Sometimes one hour here and there isn’t enough to immerse yourself in the reading experience. Sometimes you just need to take 24… To treat yourself to your favorite authors, To celebrate with other readers, To honors those who showed you the joy of reading. So… Put on some comfy clothes, Find a quiet corner with a…
“…an artfully crafted tale of human nature.” If I were to write an Amazon review of A Simplified Map of the Real World by Stevan Allred, it would probably be the following: A Simplified Map of the Real World is a collection of 15 linked short stories that take place in Renata, Oregon and stretch through…
I recently broke up with a book. There was something about the style I just wasn’t crazy about. It’s a beautiful book about a really difficult subject and I honestly wanted to read it all the way through. To make matters worse, it’s a best-seller written by a highly acclaimed author. Uh oh.
Remember when you were little and would scribble a big blob of yellow on a page and call it a tiger, then hand it to an adult who would proclaim it the most beautiful giraffe in the world and pin it on the refrigerator? No? Likely it’s because the squashing of creativity with rules started…
People interested in U.S. history often underestimate how different a story it is from region to region. I’ve recently been reading revolutionary history and naturally that means descriptions of British colonial communities, northeastern geography, and a decidedly European sensibility. It can be startling how differently statehood evolved in the west. Paul L. Tsompanas tells the…
Last October I joined as a total newbie and last minute to boot. So I wasn’t prepare. Books and food ended up being whatever I had on hand. I hadn’t a clue about what to do with the challenges (and still don’t). And of course it ended up being a picture perfect fall that felt…
You open the cover with eager anticipation. Your fingers impatiently flipping through the pages while your eyes hungrily scan for that tell-tale page — Chapter 1. Yes. There it is! Your fingers relax. They’ve found their home. But your eyes take on a fevered gleam as they find and pounce on those first precious words…
Travel story based on real events? Or true tale of life and death? Deciding on which books to review is never easy. While I definitely lean towards reviewing books I loved reading, there is a time/interest/value equation that weighs the scales. More specifically, am I moved enough by the book to investment my time delving…
I took THE TRUE PATRIOT by Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer on a four-hour cross-country flight and as it turned out, played right into the authors hands. The book is small (literally, only 5”x7”) and only 130 pages. The authors refer to it as a pamphlet, but, since it is hard bound, in my mind that makes it a book.…
You open the cover with eager anticipation. Your fingers impatiently flipping through the pages while your eyes hungrily scan for that tell-tale page — Chapter 1. Yes. There it is! Your fingers relax. They’ve found their home. But your eyes take on a fevered gleam as they find and pounce on those first precious words…
As a traveler and compulsive reader it’s hard not to appreciate the convenience of having an e-book. On the other hand … you can’t watch the video below showing the construction of a book — PICTORIAL WEBSTER’S: A VISUAL DICTIONARY OF CURIOSITIES from print through binding, without gaining a deep appreciation for the books of yore. Back…
No, not that kind of porn. But I got your attention, didn’t I? Ha! I’m talking about a website called “Bookshelf Porn.”
“Hi. I’m Edee, and I… uh… …Wanted to say, er… um… tell you that, um…” Oh crap! My brain can’t choose between racing and going blank? Niiiiice…
“…think Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ meets ‘The Birds’ with flashes of humor.” I have a rather compulsive habit of downloading books to my e-reader, so it was no surprise when I SPIDER joined the masses on my kindle after I read a few excerpts (Hanging on to sanity by a thread, Take care, there’s a caretaker, Caught yellow…
Okay. Denise and Karen over at BlogHer are chatting about a Read-A-Thon. Dewey’s Read-A-Thon to be exact. And it starts TOMORROW! Yes. Saturday October 13, 2012. I have a million things I should do this weekend. But the thought of vegging out with books for 24 hours sounds like my kind of fun. I have literally…
A couple of weeks ago I went into my local Barnes & Noble and walked past the giant table full of best-sellers. My intent was to pick up a few things in the technology section, but a light blue book with a sweet-faced, large black dog (lab?) on the front cover caught my eye. I…
With all the hoopla over 50 Shades of Gray, the dark world of BDSM has come into the light. “Red” is NOT a romance. If anything I would call it an erotic thriller. I think James Patterson meets Harold Robbins’ book “The Insiders” would be the best example; dark, kinky, and suspenseful. I read few…
…Law Enforcement Adventure With Humor, Compassion and True Grit If you love cop shows and cop novels and think the various CSI television series are how law enforcement actually works, then let me introduce you to author and heroine Suzie Ivy who will set the record straight and tells it like it really is. And…
“There are some things you just can’t unsee, Mom,” my neighbor’s teenaged daughter said. It’s true, you know. Remember the hidden object games we all played as kids (or maybe still do in the doctor’s waiting room)? You look and look. You turn the page upside-down or sideways, closer or farther, another twist, and suddenly…
Reading & Writing Cafe welcomes Anita Finlay, author of Dirty Words on Clean Skin: At Best Buy one lazy Sunday afternoon six years back, I sampled my first Ipod. The preprogrammed music selections featured India.Arie singing “I Am Not My Hair,” a magnificent composition written, in part, to honor Melissa Etheridge, who appeared bald at the…
READING & WRITING CAFE 