___Time to go a Visiting

Lynne at Lynne's Little Corner of the World is giving away an extra copy of
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

If you are interested or need it for the challenge maybe you can win it. Go see her and put your name in the hat!

While there stop and read her short review of Dollar Daze by Karen Gillespie for the Southern Reading Challenge.

Oh, tell Lynne, Maggie sent ya!

___Time to go a Visiting

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/05/time-to-go-visiting.html

Georgia Author Mary Kay Andrews

New blogger Angie of What is Angie Thinking? got an e-mail from Mary Kay Andrews this week! Pretty exciting and well humbling for me. I had no idea there was such a nice southern lady. Thank you for raising the rock I was under Angie!

This is an exert from author Andrews' blog:

Now, some writers absolutely hate the idea of a used bookstore. Not me. I know from experience that somebody who picks up a used copy of one of my books for a buck or two will usually decide they really need to buy my new hardback as soon as it comes out. Or, maybe they're a working mom or retiree who can only afford to feed their habit by buying used books. I'm good with that.

~ Mary Kay Andrews

Savannah Blues (2003)
Little Bitty Lies (2004)
Hissy Fit (2005)
Blue Christmas (2006)
Savannah Breeze (2007)
Deep Dish (2008)

Georgia Author Mary Kay Andrews

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/05/georgia-author-mary-kay-andrews.html

Name Your Homeplace Contest

*****

Fair Fields. That's what Henry wanted to call the farm. He announced this to me and the children one day after church, clearing his throat first with the self-consciousness of a small-town politician about to unveil a new statue for the town square.

"I think it has a nice ring to it, without being too fancy," he said. "What do you girls think?"

"Fair fields?" I said.
"Mudbound is more like it."

"Mudbound! Mudbound!" the girls cried!

*****

~p 95 Mudbound

Enter the first of five contests to win an autographed copy of Mudbound by Hillary Jordan!

To play, look around your surroundings and create a name that best represents the ole homeplace. Hubby and I bat this pretentious tradition around quite a lot; lately, we have declared a stalemate over Weed Haven or Mole Rest.

When you decide, write a post about the new name and leave a link on Mister Linky. The drawing will be May 30! Here's your chance to put on airs and have fun!

Name Your Homeplace Contest

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/05/name-your-homeplace-contest.html

Friday Night Pecan Winner!

Congratulations Nicola of Back to Books!

You won a magnolia tin chocked full of delicious Pecans!

Don't worry your shipment will be much smaller
than this giant pecan in Brunswick, MO, but the taste will prove HUGE! :D

Instead of Bon-Bons you will be able to read Tobacco Road
by Erskine Caldwell with Bon-Pecans!
Congrats Girl!

Friday Night Pecan Winner!

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/05/friday-night-pecan-winner.html

Jim the Boy (copy)

Quiet, episodic, and verging on nostalgic is how I explain Jim the Boy by Tony Earley. My gut tells me the story is similar to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series, but then again, not really. Earley’s book moves forward in the telling, but Wilder’s Laura is looking back in narration.

Since Jim the Boy is marketed to young adult readers, I thought it similar to Sounder by William H. Armstrong. Sounder is the simple story of a sharecropper’s son who longs for an education instead of the fields. The book is filled with symbols and situations only an adult with experience can appreciate. Not so much the symbols, but many young adults will misinterpret the slow, clean prose of Earley’s work as boring. In my opinion both books are targeting the wrong audience.

Ten-year-old Jim is growing up in Depression Era, small town Aliceville, NC. He lives on a farm with his widowed mother and three of her brothers. The Uncles, Zeno, Coran, and Al, combine efforts to provide Jim with a suitable father figure. His mother, battling depression, still manages to put on a brave face when Jim is around. All-in-all, readers will find they are a happy lot.

As in most ten-year-old boys, prior to the distractions of televisions and Game Boys, hometown is the epicenter of all things. One explores the fields, barns, buildings, and local faces with fascinating curiosity. When one attends the big brick school on the hill for the first time, it is progress. When electricity comes into town, it is life-changing. When the Express hits a cow while Ty Cobb may or may not be lounging on the train, it is earth shattering. The littlest of events become episodes catapulting one closer and closer to adulthood.

Jim the Boy begins with a small quote from E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web, “I love it here in the barn,” said Wilbur. “I love everything about this place.” Jim could easily say this about Aliceville. It is his barn which he loves deeply, and as he progresses through his ten years, each month spreads the love even farther by visiting the ocean and his grandfather on the mountain.

Jim is coming-of-age within his heaven on earth, and we the readers are allowed to bounce around on his fluffy clouds. Earley creates this fictional sense of place where things are quiet, episodic, and verging on nostalgic.

Thank you, Tony Earley, for this small, simply satisfying read.

Jim the Boy (copy)

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/05/jim-boy-copy.html

Y'all Ready for This?

Five Autographed Mudbounds Are Here!

Thank You, Hillary Jordan!

Author and Southern Reading Challenge Participant!

And One First Edition Dirty Work by Larry Brown (unsigned)!

I'm also talking with Finn author Jon Clinch...

So if you want to be eliable you need to sign-up.
Tomorrow we draw for Pecans!

Y'all Ready for This?

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/05/yall-ready-for-this.html

Southern Summer II (copy)

Continuing from last week’s article, here are more southern authors to boost our down-home pride.

Tunica native, Charlaine Harris, has a brand new Sookie Stackhouse on the shelves, From Dead to Worse. According to Library Journal, “Louisiana telepath and cocktail waitress Sookie barely escapes with her life when she becomes enmeshed in a struggle for control of the Louisiana vampires. At the same time, werewolf leaders begin a fight to the death, and Sookie is caught in the middle.” I reported last year that Sookie’s Southern Vampire Series would be appearing on HBO last fall; unfortunately, three full episodes remained in cans due to the writer’s strike. With that over, the series, True Blood, will be released this September.

Memphis is running promotional advertisements this month to encourage tourism. Como residents, Catherine and Douglas Taylor, are part of the push with their book Downtown Ducks. The couple, married at The Peabody, tells of perennial guests Clearwater and Abigail Duck as they make a daily commute from rooftop to fountain then back again. Catherine illustrates in vibrant watercolors as Douglas relates a fun tale through this charming children’s book.

Bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank is in top form with her new book, Bulls Island. This perfect beach book, set in South Carolina’s Low Country, contains scandal, intrigue, and the ominous old boyfriend. Frank’s publicist says, “She and her long-suffering husband, Peter, divide their time between the New York area and Charleston, South Carolina, where their two children are in college and spending every last dime they earn.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning, Alabamian Ricky Bragg is back with another installment of family woes. This time he aims pen at his horrible drunken father and newly acquired step-son in The Prince of Frogtown. We understand Bragg’s violent relationship with his father through All Over but the Shoutin'. Our question to Mr. Bragg, “Will he break the pattern?”

Virginia circuit court judge, Martin Clark, is launching his third novel, The Legal Limit, this July. Said to be the thinking and drinking man’s Grisham, Clark tells of family woe as one brother becomes a lawyer and the other a jailbird. Publishers Weekly said, “Clark…takes his storytelling prowess to the next level in what is his most substantial and thought-provoking work to date.” Note: Amy just reminded me, Clark's wife Deana has a picturesque and fun filed blog. Go say, Howdy!

Saving the best for last, one of my favorite southern authors is Clyde Edgerton. I started reading him after a local playhouse presented his book Walking Across Egypt. I then followed with the laugh-out-loud Raney and ended with his memoir Solo. Coming this August, to a bookstore and library near you, his ninth novel, The Bible Salesman, will witness his remarkable talent.

Southern Summer II (copy)

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/05/southern-summer-ii-copy.html

Southern Movie Meme

Here's a fun meme I stole from Lynne's Little Corner of the World.


The Rules!

1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies. (I picked 10 of my favorite Southern movies.) 2. Go to IMDb (Internet Movie Database) and find a quote from each movie. 3. Post them here for everyone to guess (if you know them all, please don't guess every one).
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie. 5. No Googling or IMDb-ing. (That would be cheating, and no fun!)

Remember, all these movies are set in the South!

1. Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
Maree, you know your southern movies! A+++ Gone with the Wind

2. They call me MISTER Tibbs!
Too easy huh, Jmnlman!?! Good Job! In The Heat of the Night

3. Anyway, like I was sayin', shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it.
This one is fun to try to mimic during mud-bug time, Debi! Ya done good! Forrest Gump

4. Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness, and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a knife, and our lives.
I think you know Boo, Tammy! Gold Star! To Kill a Mockingbird

5. Careful Maggie, your claws are showing.
I'm sure the set sizzled, Eva! Head of the Class! Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

6. He's got a real pretty mouth on him, don't he?
It creeps me out when my dentist tells me this, Diane! Well done! Deliverance

7. Looks like two pigs fightin' under a blanket.
And, I thought this one would be hard, Jill! Five Smilies! Steel Magnolias

8. Secret's in the sauce.
I get a kick out of this line, Sprite. W2G! Fried Green Tomatoes

9. Coffee makes me nervous when I drink it. Mmm.
Yes, Tammy! This was a hard one! Slingblade

10. Oh yeah, yeah I know my ABC's pretty good, just can't read.
TwisterB came a little late to the party, but it still is open! Driving Miss Daisy

Note: The photo above is King Vidor (1894-1982) who was a successful movie director of silent and talkies. In 1935 he directed a black and white southern movie titled So Red the Rose. The movie was based on a book (1934) with the same name by Como MS, native, Stark Young. They both achieved great success until another book (1936) and movie (1939) titled Gone with the Wind achieved even more.

Southern Movie Meme

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/05/southern-movie-meme.html

Have a Southern Summer (copy)

As a librarian, I take some criticism every year for promoting summer reading. Now, I know what you are thinking. That is crazy, right?!?

Well, some people seem to think I should be promoting reading all year. Um, I do! But, I admit, I do a little extra in the summer. People seem to have a little more time to sit down with a book and a glass of tea. There is less to watch on the television, unless one loves reruns. Vacations require books if traveling by air or train. The last two times I flew, I experienced two separate six-hour layovers.

This year, I wish to plug some southern authors to boost our down-home pride.

Richard Price, a native of Jackson, MS, and current writer for the HBO crime-drama, The Wire, has his eighth book out, Lush Life. Set in New York City, the main character Eric and friend Ike are walking down a city sidewalk when a kid pulls a gun. Ike’s last words are, “Not tonight, my man.” A critic for the New York Times Book Review believes Price channels Raymond Chandler and Saul Bellow in this grim noir.

Joshilyn Jackson’s website states, “born in the Deep South and raised by a tribe of wild fundamentalists” she writes an excellent southern story. Author of gods in Alabama and Between, Georgia, her newest book, the girl who stopped swimming, is no exception. Laurel Gray Hawthorne is haunted by a ghost, a small girl, the girl who stopped swimming.

Born and raised in North Carolina and current associate professor at Vanderbilt University, Tony Earley has written a sequel to Jim the Boy. In soon to be classic The Blue Star, main character Jim Glass is now a teenager and in love; unfortunately, his interest is unavailable Chrissie who dates Bucky Bucklaw. Ah, but Bucky is about to be shipped to the Pacific theater.

Looking for funny? Look no farther than Carl Hiaasen’s new nonfiction. The publishing blurb starts, “Ever wonder how to retrieve a sunken golf cart from a snake-infested lake? Or which club in your bag is best suited for combat against a horde of rats? If these and other sporting questions are gnawing at you, The Downhill Lie, Carl Hiaasen’s hilarious confessional about returning to the fairways after a thirty-two-year absence, is definitely the book for you.”

Pour the sweet tea and set a spell—summer reading is on the way.

Have a Southern Summer (copy)

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/05/have-southern-summer-copy_07.html

___Southern Reading Challenge Y'all!

UPDATE: Hillary Jordan, author of Mudbound, is donating 5 autographed books for give away during the Southern Reading Challenge. I think a Name your Home, Land, or Plantation Contest will be great fun. More to come...

To understand the world, you have to understand a place like Mississippi.

~William Faulkner

We moved to Mississippi in 1995 and I still don't quite get it. But, through reading southern literature in my rocking chair on the front porch, I'm getting closer to this sense of (strange new) place.

Come join me on the porch this summer and I promise you will meet some of the strangest characters you have ever read while scratching behind my big dog's ears.

It's time for our hot, sweaty summer of reading Southern Books! Are You Ready?!?

The rules are easy: 3 Southern Setting Books by Southern Authors in 3 Months beginning May 15 through August 15!

How can you pass this amazing challenge up? Incentive you say? A tin full of yummy tasting pecans will be sent to a lucky participant every Friday. I'll also be linking y'all's experiences as they come in, just like last year. Sense of Place Contest? Oh, Yeah! Dead Mule Society List? You Bet! Click here for southern book suggestions.

So, sign on Mister Linky with an address back to your 3 books and join me for sweet tea on the porch!

___Southern Reading Challenge Y'all!

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/05/southern-reading-challenge-yall.html

How Cool is This?!?

The author of Mudbound, Hillary Jordan, responded to my comment in LibraryThing! How nice is that?!? This is her comment, and the Faulkner reference is a nice local touch.

Many thanks for the kind words and for spreading the gospel of Mudbound! I had a wonderful time traveling around Mississippi on my book tour. My grandfather was from Oxford and knew Faulkner (in fact, the latter was in love with my great aunt at one time - he proposed and she turned him down) and it was fun to imagine them walking the same streets as I was.

Best, Hillary

How Cool is This?!?

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-cool-is-this.html

My Sister's Keeper (copy)

Why are we born? Why is anyone born? I know the technicalities, I mean I am thirteen, and listen when my older brother pontificates like a professor on the subject; but, the birds and the bees really isn’t my question.

I want to know why people are born. What circumstances led to their creation? This fascinates me since I am a special case, and unlike any other human in the entire world. So, my question remains. Why are we born?

From most of my adult queries, I can conclude mistakes happen. A little love (but not always) and plenty of passion (again, not always) produce alarming results nine months later. Yes, I realize there are planned pregnancies; but for me, I wish I was a mistake.

See, I was genetically designed—eliminated from a possible six eggs—to match my sick sister Kate’s molecular structure. My name is Anna, Anna Fitzgerald, and I am my sister’s keeper; a test tube baby born with the power to save a specific life.

At first I really was not involved. It was my mother’s unbiblical cord with its rich nutrients that sustained Kate’s treatment and put her into remission from acute promyelocytic leukemia. This nightmare began for her at age two; fortunately, she is 16-years-old thanks to me.

Over time my parents have allowed the doctors and nurses to take my platelets, leukocytes, stem cells, and bone marrow without asking. These “uncomfortable” procedures place me in the hospital for days recovering. I could almost say as much as Kate, but with none of the attention.

Now, they want my kidney, and again they assume I’ll give it without question. This is why I stopped by Campbell Alexander’s law office and now have a petition for medical emancipation.

Written in 2004 by Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper became a crossover sensation. Such as a country song that plays on pop stations, this book written for adults became a huge hit in the teen realistic genre. Among the many awards, My Sister’s Keeper was presented an Alex in 2005 by the American Libraries Association which honors crossovers.

The book is currently in production at New Line Cinema with Cameron Diaz playing the part of Sara, Kate and Anna’s mother. Ew, I cannot wait.

My Sister's Keeper (copy)

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-sisters-keeper-copy.html

I'm Challenged!

_____I decided to take on a couple of challenges for the summer.

First, I joined Joy at Thoughts of Joy for her 2nd annual Nonfiction Five Challenge. I vow to read 5 nonfiction books between the months May - September. Not really a challenge (I love NF) but a chance for me to gain a sense of accomplishment. You know, build my self-esteem. :D


Secondly, I joined a new (to me) blogger, Jeff at BearCastle, for his Science Book Challenge. For this challenge one has all year to read three science books. Jeff has been very helpful and his Book Notes section is excellent.

I've not spoken of this, but I'm a committee member of the Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners for American Libraries Association. Within this committee I am on a smaller Science and Technology subcommittee which will pick 25 S&T books for the list. So far we have 5 books we are considering, and we pick in June. Please, if you have any suggestion, leave a comment.

Thirdly, (and I'm so sorry I forget) I joined Nyssaneala at Book Haven's Neustadt Prize Challenge. This will be a real challenge for me! I'll try to read Remembering Babylon by David Malouf 2000 winner, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez 1972 winner, and I'm Not Stiller by Max Frisch 1986 winner.

Lastly, I'll be crankin' up the 2nd Annual Southern Reading Challenge soon! Stay tuned for further announcements.

I'm Challenged!

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/im-challenged.html

Year of Living Biblically (copy)

I noticed a theme running through recent books read. Most stories occur within a year time frame. For example, Mudbound focuses on the first year the McAllans dwell on the farm. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was written in a year by a victim of stroke who communicated through eye blinking. In High Cotton one follows Zack Killebrew through a full year of cotton production. Even this year’s book discussion choice, Eat, Pray, Love, takes place within a calendar year.

Continuing the theme, The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs, is packed with twelve months of entertainment. Author Jacobs is a writer for Esquire magazine and author of The Know-It-All where he read the Encyclopædia Britannica from A to Z. This new book is another daunting task which he manages to write without being sacrilegious.

Jacobs plans to spend a year taking the Bible literally and growing closer to God. First, he cannot decide which version of the Bible to follow, thus he gathers a stack: Revised Standard Version, King James Version, Good News Bible, Torah, and a copy of The Bible for Dummies. Secondly, he needs to omit dangerous rules. Any rule that ask one to cut off or gouge out a body part is skipped. If, by freak accident, he kills another man’s cow, he will pay for said cow instead of purchasing one to kill in return. Thirdly, he must breakdown the Bible parts to thoroughly cover all rules. His decision turns out to be the format of the book, eight months (first eight chapters) within the Old Testament and the rest within the New Testament. Lastly, he needs advisers such as rabbis, ministers, and priests with both conservative and liberal backgrounds. Furthermore, he promises to visit with, “the ultra-Orthodox Jews, the ancient sect of Samaritans, and the Amish.” On day 46 he actually out visits a visiting Jehovah Witness.

By day 62, Jacobs is becoming comfortable obeying rules; although, many like the wearing of tassels still baffle him, but now he faces Leviticus 20:27, “They shall be stoned with stones, their blood shall be upon them.” He knows legally he cannot heap stones at another person. His solution (loophole) is to gather small pebbles from New York City’s Central Park and pummel people. Every Saturday and Sunday he walks by the newspaper guy and chucks pebbles at the small of his back for not observing the Sabbath. The funny thing, the man never feels them.

After reading The Year of Living Biblically, I now have a better understanding of the word literal as it pertains to the Bible.

Year of Living Biblically (copy)

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/year-of-living-biblically-copy.html

Mudbound (copy)

My name is Mrs. Henry McAllan, but most people call me Laura. For a long time, 31 years, it was Miss. Chappell, and I was okay with that. I earned a college degree in English and began teaching, letting my students pull me through life, never once becoming low for the children I would never have. I was quite comfortable in my old maid(ness).

Henry is handsome, quiet, and college educated. My brother Teddy brought him to dinner because they got along so well at work. At 41 years, Henry was working for the Corps of Engineers building bridges, levees, and airports in the outlying area of Memphis. Well, from the looks I gathered at dinner, he was ready to build a fence around me. How little did I know.

We married, settled down in our own house in Memphis, and I had two little girls. Things again were comfortable until December 25, 1945. On arrival to the annual Christmas dinner at the home of Henry’s sister, Eboline, in Greenville, Mississippi, we were affronted by Pappy, my cantankerous father-in-law who informed us, “Eboline’s husband’s gone and ruint Christmas, killing himself on the eve of Jesus’ birth.”

After weeks of settling Eboline’s affairs, Henry returned home in a new truck. Before I could quiz him, he shocked me with a passionate kiss. This is not my Henry, something was foul. He then blurted out, “I’ve bought a farm!”

The plan was simple. Live in a rental house close to Eboline in Greenville, and Henry would commute to the farm 40 miles away. Pappy would be moving in with us, since Eboline’s move to a smaller house, and I would put up with his criticism of me and the girls.

The rental house was a two-story Victorian with wrap-around porch and azaleas in front. As we climbed the steps, we noticed a light on. While Henry worked the key, a man opened the door from inside, and he wasn’t happy. See, the house was sold to him the previous week which made us trespassers.

Out of 300 dollars and forced to live in one of the sharecropper's houses on the farm, I’m not happy. Matter-of-fact, I’m constantly angry. Dang dirt is in our clothes, laying atop all the furniture, and giving us all tans. Even my tow-colored sweet babies have brown hair. When Henry suggests we call the place “Fair Fields” my mumbled answer becomes family legend. “More like Mudbound.”

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan is one of the best southern novels I have read in years. Better than The Secret Life of Bees, she has successfully written a racial tale akin to Flannery O’Connor and Erskine Caldwell. The perfect book for discussion, too.



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Mudbound (copy)

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/mudbound-copy.html

Happy B-lated Spring!

Spring 2008

A little Dogwood and Redbud in bloom.

My neighbor is the Episcopal church, Holy Innocents.

Happy B-lated Spring!

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/happy-b-lated-spring.html

The Anatomist (copy)

Thank goodness the writers’ strike is over. Now, I can look forward to a new episode in popular drama, Grey’s Anatomy. I so miss my McDreamy and McSteamy.

To pass the time during reruns, I picked up The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy by Bill Hayes.

For those unfamiliar with Gray’s Anatomy, it is the quintessential reference book for medical students. In its 20th printing, this tome sits alongside other upper-echelon classic references such as Webster’s Dictionary and Bulfinch’s Mythology. First printed in 1858, this year marks 150 years as a viable medical textbook.

Author Hayes feels his whole life has led him to writing, “a book about a book about anatomy.” He cites two childhood favorite activities. First, his two best friends had doctor fathers who kept their medical books on the top most shelves in their respective studies. The boys would sneak in and pull down favorites then hide under desks mulling over the medical deformities for hours.

The second activity gave Hayes a great power over his sisters. In his 1965 World Book Encyclopedia, under H for Human Body, there were transparencies which included systems such as the skeletal, muscular, digestive, etc. Hayes took great pleasure in taunting his unsuspecting sisters with Encyclopedia Man.

While searching the book for a medical spelling Hayes thought, Who wrote this thing? The title page gave little more than Henry Gray, F.R.S. or Fellow of the Royal Society (of London). Further digging at his local library left him discouraged. “Fascinating ‘biographies’ have been written about everything from the number zero to the color mauve, yet there is not one on Gray.”

In Hayes’ research, he discovers Gray’s rise at St. George’s Hospital in London through title changes; “postmortem examiner (1854), curator of the Anatomical Museum (1852), lecturer in anatomy (1854), and so forth.” It is only through Gray’s illustrator Henry Vandyke Carter (an extensive diarist) that Hayes begins to unravel Gray’s personality.

In The Anatomist, Hayes alternates between Carter’s diaries and his own experiences in modern-day anatomy class. I’m not sure what is more interesting, the intimate thoughts of a Victorian medical student or Hayes’ voice as he dissects the human body.

Readers of this book will find themselves counting ribs, poking sternums, and trying to finger their mental foramen during the anatomy class sections, all without the unpleasant funk of formaldehyde.

The Anatomist (copy)

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/anatomist-copy.html

Cadaver Lab like Library?

“Before leaving the room, I clutched the doorframe and took a last look around. Even with the harsh lights, the well-scrubbed linoleum, and the funk of formaldehyde, it seemed less like a lab than like a library—a place where not only human anatomy but the spirit of anatomical discovery is preserved. And there, in the far back corner, I could easily imagine a small man in a black coat, Henry Gray. He had been here all this time silently working.”

The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy
by Bill Hayes
p. 61

Cadaver Lab like Library?

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/cadaver-lab-like-library.html

Someday My Prince will Come (copy)

For Jerramy Fine the obsession started at the tender age of four. While visiting with her grandparents she was allowed to watch the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles. Not the actually event, mind you, but a taped version. And just as all four-year-olds do, she watched the video over and over as if it were “The Lion King” or “Shrek.”

To my delight, Jerramy’s search for all things “Royal” led her to the local public library. Here she sat mesmerized by coffee table books on the Royal jewels, palaces, and families. It was in one of these oversized tomes she ran across London’s Royal family tree. On a branch from Princess Anne’s side she saw it—her destiny—dare I say, her birthright.

Peter Mark Andrew Phillips, the only son of Princess Anne, was born in 1977. Delighted, Jerramy saw a connection on the paper in black ink (which made it fact). He was born the same year as her. From this point on, six-year-old Jerramy planned whatever it took to meet and marry Prince Peter Phillips.

Jerramy faces an uphill climb throughout her new memoir, Someday My Prince will Come: True Adventures of a Wannabe Princess. First, she lives and breathes in a rural area of Colorado, nowhere near London. Secondly, she has Hippie parents whose family values include clothing-optional hot springs scheduled as a yearly Christmas gathering. Lastly, well, she is middle class and in the middle of Colorado. One is assured she hasn’t a snowball’s chance.

This book sat heavy on my desk for months. The publisher’s advance copy just did not interest me. The art on the book’s cover turned me off. With prince charming in the left-hand corner, castle in back, and a Grace Kelly(ish) young woman lounging under a tree in an idyllic meadow, it seemed too romantic. Everyone who passed by my desk picked it up, but I remained stubborn.

Why did I wait? This is one of the funniest books I have read in a while. Not only is the premise fairytale-like in fiction, but utterly ridiculous in real life. Her serious pursuit of Prince Peter is fueled by the true tales of non-titled women such as Princess Masako of Japan, Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, and our own Grace Kelly who snagged Prince Rainier. The fact that she inches closer and closer to an actual introduction to her Prince Charming makes all the other frogs worth it.

Someday My Prince will Come (copy)

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/f-or-jerramy-fine-obsession-started-at.html

Published...

I'm a little upset. I read the article and it sounds convoluted. How can anyone benefit from this crap?!?

Please, I'm not looking for sympathy, I'm just being painfully honest.

I'm thankful the editor gave me this chance and I hope she doesn't get any flack for it.

The article is titled Reading + Blogging = One Perfect Summer Program. Sounds promising, right!?! Not!!!

It is based on the Southern Reading Program I hosted this past summer which includes a few of you bloggers. This is where I made a major mistake. I didn't use any quotes from participants. The blogs used include A Novel Challenge, Booking Through Thursday, Bookworms Carnival, and Reading Matters.

I wish I could feel better about this. :(

Published...

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/published.html