Friday, April 29, 2011

The Queen Died and the King Died


Welcome to the Literary Blog Hop hosted by The Blue Bookcase!

This week's prompt: 
 Discuss your thoughts on sentimentality in literature.
When is emotion in literature effective and when is it superfluous?
Use examples.

My reply:
E. M. Forster wrote: 'A fact is "The queen died and the king died."
A story is "The queen died and the king died of a broken heart."'
I prefer stories.


This blog hop is open to blogs
that primarily feature book reviews of literary fiction,
classic literature, and general literary discussion.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Hoppy Easter Eggstravag​anza Giveaway Hop: Win a $25 Amazon Gift Card or A Box of 15 Fantastic New Fiction Books

Thank You, Followers!
I have two prizes in the Hoppy Easter Eggstravaganza Giveaway Hop!
Entering is easy!
Just:
 (1) follow me and
(2) leave a comment, stating which prize(s) you'd like to win,
and providing an email address where you can be reached.

What are the Prizes?

Prize Package 1...
A Box of 15 New Fantastic Fiction Books!
Last week I went to a Texas librarian conference.
Books, books, books everywhere.
It was fantastic.
I came home with 170 wonderful books.
Now I want to share that experience with you.
I will send you the fifteen amazing new ARCs seen below!
(I'm sorry, but this is only open to bloggers in the US.)

Thank you to HarperCollins, Viking, Little Brown, Random House, Harcourt, and Hachette
for providing all these wonderful ARCs for this giveaway.

Prize Package 2...
Win an Amazon Gift Card!
(This is open to bloggers anywhere Amazon can ship.)

You can enter one or both of these giveaways!
Good luck!

Bonus Entries:
Follow me at Twitter
and leave a comment. +1

Befriend me at Goodreads
and leave a comment. +1



Hoppy Easter Eggstravaganza Giveaway Hop is scheduled
 to begin on Wednesday, April 20th at 12:01 am EST
and end on Monday, April 25th at 11:59 pm EST.
All participating blogs will be linked up through
a Hoppy Easter Eggstravaganza Giveaway Hop linky.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Rewind

This week's prompt is fun.

Top Ten Tuesday Rewind:
Pick a past Top Ten Tuesday that we've done
that you didn't get a chance to participate in.
Look here for past topics.

I missed the first nine prompts.
Of these, I chose this one for this week's Rewind:

Top Ten Most Intimidating Reads


Moby Dick

Middlemarch

Infinite Jest

Ulysses

Gravity's Rainbow

The Magic Mountain

The Sound and the Fury
 Proust's In Search of Lost Time

Beloved

War and Peace
 
 
Foolishly, I vowed to try to read the last two titles this year.
 
How about you?  What titles intimidate you?
Any suggestions about how to get through these?



Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because we are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!



Each week we will post a new Top Ten list complete with one of our bloggers answers. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND sign Mister Linky at the bottom to share with us and all those who are participating. If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Don't worry if you can't come up with ten every time..just post what you can!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

TLA 2011: A Photoblog Post

There is nothing like
the Texas Library Association Conference.

And there is nothing like going to TLA
in Austin!

Austin, Texas!
From my hotel window.

TLA always means fantastic authors.

And various odd creatures,
ready and eager to come to your library.


Even Wonder Woman,
making an appearance at the Capstone Breakfast.

Here we librarians sit,
awaiting the bats
arising from under a bridge over Town Lake.

My first political rally!
Two thousand librarians
on the steps of the Texas Capitol,
pleading with the legislators
to think about children.

My haul:
56 posters,
3 t-shirts,
12 tote bags,
2 stuffed animals,
1 puppet,
and...
170 books!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

TOP TEN BOOKS I'D LIKE TO SEE MADE INTO MOVIES

TOP TEN BOOKS I'D LIKE TO SEE MADE INTO MOVIES

I almost never see a wonderful book made into a wonderful movie.

I hesitate, then, to condemn a great book
to new life as a bad movie.

I'm afraid I have to say that
I'd rather keep my wonderful books
as wonderful books.

My short answer is none.

How about you?
Are there movies you would, bravely,
have made from your favorite books?

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Dewey's 24-Hour-Readathon in New York, New York


 My favorite reading event of the year, Dewey's 24-Hour-Readathon!

This year, I read New York City
to prepare for my first trip there this summer.

A photo for inspiration:


Empire State Building HDR
Wow...New York City....

The books I collected for this readathon...
I added my location to our Google map of readers,
joined in on the collaborative story,
and popped in on a few blogs.
I wrote a little about my favorite classic.
I read for ten hours before
hitting the wall,
and stopping to eat dinner,
enjoy a movie, and go to sleep.

And I finished ten books:
New York: 365 Days
Here is New York by E. B. White
New York: The Big City by Will Eisner (graphic novel)
Miffy Loves New York City by Dick Bruna
The Inside-Outside Book of New York City by Roxie Munro
Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin by Duncan Tonatiuh
New York City: An Illustrated History of the Big Apple
Pale Male: Citizen Hawk of New York City
Rosy Cole's Worst Ever, Best Yet Tour of New York City





Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Top Ten Book Covers I Wish I Could Redesign, or Don't Judge These Books by Their Covers, and the 2011 Indie Lit Awards

Top Ten Book Covers I Wish I Could Redesign

I could pull almost any book off my shelf and
shake my head when I see its cover design.
Lots of very sad book covers out there.

So here's a list of some of my favorite books with awful covers:

Civility by Stephen L. Carter
Not only a bad cover, but a boring title.
Who's gonna read this fantastic book
with a cover and a title like these?


Sandkings by George R. R. Martin
I really don't know why I picked up
this beautifully written science fiction novel
with a scary cover like this.
.
One Man's Meat by E. B. White
If you didn't recognize the author from Charlotte's Web
and know that he wrote brilliant essays (some of which
are in this book), you'd never choose this book.


 The World is Not Enough by Zoe Oldenbourg
Certainly doesn't look like the best historical fiction ever written,
does it?
No, it looks more like a history book about war.


Into That Good Night by Ron Rozelle
Such an amazing memoir that it was published
by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux,
but they certainly didn't spend much on the cover.


The Secret History by Donna Tartt
You'd never guess this is a fantastic and mysterious thriller from the cover.
Who wants to read a book with a statue on the cover?

Finally, the type of cover I hate most is...
Book Covers with the Author's Name Written Bigger than the Title!
(Does that bother anyone else,
or is it just me,
growing increasingly cranky with age?)

I'm going to stop here,
because I'm starting to rant a little
and that's never pretty.

So what did you choose?
What book covers do you wish you could redesign?


Before you move on,
let me share with you a wonderful blog event
that will be taking place at the end of this year,
This year in 2011, like last year,
I'll be serving on the panel to choose the best
I'm a little worried this year, as
they've pulled Memoir into a separate category.
So, please, please, start sending me
titles of deserving nonfiction (non-memoir only, please)
published in 2011
so that I can start reading!


Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This meme was created because we are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!



Each week we will post a new Top Ten list complete with one of our bloggers answers. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND sign Mister Linky at the bottom to share with us and all those who are participating. If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Don't worry if you can't come up with ten every time..just post what you can!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Spring Fever

The Sunday Salon.com
 
Do you ever have days when you want to do,
well, nothing?
 
That's me today.
 
I'm sitting here in my rocker on my front porch, listening to the sounds of kids playing on the next street, birds chirping, my windchimes gently ringing, and bikers whizzing by on their Sunday morning ride. I'm looking at the brilliant green world around me: green leaves, green grass, green everywhere.
 
It makes me feel so happy that I don't want to do anything.
 
I finished Heidi last week. An absolutely refreshing read. Heidi is the Mary Poppins of her world, bringing comfort to an aged and blind grandmother, teaching the incorrigible Peter to read, befriending and healing a lonely lame girl. All with the simple gifts of the spirit found in a young child. Makes me want to go live in a hut in Switzerland on the side of a mountain. Then again perhaps I am doing just that.
 
And, perfect for today, I'm reading the twelfth book in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective series, The Double Comfort Safari Club. I love the way our hero, the No. 1 Ladies' Detective herself, Mma. Precious Ramotswe, lives her life, enjoying the small moments and treating everyone with great respect. 
 
I'm even contemplating skipping church today. I'm thinking that sitting here on my front porch, with a cup of coffee, might be the ideal spot to thank God for his many blessings. It just might be.
 
What are you up to today?
 


What is the Sunday Salon?
Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....


That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. See below for how to join the Salon.