter is so ephemeral. All the people I know who were blogging in 1995, all have blogs where the last post was six months ago. I have a friend who says if you don't blog it, it didn't happen. Twitter's too ephemeral. But it kills blogs dead."

and he was asked...

"Where do you see blogs in 10 years' time?
"In a really weird space, because of Twitter and Facebook. There's definitely been a decline in the last year or two, but I sort of see a resurgence of people who want to be serious writers be like, 'Why am I dicking around with writing things in single sentences?" So I think serious blogs might come back, but I don't think raw numbers of people blogging will ever get up again. Because Twitter and Facebook are so much easier.

"It's funny: [Twitter co-founder] Evan Williams, who I worked with on Blogger.com, was very into making ideas as simple as possible. We started with a byzantine project management app, which grew to huge groups working on massive projects for months, and one part of it was, every project had a blog, and then we were just like, "Why don't we just spin this off as a thing?" And then that became Blogger. And then "blogging's so hard, why don't you just make that a sentence?" It's a logical progression, but then what happens to culture? It's kind of a bummer."

I know that I sometimes get frustrated with the brevity of Facebook. (I don't twitter. or tweet.) I find it hard to reduce my thoughts to one (hopefully brilliant or insightful or funny) sentence or phrase. He's right, blogging takes time. Sometimes a lot of time. AND, it more suits me. I don't know what the future of blogging is, I just know that I like it.

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More Dog Books!

2011-09-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

I had German Shepherds when I was growing up. Our first dog was Jody (which was pronounced Yody, with a German "J"). Freda, one of my mother's college roommates, trained German Shepherds for show, and she arranged for us to get Jody. Jody was bred as a show dog, but he had hip dysplasia, so became undesirable as a show dog. As a family dog, however, he was wonderful.

Jody came to us when I was 9. His coat was mostly black, with gold highlights and it was coarse, except for his face and his ears, which were velvet soft, and he had lovely brown eyes. He was a guard dog absolutely, he'd bark loud, scary barks when anyone came to the house, but was gentle to all of us and anyone we deemed friendly. He encountered skunks a few times, and so endured (and so did we) baths in tomato juice. He ate steak left out on the counter to thaw. In other words, he was a dog. A great dog. The best dog.

At work I saw an advance reader copy for RIN TIN TIN: The Life and The Legend, by Susan Orlean. This is Susan Orlean of THE ORCHID THIEF fame. Interesting! While I never watched Rin Tin Tin on TV, I was certainly aware of him as a famous dog. And he was a German Shepherd. I wanted to read this.



Orlean begins by talking about Lee Duncan, the man who found the original Rin Tin Tin in World War I in France. There is a picture in the beginning of the book of him and his unit in uniform, sitting on the ground somewhere in France, and he has a gorgeous German Shepherd puppy in his lap. The puppy who would become Rin Tin Tin.

Orlean talks about how Lee Duncan bonded with this dog so closely, almost certainly in part because of his childhood, in which his father was absent, and his mother sent Lee and his sister to an orphanage for four years so she could get back on her feet financially. Duncan seemed to find solace and connection with his dogs as he got older, and his best and closest connection was with Rin Tin Tin.

Orlean does a skillful and fascinating job chronicling Rin Tin Tin and his life with Duncan, his rise to fame in the movies and then in television (these would be descendents of the original Rin Tin Tin, though it really doesn't matter), as well as talking about dogs' roles in the military and in family life. She talks about how obedience training came into fashion, not just to train dogs for military or farm and ranch work or show business, but for dogs who live with families. I'd never really thought about it, but obedience training is a relatively new phenomenon, started in the 1920's and 30's. It caught on in a big way.

I am loving this book, and all I'm learning about Rin Tin Tin and dogs... I think I need to see a Rin Tin Tin movie! Evidently, his screen presence is amazing. Does Netflix carry Where the North Begins or Clash of the Wolves? I need to find out.

The next dog book I'll be reading is PACK OF TWO by Caroline Knapp. She wrote the brilliant book about her recovery from alcohol addiciton, DRINKING: A LOVE STORY, and this is her story of her getting a dog after getting sober. Therapist has been recommending this book to me for several years now. And I finally bought a copy so I can read it.



And again, not that this is about winning (okay, maybe it is a little bit), but I am over halfway in the 100 handsell challenge at work! We had been given the task of picking a book that we can handsell in the store, by talking about it with customers, writing staff recommendation blurbs, and getting people to know about it and buy it. The book I chose was Susannah Charleson's SCENT OF THE MISSING, her fascinating book about her decision to get a puppy and train her to work as a Search and Rescue dog. I loved the book, loved learning about Search and Rescue (of which, I admit, I was woefully ignorant), loved reading about her training Puzzle and Puzzle becoming her partner in Search. So far I've sold 53 copies...wahoo!



Did you know that you can learn more about any of the books mentioned by clicking on the cover? You'll be taken to Amazon's site where you can read more about the book, and order it if you'd like. Hopefully Barnes and Noble will be restarting their affiliate program soon as well. Thanks for reading the blog!

Help for Someone in Recovery (hopefully!)

2011-09-13T14:51:00.000-07:00

A woman was standing in the aisle of the bookstore, looking a little lost. She had glasses, shoulder length light brown hair, and she was wearing shorts and a blue and white striped t-shirt. She seemed to be in her late 50's.

"Can I help you find something?," I asked.

"Well yes. Do you have anything about addiction or for someone getting over an alcohol addiction?"

"We sure do. Actually, right behind you is the section." I gestured to the bay with books dealing with alcohol and other addictions. "Do you want a how-to book for how to get sober?," I asked.

"Well, it's for my sister-in-law. I know she sees a therapist once a week. She's been sober for 69 days now."

"Hmm," I said. "What about a memoir?," I asked. "Sometimes reading about someone else going through the same thing can be helpful. And I have one in mind." I took her to the Biography section and showed her Caroline Knapp's DRINKING: A LOVE STORY.

"She writes about how her relationship with alcohol made it impossible for her to have any other relationships. She does get sober, but she's also really realistic about how hard it is, and how some people, a lot of people, don't stay sober. It's really well written. There is this other one, LIT, by Mary Karr which has been featured more than Caroline Knapp's, but my partner, who is a therapist, read both of them and thinks that DRINKING: A LOVE STORY is better by far."

"Oh, that sounds great. I'll take a look at that one. Is there anything else you can recommend?," she asked.

"Let's head back to the section," I said. "There are meditations and affirmations, would she be interested in something like that?," I asked.

"Hmm, I don't think so," she said.

"There are lots of titles about women and addiction and women and alcohol..." I pointed to about six books dealing with women and alcohol. "They might be helpful for her...?"

She noticed a bright blue book called TOXIC PARENTS: OVERCOMING THEIR HURTFUL LEGACY AND RECLAIMING YOUR LIFE by Susan Forward. "Oh. This might be really good. She's always going on and on about how it's all her mother's fault, that she drinks because of her mother."

"And at some point she's going to have to stop blaming her mother and take responsibility for her own behavior," I said.

"Exactly!," she said. "She hates me right now. Her birthday is Sunday. She is drinking a lot of coffee these days. What do you think about giving her these two books (Drinking: A Love Story and Toxic Parents) in a basket with some Starbucks?"

"Well, it's kind of a strong message, but it's also saying that you want her to recover and that these might be tools that might help her. You could give her gift receipts for the books," I said. "Then she could return them if she doesn't like them. Without gift receipts or any other kind of receipt we can't take them back or even do an exchange."

"I don't think so," she mused. "I'm afraid that she'll just return them and buy wine."

I laughed. "All right, no receipt then!," I said. "Good luck with everything!"

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I'm So Dirty!

2011-09-09T06:30:00.000-07:00

A woman came up to the counter, greying hair, shirt striped with different shades of blue. "I have a book on hold," she said.

"Okay, what's your last name?," I asked. She said her name and I turned behind me and retrieved the book off the hold shelf. She sighed and sighed again. "Is something wrong?," I asked.

"Well. You touched it. The book. You just touched it and you'd just been touching your face. I have a germ phobia, and now you've touched it," she said.

"Ah," I said, a little stunned. I put the book wrapped in its hold slip down on the counter. "Well, we have wipes, I can wipe my hands."

"It's too late, you already touched it," she said.

"Your book is wrapped mostly in the hold slip, which is what I was touching," I said.

"No, I saw. You touched a corner of the book too."

"Okay," I said, stepping back from the counter, knowing this wasn't going well. "I'll get some wipes."

"Well, that might help, if you don't touch where you already touched."

After I wiped my hands, I removed the rubber band and paper from the book and set it down on the counter without touching the book. "I have to touch the scanner," I told her, and I started wiping it.

"Are those those Lysol wipes? You shouldn't be using those, those are bad for you, they'll make you sick," she said. "I'm just thinking about you."

"Well, these are what I'm using right now. It's what I have," I told her.

"You should wash your hands right after this, then," she said. "It doesn't matter about wiping the scanner," she said.

I'd been thinking about how since my hands were (evidently) so dirty and I'd been touching the scanner all day, that touching the scanner again would then sully my hands after I'd wiped them. But whatever.

"You can get rid of the paper, I don't want it," she said.

"Well, I need the paper, I need a number off of it. But I won't touch the paper," I said. She sighed. I entered what I needed to from the paper and scanned the book without touching it.

"I'm sorry," I said, "but I touch money all day, which is dirtier than my hands."

"Well that makes me feel better, telling me that," she snapped. "This is why it's hard for me to buy things in public places," she said, almost to herself. She held her credit card gingerly with her index finger and her thumb. "Can I slide it now?" she asked.

"Yes, you can slide the card," I told her. She slid the wrong side of the card in the machine. She realized this and turned it around, trying to barely touch the card and not touching the machine. I did not to tell her that some people lick their credit cards if the machine won't read the card the first time.

"Would you like a bag?", I asked.

"Yes. I would like a bag," she said.

"I have to touch it, but I won't touch your book. I tried to use as few fingers as possible to get a bag. I grabbed a tissue to use between my hand and the book, and put the book in the bag.

I took the receipt from the register, but did not touch the one she had to sign. I placed the receipt in the bag, and then the bag on the counter, again trying have as little contact between my hands and the bag. "All right, that's it," I said. She took the bag and left. I was exhausted.

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Domestic Violets

2011-09-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

There is a new book making the rounds at the bookstore...DOMESTIC VIOLETS by Matthew Norman.

First J. read it, and she has been telling everyone to read it. "It's kind of like a Jonathan Tropper book," she told me. Who she knows I love. Tropper's books are funny, his main characters are in almost cataclysmically bad situations, and the main characters often don't make good life decisions. And they are very funny. Like THE BOOK OF JOE. In it, the main character has written a novel about a town, people and incidents he borrowed and borrowed heavily, from his own hometown, exposing secrets about residents and not casting them in a very favorable light. His novel is then made into a very popular movie. Joe has never intended to ever go home again...until his father has a stroke. As you can imagine, he is not welcomed back very warmly. It's great.

"It's like a Jonathan Tropper book," she said, "but this main character doesn't get into quite such awful situations, and some of it is kind of sweet. And insightful. You should read it," she told me.

And so I did.

One of the first things we learn about Tom Violet is that he is having problems with his penis. The first few pages being about penis problems put me off at first, not being as fascinated with that particular part of the male anatomy as so many men seem to be.

But I got past that. And I'm glad I did. Not only is Tom having problems with his manhood, he works as a copy-writer for a soul-sucking corporation. He is also a writer, whose father is an incredibly successful, Pulitzer-prize winning author, so living in THAT shadow has been hard. He also kind of has a crush on a co-worker, and his penis problems have precipitated problems in his marriage. Or his marriage problems precipitated his penis problems. Poor Tom.

DOMESTIC VIOLETS was not only a fun read, it kept me engaged, despite the penis troubles (and by the way? if you are having trouble reading this blog post because of the word "penis", then you probably want to pass on this book.) Some of the plot points were kind of predictable, but many weren't, and I really liked the ending. Good read!

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This was a First

2011-09-01T18:21:00.000-07:00

A co-worker asked if I could go help a woman in the Newsstand. "She's blond and she's wearing black," she said. I headed over to the magazines, and saw a woman, about 5'8", neat, short blond haircut, wearing a black dress and black pumps. She was holding a notebook.

"Do you need help finding something?", I asked.

"I do," she said, quickly, glancing at her notebook. "I need some magazines, and I can't find some of them. Do you have Audubon, American Cowboy, Sport Fishing, Saltwater Sportsman, US News, and Popular Mechanics. Those are the only ones I haven't found." She seemed rushed.

"Okay, let's see what we can find."

We looked for the magazines and found a few of them. As we did, she crossed them off her list. She had a huge stack of magazines she'd already found, and took them up to the register. I didn't ring her up, but overheard the cashier tell her the total - over $240 - and she asked her why she was buying so many, was it for work?

Evidently so! She was buying magazines for a private jet. They do this every month, she said. They buy a variety of different magazines to have on the jet so that those who fly have plenty to read. She said that she usually isn't the one who does this (which might explain her seeming rushed), she's filling in for the person who usually does the monthly magazine buying. For the private jet.

This was a first!

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Wonder Bar

2011-08-29T05:30:00.000-07:00

A woman came up to the Information desk. She was about 5'10", maybe in her 60's, wearing a black, drapey shirt, with a bright pink and green scarf around her neck. Her hair was highlighted and windblown and she had lipliner with the lipstick faded out.

"I'm looking for a book," she said, "and I don't know the author. I'm pretty sure the title is Wonder Bar. I read about it, it's Wonder Bar."

"Hmm," I say as I check our system for the title. "I don't know that one, and that title isn't coming up in our system...could it be perhaps, Wonder Boys? Or Tender Bar? Those titles are similar..."

"No. Neither of those. It's fiction, I know that. It's Wonder Bar. I wish I could remember the author." she says.

"Well, let me look on the internet, see what I can find," I say. I search the internet, come up with no books with that title. "Do you know what it's about?"

"Let's see, it's about a boy who goes into bars and finds his father. No wait, he finds fathers. In a bar. Something like that." She waves her hand.

"Okay," I say, "I'll keep looking." She wanders away from the desk, evidently figuring that I won't find it. I search that basic plot line and come up with Tender Bar, which is a memoir about a boy who finds father figures as he spends time in a bar as he's growing up. I retrieve the book from the shelf and take it to her. "I think this might be it," I say. "It's not fiction, but it is a memoir about a boy who spends time in a bar and finds men who become father figures to him."

"That's IT!", she says. "Thank you so much!"

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What I've Been Reading in 2011

2011-08-26T05:15:00.000-07:00

Listed below are the books I've read in 2011...with a few comments thrown in for good measure!

Read in 2011:
The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan (read the blog post!)
Incendiary by Chris Cleave
The Absent Traveler by Randall DeVallance
Bloodroot by Amy Greene
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua (read the blog post!)
Chocolate Wars by Deborah Cadbury (yes, THAT Cadbury! read the blog post!)
Annabel by Kathleen Winter (I know I blogged about this, and I still love this book)
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Delirious by Daniel Palmer
Blood, Bones, and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton
Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell (Not my favorite Vowell book)
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (about a girl growing up in a family of alligator wrestlers - quirky)
Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz and David Hayward
P.S. I Love You by Cecilia Ahern (Pretty fluffy, but sweet)
Shadow Tag by Louise Erddrich
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simpson (I quite enjoyed this)
Among the Missing by Dan Chaon
Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum
Needful Things by Stephen King
Bossypants by Tina Fey (Didn't like it as much as I wanted to, and I'm a huge Tina Fey fan!)
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon (Therapist and I have both read this, and both want to read it again...intriguing, brilliantly done)
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh (read the blog post!)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante (read the blog post!)
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (What a great trilogy!)
When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman (I may have to blog about this one...very good)
Contented Dementia by Oliver James (read the blog post!)
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Big Girl Small by Rachel DeWoskin
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson (Great psychological thriller)
The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf (Really good, a mystery of sorts)
Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman (The new book being passed around at work, Tom Violet and his problems are similar, though not quite as catastrophic, as Jonathan Tropper's main characters.)

Reading now:
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (Oh, what fun!)
Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other by Sherry Turkle (A fascinating and insightful look at the impact of technology on our lives and relationships. Look for a blog post on this)

What are you reading now?

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Little Messages

2011-08-24T06:05:00.000-07:00

IF YOU BUY THIS BOOK YOU ARE A
CERTIFIED CONSERVITIVE ASS CLOWN

We found strips of cardstock with this message printed on it sticking out of several of our titles by conservative authors (and yes, on the strip the word 'conservative' was spelled incorrectly). This happens pretty regularly, though most often the little messages usually slam liberal leaning books.

We find religious tracts in books by liberal authors, or in the Gay/Lesbian section of our store. People will move copies of The Bible to The New Age section, or place a Bible in front of a book about a liberal president or politician. They might turn all front facing books of a particular title backward, so customers can't see the title. It's as though they think that their strategically placed messages will change people's minds. Or maybe it's just to get people riled up.

At the store, we find it kind of amusing to see what people come up with to try to get their message across. I have to recommend spell-check, though.

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Sending Books Away

2011-08-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

I've sent some books away in the mail. Most often when I do this, it's books we've read that we're done with. Of course there are books that have come into our lives that we can't part with, or can't part with just yet. There are many, however, which have come into our lives for a brief time, and sometimes we feel as though we know just who to send them to.

There is Vanessa Diffenbaugh's THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS, which I'm sending to a friend who makes amazing sugar flowers for wedding cakes (see her blog at petalsweet.blogspot.com). The flower connection between her wedding cake flowers and this book is just too good to pass up.



Tina Fey's BOSSYPANTS came into my life through bookcrossing.com...sent to me as a random act of bookcrossing kindess (thank you icekween01!). This book has been sent to another bookcrosser who has wished for it.



Sherman Alexie's THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN is also going to a bookcrosser.



I am sending a Dover book of pictures of travel posters and postcards to a good friend and crafter. It was on a clearance table at work and has a picture of a poster of a mountain near where we grew up. I'm hoping she can use the pictures in some wonderful craft project. She is also a blogger! Her blog can be found here: diannefaw.wordpress.com



Seeing well-loved books on my bookshelf is wonderful. Passing books along to someone else is also wonderful. I love knowing that they will fall into other book lovers' hands.

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Customers 26

2011-08-16T19:46:00.000-07:00

Favorite customers one day:
Audrey, a woman in her late 70's or early 80's, grey hair, wearing a light blue sweater and using a cane, puts her books up on the counter and tells me she has to move into one of "those retirement places". "It'll be fine," she says, "but I won't have as much room for books as I have now." She puts her hand on her heart and says, "And I have to read!"

A caregiver brought Geraldine into the store. Geraldine is in her late 90's, her long white hair is pinned up on her head, and she was wearing a blue and pink checked shirt. She uses a walker, and is so stooped, she's almost at a 90 degree angle to the floor. She's hard of hearing, her speech is hard to understand. Her caregiver says she would like to see an atlas, a world atlas as a gift for her brother, who is turning 90. And do we have any large picture books of Japan? He would like that as well. She would also like a book on Spanish verbs. She is fluent in Spanish, but would like to brush up on some verbs.

Riley, about 9 years old, came up to me and told me he was having problems with his e-reader. He'd already called the customer support line, and they'd talked him through a factory reset of his device and it still was having problems. His mom was standing back a bit, there to offer help if needed, but letting him do all the talking. He explained the problem to me and told me about what he'd done so far to get help. We did some troubleshooting and then helped him get a replacement. Quite impressive for a 9 year old!

The customer who, when telling me how to spell her name which had several S's in it, said:
"C as in 'candy', A as in 'apple', S as in 'sunshine', S as in 'sunshine'...

The couple buying a shopping bag with a picture of a cover of To Kill a Mockingbird on it who said:
"...and the best thing about getting this bag is that she can use this bag for trick-or-treating, because she's dressing up like Scout for Halloween!"

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Scent of the Missing and a Stroke

2011-08-10T06:01:00.000-07:00

A woman with short dark hair, wearing a black linen dress wrapped in a large purple scarf came to the counter. She saw SCENT OF THE MISSING, which I have displayed next to my register.

I told her about the book, how Susannah Charleson trained Puzzle, the dog on the cover, to work Search and Rescue, how hard the training is, how amazing it is what the dogs can do.

"I know, dogs are amazing," she said. "I had a lab, well, I've had two labs. The yellow lab I had before was wonderful. I've had three strokes. After one of them, I was using a walker. At the same time, my in-laws were also using walkers. When we came into the house, the dog would come greet us, and back up in front of all of us, backing, backing, until we were all seated. She was keeping an eye on all of us, making sure we made it to the seat safely. She knew we were fairly precarious!"

"Oh, wow. That's wonderful, what a great dog."

"Yes, I miss her. Now I have a chocolate lab, and he's also amazing. After another one of the strokes, one of my legs would tremor really badly. When it did that, he would come and lay his body on top of my leg. And it would stop the tremor." She shakes her head and smiles, remembering. She reaches out and touches the cover picture of Puzzle. "I think I need to buy this. It would be good for me."

I happily sold her a copy.

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Some Book Link Changes on the Blog!

2011-08-07T12:05:00.000-07:00

I'm having to go through all the blog posts and re-do some of the book links. Barnes and Noble has discontinued their affiliate program, so all of the book covers that previously linked to Barnes and Noble will now be linked to Amazon.

It's too bad, Barnes and Noble has a significant online book ordering presence. I'm not sure what precipitated their decision to do away with their affiliate program, I'm just complying with their request to remove the links.

As the links are being changed, I have to republish the individual blog posts. I am hoping that they just reappear under the original dates they were posted. I apologize for any inconvenience or awkwardness in the blog!

Thanks for understanding!

Good Reads!

2011-08-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

What good books I’ve been reading lately!

I just finished BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP by S.J. Watson. At first we’d only gotten a few in at the store. It was selling quickly, so when we got more copies in, I got one.

When Christine awakens every morning, she has no memory of her life in the present time. She remembers herself as a child and a young woman, but has no recollection of the past 20 (or so) years of her life. She wakes up next to a man and has no idea that he’s her husband. Each day is a challenge of remembering, piecing her life back together…until she goes to bed and forgets it all over again. How did this happen? Can she get better? I won’t say more about the story, too much information would spoil it. Great read!



I also recently read The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. It’s been selling like crazy and everyone who has read it that I’ve talked to really liked it, staff and customers alike. Shelved in the “Teen” section, schools are even making it a reading requirement.

And well it should. It’s a stunning premise. Set in the future, the United States is no more. Katniss and her family live in District 12, the coal mining district. Every year there is a contest. Two teen-agers are chose from each district and the people in control orchestrate Hunger Games, where the children fight to the death. The last teen alive wins. This barbaric tradition began as a way to remind the people in the districts who is in control. I liked this much more than I thought I would. Definitely worth the read!



A customer recommended THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE. She, a recent transplant from Atlanta, came to our store to connect with a bookstore in her new neighborhood. Short-ish, short brown hair, wearing cargo shorts and talking really fast, she told me that this was her favorite book. Ever. I’d been looking at it for a few weeks and finally just bought it. I’m about halfway in and am enjoying it.

Calli, a seven-year-old girl who doesn’t speak, is missing. So is her best friend, Petra. Why doesn’t Calli speak? Why are they missing? Will the girls be found? Told from several points of view, including Calli’s, Petra’s, Calli’s mother, the deputy sheriff in charge of the investigation, Calli’s brother, and Petra’s father, I get deeper into the families and their stories and am really enjoying it.



I just bought a copy (finally) of Erik Larson’s DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY. I’ve heard (for years!) how good it is, that it is non-fiction, but that it reads like a novel. He has a new book out, which has been selling well. One of my co-workers also decided to finally read DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY and says it’s as good as everyone has been saying. All right then!



What are you reading?

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Customers 25

2011-07-29T05:55:00.000-07:00

A woman asked me to try and find a book. She thought the author's name was Michelle Mitchell. She said it was a book about people who'd abused animals and when they died, they met St. Peter at the gates of heaven and he sent them back to Earth as animals, to live with the families of the people whose animals they'd hurt. I searched our in store search and I searched on google, using every combination of key words I could think of and didn't find anything even close. She heard it from a receptionist at her doctor's office. She has another appointment next week with that doctor. She'll ask the reception then for more information.

*******************************

I hung up on someone today...I answered the phone like I usually do..."Thank you for calling [our business], this is [my name], how can I help you?" The caller said, "I'm looking for some gay porn. [my name], I need you to help me find out more about this. Tell me what you have in gay porn." I said, "We can't help you with that," and hung up on him.

This brought up a discussion among us, there are people who call, who seem to like to make us uncomfortable about sexual things. One man calls and if a female bookseller answered would ask about a book (and yes, this is a real book) titled, A Hand in the Bush, (and yes, probably whatever you're thinking it's about is correct). He'd ask the bookseller to read the back cover to him. "Twyla" never fell for it, and was disgusted that he'd even ask. She would tell other booksellers that they didn't have to read sexual descriptions to callers. Not part of our job description.

*******************************

A man calling the store asked for a book titled (I thought) Life Without Limbs. I started looking it up and the caller said..."The title is Life Without Limits." I looked it up and found the book called Life Without Limits. It's about a man who doesn't have any limbs, Nick Vujucic.

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Contented Dementia?

2011-07-24T18:24:00.000-07:00

At work the other day I was pulling expired holds off the shelf. One book caught my eye, CONTENTED DEMENTIA.

The title alone intrigued me. Contented dementia? My mother had dementia and early on my mother was contented at times, though she was distressed more often as the dementia progressed. Contented dementia sounded like a great idea. I wanted to know how they thought that could happen.

I read a few pages...and I liked it.

It made so much sense. They talked about how people with dementia cannot store new information, even something they did two minutes ago is not in their memory, because it never entered their memory in the first place. People with dementia do remember things from long ago, however, and this is where they say to direct any conversation.

People with dementia are often frustrated and scared with their current daily situations, because most people try to orient them to the present, which is almost impossible for them. They don't remember why they have the umbrella or if it's appropriate to have tea. Keeping them oriented to their past anchors them to somewhere they can function competently. Are they functioning in the present world as we'd like them to? No, they aren't. They are not able to interact with us right here right now. The authors' premise is that it's caregivers and families expectation that they do so that causes them so much distress and us frustration. This book helps us relieve their distress by allowing them to be, in their minds, where they are most comfortable.

Even though I didn't know about the process presented in this book when my mother was alive, I tried to do this some with my mom (with a lot of help from Therapist!). If mom brought up something from the past, I'd just go there with her in the conversation, even if it didn't make sense to me in the present. This did seem to help her and calm her.

I wish I'd had this book when she was alive. I don't know if we could alleviated all her distress, but I think we could have done more. And I would have felt more competent having this extremely helpful guidebook.

And family? MY family? Anyone who is going to be caring for me when I get old and decrepit? If you are reading this please note, if I ever get dementia, I want be cared for in this way.

Note: I am still selling Susannah Charleson's SCENT OF THE MISSING for the 100 book handsell challenge (and it's doing really well!). I may add CONTENTED DEMENTIA as a second title. The only problem is, there aren't even 100 copies of this book in warehouses in the U.S., perhaps because the authors are from Britain. I hope this book gains more exposure here. I'll see if I can help with that.

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Dementia - And a Mystery...

2011-07-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

In TURN OF MIND, Dr. Jennifer White, main character and narrator, is a 65 year old woman. She is accused of murdering her best friend. She has dementia and doesn't remember doing this. Did she do it and just forget? Is she capable of murdering her best friend?

Written from Jennifer's point of view, it was a little hard to get into. Perspectives and points of view changed frequently, so keeping track of what was going on took some attention - just as, I'm now thinking, it is with a person with dementia.

I was interested in the premise and wanted to see how it played out. It took me several tries to get into it, partly because of the fragmented narration, but mostly because reading it brought up feelings and memories of my own mother's dementia.

Though my mother died three years ago, Jennifer's inconsistent remembering, her gradual yet inevitable forgetting of who her children were, and her almost constant confusion mirrored my mother's. LaPlante did a good job of depicting a person with dementia, as well as the people in her life.

That aside - and I realize those were a couple of strong paragraphs of what was hard about the book - I enjoyed the story. Alice LaPlante crafted the narrative with skill, a challenging task when working with a character with dementia. She kept the mystery going, as well as letting us get to know her and the people in her life. These are people we got to know, even as Jennifer was losing her connections to the people she loved.

Did she murder her best friend? That I'll leave you to find out when you read it!

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Customers 24

2011-07-18T10:35:00.000-07:00

Dr. Johnson (see May 17, 2011 blog post, Customers 22) came in. As usual he was nicely dressed, a long overcoat (yes, it's July and yes, he needed the coat) and a bowler hat and a cane. B. saw him as he approached the counter. As he does to many customers, he offered a compliment and said, "You look snazzy today, you look good."

Dr. Johnson looked B. up and down, never meeting his eyes, sneered at him, made a sound of disgust and walked away.

************************

A stooped woman, early to mid 70's, short, slept-on grey hair, a light blue pullover shirt and jeans, comes up to the counter, faces this book toward me as she puts it on the counter.

"Do you have music?", she asks.

"We don't have a full music department, we do have about 30 different CD's on the display just behind you," I answer.

"You don't have music, but you have THIS," and she gestures to the book on the counter.

"Is this important? Is this good for America?", pointing again to the book. "Is music good for America? Yes it is. So you don't have music, but you have books like this." She shakes her head. "If you think you're getting my business, you can forget it," she says, walking away.

Twenty minutes later she comes up to my counter and purchases a calendar, saying nothing about music or guns or America.

**********************

A man came to E's. register. He held up his hand and slowly passed it in front of E's face. "You will give me 30% off of the item of my choice," he said, in an Obi-Wan Kenobi "These are not the droids you are looking for" voice. Unfortunately he wasn't a Jedi, so he didn't get the discount.

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Tantric Sex...for Dummies?

2011-07-12T11:41:00.000-07:00

A man, in his early 30's, dark hair, long dark mustache, came up to the Info desk. "Twyla" was there.

"I'm looking for a book, TANTRIC SEX FOR DUMMIES, do you have it?"

Twyla looked in the computer, "I don't see that exact title..." she said.

"Oh," he said, disappointed. "Are there any other books about tantric sex?"

"There are, right over here," she takes him to the section and leaves him to browse. About ten minutes later he came back up to the desk...

"You were right! There wasn't TANTRIC SEX FOR DUMMIES, I was wrong about the title, but this is the book I was looking for, the IDIOT'S GUIDE TO TANTRIC SEX, not TANTRIC SEX FOR DUMMIES! Sorry I was wrong about the title, but this is it! Isn't this great?!"

"That is great, glad you found it," she said.

"This is perfect, just what I wanted, see? Look at the pictures!", he leaned in to show her.

She quickly leaned away and busied herself with a stack of books. "I'm glad you found it," she repeated. "You can pay for it up front at the register."

Sometimes people want to share way more than we want to see.

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What Did She REALLY Want?

2011-07-09T11:56:00.000-07:00

J. was walking in the front of the store and saw a woman standing there, seemingly looking for something.

"Can I help you find something?", she asked.

"I am looking for Ann Coulter's new book and I don't see it. I looked in Current Affairs and her other books are there, I looked on a New Arrivals table and it wasn't there. I can't believe that because she's conservative, you don't carry her newest book."

"Well, actually, we do have her new book, and we carry her books." She points to the Best Seller bay, picks up Ann Coulter's book, DEMONIC, where there are about 20 copies and hands it to her. "It is a best seller."

"It's 30% off!", the woman says surprised. "You're not even charging full price for it?!"

"Ann Coulter's book is one of our best sellers. All of the best sellers are discounted 30%."

The woman literally harrumphed.

It seemed that the woman wanted to confirm her ideas about bookstores being slanted politically more than she wanted to find the book.

You can send email to: 2of3RsATgmailDOTcom, or comment on the blog itself. Thanks for stopping by!

We've got the Bipolar Disorder

2011-07-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

Before my partner's mom had a stroke, she helped her husband manage his bipolar disorder and OCD. Now that she is impaired from the stroke, his condition has been rearing its ugly head.

Compulsions, black and white thinking, badgering, anger...these have all been permeating the house, changing the focus away from mom's recovery from the stroke to having to focus on him and his emotional volatility.

I end up feeling frustrated and helpless.

And so I turn to my friend, Julie Fast.

I met Julie in a writing group, where we worked together for over a year. She wrote her first book, LOVING SOMEONE WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER during that time. She is herself suffers from the illness and is unable to take most bipolar medications. She has spent years figuring out how to manage living with the illness. She developed a treatment plan that is adaptable to everyone's own individual situation, which she discusses on her website, bipolarhappens.com. (isn't that a great name?)

We've lost touch over recent years, my own mother had a stroke and declined in health, the writing group disbanded, she's doing her writing and work, and I'm doing mine. I did buy her books as they were released, buying them to support her as an author. I never planned on using them myself.

But here we are, with bipolar disorder in the family, and I have been combing her books for guidance on how to deal with this disease.

In one of her books, TAKING CHARGE OF BIPOLAR DISORDER, Julie has a chapter about The Bipolar Conversation.

She talks about how bipolar disorder affects people's brains and how they interact with others. When people with bipolar disorder are 'ill', they might get depressed, and say that life isn't worth living. Or they might get angry and lash out. Or they might get paranoid and think that people are after them. Their emotions are uncontrollable. The words they say aren't an accurate reflection of their lives, rather they are an expression and indication of their unmanageable emotions.

Her point in the chapter is that reasoning with people when they talk this way doesn't work. Trying to explain that nobody is after them, or that their life IS worth living does nothing to help the person get out of that mindset, nor does it help the person doing the rationalizing.

The person with bipolar gets stuck going around and around confirming what they said and the person trying to talk with them gets frustrated because they perceive the other person's conversation as unreasonable. Frustration all around. Sometimes, she says, relationships are lost or broken because of this difficulty in communication.

Her suggestion in this chapter is not to try to argue with the person about the specifics of what they are saying - their life isn't worth living (yes it is!), they don't have friends (you have lots of friends!), but instead to focus instead on the illness. This is how the person talks when bipolar disorder is unmanageable and they are 'ill'.

Better, she says, to say things like "This is how you sound when you're depressed. (or feeling paranoid. or manic.) Let's see how we can help get you out of the depression" (go for a walk, see a movie, go out for coffee).

One of the keys (and I don't think this can be emphasized enough) is to talk about this with the person with bipolar disorder BEFORE they are 'ill'. Before there is a crisis. Before something triggers their spiral into depression or anger or paranoia.

My stepdad in-law had a pretty major trigger; his wife had a stroke. It's not surprising that his illness is harder to manage at this time, that he's lashing out with anger, that he is obsessing about certain topics.

We have tried to work through logistics with him, seemingly simple things such as having their church deliver meals to them so they don't have to cook. This has caused him to obsess about diet and religion, two things he obsessed about before the stroke. When we tried to talk to him about this (and other things), he's gotten angry and unable to talk about it. We've been reduced to tears repeatedly, and he's carried his anger with him in the house like a scythe.

We've been trying to navigate the stroke recovery, AND his turbulent emotions. It's been hard to figure out how to help them as he alternately thinks he can do it all (he cannot), and realizes that he can't do it all but won't accept any help.

We've spoken to his daughter on the phone, who advised us to stop trying to reason with him, it doesn't work (that's for sure!).

When I read Julie's chapter on The Bipolar Conversation, I saw that that was what she was talking about too. Rational, reasonable discussion is impossible when his emotions are so turbulent.

Julie Fast's books are proactive and positive. She is realistic about the difficulties and challenges of living with bipolar disorder, and she gives concrete guidance. She stresses how important it is to work with the person with bipolar before there is a crisis to come up with ways to deal with the volatile emotions before they rage out of control.

This is not possible right now, we are right in the middle of it. So now we're trying not to trigger more emotions by not talking about his current trigger topics and doing problem-solving and logistics planning on our own.

Thank you, Julie, for all your help!

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The Language of Flowers

2011-06-29T17:15:00.000-07:00

I tentatively requested Vanessa Diffenbaugh's THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS through librarything.com's Early Reviewer's program. The title and the cover made me wonder if it was too sweet of a story for me.

The written description made me think it would be all right. Victoria Jones, a foster child from infancy, reaches 18 years old with no connections, no home and no direction. All she has is her love of flowers, and a lot of survival mechanisms that have not allowed her to develop personal relationships or connections.

Alternating chapters tell about Victoria's childhood in the foster care system and as a young adult trying to construct a life from a very rough childhood.

Part of her childhood was spent with Elizabeth, a woman who almost adopted her. Yes, that's almost adopted her. The reason why the adoption didn't take place adds a bit of mystery to the story.

From Elizabeth, Victoria learned some things about love and relationships. She also learned the language of flowers.

This language of flowers was new to me. Using flowers to express a particular sentiment gained immense popularity in the Victorian era (hence the main character's name, perhaps?), when it wasn't seemly to express emotion and desire openly. Flowers were used instead, each flower conveying a particular meaning or sentiment.

After she gets a job with a florist, Victoria uses her knowledge of the language of flowers as customers come to her for help with their relationship problems or wishes. She dispenses help through flowers, selling flowers that carry attributes they want to enhance in their relationships, jonquils to enhance desire to someone wanting a romantic relationship, or stephanotis for happiness in marriage in a bride's bouquet.

Diffenbaugh did a great job creating contrast between Victoria's toughness and her life as a foster child with the delicacy and beauty of the language of flowers.

Diffenbaugh is launching the Camellia Network to create a nationwide movement to support youth making the transition from foster care. Kudos to her for this project and this book!

This book has already been published in many other countries; its publication in the U.S. this August is highly anticipated.

(And thank you to librarything for the advance reader copy!)

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Buddhist help for a 16 year old...or a novel?

2011-06-25T09:21:00.000-07:00

E. came to the back room, started to search on the computer, then turned around where J. and I were talking.

"Do you have any ideas? There's a woman out there who wants something Buddhist for her 16 year old brother so he can get his life together," he said.

"She wants something Buddhist? For a 16 year old? Are there specific issues...like school?", I asked.

"She said their parents yell at him all the time," he shrugged. "She wants something Buddhist so he can read it and figure out his life."

"What about a novel?", J. said. "It's harder to find a non-fiction book for something like that, but there are lots of novels and kids can read them and relate to the experiences of the characters."

"My partner says the same thing. She doesn't think it's a good idea to help kids work through issues with a non-fiction book," I said.

J. smiled, "I am glad my point of view is validated by a professional!", she said.

"She said she wants something Buddhist," E. shrugged. "But I don't have any ideas."

"Want me to talk to her?", I said.

"Sure, that'd be great," he said, relieved. "She's sitting in front of the Eastern religion bay."

I head out and kneel down by the young woman. Blond, in a t-shirt and jeans, she looks 19 or 20. "Were you looking for something for your brother?", I ask.

"Yes. I am. He pretty much thinks he's worthless. My dad yells at him and tells him he's worthless and not going to do anything with his life, so my brother has pretty much assumed that's how it is. My mom just kind of ignores him, he had some behavior problems when he was younger and she just passed him around so others would take care of him. She never did. I'm Buddhist, and I don't care if he decides to be Buddhist, but I think it would be good for him to see what it's about and then he can decide. At least then he might know he has some options other than deciding he's worthless."

"There aren't a lot of Buddhist specific books that are going to be all that accessible to a 16 year old," I said. "There are some great books, but he might be more open to reading a novel, or maybe a biography about someone. Sometimes kids can relate better to fictional characters than to a self-help book that tells them what to do. I had a customer a few months ago who was looking for a self-help book to help his 12 year old granddaughter recover from being molested. My partner, who is a therapist, didn't think that was a good idea."

"No, it's not!," she said. "You can't get over something like that with a self-help book. I know. My brother and I both lived through that too."

"Your brother is lucky to have you," I said. "I don't know the details of his situation, but there are some novels that show kids coming through some difficult situations in their lives."

"I did find this one, and even if my brother doesn't read it, I'm going to keep it," and she showed me the book.



"Oh, he's great. That is a good one. Another book you might consider is by Sherman Alexie. He himself is Native American, and has a book, a novel, about a kid growing up on a reservation with abuse and so on and coming through it. Just recently there has been some controversy about teen fiction. Some people have criticized authors for writing about abuse and drugs and so on for teens. Sherman Alexie responded to the criticism with an amazing article about why he writes about dark and intense situations. He said that kids have lived it, they have to be able to read about it. He said he survived the horrors of his own childhood because of books. Anyway. His book might be a good one for your brother."

We walk over to the teen section and I hand her THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN.



"You can take a look at it. Another one that deals with some tough issues is THIRTEEN REASONS WHY. It's about a girl who commits suicide, but before she does, she records her reasons why she did it and sends it to the people who contributed to her feeling worthless, people who bullied her and so on." I hand her a copy.



"Okay, wow," she says. "These are good ideas." She pauses. "He wants to join the military," she said. "I really don't want him to."

I see E. walk by and I call him over..."Her brother wants to join the military," I said. I turn to her, "E. was in the military."

"I thought of another book that might be good...FINDING FISH," he said. Antwone Fisher had a horrible horrible childhood, abuse, poverty, you name it. He does join the military, and that's one way he got his life together, but he doesn't portray it as the only way. Joining the military helped me get my life together," E. said.

He hands her a copy of FINDING FISH.



"Okay," she says, thinking. She sees another book on the shelf, "What about this one?" She picks up ANGELA'S ASHES.



"That's a good one too. The author grows up with abuse and poverty, and he makes it out. He grows up in Ireland."

She puts her hand to her chest and her eyes open wide, "We're Irish!", she says.

I smile. "This might be good. The only thing is that the author is in his 60's or 70's now, so it's a little far removed from right here and now. But it is a good book."

She looks at the books she's placed on a table. "Now I have to decide." She turns to me, "Thank you so much, you've been so helpful. This is amazing. I wish I had enough money to buy them all. Thank you. Really."

"You're welcome. He really is lucky to have you," saying it again, wanting her to hear that. "Having a book might be good, but having you is better. Good luck."

Thanks for stopping by the blog! You can send email to: 2of3RsATgmailDOTcom.

A Visit From the Goon Squad

2011-06-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

Jennifer Egan's A VISIT FROM THE GOOD SQUAD has been selling well at the bookstore, which, as we know, is not necessarily an indication that it is a good book.

In this case, however, it is.

In the first chapter, we are introduced to Sasha. She steals. We see her steal a wallet from a bag in a public bathroom, and later in the chapter she talks to her therapist about the theft. She doesn't steal for the money or value of the items, she feels compelled to do it and stealing and having the stolen items gives her comfort.

In the second chapter, we get to know Bennie. He is Sasha's boss at a music production company, but in this chapter his relationship to Sasha is incidental as we learn about Bennie, a 44 year old, recently divorced man using a regimen of gold flakes in his coffee to ensure his sexual potency. Sasha is barely present here.

Each chapter goes on like this, introducing new characters who are connected to characters we've met in previous chapters, sometimes only tangentially.

In addition to introducing us to new people, chapters are often set at different times in their lives; one chapter is set when Bennie is a teenager but is told from the point of view of one of his best friends, another is told through one of Sasha's children's eyes set years after the first chapter where we first meet her.

Sound confusing? It is...each new chapter almost felt like starting a whole new book, who are these people? where are we? when is this taking place?

For the most part, I liked the different trajectories, figuring out how everyone was connected, and even liked not being able to follow each trajectory for more than a chapter. Sometimes, though, I did not want a particular chapter to end, I wanted to see what would happen next to those particular characters at that particular time.

One customer commented that she'd heard that the book was depressing (she was buying it anyway). I asked J., who'd first recommended it to me. "The characters aren't always redeeming," she said, "but I didn't get depressed reading about them."

And I didn't either.

While at times I didn't have the focus to start a new chapter and figure out who was who and when and where and so on (which maybe had to do with my partner's mother having a stroke and me not being at the top of my game in the focus department lately), I loved how Egan gave so much depth to all of the characters by giving us glimpses into their lives at different times and places. Well done!

You can send email to: 2of3RsATgmailDOTcom, or comment in the space below. Thanks for stopping by!

We Hope He'll Be Okay

2011-06-17T10:31:00.000-07:00

An tall older gentleman, 80's or 90's, neatly trimmed white mustache, wearing a blue fleece jacket over an oxford shirt and khakis, came up to the counter. He was purchasing THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS.

"I've heard a lot about this," he said. "I'm looking forward to reading it."

"Yes, that's what I've heard too. Everyone I've talked to who has read it has really liked it," I said. I told him how much the book cost. He slowly opened his wallet. Very slowly, the slowest I've ever seen, took out a credit card. Slowly. The transaction finally completed, I asked if he wanted a bag.

"Sure I do. You're not going to arrest me, are you?"

"Not today!" I said. He leaned over slowly to pick up a piece of paper.

"I'm going next door to get some coffee," he said.

"Good idea," I said. "Enjoy your coffee!"

"Thank you, I will," he said as he slowly raised his hand in farewell. He walked slowly out of the store. Nice man.

A few minutes later, a young woman came into the store and up to the registers. "There was an older man in here a little while ago? He just bought a book?"

"Yes, he was just in here," I said. "He bought a book and said he was going to get coffee."

"He's in the coffee shop and he doesn't seem to be doing too well. He's spilling coffee on himself. I just came over to see...do you know if he was with anyone?"

"I didn't see anyone with him at all," I said. "He just said he was going over to get coffee."

"Okay, thank you," she said, and went back to the coffee shop.

"That doesn't sound good," I said to "Twyla". "I'm going to go see if he's all right." I went outside and into the coffee shop. He was sitting in a chair, two women were holding him up. His eyes were closed. I could see his chest moving with his breath. He was not speaking. His color did not look good. One of the baristas was calling 911. The manager came over to me and said that they'd helped him to his seat, and one of the women came up and told them he was spilling and didn't seem to be doing too well. Knowing I couldn't do any good there, I went back to my store. Upset. Crying. Twyla gave me a hug and I pulled myself together. We watched the fire truck arrive, then the ambulance.

I finished my shift about 15 minutes later, and Twyla and I walked over to see if they knew anything. The barista who'd been on the phone with 911 was just coming to see us.

"They've taken him to the hospital, evidently he was just at the beginning of a major heart attack, but they were able to stop it. He'd regained consciousness by the time he left. I made sure he had his book with him! It'll give him something to do while he's getting better."

Relieved, and still a little emotional, I drove home. The next morning I stopped in to get my coffee. The manager saw me and told me that they have his name and know where he was being taken and they are getting a card. They'll bring it over for us to sign. Very nice.

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Go the F**k to Sleep

2011-06-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

What a great book!

Under the guise of being a sweet goodnight book for children, with beautiful artwork and (almost) cozy poetry, instead this is an expression of the frustration some parents (I did!) experience when their children will NOT go to sleep after being put to bed.

The following verse is on a page with a picture of a cat, kitten, and a lamb sleeping peacefully...

   "The cats nestle close to their kittens,
   The lambs have laid down with the sheep.
   You're cozy and warm in your bed, my dear.
   Please go the fuck to sleep."

As the book goes on, the verses get more frustrated as the parents try all the usual things - drinks of water and trips to the bathroom and lullabies and stuffed animals - to get the children settled for the night with no success...

   We're finally watching our movie
   Popcorn's in the microwave. Beep.
   Oh shit. Goddamn it. You've gotta be kidding.
   Come on, go the fuck back to sleep.

This on a page of a watercolor of a man in a kitchen and someone asleep on the couch under a blanket.

The pictures stay serene. The verses do not.

If you know anyone with small children who are frustrated with the myth that children should all go to bed easily (and who have a sense of humor) this would be a great gift. For the parent. Not the children.

I hear there is an audio version of this book, read by Samuel L. Jackson. That would be excellent.

Thank you for stopping by and reading the blog. Comments are welcome, as is email, which can be sent to: 2of3RsATgmailDOTcom.

Science Fiction...for a Math Project?

2011-06-10T20:28:00.000-07:00

A man came into the store. In his late 30's or early 40's, slightly graying brown hair, a close cropped beard, he was wearing a light blue shirt and jeans. He came up to the information desk holding a piece of paper.

"I need to know if you have this book. My daughter needs it for a school project in math. It's FLATLAND by Edward Abbott. So it should be in the math section."

"Let me look it up, I'm not familiar with it." I look it up. "Actually we have it shelved in our science fiction section," I said with some surprise. "And we should have a copy."

I take him to the section, find the book and hand it to him. It's a slim volume.

"Okay, thanks!", he said, looking a little dubious, though glad to have accomplished his mission.

The book's entire title is: FLATLAND: A ROMANCE OF MANY DIMENSIONS.

A science fiction book for a project for math class? I am intrigued. Since he bought our only copy, I can't look at the book itself. So I look in our book search system to see what it says about it.

The description says that it was originally published in England in 1884 and has been as influential in science fiction as H.G. Wells. Interesting!

The description went on…
"With wry humor and penetrating satire, FLATLAND takes us on a mind-expanding journey into a different world to give us a new vision of our own.

"A. Square, the slightly befuddled narrator, is born into a place which is limited to two dimensions - irrevocably flat and peopled by a hierarchy of geometrical forms..."

...and I was hooked. Now there is a copy on order for me.

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PPTSD

2011-06-07T10:52:00.000-07:00

Right before we closed last night, torrential rains hit the store, causing a leak in the ceiling. We had to move some books out of the way and cover the fixtures with plastic. I grabbed a stack of books and said the title out loud as I carried them to the cart...

"The Joy of Keeping Chickens"

"Joy?", said P., "I don't think there's much joy in keeping chickens."

(P. is a 27 year old former Navy medic, now studying criminal justice.)

He continued, "They can be mean. Especially if you're six years old. And you're trying to get their eggs. And everyone is watching. And laughing. They'll peck you. No, I don't think there's any joy in keeping chickens."

"Sounds as though there's been some chicken trauma in your past." I said, "Perhaps you are suffering from Post Poultry Traumatic Stress Disorder. Maybe you need to get some help with that."

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Is Scent of the Missing a God Wink?

2011-06-04T09:36:00.000-07:00

A woman, in about her early 30's, frosty long blond hair, wearing a turquoise blue shirt and a necklace with turquoise blue and brown wooden beads came up to the counter. She was buying two magazines. She looked at the cover of SCENT OF THE MISSING, which I have displayed by my register for the 100 handsell book challenge.

"Look at this!", she said. "Is this good?"

"It is, it's a wonderful book," I said. "It's about a woman who is a pilot and works search and rescue and she decides to get this dog (I point to Puzzle's picture on the front). She trains her to be a search and rescue dog. It's about her decision, her love for her dogs, training the dog, search and rescue; it's really great."

"You read it?" she asked.

"Oh yes. She already had six Pomeranians at home, then decided to get this dog for search and rescue. SO much hard work goes into training search and rescue dogs, I had no idea before I read the book. It's amazing."

"Six? Wow," she paused. "This is kind of incredible, but I am an occupational therapist and I'm going for six weeks to train dogs as service dogs. I'm not much of a reader, but I think I this might be a good book for me."

"It might be great for you," I said. "And what I like about this book is that it's not like each chapter is a cliff-hanger, you can read some and put it down and come back to it. There are also pictures..." I open the book and show her pictures of Puzzle in training.

"Okay. I need to get this. And just so you know, I wouldn't have gotten it if you hadn't read it." She paused. "Do you know the book GOD WINKS?"

I think for a moment. "It sounds kind of familiar, I'm not sure..."

"It talks about how little coincidences are really ways God is leading us in the right direction. I think seeing this book is a God wink."

"Oh, good!" I said. "Where are you going to train the dogs?"

"It's Bergin University in Santa Rosa, it's the only accredited college for training service dogs in the country."

"I'm from that area," I said. "I grew up in Marin and lived in Lake County."

"Oh. My. Goodness.", she said. "I think you and I could stand here and talk for an hour. I think this is another God wink. It looks like we might be moving down there. I moved a lot when I was younger, a military brat, and I absolutely love it here in Portland. I haven't wanted to move there. Do you miss it?"

"I love it here too. I do miss some people there. I don't miss living there, though sometimes I miss the weather. And it is a beautiful area and there is a lot going on culturally."

"Okay. I think I just need to make a go of it. Wow. I'm amazed that you were here and this book was here." She shakes her head and smiles. And she buys the book!*

I looked up the God Wink book, and Squire Rushnell is the author...

*I'm still ahead in the contest!

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The House That Mouse Built

2011-06-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

With the rhythm of the poem, The House That Jack Built, THE HOUSE THAT MOUSE BUILT tells the story of Mouse and his house.

Maggie Rudy created this enchanting mouse world using scraps and found objects. Each page is intricate and engrossing. Combined with her delightful story, this is a wonderful book.

There was one thing that bothered me about the story. Musetta, the mouse that Mouse marries, enters the story as a thief. She sneaks into Mouse's house and steals his cheese! She then runs away and gets stung by a bee (a very scary giant bee to a mouse!). Mouse hears her cries, rescues, comforts, and marries her. In the story he never finds out that she stole his cheese!

Overlooking Musetta's thievery, this book is absolutely adorable. And it probably was a one time event and she was starving and needed food. Or perhaps she has a 'problem' and is already in a 12-Step program. We don't know.

I am looking forward to more mouse adventures!

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Customers 23

2011-05-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

A tall man, late 20's or early 30's, clean cut brown hair, blue t-shirt and jeans came in and asked to pick up a book that was on hold for him. The title:   SHOULD I STAY OR GO?: HOW CONTROLLED SEPARATION CAN SAVE YOUR MARRIAGE.



"My mom put it on hold for me."

(Um, your mom?)

************************************

Perhaps if I were a Hannah Montana fan...but then again, maybe not.

A girl in a purple shirt, messy dark hair, and her right arm in a sling ran over to the spinner next to the Information desk. She pushed all the buttons on all of the Hannah Montana singing pens that were there, making them all burst forth with a different Hannah Montana song. And then she ran away.

"Stop it," came a tired voice from a woman in jeans, magenta sweater and a black floppy hat, sitting on the floor looking at gardening books.

"Why?" the girl asked, running toward a table under which she'd stowed another Hannah Montana singing pen. She pushed the button and yet another Hannah Montana song was released. The girl sat under the table and pushed the button again.

"Stop it I said," the woman said, not looking up.

"No! I like it!", the girl said back. She ran over to the spinner again, pushing all the buttons on all the pens again, and she ran away.
She circled back to the pen under the table and pushed the button again.

"I said don't do that," the woman said.

"Why NOT?" the girl called out.

"It's annoying," she said.

"YOU'RE annoying," the girl told her.

The woman got up from the floor and the girl came toward her, then dashed over to the pens on the spinner again. Pushed the buttons.

"Come on, we're going," said the woman.

(whew)

***********************************

A couple came up to the register pushing a stroller. They brought up three books, two children's books and War and Peace.



"A few things for the baby?," I said, pointing at the two children's books.

"Well, actually, they are all for a baby, just not our baby. Friends are having a party for their baby who is turning one. They asked everyone to bring books. They specified to bring something a little beyond where the baby is now, so she can grow into it. So we decided that War and Peace is a little beyond where the baby is now. So it's going to the birthday party." They smiled.

"Oh, that's great," I said, laughing. "I love it!"

You can send email to: 2of3RsATgmailDOTcom. Thanks for stopping by the blog!

Annabel

2011-05-20T12:39:00.000-07:00

I saw ANNABEL described on librarything.com and was intrigued. Unfortunately at that time, the book was not available in the U.S. sad. I wrote it down on my Books I Want List, where it stayed for months.

And then I saw it on a shelf at work! It looked just as interesting as it had when I first read the description. I bought it, read it, and was not disappointed.

In a small, coastal Canadian town, Jacinta Blake gives birth to a baby with both female and male genitalia. Treadway, the baby's father, upon discovering this anomaly, decides that the baby is to be raised as a boy, Wayne. Thomasina, a neighbor who helped at the birth knows about the genitalia. Jacinta knows. Wayne does not know.

Treadway very much expects Wayne to be a boy. Jacinta mourns the loss of the daughter she might have had. Thomasina tries to help Wayne, in sometimes unwelcome ways, become aware of his situation.

As his parents struggle in their own ways with raising this child, Wayne knows that something is different about him, but doesn't have any idea what it is. Awareness of his complicated gender identity is a gradual realization for him.

I loved reading this, as a compelling exploration of gender and gender identity - how does gender shapes us? How are we shaped by gender?

Fascinating questions, these, and I loved that this book explored this issue. More than that, however, I was captivated by the writing. Lush and rich, I was enveloped by Winter's storytelling from the very beginning.

There will be comparisons made to MIDDLESEX by Jeffrey Eugenides, as both deal with hermaphrodites, but that is where the similarity ends. ANNABEL is a much more intimate novel than MIDDLESEX.

While the ending was perhaps quieter than I might have liked, I loved the story and the writing. Stunning and luminous, this book will stick with me for a long time.

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Customers 22

2011-05-17T08:08:00.000-07:00

At the store we have our regular customers. Some of them are wonderful to work with. Others can be a little challenging.

There's the doctor. We know he is one because he tells us every time he calls or puts something on hold. He looks to be in his late 60's, is about six feet tall, has white hair and a full grey beard. He buys a lot of books, all first edition hardcovers, usually new releases of thrillers or mysteries. He calls or comes in regularly to order books or see what we've got in. A recent phone conversation I had with him went like this...

Me (answering the phone): Hello, thanks for calling, how can I help you?

The Doctor: This is Dr. Johnson. What have you got that's new?

Me (trying to think fast, knowing he likes thrillers and mysteries): Well, there's a new Lee Child book out...

The Doctor: (interrupting) I've already got that one.

Me: Vince Flynn has a new one...

The Doctor: I just finished reading that one, it's right here on my lap. I read it in an hour and a half.

Me: Okaaaay, let me head over to the new release bay and see what's there.
(I read off about a dozen titles. After each title I mention, he tells me he's already gotten and read it.)

The Doctor: I guess you don't have anything I haven't read.

Me: It doesn't look that way. I can go to the computer and see what else might be coming out soon.

The Doctor: No, never mind. I'll be in in a few days and look around.

Me: All right, well thank you for calling. (exhausted)

**************************

And then there's Nora Gibson. She is elderly, calls on the phone regularly to have books sent to her home. I know she's elderly because of her very quavery voice which is hard to understand. She's very sweet and is patient with us when we have to ask her to repeat things because we can't understand her.

My first call with her, before I knew who she was...

Me: Hello, thanks for calling, how can I help you?

NG: This is Nora Gibson. I've moved.

Me: Okay...(?)

NG: Would you like to write down the numbers? I have my member card number too. (ah! she's a regular!)

Me: Sure, let me get a pen. All right, what's your new address?

NG: I just moved. I didn't want to move. But I'm trying to let everyone know. It's been very frustrating. I didn't want to move. So. It's 1-1-(mumble)-6-(mumble) (quavery mumble)-gate Avenue.

Me: 1-1-(guessing) 2?...

NG: No. 1-1-(mumble)-6-(mumble).

Me: 1-1-(guessing again) 3?...

NG: (laughing) 1-1-(enunciating and saying loudly) 4-6-(mumble).

Me: 1-1-4-6-(guessing)8?

NG: No, no, no. 1-1-4-6-(enunciating and saying loudly) 9.

Me: Ah. 1-1-4-6-9 (guessing) Northgate (?) Avenue.

NG: 1-1-4-6-9 (mumble)-gate Avenue.

Me: So that's N-O-R-T-H-gate?

NG: No, it's (slowly and quavery) H-O-L-G-A-T-E Avenue.

Me: Ah (relieved). 1-1-4-6-9 Holgate Avenue.

NG: She laughs. Yes, that's it.

She gives me her new phone number as well and I have to ask her to repeat those numbers several times as well. THEN she says...

NG: I'd like to order some books. I like Alton Brown. I'd like his first two books, I don't have those.

I know that Alton Brown has quite a few books, and I don't know which ones came first. Sometimes it's hard to determine original publication dates because books get reprinted and show up in our system with the new publication dates. I look up Alton Brown, and try to ascertain which ones she wants.

NG: I already have (mumble) and Gear, so I don't need those. I want his first two books.

Me: All right, you have Gear for Your Kitchen and...what was the other one?

NG: (quavery, enunciating) Asphalt. I have those. I want his first two books.

Me: All right, So is it Good Eats: The Early Years? And Good Eats 2: The Middle Years?

NG: Yes.

Me: Okay, I'll get those ordered for you. (I take her credit card information, which again is a long, slow process, and finish taking the order). All right, they should arrive at your house within the week.

NG: Thank you so much!

A week or so later I find out that she's called because the books haven't arrived. Evidently we had the wrong address for her (!). Whoever talked to her that time got her correct address (hopefully) and corrected the order.

One evening E. came up and looked a little flustered. "There's someone on the phone, I can't really understand what she said, except when I answered the phone she said, 'I'm panicking!'"

Me: Did she say her name?

E: I think so, but I couldn't understand it. Her voice was really shaky.

Me: Was it Nora Gibson?

E: It might have been...

Me: Want me to take the call?

E: That would be great. (relieved)

I got on the phone and talked with her. Evidently she'd lost her credit card and was worried (very worried) about it. I talked with her for a while and she found it while I was on the phone with her.

whew!

Note: No one's real name has been used. Except Alton Brown's.
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First Call of the Day

2011-05-13T09:54:00.000-07:00

First phone call of the day…

Me: Thanks for calling, how can I help you?

Customer: I used to come in there and order books but now I’ve moved away. Can I order a few books and have them sent to me here?

Me: Sure. Let me look up the books and make sure they are available.
Customer: The first one is called The Parents’ Guide to Preventing (mumblemumble).

Me: Okay, the title is: The Parents’ Guide to Preventing…what was that last word?

Customer: (a little louder) (Mumble).

Me: I’m sorry, I’m not hearing you very well. Can you say that last word again?
Customer: (louder) (MUMBLE).

Me: I’m sorry, could you spell that for me?

Customer: Spell it?

Me: Yes, please.

Customer: h-o-m-s-e-x-u-a-l-i-t-y

Me: Ah. Got it. So it’s The Parents’ Guide to Preventing Homosexuality?

Customer: Yes. and I have another title. You can send them here? We moved to a retirement community up here. The next title is Can Homosexuality Be Cured? by MacNutt.

Me: Yes, both of those titles are available to order.

I finish processing the order and get his payment information. After I ring the order into the register, he says…

What email address do you have?

I tell him (again) what email address I have and he says…

Oh, that’s not the right email address. This is the right one.

And he gives me a new email address. I tell him I’ll send the receipt to him and hang up. Because I’d already rung the order through, I had to call our customer service line to get the email address changed. And I had to call them three times because they hadn’t received the order yet, so couldn’t change it in the system.

Therapist said that when he told me the second title I should have said, “Actually, I know the answer to that. You don’t even need a book for that.” But I didn’t. Instead I provided excellent customer service to a man buying books I absolutely disagree with.

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Hospital Reading

2011-05-06T16:10:00.000-07:00

Hospital reading is of a different sort than regular reading. Not that the books are different, necessarily, but the reading itself is different. There is a lot of waiting when someone is in the hospital - waiting for tests, waiting for results, waiting for the doctor to come by, waiting for meals, etc. And then there is picking up where one has left off after the results have come. And with the waitee's heightened emotional state of waiting for results or doctors for a loved one's condition...well, I've found it harder to concentrate when reading at the hospital.

When my mom had her stroke 8 years ago, my brother and I flew down and I brought Bill Bryson's (then) new book, A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING. He hadn't brought a book, so we shared it. The deal was, whoever was at the hospital got to have the book. We tag teamed it, with staying at the hospital, running errands, taking care of the house, and reading the book.

This time there is another stroke. A different family member. Different books. I'm reading NEEDFUL THINGS by Stephen King. Recommended by a co-worker - it's his selection for the 100 handsell challenge book.

What I like about Stephen King is that he sets up a lot of characters and their individual situations and keeps them all going really well.

Therapist said she thought it was one of King's creepier ones. I'm about halfway through the book, and it's getting bad. It seems like the situation is always getting bad with Stephen King. And I have a feeling it's going to get worse, way worse, in Castle Rock.

It's a good book to take to the hospital, and this time I don't have to share!

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"I Want to Read What Abraham Lincoln Read"

2011-05-03T10:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes life experience comes in handy.

T. came up to me, looking for a staff member who might know more about Bibles than he did. A customer was asking about which Bible Abraham Lincoln would have read. Formerly (a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away) I was married to a pastor, which gave me more than a passing familiarity with Bibles. I volunteered to see if I could help the customer.

The customer, a man in maybe his late 30's or early 40's, graying hair, beard, slight build, had an armful of books. He was standing by the Bibles. He knew that Abraham Lincoln read a lot, and he wanted to read the Bible that he would have read. There are so many different versions, he was feeling overwhelmed and not sure at all which to even look at.

I told him that Abraham Lincoln probably would have read the King James version, since that was the only English translation of the Bible at that time. All of these other translations, Revised Standard Version (RSV, which is what I grew up reading), New Living Version (NLV), The Good News Bible, etc., were released quite a bit after Abraham Lincoln was alive.

"What about the Catholic Bibles?", he asked.

"The Catholic Bibles (again, good old life experience comes in handy. I used to teach in a Catholic school) have more 'books' in them. The Protestant bible has 66 books. There were many who wrote about the Jewish faith (Old Testament), and about Jesus and his life and his teachings, both while he was alive and after, over time, there was much debate about which of those writings would be included in The Bible. It's still being debated, but the Catholics decided that more books, or more of the writings, should be included as part of the Bible than the Protestants, so the Catholic Bible includes more 'books' than the Protestant Bibles.

"Oh, I didn't know that," he said. "Abraham Lincoln read a lot, and I want to read what he read as much as I can.

"I know Lincoln wasn't Catholic (though at the time I didn't remember to what church he belonged - I just looked it up, he was raised Baptist and attended a Presbyterian Church as an adult), so my guess is that he read a non-Catholic King James version of the Bible," I told him. "The thing is, the King James version has pretty flowery language. It's kind of like reading Shakespeare. It's not always the easiest to understand, not always the most accessible for modern readers. There are LOTS more recent translations, all of which are trying to help the reader understand better AND be an accurate reflection of the original text. I grew up with the Revised Standard Version, and now there's the NEW Revised Standard Version, both of which are a lot less flowery than the King James version."

"Oh, wow," he said. "I didn't realize there were so many versions. So it might not help me to read the King James version if I want to read what Lincoln read?"

"Well, reading the King James version will give you a sense of what he read, certainly the kind of language with which he was familiar. It just may not be the most easy to understand version of the Bible for YOU."

"Ah. Right. Hmm. Well, I'll have to look some of these over and decide, I guess. Thank you so much for your help."

When I left him, he looked a bit less confused, though maybe more overwhelmed.

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