Monday, January 27, 2014

                     Serving Up Books

Mark Twain: "All you need is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure."

I was fortunate enough to make a new friend last year.

"Friend" is used loosely. She and I have never met and most likely, never will. My new friend is Wendy Welch, author of "The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap."

From the first page, I liked Wendy's storytelling. Her writing style is conversational and comfortable as she shares stories about her new life as a bookseller and author.

Wendy and her husband, Jack, moved to Big Stone Gap, Virginia, and opened Tales of the Lonesome Pine Used Books. They had several strikes against them. First, the economy had taken a major hit. Second, the town was viewed by the residents themselves to be too small (5400 residents) to support a bookstore. Third, and most important, neither Wendy nor her husband had any experience running a bookstore. Her professional life included working in an unnamed United States government agency that is sometimes referred to as the Snake Pit (your guess is as good as mine). Jack formerly headed up a college department in Scotland, where they had lived for five years.

They fantasized about the literary life and living in a town with tree-lined streets. They imagined themselves as colorful local characters, with Jack wearing a baggy Mr. Rogers-style sweater while charming everyone with his Scottish brogue. In the end, a lunch fueled by chips, salsa, and generous amounts of sangria sealed their fate. They bought an Edwardian mansion (built in 1903, with one working bathroom) and on the first floor, created a used book store in a town that eyed them with suspicion and a bit of amusement.

Wendy brings the reader along as they build a solid clientele, offend a local clique, serve Scottish shortbread to lucky shoppers and host a ceilidh, a group dance for all ages.

The book is wrapped up with literary recommendations. You may agree with Wendy's lively reviews or bristle at her thoughts on classics such as "Moby Dick" (thumbs down) or "A Tale of Two Cities" (thumbs up).

Wendy's blog: 

http://wendywelchbigstonegap.wordpress.com/ 

If you happen to be in Virginia and visit the book store, say hello to Wendy for me. The store's address:
404 Clinton Avenue East, Big Stone Gap, VA.


          It's all about books...


Judging a Book by Its Lover - Leto, Lauren. You'll like Leto...or not. She has strong views about why we read the books we do and what that says about us. And she's not afraid to write about the big names: Joan Didion, Kurt Vonnegut, Cormac McCarthy and Marcel Proust. Examples of Leto's beliefs: fans of Thomas Pynchon are also fans of J.D. Salinger. Nervous fliers will enjoy James Cain's "The Postman Always Rings Twice." And, "The Berenstain Bears" is loved by a "wild, hyperactive kid who gets kicked out of class for laughing too hard at things that aren't funny." Leto is tough and hilarious.

Book Lust (series) - Pearl, Nancy. A librarian by training, Nancy is a reader's dream come true. She provides us with book ideas for every reading interest including spy thrillers, exotic travel locales, and cat fiction.    

Read This! - Weyandt, Hans. Have you ever wondered what books booksellers read? This is a collection of varied lists from bookstores in Boston, Denver, Iowa City, and New Orleans, to name only a few. Which author is mentioned the most often by the booksellers? William Faulkner. How about this - Liberty Hardy, who sells books in Portsmouth, New Hampshire's RiverRun, reads 25-35 books per month. The book includes a book store checklist (for those of us who love lists) and a few pages for notes. 

Under the Covers and Between the Sheets - Joyce, C. Alan & Janssen, Sarah. The authors invite us to join them in learning more about topics ranging from Pippi Longstocking, pulp fiction, and books that changed the world.

Reading Like a Writer - Prose, Francine. Why do we read certain books? What makes fiction really pop for us? Prose teaches us how to be good and discerning readers. 

How Reading Changed My Life - Quindlen, Anna. A voracious reader, Quindlen shares her passion for reading as well as her lists of top 10 books - what books would she save in a fire or which books make teens feel more human or which books will she always love? For that last list, she includes "My Antonia," "Phantom Tollbooth"  and "Jane Eyre."

Literary 100 - Burt, Daniel. As with all "greatest" lists, there will be heated discussion about Burt's top 100 books. This is a solid list for reading classics again, or for the first time.

Twenty-five Books That Shaped America - Foster, Thomas C. Another "list" book for a spirited debate. It may be more fun to debate what Foster left out, not what he included. What do you think about "Little Women," "My Antonia" and "The Maltese Falcon" making the list? 

Don't Know Much About Literature - Davis, Kenneth. This book is perfect for trivia nights. Example: what novel, originally titled "The Romantic Egoist" made F. Scott Fitzgerald an overnight success? Or, what series has been challenged in schools for "promoting witchcraft"? Answers: "This Side of Paradise"; "Harry Potter." Find out more about Camus, Baldwin, Yeats and Dickens.  

Writers Gone Wild - Peschel, Bill. Theodore Dreiser was not the world's best party-thrower. It's doubtful that Ernest Hemingway ever sent Wallace Stevens a birthday card after the two men had a brawling fight. And I finally understand why I've never finished "Lord of the Flies" - for more on William Golding, check out page 155. 

Literary Rogues - Shaffer, Andrew. Another book on those wild and crazy writers. It's a wonder Charles Baudelaire, Jack Kerouac, and John Berryman found any time to write - they were busy leading sometimes reckless lives. Writers often have had lives much more colorful than any of their characters. 

The Delights of Reading - Bettman, Otto L. Quotes and fun facts about writers, both famous and not-so-much. Did you know that Mary McCarthy believed "Madame Bovary" best represented the modern American woman or that Winston Churchill said that writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle?

Hothouse, The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art at America's Most Celebrated Publishing House: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux - Kachka, Boris. Why should we care about the publishing giant F,G & S? These authors are the reason: Joan Didion, Robert Lowell, Flannery O'Connor, T.S. Eliot and John Berryman.  

Living With Books - Dupuich, Dominique & Beaufre, Roland. What do we do with all of our books? This book is an enabler to keep buying books and stacking/shelving/displaying them. 

A Reader's Book of Days - Nissley, Tom. This book will last the entire year - I'm reading it a day at a time. Births, deaths and accomplishments of writers are all included in Nissley's 410 pages of facts. 


...and book stores

Shelf Life - Shea, Suzanne Strempek. You'll read this memoir with alternating laughter and tears. Shea was recovering from breast cancer treatment when she took a job in a friend's book store. She was in good company - her own books were on the shelves. I recommend reading her novel, "Selling the Lite of Heaven." Or her nonfiction work: "Sundays in America."

My Bookstore - various. The subtitle says it best: writers celebrate their favorite places to browse, read and shop. If you're wandering around Green Apple Books in San Francisco, you may come across Dave Eggers in an aisle. Or, meet Elin Hilderbrand in Nantucket Bookworks in Nantucket. Ann Patchett writes about her experiences at McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Michigan.   

Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores - Campbell, Jen. Now we know - weird questions and comments in bookstores are common in both America and Great Britain. Campbell, a bookseller in North London, started a blog just to compile all the weirdness. Examples: "Do you sell bed sheets?" "Did Beatrix Potter ever write a book about dinosaurs?" And this winner - "Can I return this book? I'm allergic to ink." 

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap - Welch, Wendy. "Yes, they are commodities, but we still handle other people's books with care. There's a whole lot of life in them and not just in the words." WW     

  












   

Monday, January 13, 2014


       Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue


William Wordsworth: "Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart."


If the conversation around the water cooler or cafeteria revolves a little too much around any television show with a title that begins with "Real Housewives..." or latest YouTube sensation, try quoting a few lines of poetry to amaze everyone.

Tuesday, January 14 is National Poetry at Work Day. 

It doesn't matter what kind of day you're having...there's always a poem to describe your mood, the work piled on your desk, or a long afternoon.

For example, at closing time, exit gracefully with a thought from Walt Whitman:
"Afoot and light-hearted, I take to the open road
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading me wherever I choose." 
(Song of the Open Road

Or, William Butler Yeats:
"I will arise and go now." (Lake Isle of Innisfree)

Or, John Howard Payne:
"Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."  (Home, Sweet Home!)

If your vacation is a long way off and you're staring out the window, think of John Masefield's Sea Fever:
"I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by."

Cubicle walls closing in? Percy Bysshe Shelley:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair." (Ozymandias)

Wishing for a snow day? Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"Announced by all the trumpets of the sky, 
Arrives the snow." (The Snow Storm)

Made a big mistake? Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
"I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I know not where." (The Arrow and the Song)

Too many projects? Edna St. Vincent Millay:
My candle burns at both ends, 
It will not last the night." (First Fig)

Going into a presentation completely unprepared? Ernest Lawrence Thayer's Casey at the Bat: "The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day."

If a job change isn't on the horizon, Nikki Giovanni:
"If I can't have what I want... then my job is to want what I've got." (Choices)  

Moody today? Ella Wheeler Wilcox understood:
"Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone." (Solitude)  

Feeling unappreciated? Emily Dickinson:
"I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody too?
Then there's a pair of us - don't tell! They'd banish us, you know."
(I'm Nobody! Who Are You?)

Or, for a fresh start, Emily Dickinson:
"Hope is the thing with feathers,
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tunes without the words,
And never stops at all." (Hope is the Thing With Feathers)



And for all of the good days, quote e.e. cummings:
"the world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful." (in just)



Happy Poetry at Work Day


Monday, January 6, 2014

                        Thank you

Robert Louis Stevenson: "The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life."


In January, we are supposed to lose weight, organize our homes, dance to polka music and hunt for happiness.** With the temperature below zero, I look forward to combining two other celebrations - National Hot Tea Month and Book Blitz Month. There's one more observation that I don't want to overlook. January is National Thank You Month.

Saying "thank you" is (usually) one of our earliest lessons and certainly one of the most important. Where would we be without gratitude?

At our nephew's wedding reception, guests were asked to write down advice for the newlyweds. Immediately, I thought of five simple words. Thank you. Please. You're welcome.

What are you thankful for in your life? Good health? Education? Wealth? Children? 

The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California/Berkeley and University of California/Davis have teamed up to study the practice of gratitude and its effects on society. Saying thank you may help us in more ways than just making the recipient smile.

According to Robert Emmons, who has studied the effects of gratitude, there are improvements in our physical, psychological and social well-being linked with being grateful. He wrote "Gratitude is Good" for the Greater Good Science Center at UC/Berkeley and reported that people who practice gratitude consistently reap benefits such as lower blood pressure, stronger immune systems, experience more joy and pleasure, and are more outgoing and forgiving. "This doesn't mean life is perfect," Emmons wrote. "It doesn't ignore complaints, burdens and hassles. But when we look at our lives as a whole, gratitude encourages us to identify some account of goodness in our life."

Still not convinced?

Francesca Gino, an associate professor at Harvard University and author of "Sidetracked: Why Our Decisions Get Derailed and How We Can Stick to the Plan," said that "receiving expressions of gratitude make us feel a heightened sense of self-worth and that in turn triggers other helpful behaviors towards both the person we are helping and other people, too." She conducted experiments with students receiving either a curt acknowledgement or a friendly note of thanks for their work editing a mediocre cover letter. Students who received the curt acknowledgment said they'd be less likely to help in the future, according to an article in the Harvard Gazette.

In his book, "The End of Your Life Book Club," Will Schwalbe wrote often of gratitude. He credited his mother for teaching him the value of thank you in note or verbal form. "What I suddenly understood was that a thank you note isn't the price you pay for receiving a gift...but an opportunity to count your blessings," he wrote. Schwalbe found a letter penned by his mother that included this thought: "Just by giving friendship and love, you keep the people around you from giving up - and each expression of friendship or love may be the one that makes all the difference."

Gratitude played a role in changing John Kralik's life. Kralik, author of "365 Thanks Yous," was battling a life in disarray - a second divorce, estrangement from his older children, a sinking law firm, and a sizable weight gain. He picked up a pen and started writing thank you notes. He wrote notes to clients and friends, to a coffee barista and a doctor. Neighbors and hotel security guards received notes. Family members were thanked for their care and patience. 

Did it change his life?

Much like Emmons' discovery, Kralik's life did not become perfect and carefree but after 365 notes in 15 months, there was great change. Relationships had grown stronger, and Kralik realized that "I had examined the life I had viewed as perfectly awful and found that it was a lot better than I had been willing to acknowledge. Maybe I was not such a bad person after all." 

Or in the words of Carol Stuart who wrote "The Thank You Book" for children, "This saying thank you stuff is okay. The words don't cost you anything, but they are so good that people gobble them up like milk chocolate candies and vanilla ice cream cones."

Thank you!



                                               Book ideas 


Will Schwalbe - "The End of Your Life Book Club"
John Kralik - "365 Thank Yous"
Carol Stuart - "The Thank You Book" (juvenile)
Peggy Post & Cindy Post Senning - "Emily's Everyday Manners" (juvenile)
Eric Hill - "Spot Says Please" (juvenile)
Richard Scarry - "Please and Thank You Book" (juvenile)
Deborah Norville - "Thank You Power"
Connie Leas - "The Art of Thank You"
Margaret Shepherd - "The Art of the Handwritten Note"
Jimmy Fallon (and others) - "Thank You Notes" which includes notes such as:
Thank you...screen saver that popped up while I thought I was doing work, for reminding me that not only have I made zero progress, but I also haven't made a single keystroke, or even nudged my mouse, for the past 15 minutes."  



**It's true - this is:
Get Organized Month, National Polka Music Month, Book Blitz Month, National Hot Tea Month. Also, National Lose Weight Week is Jan. 5-12. National Letter Writing Week is Jan. 8-14, and Hunt for Happiness Week is Jan. 19-25.  

Friday, January 3, 2014


                       Literary Trivia


If you love a challenging pub quiz or just sharing your expansive knowledge of history, pop culture or sports, Saturday, January 4 is your day. It's Trivia Day.

Here's a (literary) head start on tomorrow's fun.

Answers follow the quiz. No peeking!


1)  Who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013?

2)  Finish the title of this 2002 National Book Award winner by Robert Caro: "Master of the Senate: The Years of _________________."

3)  According to Publisher's Weekly, what was the best-selling E-book in 2012?

4)  Match the author with the Caldecott Medal winning book.

A Time of Wonder
Polar Express
Where The Wild Things Are
The Snowy Day
Officer Buckle and Gloria


Robert McCloskey
Peggy Rathmann
Ezra Jack Keats
Chris Van Allsburg
Maurice Sendak

5)  According to Publisher's Weekly, which celebrity chef had the #4 bestselling hardcover cookbook in 2012? Ree Drummond or Rachael Ray or Ina Garten

6)  Who said: "It used to be a good hotel, but that proves nothing - I used to be a good boy."

7)  In 2010, T.J. Styles won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography/Autobiography for his book on this American businessman.

8)  Which of these writers died in 2013?

Vince Flynn
Tom Clancy
Anthony Lewis
Seamus Heaney
Elmore Leonard

9)  True or False...Khaled Hossein's "Kite Runner" was on the American Library Association's top 10 list of most challenged books in 2012.

10) Who wrote "The Beginner's Goodbye," "Earthly Possessions" and "Saint Maybe"? 
Jane Smiley or Anne Tyler or Louise Erdrich 









Answers 



1) Alice Munro - Canada

2) Lyndon Johnson

3) Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

4) A Time of Wonder/McCloskey
     Polar Express/Van Allsburg
     Wild Things/Sendak
     Snowy Day/Keats
     Officer Buckle/Rathmann

5) Ina Garten was rated fourth; Drummond rated sixth.

6) Mark Twain "Innocents Abroad"

7) "The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt"

8) They all died in 2013.

9) True, the book was #6 on the list for offensive language, homosexuality and religious viewpoints.

10) Anne Tyler   
     







Wednesday, January 1, 2014

                   

                       Happy New Year



The Books That I Have Loved

I see the books that I have loved
All primly set arow
In ordered line, and locked away
While seasons come and go.

The magic of their printed names
Behind the polished glass
Will lay no subtle spell upon
The casual ones who pass.

No one will heed the penciled line
Nor leave his task to mark
Their dog-eared pages shut away
And singing in the dark.

                Jessie St. John, 1931


                                                  

                                                                                                                   Thanks, Melinda!