Weekly Billy Collins Fix
http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2007/03/weekly-billy-collins-fix.html
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Friday, March 09, 2007
Prom Reading (copy)
Window-shopping is best during springtime. The time when new formals, placed in strategic, teenage-alluring displays, set the trend for the season. In one glimpse, prom goers can register whether Easter egg colors, halters, or ruffles will be the hottest look.
Just last week, I drove by my favorite corner shop, when a yellow-sequence number blinded me. Like the brass pendulum of a hypnotist, I was transported to 1982 and my first prom. What joy! I was going to the senior prom with a senior.
So what you say? Well, I was a freshman at the time; making me the first in the group to dance with other seniors as the infamous “Stairway to Heaven” played in the dimly lit high school cafeteria.
Why was I special? My hair was “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” straight; one could take the point of a pencil and drag it from top to bottom without one tangle. My braces seemed to shine like rhinestones and my freckles brought to mind the infinite stars. Mother Nature served as the cruelest jokester, for the Milky Way crossed just above my upper lip.
I know what you are thinking, “Somebody asked me out?” My date was a friend and not a romantic Fabio. At 5’8” and 265 pounds, he more than doubled my weight. Are you getting the picture? I was going to the prom with someone equivalent to a big-boned cousin.
What if you feel some altruistic need to supply your friends with dates before yourself? That is Laura’s dilemma in Blake Nelson’s Prom Anonymous. The obsessive and compulsive prom organizer, Laura, schedules luncheons to go over colors to wear, suitable shoes, and “gaudiless” accessories—including dates. Being caught-up into organizing the perfect prom; she forgets to find a date.
In Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress by Tina Ferraro, Nicki finds herself jilted two days before the big event. What is she to do? She loves her “perfectly magical pink vintage dress,” and even though she will get a nice cash back sum, she just cannot part with it. Get a new date or beg and plead with the ex-boyfriend to take her back, Nicki is feeling the heat.
Both books are set to tickle any young adults’ spine, as they contemplate the biggest night of their high school life with humor. By the way, my 1982 prom date turned out to be super fun. After we made our appearance, we headed out to an all-you-can-eat crab legs shack. We both rolled out of the restaurant laughing.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Gardening Books (copy)
I love this weather. Our South produces surprisingly short and sporadic warm days in the middle of winter, which can revitalize a wilting soul. In this unseasonable spring, I start to envision the ultimate lawn and garden. My dreams of English roses and hedge mazes may be too grand, as our grounds never become the rosy, green vision.
Nevertheless, that does not stop me from dreaming or looking through new gardening books, to fuel my delusions. I recently thumbed through Publishers Weekly’s “Books and Garden” article, which featured 19 new selections.
The first book speaks volumes to my guilt-ridden, water-withholding, ashamed conscience. I must purchase, 37 Houseplants Even You Can’t Kill, by Mary Kate Hogan. (The title emphasizes the “You” by changing its color) Author Hogan claims she can rid readers of their “black” thumb. The opposite of green thumb, my black thumb is a genetic fault handed down through the maternal side. Imagine my shock when last week, despite my obvious indifference, a geranium bloomed in the house.
What if your guilt surpasses the house and extends into the yard? It is not hard considering; perfect photos bombard us from “home and garden” magazines and television. Author Janice Wells promises to break us free from the “tyranny” with her book, Gin & Tonic Gardener. The book jacket exclaims, “Spirited, funny, and filled to the brim with amusing gardening anecdotes and wisdom.” I imagine Wells’ wisdom as, “Have another G&T and watch as the garden grows,” albeit a little crooked. She may continue, “Pour leftovers on offending weeds.” What leftovers? I will need all the concoction to make my weeds less offensive.
A nice gift for your “lawn ranger” is Lawnscapes: Mowing Patterns to Make Your Yard a Work of Art by David Parfitt. The book promises to teach the art of mowing designs into one’s lawn. Parfitt demonstrates the proper technique to produce checkerboards, hearts, bull’s eyes, Celtic knotwork, etc. Wonder if he discusses the artistic hills one may create when releasing dead houseplants back to the wild?
On a serious note, I would like to tell you about the new reference book, The Plant Finder: The Right Plants for Every Garden by Tony Rodd. This tome, the biggest of the season weighing slightly less than five pounds, offers the owner over 5,000 of the best plants for any zone. In my case it makes a great coaster for the G&Ts and a perfect anvil to pitch at moles.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Classic Challenge Failure...
... as in I didn't read all five books, BUT I read one!
I read Billy Budd by Herman Melville! It's about time, too. I bought the collection of Melville stories when we got back from our honeymoon, over 16 years ago. The book is horribly yellow and crisp. I'm lucky it didn't disintegrate as I turned the pages.
Thanks ever so much to Booklogged at A Reader's Journal for this challenge. I got one more book read because of the contest! ;)
Saturday, March 03, 2007
A Random Reading List Meme
I got this meme from Amy at The Sleepy Reader. Wow, I realize now I haven't read the girly classic stuff. I'm such a bad librarian, I haven't read Wurthering Heights or Emma. :-) Also, where are the Southern (3) authors?
Look at the list of books below:
* Color green the ones you’ve read.
* Italicize the ones you want to read.
* Color red the ones you won’t touch with a 10 foot pole.
* Put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf.
* Place an asterisk (*) in front of the ones you’ve never heard of.
1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. +To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. +Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. +Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. +A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. +Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. +Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. +Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. +Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. +Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. *The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. +Bible (I dip in for inspiration but I will never read it cover to cover.)
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. *The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. +Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. *Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. +Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. +The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. *The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. +A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. *The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. *Not Wanted On the Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. *Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. *In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. +Ulysses (James Joyce)
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
3 Question Meme
I have been tagged by Paul at Shadow of Diogenes!
(1) Name a book that you just have to read. Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shelds! I have been saving this book for the summer. This way I can take my time and read it while away from work.
(2) When was the last time you met a famous author? Well, last month we had Robert Dalby speak at the library promoting his new book, Waltzing at the Piggly Wiggly. He's not big yet, but his book is rather enjoyable, and he has signed with Putnam publishing. His style is similar to the Dollar Daze series. I like to think he will be the next Clyde Edgerton. (One of my favorite Southern authors.) Dalby's second title in the Piggly Wiggly series will be out this fall.
(3) Who is your favorite Southern writer? Paul, that's like picking a favorite tooth; I need them all! I would love to say Harper Lee and be done with it, but Eudora Welty is my number one Southern writer. Her writing is filled with symbols and humor, and she is right on when it comes to characters. I am always delighted with her. I love Richard Wright, John M. Barry's non-fiction, and Mildred Taylor's YA fiction. Carl Hiassen isn't bad, either.
Any other takers? ;D
The Book Thief (copy)
Chunkster Challenge #1
I would like to introduce you to my newest friend. Her name is Liesel Meminger, and she is nine-years-old. Liesel lives in a little town called Molching outside of Munich, Germany. She stays at 33 Himmel Street, which is the home of Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Himmel is German for heaven, but her conditions are anything but.
When I first meet Liesel she is traveling with her mother and little brother. It is very sad. The little family is forced to leave their home because the missing father is known to be Kommunist. The whole trip is to ensure the children’s safety by placing them with foster parents until trouble dies down.
The only thing, trouble is just beginning, and it will be years before safety is felt. I didn’t tell you my new friend lives in Hitler’s 1930s Germany.
Tragedy strikes the family early in the story. Liesel’s little brother doesn’t make the trip. He actually dies during the night and has to be buried in Munich.
It is at this point in Liesel's life that she obtains a nickname. During the funeral she discovers a little book on the ground. It’s a silly little book, not necessarily a page turner, describing a 12 step program to dig graves. It obviously belongs to the gravedigger, but all Liesel sees is shiny gold lettering. She cannot read. So, the title means nothing to her; it is just an object that symbolizes her brother’s last day. She becomes the book thief.
The book thief, like many a thief, strikes at the most opportune time. Her second opportunity arrives when the town gathers for a book burning event. As a Hitler Youth she sticks around to clean up after the fire. To her amazement five books don’t burn, and she procures one when no one is looking. Unfortunately, in Nazi Germany someone is always looking.
I met the book thief during a recent bout with a nasty virus. She is the main character of Markus Zusak’s book, The Book Thief. It was nice to have such an engaging book during an awful sickness. Books mean so much more when a person is ill.
Listen to the Prologue as told to us by the narrator, Death: “It’s just a small story really, about, among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist fighter, and quite a lot of thievery.” This “small story,” written for young adults, will move anyone with a pulse.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Friday, February 23, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Driving with the Devil (copy)
Last week’s Daytona 500 was the most exciting in years. The two leads took themselves out of the race after 130 laps. Harvick’s photo-finish win against Martin was an incredible 0.02 difference. To top off the excitement, we watched agog as eighteenth place Bowyer crossed the finish line—upside down and on fire.
Can you believe stock car racing heralds back to straight-aways on a Daytona Beach? That is right; before we southerners had an oval, we had a hard packed beach at low tide. Someone had the brilliant idea to connect the parallel A1A Highway by cutting slanted curves through the dunes. This new course promised obstacles such as rogue waves and mud at the bottom of the curves.
The official stock car track, roots itself in a forlorn horseracing track at Lakewood, Georgia, not in Indianapolis. Indianapolis might have had the honor if they had not been so haughty. Indianapolis racing began in 1903 with cars made especially for the track. The officials frowned on the new V-8s and outlawed “whiskey trippers” from the track.
Most racers came from the foothills in northeast Georgia, Dawsonville to be exact. Daytona was too far to drive. These bootleggers lined up every weekend at Lakewood to show off police avoiding skills on the red-dirt track with a lake in the middle. For a mere fifty cents, one could lace their fingers in the chicken wire and feel the throaty Ford V-8s as they fought it out for a hundred dollar purse.
Neal Thompson, author of Driving with the Devil, has written about an exciting time in our southern history. He says most of the accolades go to Bill France, but that would be an injustice to the first promoter and original racer, Raymond Parks. In 2003, Thompson traveled to Parks’ home and interviewed the ninety-one-year-old legend.
In this book, the “real” story is told through first-hand accounts. The reader meets Parks’ superstar, bootleg-team, Roy Hall and Lloyd Seay, as they achieve certain notoriety for their two-wheel passes in the Daytona curves; and crusty mechanic, Red Vogt explains, “Money equals speed.”
Do not miss this book if you care anything about NASCAR. Each chapter packs interesting information and history. I found the race coverage to be like another notorious book, Seabiscuit. Ew, I can’t wait to try the 180 degree maneuver bootleggers used to evade the police.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Wow! Check out this Cover!
Thanks Tiffany!I hate to admit it,
but this one makes me nauseous.
Or, is it the flu?
I have to say, VERY Andy Warhol...
BTW, Tiffany is a SLIS alumni
who is doing great things as a librarian at
American Christian Academy in Birmingham.
God grant you the peace (patience) which passes understanding. ;)
Monday, February 19, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Finding Oprah's Roots (copy)
One of the perks of being a librarian is the simple act of helping others. I help patrons find tax forms. I help them research the side effects of certain medications, and I provide books for learning and pleasure. I even help them connect the limbs on their family trees.
As a public librarian, I just loved helping a patron from Texas or Colorado research their lineage. We pulled out all the marriage license and census documents and then looked alphabetically for last names. They became excited as they discovered new, unknown to them, uncles and aunts.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the same positive experience when working with African American patrons. I was eager to help them, but I lacked essential information to move further back than 1870. Our best bet was to use the last name and see if any white families had other than family members listed. If their race was marked black, they might, and might is a big word here, be kin.
Mississippi records, like many southern states, had a lackadaisical attitude toward black race record keeping prior to the 1900s. When African Americans were included in the list of others, they were recorded with nicknames. Amazingly, these nicknames were white generated, and they may or may not have been the name a person actually went by.
What happens when the richest woman in America decides she wants to research her roots? Does Oprah, raised dirt poor in the small Mississippi town of Kosciusko, have the same challenge a Chicagoan sitting in the Como Public Library has? Yes, even Oprah hits the same Civil War/Reconstruction period which becomes genealogy’s dead end.
Thanks to Henry Louis Gates, Jr., author of Finding Oprah’s Roots: Finding Your Own, I now have an informative little book to explain the problems and suggest other routes. All the money in the world cannot ensure accurate and researchable records. One really has to rely on family knowledge and lore to push past the annoying gap.
What paper records lack, can be made up in a cheek swab. Thanks to DNA results, genealogy researchers can now trace heritage back to true African roots. Oprah once thought of herself as a proud Zulu warrior, but her DNA said differently. As she now comes to terms with her Kpelle heritage, we are all the better for her journey. This is an excellent book for anyone ready to dive into the history of their people.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Reading Begets Reading, etc.
I love when one's readings connect without any guidance, purely happenstance. Jenclair at A Garden Carried in the Pocket was giving us readers a brief synopsis of her favorite Flannery O'Connor quote just the other day, when I stumbled on Flannery again in Driving with the Devil by Neal Thompson.
Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to never was there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it. ~ Flannery O'Connor
This quote begins the Preface and the first paragraph continues:
The notion to uproot my family, move to the South, and investigate moonshine, NASCAR, and the cultural and historical tethers that bind the two simmered inside me for nearly twenty years. It all began with a college course on the irreverent southern writer Flannery O'Connor, taught by a wonderfully foulmouthed, half-drunk Jesuit priest, which introduced my New Jersey eyes and ears to the mysteries of the South.
Etching by Jack Coughlin.
Well, come on down Neal, we need more Yankees in the mix. My husband hates being the only one.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Natural Born Charmer (copy)
“Love is in the air, everywhere I look around.(ah, uh, ah, ah) Love is in the air, every sight and every sound.(ah, uh, ah, ah) And I don't know if I'm being foolish, don't know if I'm being wise, but it's something that I must believe in and it's there when I look in your eyes.”
As the above melody lingers in your head, let me ask you, are you ready for Valentine’s Day? This year, it comes in the middle of the week, causing most people to put off the romantic dinner until the weekend. One also gets a little extra time to buy the chocolates and roses. Pshew.
The romance that occurs during Valentines can be yours anytime with a romance novel. The genre is one of the most popular, only taking second chair to mystery. Romance readers are devoted individuals who show their love by reading everything their authors write. They are so devoted; this article will woefully lack new information.
All romance novels share a basic storyline. Man and woman meet, something rips them apart such as an argument, relocation, or illness, then they are magically brought back together. Because the genre is age old, variation is a welcomed component. At a reader’s advisory meeting in Seattle last month, I found out vampire romances are going out of style, and the new trend is now werewolves.
If you are a devoted reader of this column, you may have noticed my lack of romance reviews. Well, it isn’t because I don’t like them. I will pick up a Susan Elizabeth Phillips in a heartbeat if I see one. This is why I avoid the paperback racks at Wal-Mart.
Good news for Phillips fans! Her new book, Natural Born Charmer, 
went on sale February sixth. Here’s some opening lines. “It wasn’t every day a guy saw a headless beaver marching down the side of a road, not even in Dean Robillard’s larger than life world. ‘Son of a ___’ Dean slammed on the brakes of his brand new Aston Martin Vanquish and pulled over in front of her.
The beaver marched right past, her big flat tail bouncing in the gravel, and her small, sharp nose stuck up in the air. Way up. The beaver looked highly pissed.”
As John Paul Young sang, “Love is in the air, love is in the air, oh, oh, oh, oh, uh, uh, uh, uh.”
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Non-Fiction Five Challenge
Yippee! New challenge out there, sponsored by Joy at Thoughts of Joy, that I can handle! Read five non-fiction books between the months of May-September.
In five months I will probably read twenty books easy. BUT, here comes the problem, I can't predict what titles they will be.
First, I get ideas from two great non-fiction bloggers: Rick at Ricklibrarian & Nonanon at NRA. Second, I order star reviewed non-fictions from Booklist, Library Journal, and Choice. Third, I write for the newspapers and usually pick books along topical/holiday ideas. Lastly, the newer the book the better, and since this challenge calls for an up-front list, new books may not be included.
Here goes my list...
- The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan
- Manhunt by James Swanson
- Mockingbird by Charles J. Shields
- Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler
- Things I Didn't Know by Robert Hughes
Found this at Bookie!
You're One Hundred Years of Solitude!
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Lonely and struggling, you've been around for a very long time. Conflict has filled most of your life and torn apart nearly everyone you know. Yet there is something majestic and even epic about your presence in the world. You love life all the more for having seen its decimation. After all, it takes a village.
Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Waltzing at the Piggly Wiggly (Discussion)
I think all attendees had a lovely time at Reading Round Table last Monday. Our guest speaker was none other than author Robert Dalby. The book discussion was a slight one sided since he was there; abundance of praise, reluctance to say anything negative.
We hold our meetings at the school library, which is in a dry county. For those of you, who are unfamiliar with blue laws, dry means the sales of alcohol is prohibited in the county. Dalby, born and raised in Natchez, MS, is from a tourist town that allows 24/7 drink. In the county I live, one over from the school, we have bars but there are no sales on Sundays or within so many feet of a church.
So what? In the book, our Nitwitts, on numerous occasions, drink Bloody Marys before noon. This is an unheard of practice in our area. Drinking in general is frowned upon and drinking before noon is down right sinful.
Therefore, the author endured some quizzing on the validity of these drinking characters. The Nitwitts are described as a group of widowed ladies with the youngest being fifty-five, and Dalby graciously put their minds to rest. Yes, these women are real (as fiction can be) and he grew up under their tipsy tutelage.
Another discussion point the group touched on was the disintegration of community life through MegaMart like stores. Loss of quality for quantity and low prices is a BIG theme in our area. Actually, our group really likes this time to vent, as we have experienced many conversations on the topic. The Nickel and Dimed discussion was along these lines.
Now, we had some participants that didn't even give the book a chance, assuming it was pure fluff. I attribute this to the pink cover and the unfamiliar author. This is regrettable for they will never know Mr. Choppy’s secret. ;D
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Sidney Sheldon (1917-2007)
“I try to write my books so the reader can’t put them down,” he explained in a 1982 interview. “I try to construct them so when the reader gets to the end of a chapter, he or she has to read just one more chapter. It’s the technique of the old Saturday afternoon serial: leave the guy hanging on the edge of the cliff at the end of the chapter.”
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