The Steamy Side of Summer: Part One

I was thinking of what to contribute to Pamela's "Employee Summer Reads" display, when several titles popped up in my mind that I dared not immortalize in an in-store display.  For some reason, if an erotic piece of fiction is going to make it's way into my hands, it will do so in the summertime.  This is NOT why summer is my favorite season, but I will not protest too much in case it seems that this lady...protesteth too much.  Yeah.  Let's just say, summer is a great excuse for any uncomfortable behavior one might exhibit while reading one of these books, such as redness of the face, sweating, or fidgeting uncomfortably in one's seat.  Blame the heat.  Or better yet, the humidity.

There are many different styles of romantic, or "erotic," writing.  We are all familiar with the standard bodice-ripping, he-said/she-said, fainting, kidnapping, overprivileged-spitfire heroine kind of book, Fabio manfully gracing the cover in some sort of pantaloon--you know. This.

I have read my fair share of works of this type.  Perhaps even this exact title (I said perhaps).  I initially dipped my toe in the genre because I found it difficult, as a woman, to ignore a whole category of book clearly geared only towards my gender, and apparently quite popular, judging by the breadth of titles available.  Honestly, though, after reading a few titles (*cough*Rogue*cough*) I was not, ahem, seduced.  What I needed was Beverly Jenkins.  
 

The cover alone has me seduced.  Look at the heroine's hair--it's natural!  And cropped!  And she's not particularly curvaceous!  It only gets better when you find out she's a horse-riding Western outlaw.  And the love interest?  A straight-laced Eastern banker! Oh goodness, however will they make it work?  (I have a feeling love will find a way.)

In addition to showcasing unconventional gender roles, "Wild Sweet Love" also addresses life as a black American post-Civil War.  A large part of the story takes place in an all-black town in the West, making it a fascinating (but still fluffy) spin on a side of history not often addressed.  And yes, things get quite steamy. 

So if you are looking for a blush-inducing diversion this summer, this I can vouch for.  A slight deviation from the standard romance-novel, that still has all the ingredients for success.  If you have any similar recommendations, I'd love to hear them.

Robert Gray: Ask Me Why I'm Writing About the NBA

Ever the Chicago sports fan at heart (I even watched the NHL finals this year, for crying in the mud...), I still admire Coach Phil Jackson. I don't admire him enough to cheer on the Lakers (even I have my limits), but I respect him for his coaching abilities. One of the things that makes him so great is his love of reading. In the Shelf Awareness newsletter today, Robert Gray wrote an interesting article about him that I'd like to share:

Robert Gray: Ask Me Why I'm Writing About the NBA


What books are you "an evangelist for?" What books have been recommended to you that have effected your life?

See you at the bookstore!
Pamela

Culinarily Speaking

This past weekend was exceedingly exciting for me.

Firstly, I left Corvallis for a day.  Isn't it amazing how tied to home we become week after week, and how exciting a trip to Albany can be?  Oh----maybe that's just me.

Secondly, I got a little further than Albany this time.  I actually made it all the way to Portland.  Woo hoo!  Bright lights, big city!

Thirdly, I had an excellent day with a lovely friend.

Fourthly, I had a fanTAStic dinner in a fancy restaurant.  I had a bit of nice cheese.  I had a delicious roasted asparagus salad, and even ate the egg yolk that unctiously coated the perfectly cooked spears.  I had a veal chop with fingerling potatoes and a smoked marrow butter oozing down over the top of it.  I experienced the divine velvety smoothness of foie gras for the first time.  I sigh dramatically...

What did this all lead up to?  I saw the man speak who wrote Kitchen Confidential, and now stars in No Reservations on the Travel Channel.  I had to eat delicious food before seeing him, because there is no better way to honor a man who speaks so lovingly of things like veal and foie gras.  He also cusses worse than any sailor I've ever seen (not that I meet a lot of sailors...) 

Anthony Bourdain was in Portland flogging his newest book, Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook, and I was fortunate enough to get a signed copy of the book and see him in person at the Bagdad Theater.  The whole experience was pretty awesome, I have to say.  I was ever-so-slightly awestruck by his person, even though he was way down on the stage, and I was WAY UP in the balcony.  His "reading" was loosely based on the same excerpt I'd read on NPR.com, and he sounded like he was kind of done with that particular passage, to be honest.  The Q&A part of the evening was interesting, though.  He seemed relaxed and honest, if tired, and was ready to drop the requisite string of F-bombs.

All in all, it's interesting to hear the author of a book you enjoy talk about what he's written and what he loves.  Bourdain has certainly grown up since the publication of his first book (grown up?  He was 45 then...), and it's interesting to see what's different and what he's learned.  It was an awesome trip.

Any trip with such a dear friend three before her wedding is by definition awesome.  (Congratulations, My Little Friend!)

And now I get to settle down and read the book with fond associations.  See you at the bookstore, friends.

Pamela.

First Lines

"When he was thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.  When it healed, and Jem's fears of never being able to play were assuaged, he was seldom self-conscious about his injury..."
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

It has been more than 20 years since I first read Harper Lee's classic novel, and I just picked it up last week to revisit it for our store reading group.  I had forgotten why I loved it the first time, and just reading the first couple of lines just warmed  me with Lee's use of words.  They make me curious about how he broke his arm, and immediately draw me into the story.  Yes, I'm very happy to be reading this again.

Pamela

Coop: Road Tour Nearly Becomes a Canal Tour

I haven't read one of Michael Perry's books yet, but I continue to be entertained by his book tour blog entries every day that come into our store mailbox. That and I of course immediately connect to his work, like Midwesterners and farmers will do. (He is from WI, and I am from IL.) He is the author of several other books, including Truck: A Love Story and Population: 485 in addition to Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting. He also has a blog called The Sneezing Cow. How is it possible I wouldn't want to read that? Stop by our store and check out his books!

Coop: Road Tour Nearly Becomes a Canal Tour

Nabokov's St. Petersburg house

Before the revolution, Vladimir Nabokov's (author of Lolita, Ada,Pale Fire and many other wonderful novels) family lived in this estate in St. Petersburg. They were forced to flee by the Bolshevics, and his father was assassinated in the 1920s. Nabokov lived the rest of his life without stepping foot in Russia.

Hogarth's Ilustration "Gin Lane."

Gin: apparently a whole lot of trouble in ye olde London.

Dear Dad:

How have you been?  It's been a while since we talked--oh, wait.  Your birthday was just last weekend so I guess I called you then.  But yeah, it's been a while since we really talked.  This leaves me in a tight spot, because Father's Day is just a few days away.  I mean, seriously?  I'm supposed to come up with two gifts in two weeks?  REALLY?  I spend so much time in the bookstore, I supposed I'll find something fantastic for you here.  I'll throw out a few suggestions, and you tell me which one you think you might like.  'S'that work for you?  Excellent.

I know you are fond of your pickup trucks (you are a former farmer, after all), so I'm thinking you might enjoy the book Truck: A Love Story by Michael Perry.  Actually the book is about more than a man and his truck.  There is also a man and his garden (I do know you enjoy prettyin' up your yard), and a man in a small town.  And it's entertaining!  I know you need a day to just sit outside with a cold beer and a cigarette and enjoy a little reading.  If that doesn't sell this book to you, maybe the first sentence of Chapter 7 will:  "The squirrel wars are on."

Knowing you are a farmer and a cowboy at heart, if perhaps trapped in suburbia, I also think you will enjoy Plainsong by Kent Haruf.  In fact, since it is one of my favoritest books EVER, I can't believe I haven't given it to you before this.  Typically I keep to "women's fiction" and stuff I can easily relate to, but Haruf writes of the stark Eastern Colorado countryside with such sparse beauty, I was entranced.  The book is peopled with characters who are good and evil, all of them struggling to find a little love in the world.

Finally, what is Father's Day without a little tussle with the grill?  Steven Raichlen's The Barbecue! Bible includes great tips and over 500 recipes that will take your basic steaks and burgers to the next level.  There are even color photographs, which is always a cookbook "win!" in my opinion.  There are delicious side dishes, exotic sauces and rubs, and desserts you want first.  It even won the coveted Julia Child Cookbook Award.  (That makes it a double "win!")

So...tell me which one sounds good to you.  Knowing you as I do, I actually think I know exactly which one I'm going to send to you.  I don't want to ruin the surprise however.  We are far away from each other, and this may be the only I can offer you some delight on your special day.  How is the weather in Illinois, by the way?  I hope you manage to find some time to sit outside, relax and read.

I'll see you at the bookstore...someday!
Love,
Pamela.

First Lines

Francis Marion Tarwater's uncle had been dead for only half a day when the boy got too drunk to finish digging his grave and a Negro named Buford Munson, who had come to get a jug filled, had to finish it and drag the body from the breakfast table where it was still sitting and bury it in a decent and Christian way, with the sign of its Saviour at the head of the grave and enough dirt on top to keep the dogs from digging it up.

 -Flannery O' Connor, The Violent Bear It Away

Oh, Flannery, your first sentence says it all! A bunch of weird religion and weird death is surely coming in the following pages.

A put-down, in sonnet form, from Shakespeare!

FAIR is my love, but not so fair as fickle;
Mild as a dove, but neither true nor trusty;
Brighter than glass, and yet, as glass is, brittle;
Softer than wax, and yet, as iron, rusty:
A lily pale, with damask dye to grace her,	5
None fairer, nor none falser to deface her.
Her lips to mine how often hath she join’d,
Between each kiss her oaths of true love swearing!
How many tales to please me hath she coin’d,
Dreading my love, the loss thereof still fearing!	10
Yet in the midst of all her pure protestings,
Her faith, her oaths, her tears, and all were jestings.
She burn’d with love, as straw with fire flameth;
She burn’d out love, as soon as straw outburneth;
She fram’d the love, and yet she foil’d the framing;	15
She bade love last, and yet she fell a-turning.
Was this a lover, or a lecher whether?
Bad in the best, though excellent in neither.

First Lines

This book was a big favorite of mine (Ben) in 8th grade, and still a great, goofy read...

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. -Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The greatest gift

Good News:  OSU graduation ceremonies are this Saturday!

Hundreds and thousands of graduates across the country are breathing great sighs of relief as another phase of their education comes to an end.  I certainly did when I graduated from Northern Illinois University 14 years ago.  I was so eager to be done with school, I had a countdown going for months.  At any time one of my friends could ask me how many days, and I automatically had an answer for them.  Considering how poor my math skills are, you could really say I did it "like magic."  For little old me, a lot of what followed was a letdown.  Eventually I landed in Corvallis, however, and I came to this little bookstore and life has been pretty good since.  Looking back, I wonder what could have made that time better.  The obvious answer is, "A book presented as a thoughtful gift!"  Following that reasoning, here are my 3 Favorite Books to Give Freshly Minted Graduates:

Oh the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss was first given to me shortly before I graduated from college.  One of the greatest English teachers ever, Mrs. Eichelberger, distributed photocopies of the book to her graduating classes.  (Sorry for ratting you out, Mrs. Eich!)  It was fun!  It was frivolous!  It was meaningful and inspiring.  Dr. Seuss had a way with words, and his illustrations joyfully bring his advice to life.  One of my best friends gave the actual book to me once I graduated from college.  I still have both copies, and they are much-loved.

If  you're seeking something more...practical, high school graduates will appreciate The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: College by Joshua Piven, David Bergenicht, and Jennifer Worick.  Everything a new college freshman needs to survive their first year is here, including How to Take on a New Identity, How to Deal with an Unexpected Visit from Your Parents, How to Eat When You're Broke, and How to Ask Your Parents for Money.  Does this stuff really work?  I'm sure the authors spent untold amounts of money testing every theory.    And if that's not true, give it because it's fun!

A book that is truly useful (my copy is quite dog-eared and stained) is How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman.  This is a great gift for those graduating from college, or who are going to be living on their own for the first time.  Everybody needs to feed themselves somehow, and Bittman gives cooks the power to do it well.  Whoever's in the kitchen--a first time cook or an experienced one--will benefit from this book.  I like how he offers ingredient options and combination suggestions.  (Anything to make meal planning easier...)  This one lives on my recommendation shelf--stop by and I will be happy to put a copy into your hands!

Being a bookstore, we offer plenty of escapism as well.  So many options...so little time left to decide!  On graduation gifts I mean.  You should really stop by and say hello soon...

See you at the bookstore!

Pamela.

Illustration for the Day

Here's an illustration from Edward Lear's 1894 Laughable Lyrics. A strange sight, without context. A public domain image found at zorger.com.

Daily Poem

Robert Frost

The Sound of Trees

I WONDER about the trees.
Why do we wish to bear
Forever the noise of these
More than another noise
So close to our dwelling place?	5
We suffer them by the day
Till we lose all measure of pace,
And fixity in our joys,
And acquire a listening air.
They are that that talks of going	10
But never gets away;
And that talks no less for knowing,
As it grows wiser and older,
That now it means to stay.
My feet tug at the floor	15
And my head sways to my shoulder
Sometimes when I watch trees sway,
From the window or the door.
I shall set forth for somewhere,
I shall make the reckless choice	20
Some day when they are in voice
And tossing so as to scare
The white clouds over them on.
I shall have less to say,
But I shall be gone.	25

First Lines

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

Well...I am waiting to meet him.  Where is my Mr. Darcy?  (Silly me, I do have a perfectly lovely Honey at home.) Pride and Prejudice is an icon of English literature, and Jane Austen's greatest novel (at least the most-loved) stands as a fine example of her work.  As a romantic at heart, I can not hear or read that first line without a little thrill.  It holds so much potential, and seems like such a promising little morsel of words.  I can not think of a great "First Line" without thinking of that one...

Pamela.

Illustration

While not exactly illustrations, here are two photographs- taken by the EPA in 1970s - of a house built with beer bottles. It's that kind of day, isn't it? Found at the Public Domain Images blog, a great site.

In the end, it looks like something from a sci-fi film:

Daily Poem

A Butterfly in Church
 by George Marion McClellan

What dost thou here, thou shining, sinless thing,
With many colored hues and shapely wing?
Why quit the open field and summer air
To flutter here? Thou hast no need of prayer.

'Tis meet that we, who this great structure built,
Should come to be redeemed and washed from guilt,
For we this gilded edifice within
Are come, with erring hearts and stains of sin.


But thou are free from guilt as God on high;
Go, seek the blooming waste and open sky,
And leave us here our secret woes to bear,
Confessionals and agonies of prayer.




from The Book of American Negro Poetry, 1922.
Ed. James Weldon Johnson

First Lines

I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974. - Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex (2002)

An Illustration

Today, instead of a poem or a first line, we have a cool old illustration from Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark." Pretty wild, huh? I've loved the old illustrations from Carroll books since I was a kid. They're so funny, and so weird.

-Ben

Bon jour, mes amis!

Today in the bookstore, we are getting our groove on to the soundtrack of Amelie, and the gray weather is highlighting my general malaise.  What else is there to dream of but France?  I'm sure it's sunny and gorgeous there, as it will be here soon.  Hopefully very soon...

France, for me, is in the very distant future.  Julia Child blossomed there, I like to remind myself.  I like to cook, too.  Clearly we are soul sisters!  A couple of years ago, before the popularity of Julie & Julia, I read Julia's biography, and it remains one of my favorite books to recommend.  (In fact, you can visit it on my "Pamela's Picks" shelf in the store.)  Child was not perfect, but she was grand and adventurous.  This book focuses on her years in France, when she first learned how to cook (she was not exactly a natural).  She moved there with her much-loved husband, Paul, and they lived there happily for many years.  During that time, she managed to learn to cook, master French cooking, and write a cookbook with Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck.  The three authors had battles with editors, publishers, and amongst themselves.  Throughout, though, is Child's distinctive voice, zest for life, and always food.  Can't miss it. 

I desperately hope the weather changes soon, and I find myself able to think of something else besides food.  You should stop by the bookstore and offer me your suggestions in the meantime...  See you there!

Pamela.

First Lines

I am an American, Chicago born - Chicago, that somber city- and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent. - Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March (1953)

For those of you who haven't read it, Augie March is a great book- some say Bellow's best- and it's full of rollicking energy and a sense of possibility infuses the language. It paints a memorable picture of Chicago, and even wanders down to Mexico, but the real wonder of the book is the protagonist, Augie. I highly recommend it.

-Ben

Daily Poem

Charles Bertram Johnson  

A Little Cabin
DES a little cabin
Big ernuff fur two.
Des awaitin’, honey,
Cozy fixt fur you;
Down dah by de road, 5
Not ve’y far from town,
Waitin’ fur de missis,
When she’s ready to come down.

Des a little cabin,
An’ er acre o’ group’, 10
Vines agrowin’ on it,
Fruit trees all aroun’,
Hollyhawks a-bloomin’
In de gyahden plot—
Honey, would you like to 15
Own dat little spot?

Make dat little cabin
Cheery, clean an’ bright,
With an’ angel in it
Like a ray of light? 20
Make dat little palace
Somethin’ fine an’ gran’,
Make it like an Eden,
Fur a lonely man?

Des you listen, Honey, 25
While I ’splain it all,
How some lady’s go’nter
Boss dat little hall;
Des you take my han’
Dat’s de way it’s writ, 30
Des you take my heart,
Dat’s de deed to it.