If Everyone Else Can Do It, Why Can't I?

I was happily immersed in So Long at the Fair, a galley by Christina Schwartz (Drowning Ruth) when these two tempting volumes arrived. Don't ask me to choose between Jimmy Buffett and David Sedaris. I was in a quandary. Should I finish the galley and send a quick review off to my regional bookseller association per their request? Maybe I could read just one short essay from the Sedaris book, hustle through Swine Not?, and get back to the other before I forgot the basic storyline. Then again, I could drop the galley, flip a coin on the other two. Maybe I could sell the Sedaris book before the June 3rd street date, thus eliminating that temptation. Nothing seemed right, so I simply decided to do what everyone else seems to do, read all three at once.

***********Even when confronted with chapter upon chapter of reading in college, I always finished one assignment before opening the next book. Just a habit that has stuck with me, but faced with the present situation, I thought it best to alter my methods. So, on Sunday, I strategically placed the three books, and planned the optimum reading time, and appropriate beverage to accompany each. When You're Engulfed in Flames obviously is a daytime book. Come on, you have to admit that the cover is creepy, and although I am totally devoted to David Sedaris, I wasn't sure where a book with cover art like this would take me. I settled in with a cup of muddy coffee, and began reading about the parasite in his mother-in-law's leg. That in itself was hysterical, but it got even funnier after that! My experience has been that David Sedaris is a love him or hate him writer. People who love him will howl at the parasite story, others will be repulsed. There is no chuckling when reading his essays. It is full out gut busting, coffee through the nostrils snorting page after page.

**********Jimmy Buffett is definitely a deck book, and my beverage of choice is definitely not coffee! He is one of my favorite storytellers. He tells wonderful little tales in much of his newer music, also. One of his recent songs chronicles an adventure with his daugher in which they find themselves "straddling the equator". Most of his stories are silly. I like that. They are palette cleansers. Nice, bright, clean little tastes of whimsy, perfect for a breezy Wisconsin afternoon.

***********So Long at the Fair was assigned to late night. Boy, was that a mistake. The plot moves between the past and the present; the characters align in slightly different social groupings in the two time periods, and there is a significant amount of character cross-pollinating (if you get my drift!) to confuse matters even more. I started taking notes...on a basic novel...not one of those complex Russian extravaganzas with hundreds of characters, just a basic, contemporary novel with a somewhat predictable plot (but not predicatbale enough to be made into a Lifetime movie)! David Sedaris' sister, Amy, and other family members crept into the mix making me giggle just a little despite the tragic nature of the current book's plot. My mind wandered to the snuffling, snorting main character from the Buffett book, as well. I can't do it. I just can't read more than one book at a time. I am seriously envious of all of you who can.

**********On Monday, I started and finished The Willoughbys, a playful tween novel by Lois Lowry (The Giver). Delightful! I am fan of the Lemony Snicket books, but this one out-runs them on many levels. The devious plot couples with zany characters who manage to be conniving and engaging at the same time. It felt good to read a book from cover to cover, and so, that is how I will proceed with the three other books. Schwartz. Sedaris. Buffett. In that order. Maybe.

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Jacque checked in this week (see blog:Emily and Jacque). She will be leaving NYC where she has been doing AIDS research, and moving to D.C. to start law school and public health studies at George Washington University! I have said this before, but, she continues to amaze me!

Here it is! For those of you who have been concerned about why I don't have a picture of myself on the blog...well, there you go! What's up with that little split frame action at the bottom?

More Reading with Kids

My friend, Linda, is a reading specialist for the Manitowoc Public School District. She works hard to stay current on all the latest research about reading. She shares the information with teachers district wide, and I am often the lucky recipient of her bits of wisdom. Over the years, I have discovered many new authors and books through Linda. She even invited me into her classroom one spring. I chatted with many of her 4th grade students one-on-one. They were so eager to talk about books, and each student had a favorite book handy, to show me, and to describe in enthusiastic detail.

Some time ago, Linda shared the following poem with me. It seems a nice follow up to the previous blog about reading with children. It was written by the US Poet Laureate, Billy Collins.

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First Reader

I can see them standing politely on the wide pages

that I was learning to turn.

Jane in a blue jumper, Dick with his crayon brown hair,

playing with a ball or exploring the cosmos

of the backyard, unaware they are the first characters,

the boy and girl who begin fiction.

Beyond the simple illustration of their neighborhood

the other protagonists were waiting in a huddle;

frightening Heathcliff, frightened Pip, Nick Adams

carrying a fishing rod, Emma Bovary, riding into Rouen.

But I would read about the perfect boy and his sister

even before I would read about Adam and Eve, garden and gate,

and before I heard the name Gutenberg, the type

of their simple talk was moving into my focusing eyes.

It was always Saturday and he and she

were always pointing at something and shouting, "Look!"

pointing at the dog, the bicycle, or at their father

as he pushed a hand mower over the lawn,

waving at aproned mother framed in the kitchen doorway,

pointing toward the sky, pointing at each other.

They wanted us to look but we had looked already

And seen the shaded lawn, the wagon, the postman,

We had seen the dog, walked, watered, and fed the animal,

And now it was time to discover the infinite, clicking

Permutations of the alphabet's small and capital letters.

Alphabetical ourselves in the rows of classroom desks,

We were forgetting how to look, learning how to read.

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Billy Collins has surely given us a lot to think about. This is Memorial Day weekend. There will a much to see...the parade, the somber, respectful reminder of those who fought, and currentluy fight, so that we can live comfortably, without fear. Signs of spring are everywhere, along with the happy bounce of walkers no longer burdened by layers of wooly stuff. Maybe we all should just close the books for a day or so, turn off the TV, walk outside and LOOK.

Reading with Claire and Earle

A customer shared this great picture of her grand- daughter reading. Claire has a twin sister, and both girls enjoy books.

Our friend, Earle, is on the right, stretched out our floor, looking settled in for the afternoon.

Summer is the perfect time to introduce kids to leisure reading. The Manitowoc Public Library has a program jam packed with book related activities. Area school districts also give kids the opportunity to explore books in many imaginative and carefree ways during summer.

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While it may be encouraging to see your kids growing independent and reading for prolonged periods on their own, Jim Trelease, author of The Read-Aloud Handbook offers a list of reasons to never abandon reading with with your kids.

Research compiled by Trelease established that sharing books:

• Conditions child to associate reading with pleasure
• Contributes background knowledge on a variety of subject matters
• Provides child with a reading role model
• Creates empathy
• Increases vocabulary, improves writing skills
• Improves probability of staying in school
• Improves problem-solving and critical thinking skills
• Offers laughter and entertainment
• Improves attention span
• Stimulates the imagination
• Nurtures emotional development and improves self-esteem

There you have it. I know husbands and wives that read to each other daily over breakfast. What a nice tradition. We have many book groups in Manitowoc, and each has a unique way of operating. One of the groups that has been together for many, many years has a fascinating format. Books are selected, and one book is assigned to each member. She then edits the book down to a 1 1/2 hour reading. At their meeting, the reader does just that...she reads. Everyone else listens. Unless we tune in to "Chapter-A-Day" on public radio, or play book CD's as we drive I bet most of us haven't been read to since grade school. What a wonderful gift that group unwraps each month...90 minutes of being read to. No distractions, no pressures, no expectations...just the joy of closing one's eyes, and being transported somewhere unexpected.

What am I reading? Besides a bunch of catalogues prematurely announcing Christmas must-haves for the store, I am reading a Midwest Comnnections title, River of Heaven, by Lee Martin. Martin's book, The Bright Forever, was a Pulitzer finalist. I am also puttering with the exercises in Caffeine for the Creative Mind... and next up, Swine Not? by Jimmy Buffett. I can't think of a better deck book than that!

We Missed You, Valerie!

This is our book group, minus Valerie. She just had surgery and couldn't be with us tonight. So, I am going to stray from my normal rambling and have everyone in the group send a little message to Valerie. Steph ,Lynn, and Marilyn couldn't make it tonight, either. In addition to the people in the photo, and those I just mentioned, we have a couple ad hoc members. Jacque currently lives in New York, and Denise is in SunPrairie. Although they moved, we still think of them as part of the group. They frequently read the books we select, and send us their thoughts on it, or a nice catch-up missive via email. We lost Cindy to cancer about a year ago We talk about her often and smile as we remember her coming to our Halloween party in a swimming suit. She was dressed as her favorite character from Angry Housewives Easting Bon-Bons. Valerie dressed as Jane Austen, and I was Oedipus!

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This is the second book group I have belonged to, and they differ vastly in character. The first group was formal. There were rules and procedures, and not much socializing. The group I belong to now is quite the opposite. We keep track of events in one another's lives, without being intrusive. We even have a couple family soap operas that are being shared, and we look forward to each monthly installment. Members bring travel and special event photos, bounce around work frustrations, and celebrate personal triumphs. We meet once a month on a Friday, starting at 5:30. Most meetings last at least until 9 , and more often till 10. We have so much to cover!

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We have an unspoken, informal agenda with topics that must be covered some time during the night...griping about a certain member's passion for The Shipping News, and foreign films; debating whether or not the tiger in The Life of Pi was real or symbolic; Tom Cruise's sexuality, and Johnny Depp's sex appeal and what has recently been featured on "20/20", "60 Minutes", "48 Hours", whatever. Between agenda items, we discuss the book, or the movie on the docket, and meander through a variety of issues - some related to the topic, some not even close.

After a week of work, meetings and life in general, I look forward to Friday night beginning a stretch of no commitments. Sometime I hear myself groaning, "Oh no, book group tonight, don't make me go." But you know what? I always go. I know that Nancy will bring Cheetos; Mary will bring chocolate, Steph or Valerie will bring wine. I know that I will laugh, and be among good people. Those times are so worth having.

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I really did think I would cut straight to the messages for Val, but it just didn't turn out that way. But as promised, here come our little message to Valerie......

(Oh...FYI, Valerie teaches Psychology at SLC and she just got a big, well deserved promotion! Way to go, Valerie.)

OK, since I'm here, I'll start. Hey Valerie! Basically, everyone liked the book. Yes, we managed to get in some of our normal agenda items, including a mention of Johnny Depp, and foreign films. However, we deferred any discussion of The Shipping News until you return. Here's something to keep you busy...find the Cheetos in the photo! Great news about the promotion! We know how hard you have worked. I hope your heal heels quickly.

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Hi Val - Missed you at our May book club meeting. Hope you liked the book, I did miss your input, hopefully you'll be back with us soon, to catch us up on all the Hollywood gossip. Good luck with your recovery. Sharon

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I guess I won't be seeing you out walking your dog for a while. Hope your foot heals well as mine did. Liz

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Congratulations on your promotion at SLC. It is about time!!! I really liked the book. This was my kind of reading. Hope you're up and about in a very short time. Take care. Mary

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Congratulations on the job and on having SUMMER! Hope that you heal fast so you can enjoy your time off. Missed having you at book club--especially as we all liked the book for a change. Hope all is well. Nancy

From the Basement to Coney Island

My basement needs work! I want to be able to make full use of it by next winter, so space by space, I am attempting to organize. This is the "office" where I spent many hours locked away writing draft after draft of my Master thesis with the scintillating title "A Descriptive Study of Students' Attitudes Toward Authentic Assessment Verses Traditional Testing." A bound copy of that classic rests on one these shelves, although I was expected to donate it to the library of the institution that granted me the degree.

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The 170 + pages, filled with charts, graphs, and educational jargon is snuggled between a galley copy of Harry Potter and The Sorcerers's Stone, and a beat up edition of Viola Spolin's Improvisation for the Theatre. The HP galley has a nice, high price tag in the collector world. I picked it up at a trade show about a year before the official release. Actually, the Scholastic rep had to lure me into her booth with chocolates in order for me to consider adding yet another book to the load I was already carrying as I pathetically limped through the exhibition hall. She said it was destined to be a big seller. "Ya, sure," I mumbled and added it the stack. I decided to kid test that galley by giving it to a friend's son. This family respects books, so I was surprised when the galley was returned in a mangled heap. It seems the boy enjoyed it so much, he fell asleep with it...and he obviously had a restless night. Consequently, my galley, that could have propelled me into a comfortable retirement isn't worth a cent!

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Speaking of tattered old books, while I was weeding the basement bookshelves, I ran across my ratty old Jack Kerouac and Larry Ferlinghetti books. I flipped though A Coney Island of the Mind, then moved on to another collection. I got stuck on Ferlinghetti's Underwear. He really was my favorite among the beat writers, and this poem moved from tongue- in- cheek humor, to the state of politics, to the universal condition of man. Thinking on that whole movement, I was again struck by the miracle of so many like minds concentrated in close proximity. That treasury of writers and thinkers laid the foundation for, and can be directly connected to so many important cultural, philosophic, and political movements. They evolved from beats into hippies into yippies. They influenced Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Buffy St. Marie, surrealist painters, and the Chicago Seven. They wrote and sang about injustice, war, materialism, idealism, community, and the dignity and necessity of the search for self.

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So, it seems we have returned, in part, to a time of poetry slams and urban prophets. Some will be forgotten no doubt, but I wonder what magnetism there is yet to be discovered. Will a perfect storm develop drawing elements together that will stir a kindred revolution powered by America's new artists? Artists are the spokespersons of a generation; they preserve a culture in a way that history books cannot. I try to stay open to fresh, experimental offerings. Jack Kerouac created a "Do" list of techniques for writing prose. This simple suggestion covers much more than writing, "Submission to everything, open, listening". Shh.

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I have some awesome sales reps. When Harry Potter 6 came out, Vicki, my Scholastice rep, sent me a delux copy, autographed!

Today, I received another surprise from a different rep...an autographed copy of Barbara Walter's autobiography Audition. Life is good!

Royal Savvy

I know I promised that I would only hit you with new entries on Monday, limiting your bloglook to one day a week, but people keep giving me fun ideas to write about.

Recently, a customer who is totally devoted to celebrity biographies gave high praise for The Diana Chronicles. Since my stack of unopened books continues to grow (and yes, it does include a copy of Barbara Walter's book, Audition) I didn't want to add another. Instead, I picked up the CD's at our wonderful Manitowoc Public Library, and have been listening to them as I drive. I enjoy audio books when they are read by the author as this one is. She starts with Diana's tragic death, and then goes back to her early years. At times, the author appears to be mocking, and trivializing Diana's life, making sure to highlight personality flaws, and general inadequacies. According to Brown, Diana's greatest accomplishment in grade school was winning an award for "Best Guinea Pig." The rest of the family gets the same royal treatment! However, the copious attributions lead me to believe the book is far better researched than the Tom Cruise biography I so foolishly read a few weeks back. Like many people, I am intrigued by the enigmatic Diana. I was in London the day she and Charles were married; having been in that electric atmosphere, watching the ceremoney with a two English grannies named Gwen and Petronella, and seeing the strong national support for the event and for the royal family, contributes to my interest in her and in all things British.

**********Summer vacation is coming, and already, my junior

high regulars are stopping by. They love to talk about what they are reading, and I try to stay as current as possible with new books for their age. I find young adult novels to be fresh, topical, well written, and occasionally a bit sassy! Savvy has all of those qualities.

Mibs Beaumont is about to turn thirteen, which, in her family, means that her "savvy" will strike. She was hoping that her particular savvy would be x-ray vision, but before she can celebrate her big day, her father is in a life-threatening accident. She begins to hope for a savvy that will heal her father. She hops a bus to the hospital, but it heads in the wrong direction, taking Mibs and all the other passengers on a ride they will never forget.

Reading this fantastical tale of the Beaumont family will leave you as changed as is you had discovered your owns savvy. What if your grandma moves mountains, one of your brother causes hurricanes, another creates electricity? What Savvy would you wish for?

Miss Julia and Some Heavy Drama

I finally dug into Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind in earnest this weekend. This is our book group selection for next Friday. The Fannie Flagg endorsement at the top signaled that this would be light, but enjoyable reading. And so it is! Miss Julia is newly widowed when she gets the surprise of her life...the illegitimate son of her well respected late husband is dropped on her doorstep. Of course, everyone chimes in on how she should handle the situation, but, before she can fully decide what to do, her home is ransacked, evidence of a crime is found in the garage of the boy's mother, the boy is "borrowed" by a revivalist TV evangelist, and her church is hinting that they expect a substantial contribution from her inheritance.

This is the first in a series by Ann B. Ross, and I can see why the books are so popular. Miss Julia is a feisty female who has surrounded herself with a group of colorful friends, enemies, and associates.

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I set the fun reading aside for a while this weekend to step into the Gothic world of revenge! I watched Sweeeny Todd for the second time, but the highlight of my weekend was seeing Emily Trask in the world premier of Armadale at the Milwaukee Rep. The novel upon which the play is based was written by Wilke Collins, a contemporary of Charles Dickens. Collins is best known for Moonstone, and the ultimate Gothic suspense novel, The Woman in White. Armadale spans several generations, focusing on one woman's twisted plot to avenge a misdeed from a prior decade.

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Both the play and Sweeney Todd made me wonder about the nature of revenge and the nature of those who seek it. Granted, our very essence as feeling human beings makes us vulnerable. What we choose to do, what we embrace, what we support, the people we allow into our lives, and all other choices we make provide many ways in which our humanity can be invaded. And, when our humanness is violated, is it in most of us to seek revenge? I wonder? Is there a universal breaking point at which a person can no longer turn the other cheek? Because revenge is a prevalent theme in literature, the suggestion is that we can all relate to it on some level. On a very basic level, I would question how two wrongs can logically make a right. I would ask what satisfaction can be gained from the probability that retaliatory action will most likely set another revenge cycle into motion.

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In Aramdale, Lillian Gwilt was never happy. Her life was controlled by constant scheming, positioning, and waiting for her plots to bloom. In the meantime, she turned her back on much that is good in life. She sacrificed it all for a moment that came with no guarantee of satisfaction. The same can be said of Sweeney Todd.

Maybe that's what literary philosophers are trying to tell us. Maybe they're warning us that no good can come from revenge. We need to rise above the desire. We need to move on. It's safest to read about it in other people's lives, isn't it? As for me, I'm sticking with "Miss Julia" - her simple life is more my style.