Mountain, Cloud, Water...Dance

Every year during the holidays, our stores choose a school, organization or agency that needs books for children. We ask customers if they'd like to donate a book to the agency that our store has selected.

Booksellers have set up displays, featuring books that people might choose to purchase and donate. The other day I saw MOUNTAIN DANCE, WATER DANCE, and CLOUD DANCE for the first time.

            

These are gorgeous books. The artwork is incredible, and each book gives a little science, though it's science told through poetry and art.

Any child would be lucky to have one of these books.


Clicking on the book cover will take you to Amazon's page for each book. Clicking on the underlined book title may take you to Barnes and Noble's page for each book. Purchasing through these links helps support the blog. You can send us email: 2of3Rs(AT)gmail(DOT)com. Happy reading!

Some Good Parenting on Black Friday

A man came into the bookstore with his little boy. The man, maybe in his early 30's, about 6'3" tall, with short brown hair, and wearing a red t-shirt with a blue pullover sweater and jeans, came to the register. His little boy, about five years old, wearing a dark blue raincoat, was blond and quiet.

"Do you have a piece of paper I can use?", he asked.

"Sure," I said, getting a piece of paper from the printer and giving it to him.

About ten minutes later, the man and the boy came back to the register. The man put a small Legos building set on the counter.

The man said, "He has something to tell you, but he couldn't say it, so he wrote it down for you." A co-worker and I moved from behind the register so we could see the boy. The boy handed me the piece of paper. On it, in large crooked printed letters, we read:

          "I'm sory. I stole the legos.
            I'm here to pay you back."

The boy looked at the floor.

We both started talking to the boy, "Thank you for coming back and being honest. The most important thing is that you were honest and you came back to take care of what you did wrong," we both said.

The dad picked the boy up and said, gently and firmly, "Did you hear what they said? They said that the most important thing was to be honest."

The boy tucked his head in his dad's arms, face crumpling. He couldn't look at us.

The dad pointed to the Lego set on the counter. "This is the same one he took, but he completely dismantled it at home before we knew what was going on, so we'll pay for this one and leave it here." I rang up the Lego set and he paid for it.

I tried to catch the boy's eye, "It's really important that you were honest and came back," I said again. "Thank you for coming back, I know it's hard," I said, my own voice breaking.

"Thank you," the dad said to us. "See?", he said to his son, "They weren't mad, they said it was good to be honest. We have to come back and fix things when we do something wrong," he said, making sure his son understood.

I still have the note the son wrote.

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The Language of Flowers - A Gift

I read THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS when it first came out. I really enjoyed Vanessa Diffenbaugh's story of Victoria, a florist with a rough background who learns about life as well as the symbolic meanings of flowers.

       

At the bookstore last night, a woman with dark shoulder-length hair, wearing a black jacket, brought THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS to the register.

I looked at the book and said, "Oh, I really liked this."

"I thought it would be appropriate," she said. "There's a woman where I workout who is just wonderful. She brings flowers every Monday to cheer up the place. She was just diagnosed with cancer. So I thought we could all sign the book and give it to her."

"Oh, wow," I said. "I'm so sorry. This sounds like the perfect book to give to her, though."

"Well, she always brightens everyone else's day." She shrugged. "It doesn't seem like much to do for her."

"I think it's a really nice idea."

"Well, thanks," she said.

"You're welcome," I said. "Have a good night."

That conversation brightened my day.

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

Vacation Reading and Releasing (part two!)

Our vacation was very relaxing, and very satisfying. Both of us got a lot of reading in, which was lovely.

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER by Stephen Chbosky was quite good. Recently made into a movie (which we haven't seen yet), a young man tells his story through letters to a mysterious "friend".

THE LIKENESS by Tana French, like IN THE WOODS by the same author, is a mystery. In this one, Cassie Maddox tells the story. A murder victim is found, but the victim looks exactly like Cassie, and was using an identity Cassie used as an undercover agent. How is this possible? Filled with twists and turns, this was a good read.

IF I STAY by Gayle Forman was lovely. Classified as a teen book, Mia, the main character, is in a car accident and is in a coma. She has to decide whether to stay and wake up, living with the horrific aftermath of the accident, or to die.

DEATH OF SWEET MISTER by Daniel Woodrell was intense and not so cheery. If you, like a few people we know (very few. okay, one), found WINTER'S BONE (which Woodrell also wrote) uplifting, then you might like this.

THE TWELVE by Justin Cronin is second in the trilogy he started with THE PASSAGE. There are vampire/zombie-like creatures (called "virals"). People die. Many people die. This has the extreme good vs evil feeling as Stephen King's THE STAND. Great vacation read.

Another way the vacation was satisfying was that we released quite a few Bookcrossing books (see this recent post: http://www.notthenewyorktimesbookreview.blogspot.com/2012/11/vacation-readingand-releasing.html for details about Bookcrossing and how one "releases" books).

We released three in the hotel where we were staying, one in the main lobby (Tana French's THE LIKENESS), one by the pool (I AM THE CHEESE by Robert Cormier). We went to a local spa where there were books in the waiting area and we released one of the books there (NEVERWHERE by Nail Gaiman). Two books were released outside in shopping areas (PAPER TOWNS by John Green and
We also released several books in airports, mostly in waiting areas by departure and arrival gates, two in the Dallas Fort Worth airport (THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER by Stephen Chbosky and AGE OF MIRACLES by Karen Thompson Walker), and one in Miami (IF I STAY by Gayle Forman).

                              

Releasing the books did give us more room for souvenirs!

Clicking on the book covers will take you to Amazon's web page for each book. Clicking on the underlined book covers may take you to Barnes and Noble's page for each book. Purchasing through these links helps support the blog. You can send us email: 2of3Rs(AT)gmail(DOT)com. Thanks for stopping by!