June 2010

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Help Support the Advocacy Lab by Buying Books

June 19, 2010 in Uncategorized by Claire | No comments

Usually our mission on this blog is to promote small independent bookstores and remind you to choose Indies when buying your books.  But today I’m actually referring you to a big chain, Barnes & Noble, because from now through Sunday, a purchase there can help the next generation learn to care about and fight for human rights–if you follow the steps below.

This weekend, the Advocacy Lab in NYC is having a fundraising bookfair through Barnes & Noble. The Advocacy Lab’s mission is to empower youth to take action for human rights.

Partnering with teachers in under-resourced New York City high schools, AdLab provides in-class human rights education and creative advocacy skills training at least once a week over the course of the school year. AdLab’s grassroots program prepares students with the knowledge, tools, and confidence, to create positive social change in their communities and in the world. To help out, simply order your summer reading here this weekend and use AdLab’s code when you check out: 10234276. If you’re in NYC, you can pick up a voucher at the Warren Street store in Lower Manhattan all weekend.

To learn more about the Advocacy Lab, click here.

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Paulina Springs Books – Sisters, Oregon

June 17, 2010 in bookstore, used books by Kim | 1 comment

Sisters, Oregon is a lovely small town in the shadow of the beautiful Three Sisters Mountains.  The downtown decor is western quaint.  With only a population of 1925, Sisters supports two stores, Paulina Springs Books and Lonesome Water Books. I dropped by Paulina Springs Books three years ago and picked up Owl Island by Randy Sue Coburn on the booksellers recommendation and I was looking forward to seeing how the store changed.

Bucking the bookstore trend of hunkering or closing down, Paulina Springs Books has expanded since my first visit.  They opened a sister store in Redmond, Oregon (see my review of that store and how to pronounce Paulina) and are enlarging this store by breaking through a wall and taking on additional space.  Larger didn’t change the chatty atmosphere.  I remember during my first experience that a discussion about books became a store wide conversation among the various customers and booksellers.  The same open conversations occurred again, where customers and booksellers bantered back and forth about upcoming books, YA recommendations, and great reads.

Like it’s sister store, Paulina Springs Books has a strong outdoor/nature section.  Of course, there is an emphasis on Oregon, remember the Three Sister Mountains are looming out the front window, yet I found several books to accompany me on my southwest trip (since cancelled).  I found a shelf talker recommending Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams, and when I told the bookseller I bought the book to read for a trip to the southwest, she pointed me to Red by Williams, Read the rest of this entry »

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Summer Is for Reading

June 14, 2010 in library, summer by Claire | 5 comments

I had the good fortune to grow up in a family that owned a summer house on a lake about two hours from our home.  Once school was out in June, we would all load up into the station wagon and head north.   There was something so blissful about turning off the highway and suddenly seeing familiar houses, roads, and even cemeteries.  The first one who spotted the lake through the trees would cry out in delight.  And a little while later we’d be heading down, down, down our very steep driveway to the oddly modern and uncottagelike building my parents had commissioned when I was an infant.

Our lake in New Hampshire. Wish I were there.

My mom and the kids stayed all summer; my father would leave early Monday morning, work all week back in Boston, then drive back Friday night for the weekends.  During the summer he really only slept well in the mountains, by the lake, where the air mostly stayed cool, so he took off whatever time he could and invited everyone he knew to come spend the day or the weekend with us there.  The house was always full, my mother planning, shopping for, and preparing meal after meal after meal for what could be dozens of guests on any given weekend.  I can’t imagine how much work it was for her: there wasn’t any take-out in that small town back in those days, and for decades there also wasn’t a dishwasher in the house, unless you counted the five kids.

There also wasn’t a TV in the house.  Years later, my father would give in and get a tiny TV set–mostly so he could watch tennis matches on it–but for the first decade or so, all we had was a radio that played kids’ programs on Sunday mornings.

Five kids, two and a half months, many rainy days . . . what was a mother to do?

Go to a library, of course.  Once a week we’d all pile into the car, drive to the town library and emerge with our arms filled with piles of books.  And for the next seven days, when we weren’t outside swimming or catching frogs or playing in our sandy driveway (just right for digging tunnels), we were draped over various pieces of furniture, reading. Read the rest of this entry »

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Eye Candy for Book Lovers

June 12, 2010 in music by Kim | No comments

Three sites to brighten up your summer day:

Hot Guys Reading Books

You have to check out this website, really, go there now.  Claire sent me the link, we both love it.  If the blogger, Alli, doesn’t have a book deal, she will soon.  You can submit your own photo of your hot guy reading a book to hotguysreadingbooks@gmail.com.  Want a fun Father’s Day thank you?  Have him posted on the site.

Bookshelf Porn

When we bought our house, the first thing I wanted installed were tall, dark bookshelves.  Seven years later, my dream arrived.  I love my bookshelves.  In general, the first thing I look for in a house are bookshelves.  I’m nosey, I want to look to see which books are there.  I used to try to be subtle, but I gave that up years ago.  Invite me to your house and I’ll examine your shelves as if I’m at a bookstore trying to decide which book to buy.  Claire’s shelves are on the back wall of her dining room.  I find this terribly considerate because I can sit across from the shelves, look at the dinner guest across from me but in front of the books and scan the shelves while listening to the dinner conversation.  I’ve given myself away numerous times by saying in the middle of a conversation “what did you think of ‘insert title,’” a book that invariably has nothing to do with the conversation.

Bookshelf Porn has a variety of shelves:  invisible, vintage, overstuffed.  My favorite is the phone booth, what a hoot!  Check them out.

Lady Gaga meets the Book World

We are fans of Lady Gaga music in our household and we find her very intriguing.  We happened to turn on the TV last week when she was being interviewed by Larry King.  Despite school finals, work deadlines, kitchen timers beeping, we all stopped, fascinated by her intelligence and surprisingly warm heart.  I first saw this on Facebook, if you haven’t seen it, it’s hilarious.

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Recommended Reading for the World Cup

June 11, 2010 in sports, Uncategorized by Kim | 4 comments

I have put our time in on the soccer field, both kids played for four long years, from Kindergarten through the 3rd grade.  I seem to be completely unable to fully understand the game.  Despite untold hours of trying to figure out ‘offsides,’ it still baffles me.  Nevertheless, I love the World Cup.  Four years ago, we were in Greece during the World Cup and it opened up a whole new experience for us.  Every taverna from one end to the other of every town we visited had a huge plasma TV playing the games.  We would find a table and settle in with the crowd to watch the game, cheering for our latest favorite team while hearing cheers from tavernas next door and down the street.  One hotel we stayed at projected the game on the back wall of a three story building and the guests sat around on the lounge chairs enjoying the game.  We were so wrapped up in it, we would watch late at night on our hotel room TV.  We never understood a word of the commentary, it truly was all Greek to us, but the emotion carried through whatever the announcer was saying.  Our hope was that we would be out of the country, anywhere but here, during this year’s World Cup, but that isn’t possible.

Due to the time delay from South Africa, most the games will be during breakfast in California.  Our goal is to try to visit a few different ethnic restaurants for breakfast over the next few weeks and experience a little World Cup excitement.  If you haven’t tried the World Cup in a non-US venue, where the game is more than a game, it’s national life and death, find somewhere in your city that will be broadcasting the game and join in.

Another way to add to your World Cup experience, read up on it.  Usually when we recommend reading for an event, we have a specific book in mind.  I haven’t actually read a great soccer book, in fact the only thing I recall reading about soccer is a Nick Hornby’s Believer essay that began with an apology that he hadn’t read much that month because he was so obsessed with ‘football.’  I’m doing a little research to find a good book, so this time that’s what I’m sharing with you.

Here are the  lists I’m perusing:

Prep for the World Cup with these Books about Soccer from the Vancouver Sun

Three Books to Ignite your World Cup Fever from NPR

9 Great Soccer Reads for the World Cup from ILBNH

Five Top Soccer Books from About.com

If you have a favorite soccer book, let me know, I’m taking suggestions.

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