February 2010

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Some Dating Advice for Book Lovers on Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2010 in holiday, poetry, recommended reading by Kim | 3 comments

The perfect poem for book lovers, guaranteed to bring a smile to your face:

Lending Out Books

by Hal Sirowitz

You’re always giving, my therapist said.

You have to learn how to take.  Whenever

you meet a woman, the first thing you do

is lend her your books.  You think she’ll

have to see you again in order to return them.

But what happens is, she doesn’t have the time

to read them, & she’s afraid if she sees you again

you’ll expect her to talk about them, & will

want to lend her even more.  So she

cancels the date.  You end up losing

a lot of books.  You should borrow hers.


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Hey Kermit – It Is Easy to be Green

February 13, 2010 in environment, gifts, giveaway by Kim | No comments

Claire and I work at being green.  We both buy our veggies from the same organic service (ParadiseO, tell them we sent you!) and strive to reduce, re-use and recycle.  Truthfully though, Claire is in a different league.  When she re-landscaped, she chose succulents and water tolerant plants; when you see my garden, you’ll think “English.”  When they stripped out the grass to replace it with a more environmentally-friendly type, she watered the dirt and waited for the weeds to grow and be pulled rather than use a herbicide.  Let’s just say that never would have occurred to me.  She composts; when I mentioned composting to our landscaper she laughed, patted me on the shoulder, and said “let’s work on watering the pots regularly.”  Claire gave up meat for a year for environmental reasons; I try not to have any meat until dinner, but mostly for caloric purposes.

We’ve talked about the used book quandary – they’re better for the environment because a book is being reused, but not so good for the author who doesn’t get a cut of that transaction.  Claire is an author.  Eco-Libris provides the answer, buy a tree for every book you read to balance out the paper used to manufacture the book.  Eco-Libris also works with publishers to promote the sustainable production of books.  Now, they are combing the two and adding an extra incentive for readers to participate:

  • Customers who balance out 25 books at Eco-Libris will receive a $10 gift card for Strand Bookstore in New York City (one of the world’s best independent bookstores). These cards are good for any in-store or online purchases and they never expire.
  • For customers who will balance out 50 books, Eco-Libris will send a gift - a choice of “green” book, printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. Customers will be offered to choose from a list of 5-6 books that will be changing occasionally.  The books are from last November’s green campaign; we loved our copy of From Green to Gold by Harold Enrico.
  • Customers who will balance 100 books will receive a$25 gift card for BookSwim, a Netflix-style book rental library service, lending you paperbacks, hardcovers and college textbooks.

Help the environment and get rewarded for it, what could be better?

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Awesome Women, Awesome Time

February 10, 2010 in Literary Event by Claire | 4 comments

A (Rare) Rainy Weekend in Pasadena

You know how married couples who have been together a long time start doing the same thing without realizing it, like ordering the same dish at dinner or liking the same movies?  Well, I’m starting to think Kim and I have spent too much time together because last week I said to her, “We’re spending Friday night in Pasadena, no kids,” and she said, “We’re spending Friday night in Pasadena, no kids,” and I said, “We’re staying at the Langham,” and she said, “We’re staying at the Langham.”  Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world . . .

Kim of course scored a much better upgrade than we did, and somehow ended up with a fireplace and patio.  Good luck for her with using the latter: it rained steadily all weekend, prompting me to say with faux naivete to my husband, “Wow, Pasadena is such a rainy town.”   On the plus side, I got to write off our hotel room because I was in Pasadena to WORK.

As Kim mentioned in an earlier post, I was one of four female authors invited to speak at the Pasadena Literary Festival.  Proceeds benefited the Pasadena Senior Center which was also where the event took place—and a warm and inviting place it is.  As a speaker, I expected to spend the entire event–when not on stage–squirming in my seat with nerves, screaming inside my own head because I hadn’t written a speech or prepared notes or even bounced much of anything off of my husband beforehand.

Instead I found myself far too fascinated by the other speakers to do anything but listen. Read the rest of this entry »

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Vroman’s Bookstore – Southern California’s Oldest and Largest Independent Bookstore

February 9, 2010 in bookstore, mystery, One of the Nation's Best by Kim | 3 comments

Every fan of independent bookstores talks about their importance in creating community.  Sometimes it’s hard to know what that means.  There is certainly interaction between the customers and the booksellers, and between readers and authors at events.  Those are “wheels and spokes” models of interaction, all directed toward a center.  How does an independent bookstore create an opportunity for the spokes to interact?  Visit Vroman’s.  It’s not unusual for me to chat up complete strangers looking at books in a bookstore.  Just pick up The Elegance of the Hedgehog and get ready to hear my thoughts despite the fact you’ve never met me.  At Vroman’s, customers were clustered in groups and talking all over the store.  And not all of them knew each other, I know because I was eavesdropping.  I wasn’t in the store for 10 minutes when a customer walked up to me, pointed at The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig and told me it was a beautifully written story.  Wanting to exchange the favor in the D section of fiction, I recommended The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson.  We both walked away with a new book.

Just when I was going to ask a bookseller for a recommendation, I heard one of the employees recommend Louis de Bernieres for a “sophisticated, educated woman” who was in the hospital.  Well, I’m not bedridden, but I flattered myself that the rest of the description may apply so I discretely followed along (stalked them).  I didn’t connect de Bernieres with Corelli’s Mandolin, probably because I’ve only seen the movie, but the bookseller raved about it.  I bought his A Partisan’s Daughter to give it a try.

What else did I find?  Looking at the WALL of employee recommendations I found Read the rest of this entry »

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NEVER Would Have Read This Book if a Bookseller Hadn’t Recommended It

February 7, 2010 in book review, bookstore, memoir by Kim | 2 comments

A few weeks ago, Leslie and I and our respective husbands went to hear a friend sing Vitello’s in Studio City.  Knowing Portrait of a Bookstore was right across the street, we left the club with 30 minutes to spare before the store closed (love the late night hours at the store!).  How much damage could we do in 30 minutes?  Well, a lot.  Keith bought most of my birthday present, plus books for himself.  After a very convincing pitch from the bookseller, Leslie bought Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress by Susan Jane Gilman, a book that generally would not have attracted either of us.  So much for what we know, here are Leslie’s thoughts on the book:

One of the things I like most about independent bookstores is that the employees (many of whom are owners or invested in the business) are truly big readers. Since I’m assuming none of them are getting rich working there, they must really love books.

When I walk into an independent bookstore, I typically ask “What can you recommend?” This may either be for me or for my two pre-teen daughters. In many cases, my question has been rewarded with wonderful surprises.

Recently, Kim and I, along with our husbands, went to Portrait of a Bookstore, one of my favorite independents, is just across the street from a jazz club we visited. Needless to say, we walked out with books in our arms. Well, actually, the guys carried them.

As usual, the woman that was working that evening was just chock full of recommendations. One of the books that she mentioned was Hypocrite in a Pouffy Dress, a memoir, by Susan Jane Gilman. This is a book, had I simply seen on a shelf, I would never have picked up. I’m really fussy about the non-fiction I Read the rest of this entry »

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