From One Book Lover

This year, April 28 was a very busy day in my household. First of all, it was World Tai Chi Qigong Day, so my family spent the cool morning at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens. The afternoon, however, was spent with books. My first stop was One More Page Books . In addition to oodles of tomes, the store featured a bookseller bake-off, hourly raffles, and lots of recommendations. I blew my budget at this little bookstore, but it was worth it: the staff was helpful and enthusiastic, and did I mention the bake-off? Invictus  has been described as "Doctor Who meets Guardians of the Galaxy," both bonuses in my book (so to speak). I haven't read anything by this author, so I can't wait to see how a time-traveling thief meets his destiny. Alternate history involving the British crown? Count me in with  That Inevitable Victorian Thing . It takes place in the near-future, which makes it even more intriguing, and sounds a little akin to Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next...

I love bookstores. Big bookstores, little bookstores, mega-bookstores, chains, indie shops. Brick-and-mortar or mail order. Used or new, thrift store, department store, or dedicated bookstore, I'm in. In fact, I will find book sections in stores to shop — just ask the folks at the gift shop in Harpers Ferry National Park. So, when Twitter told me about Bookstore Day, I didn't need to be told twice. Nor did it take much to remind me that I can visit multiple bookstores on that day, and I set about mapping my visits. My kryptonite is older used books. If someone else has loved the book, I love it even more. I have been known to purchase used books as gifts — which may sound gauche, but as I ask myself with no discernible irony, who wouldn't like a hardback early edition of The Godfather ? (To go with the cheap paperback loaner copy, of course. I mean, one doesn't loan out one's first-string books!) So, here in Northern Virginia, I will hit a few indie and us...

Heal the Cracks in the Bell of the World                      For the community of Newtown, Connecticut,                     where twenty students and six educators lost their                     lives to a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary                     School, December 14, 2012 Now the bells speak with their tongues of bronze. Now the bells open their mouths of bronze to say: Listen to the bells a world away. Listen to the bell in the ruins of a city where children gathered copper shells like beach glass, and the copper boiled in the foundry, and the bell born in the foundry says: I was born of bullets, but now I sing of a world where bullets melt into bells. Listen to the bell in a city where cannons from the armies of the Great War sank into molten metal bubblin...

I love My Library. Often I visit virtually, but I treasure my trips to the wonderful building. I traveled to my local branch Friday afternoon, and I carried out some really good books on home organization, world history, sci fi, and more. My cat Ginger — pictured below with (or, rather, on) my library loot — supports my reading, as long as my lap remains available for her occupation. So far, so good. My Library helped me channel my Inner Organizer with a few books on home organization and decluttering. When I got the message from the library that my books were ready, I hurried on over to pick up: Love the home you have Living simple, free & happy: how to simplify, declutter your home and reduce stress, debt, and waste Knack organizing your home: decluttering solutions and storage ideas Whether or not any of that wisdom sticks, My Library did its part. I had considered writing a Haggadah for my family because I had yet to find one that inspired me (nothing personal, ...

In 2017, I read 60 books.  I think. Keeping track isn't as easy as it should be. Marking e-books as "read" on Goodreads is easy, thanks to a feature that prompts readers to "mark as currently reading" when opening the book and automatically listing them as "read" when flipping the last page. Alas, print books don't offer the same auto-prompt when a reader cracks the spine. However, I try to remember to record completed print and audio book titles on my cloud drive, and cross-check my drive list against Goodreads from time to time. It's a handy resource to remind myself why a book seems so familiar . (Ahem, Mariana !) Which is a long way of saying, "In 2017, I am pretty sure I read 60 books, give or take." It's not a personal best, but it is a healthy number considering my bout of reading ennui this summer. A friend experienced the same thing last year, and I didn't understand until I stood in front of my bookshelves and...

Warning: ahead be spoilers. Continue at your own risk. I was looking for a book that was a good October read (fantasy or something equally unique) that wasn't a series, a fete increasingly hard to accomplish. I had begun listening to it a few months ago, and it was interesting, so I gave myself a reason to carry on. I am so glad I did. That was one rocking, rollicking ride!  Every time I thought a storyline was resolved and wondered what in the world could come next, Naomi Novik came up with something totally original, logical to the story, and fantastic.  It felt like an Old World fairy tale, and the audiobook reader had a Polish accent - which, after reading the afterward, made total sense. I also thought it was brilliant to include Baba Yaga, the European witch of lore, and introducing Jaga was a very subtle move to provide that element and make it feel as old as that tale. As much as I love the first line — indeed, the first paragraph — the story started out a li...

I love Dan Brown. From Angels & Demons to The DaVinci Code , he was on-point. I'll never forget the early excitement and thrill of the chase with the brilliant Harvard swimmer — er, professor. But my love for Robert Langdon and his adventures thins out in subsequent novels, and Origin  doesn't revive it. In fact, I stopped reading Brown's latest novel about a quarter of the way through.I feel like I kept reading a lot longer than I wanted, but I was trying to get to the "good part" before I surrendered. Origin made me start counting how many ways smiles could be used as adjectives. The villain nearly twirled his big black mustache every time he appeared on the page. The villain was so much like Silas, deep in his misguided faith in his boss and his deity, I kept expecting references to albinism. I appreciated Brown's patient, thorough, and loving description of the Guggenheim Bilbao; someday, I may return to the book just to see to what other ...