Category Archives: Book Talk

I have never worn gogo boots

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I’m reading this book called What to Wear for the Rest of Your Life. It’s thick and yellow, and the pages are heavy, and I feel like it should be printed on glossy magazine paper, but It is not.

There are some lovely sketches in it, and cool fashion trivia. I saw a sketch of go-go boots and a note explaining that they came in as a response to the miniskirt.

I have never worn go-go boots, but suddenly I want a pair. I have pair of lovely cowboy boots with orange stitching and faux ostrich skin, and I love them, but they’re not the same. They’re not shiny plastic (vinyl) or anything like that.

Don’t you just love the power of words? I love that even a non-fiction style-guide can take me into a world where I have the perfect closet. I made mental checklists of my own wardrobe, and identified deficiencies as well as areas where I have too many items. I am not a fashionista – I work from home, and tend to chose comfortable black clothing most of the time (In my defense, I really DO need seventeen black t-shirts. I also need a new bathing suit, to take with me to Mexico, where I will read in the sun and splash in the sea for ten days.) but I love reading about fashion, and experiencing it vicariously through characters in novels.

And come home infused with new stories.

And perhaps, even, a new book.

Or two.

Book Trailer: The Baseball Codes

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Listening to NPR while I was doing my morning bathroom routine earlier today, my attention was caught by a conversation with the author of a new book called The Baseball Codes that’s all about the official and unofficial rules, regulations, and codes of etiquette involved in baseball. While I’m not generally a sports fan, I do have a soft spot for baseball, and have fond memories of watching ball games on television with my grandfather when I’d be at their house during the summer.

I miss those summers.

In any case, when it comes to marketing books, one of my favorite promotional products isn’t really a tangible product at all, but the book trailer. So, here’s the book trailer for The Baseball Codes, by Jason Turbow:

Reading With the Fishes?

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I have a thing for sharks. If I could have security cameras hidden in the ocean at the places with the most shark activity, and a constant feed, I’d watch it. Not 24/7 or anything, but I’d watch it. Naturally, if there’s a shark book, I want tor read it, as well.

My favorite shark book, so far, is Devil’s Teeth about the Farallon Islands, and the shark observation that went on there for many years. But recently, I saw this trailer for The Shark Man of Cortez, and it seems like it would be something right up my alley, so of course, it’s been added to my wish list.

I came across this video on YouTube, related to the book, and had to share it. Enjoy.

What I’m Reading

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I haven’t finished a book in a while, but I have one or two in progress, and one I’m anxiously awaiting, so thought I’d share.

The Summer Kitchen, by Karen Weinreb – This novel is proof that choosing books is somewhat akin to employment screening, and I’m not always good at it. I mean, the premise of this novel is good, and the book itself isn’t badly written, or anything, but I’ve owned it for over a year, and haven’t managed to finish it. Maybe it’s because I have no deadline for reading it, but I seem to be unusually willing to set it aside for any other book that floats into my awareness.

Twelve Rooms with a View by Theresa Rebeck – I just received this yesterday, and it doesn’t go on sale til the first week of May. This is one I’ll be reviewing at All Things Girl, but I’m really intrigued by it, anyway, and can’t wait to crack it open later tonight.

Coming Soon

While the top two books are in my possession, those which follow are novels I’m eagerly anticipating:

  • The God of the Hives, by Laurie R. King – this is the latest installment in the Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell series, and I’m eagerly waiting for it, since the last one ended with “to be continued.”
  • Roast Mortem, by Cleo Coyle – more coffeehouse mysteries – yum! And it’s due out just a few weeks before my birthday, in August.
  • Dead in the Family, by Charlaine Harris – yes, more Sookie Stackhouse is a good thing…due out next month.
  • Changes, by Jim Butcher – because I haven’t caught up with Harry Dresden in a while. It’s out already; I just don’t have it yet.

Online Nursing Degrees? Why Not?

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In reading three Michael Perry books in succession, I was struck more than once by the fact that he attended – and completed – nursing school. While I’m fairly certain he went to a physical school in Eau Claire, WI, I like the notion of such a person attending an online university.

One such school is Western Governors University, which has a program allowing you to study nursing (rn to bsn online) via distance learning. What’s more they’ve designed their program so that motivated learners can work at an accelerated pace, writing papers and meeting challenges to prove their knowledge, and not suffering through a traditional educational environment.

In a way, it reminds me of the “College of Professional Studies” my mother went through when earning her Organizational Behavior degree via the University of San Francisco. She wrote papers to earn either upper or lower division credits, and only had to meet with a live person once a week, though she made it very clear that earning her degree was her primary job during that time. Western Governors University says it expects distance learners to put in a solid 20 hours a week of work, and I know my mother did at least that much – and that was in 1987, before internet learning was even possible.

Distance learning isn’t for everyone, but if I were going back to school, I’d look for something similar to Western Governors University’s program. It separates coursework into six-month chunks, during which each person works at her own pace, completing “…as much of your degree as possible…” with the assistance of a mentor, who guides you through the process and the required information.

I have to confess, when I was asked to give an opinion of this program, I thought, “you can’t learn nursing online,” but I was wrong. After reading the information, and scanning the website, I’m confident that WGU has created a comprehensive nursing program for nontraditional learners.

Don’t you just love it when technology is used to make the world a better place?

Bookish Fantasy

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Sometimes, I find myself buying a book at the used bookstore, thinking I’ve never read it, only to get it home, get a few pages in, and discover I have, in fact, encountered it before. Sometimes I don’t mind, but equally as often, I’m disappointed. I mean, I’m all for rereading things, but I want to do it consciously.

So, I have a bookish fantasy. I wish that whenever I finished a book, a ticker tape would emerge from my brain, like paper from an epson receipt printer, and be stored in some multi-dimensional pocket of the universe that I could easily access and cross-reference whenever I was book shopping. In this way, I could see for certain what I’d read, and when, and how much I’d paid for the copy.

As long as I’m fantasizing, I want something that will trigger my memory when I’m staring at shelves, trying to figure out what I want to buy, because often I read other people’s reviews, and think, “I should write down that title,” but I don’t, and then I have no idea what it was I’m looking for.

But then, other people likely don’t have this issue, just as I’m quite certain I’m the only person who can stand in the middle of a bookstore and complain, “There’s nothing to read.”

New Author Crush: Michael Perry

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I tend to read the same way most people approach a dip bar – several repetitions of one author (or, um, exercise) and then a rest. In plainer language, I mean that when I find an author whose work I like, I read everything they’ve written, as quickly as possible, in succession, and then move on, at least for a while.

My current “author crush,” as I tend to describe these reading moods, is one Michael Perry. I’ve written, already, about recently reading his book, Population: 485, and I’m currently in the middle of his second memoir, Truck: a Love Story. Both are warm, funny, vivid and candid in all the right balances. Both have thoughtful sections as well, and I’m really enjoying revisiting the upper midwest, in a way I haven’t done, through literature, since I first discovered Kathleen Norris, early in my marriage.

Norris and Perry are nothing alike, and yet, both have this intense love of the land that comes through their words, and makes you want to sink your fingers into fresh earth, or pick a sun-ripened tomato and eat it, straight from the vine.

I just wanted to take a moment, and share that.

Oh, and to say,the signed copy of Perry’s most recent book, in hardcover, arrived on Thursday.

Purging Books

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The sad fact is this: I have too many books and too few bookshelves. The other sad fact – really a true confession – is that I love reading Star Trek books. Yes, they’re tie-ins, but they’re comfort reading, in much the same way that pepperoni pizza is comfort food.

In any case, I’ve treated my library to a quick weight loss treatment. How? By boxing up all the Star Trek paperbacks and bringing them with me to this funeral in Iowa…where I handed them off to Fuzzy’s brother.

You see, like me, he has a thing for for Star Trek books.

Unlike me, he has a burning need to own every single one of them.

In Memoriam: Robert B. Parker

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robert b parker

Photo Credit: John Earle

I confess that my first introduction to the wonderful fictional detective Spenser was not via Robert B. Parker’s books, but through the television show, Spenser: For Hire. which I watched when I was – well, I’m not sure how young I was – definitely before I ever even considered purchasing anti wrinkle eye cream.

By the time I was a sophomore in high school, however, Spenser and I had been more properly introduced, and I was hooked on Parker’s words and images, plots and characters. I’ve always loved mysteries and thrillers, and the Spenser novels were a nice bridge between the cozies I began with and the analyticals I also enjoy. They’re a wonderful mix of poetic rhythms and gritty reality – and their popularity is a testament to the man who wrote them.

A series of novels, isn’t a bad legacy, as things go.

I don’t have the kind of reader’s connection with Mr. Parker that I had with Madeleine L’Engle or Douglas Adams, but I mourn the loss of Robert B. Parker, nevertheless.

Escape into a Good Book

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It’s been so cold lately – and by cold I mean “there’s a sheet of ICE across my swimming pool” – that those advertisements for weekend getaways to cancun mexico are looking awfully tempting. Of course, I still feel kind of, well, craptastic, and I can’t afford a trip right now, anyway, so instead I’ve been reading a lot.

Currently, I’m reading:
Decaffeinated Corpse, by Cleo Coyle
and
Whom God Would Destroy, by Commander Pants

I tend to have more than one book going at once, and I promised the Commander I’d read this book in October or November, then lost it in the house, then had food poisoning, and now I think I’m getting the flu, so I’m not reading as quickly as I usually do, and I don’t have a lot of stamina, either. When I AM reading, lately, things that are familiar and formulaic are the easiest. Hence my current addiction to cozy mysteries.

I always have one book in progress that I keep near the tub, strictly for bathtub reading. My bubble book, at the moment, is The Summer Kitchen, by Karen Weinreb, which I bought MONTHS ago – MANY months ago, and just wasn’t in the mood for once I got it home. (Does that happen to anyone else?)

On Deck, I have:
The Ghost and Femme Fatale
and
The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion

which are the last two novels (so far) in Alice Kimberly’s Haunted Bookshop series.

And on that note, I’m going to curl up with a good book, and read until I’m ready to sleep.

Happy Reading!