I’m counting the days to this event!

Watch for a seismic shift in the literary landscape of Southern California next month.  No, it won’t be an earthquake, it’s the inaugural Beverly Hills Literary Escape, a unique weekend for literati.  This isn’t another festival where the attendee sits in the audience listening to a panel of authors and a moderator and then line up for a few Q & A, here the goal is for everyone to mingle and have conversations.  The organizers, Julie Robinson and Tyson Cornell, are striving to create an European cafe culture and Algonquin Round Table atmosphere of give-and-take between authors and readers.  Here’s the schedule:

I’m in a terrible choice bind about which events to choose for the lunches and afternoon lectures.  I can tell you this, I’ve never met a woman who hasn’t fallen in love with Lynn Batten after hearing him talk about Jane Austen.  I recommended both Ethan Canin and Susan Straight before and would love to hear them speak, but that could mean downgrading my groupie status with Lynn.   What could be better than having lemon cake with Aimee Bender, yet one of my favorite books this summer was Gin Phillips’ The Well and the Mine (if you liked The Help, run to the store to get The Well and the Mine).  I’ll be wallowing in the torture of deciding for awhile.

Two events are free:  An evening with Colum McCann author of Let the Great World Spin where he will receive the first Medici Book Club Prize (more on that in a future post) and a discussion with Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone. The prices for the remaining events vary and there are passes for multiple events. (Click here to purchase tickets.)  Readers of Bookstore People are entitled to purchase the lowest price passes and tickets for conversations by using the discount code LITERARY. There will be one private VIP event, a coffee with Joseph O’Neill, author of Netherland, on October 15th.  We have one ticket to the O’Neill coffee to giveaway, just leave a comment that you want it by 11:59 October 7th and we will pick the winner.

It looks like a spectacular event, don’t miss it!

Disclosure:  Kim is a Medici Founding Patron

C

• Leave a comment with your e-mail for one chance to win,
• Add a link to your favorite independent bookstore and we’ll give you an extra chance to win,
• Tweet about the giveaway with a link to this page and tell us you did so in a comment and we’ll give you another chance to win.

The drawing will end at 11:59PM on October 3rd.  We will randomly pick two winners.  Good luck!

Claire has various book signings and she would love to meet readers of this blog, stop by and say say hello.  (Plus, she almost always has free food, I’ve already put in my request for hummus.)

Village Books in Pacific Palisades on October 2nd at 2PM  - This is Claire’s ‘home’ bookstore, so the atmosphere will be cozy and lots of us will be there to ask personal questions (actually, her kids are always good for a question that puts her on the spot a bit).

Vroman’s in Pasadena on October 16th at 5PM – Southern California’s oldest independent bookstore in a lovely area full of great restaurants so make a night of it.

21^st Bank of America Festival of Arts, Books, and Culture in Cherry Hills, New Jersey on November 10th – Claire will be there along with a full roster of authors.

If you can’t see her in person, then join the online book club sponsored by Manic Mommies on October 20th at 5PM PST.

How ever you do it, get the book, you’ll love it!

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?

I recently set up my list.  It was simple:

• Click on My Book Lists on the header (I already had a profile, if you don’t it’s required and simple to set up),
• Type the title/author/ISBN # for the book you want,  
• When the picture pops up, click on the Add to this Book List button and presto, there it is on the list!

There are a couple of neat bells and whistles – I could rank the books I wanted in order by designated which book was to be the first on the list, which the last, and then moving the others up and down one position at a time.  I put the books I don’t have to read for book groups or other commitments first and then the ones I know I’ll buy for myself last.   I can also write a note up to 250 characters to attach to each book (such as “please, please, please buy this for me”).  And, for those of us who love our local bookstores, the list includes a link to a favorite local store for easy online ordering.  Buy from the store and have the book shipped to the recipient.  Or, find your own local store using IndieBound’s store locator function.

There are two ways people can access your list, either you can e-mail the list to someone (there is a button that will send the list on its way and room to add a message, such as “please, please, please buy this for me”) or anyone can access it via your profile.  That’s a good reason to use your name as your log in, make it easy for people to find you and your wish list.  Unfortunately, the login didn’t have enough spaces for  my  long name, so I’m Kim Allen-Niese.  Just part of the price I pay for hyphenating my name.

I wanted to see how the list worked once a book was purchased.  Luckily I’m married to a good sport who agreed to buy my number one choice, Wolf Hall.  He loved how easy it was to buy the book.  Just a few clicks and he’s done, well, with this purchase.  The book is waiting for him at our local store, he even requested that it be gift wrapped.  One downside is that my wish list didn’t automatically update the fact that Wolf Hall was purchased, I had to go in and delete it myself. 

Check out my list, tell me what you think I should add (my husband will appreciate the help) and set up your own!

Remember, if you buy two books at an independent bookstore by the end of the year, you are a Holiday Helper and can qualify to win an ABA Gift Card.  You can use it to buy the one book everyone forgot to give you.

Buy Books for the Holidays has already directed readers to several terrific literacy organizations.   Want to donate funds to organizations that promote reading?  Look at the post on Reading is Fundamental or the list of organizations that need your money or your books.  More charity profiles will be added in the future.  For most of our fans, reading is a passion that we can feed by buying or easily borrowing books, but for some it is a hard won privilege.  Take this opportunity to feed the hunger for reading in others.

The website also includes some fun book lists:  a children’s booklist that is further broken down into books for “Mommy and Me,”  “Daddy and me,”  and ones that celebrate the family; a vampire list; a list for teenage girls (some would argue that a vampire list and a teenage girl list is redundant); and, a list for “if you like that author, then try this one . . .”  More lists will be printed each week, so check out all of the options.

As I’ve said before, my mantra is “the best gift is a book.” We’ll be providing you with lists throughout the holiday buying season (look for our parenting book list on Monday) and Buy Books for the Holidays is another great resource.   Remember, once the gift giving season is over, you’ll have a chance to win a book gift certificate for yourself if you are a Holiday Helper and you buy two books at an independent bookstores.

Happy shopping!

Designed by Susan Newman

GIVEAWAY OF AL GORE’S NEW BOOK AND FROM GREEN TO GOLD DESCRIBED IN THE LAST PARAGRAPH!

We’re joining Eco-Libris and 99 other book bloggers in reviewing 100 books that were published in an eco-friendly manner.  Eco-Libris organized this event (see our post about Eco-Libris and Kim’s interview on their blog) to highlight both the need for and availability of books printed on recycled paper or FSC-certified paper.  “Although there’s so much hype around e-books, books printed on paper dominate the book market, and we want them to be as environmentally sound as possible ,” explains Raz Godelnik, co-founder and CEO of Eco-Libris. “Very few books are currently printed responsibly and we hope this initiative will bring more exposure to “green” books. Through this campaign we want to encourage publishers to get greener and readers to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books.”

We are so happy to join today’s blogging event.  Since I am trying to read more poetry, I decided to chose From Green to Gold by Harold Enrico as our review book.  This poetry collection is not only printed in a green manner, the poems themselves evoke an awareness of the beauty of nature and life.   I experienced a sense of melancholy and an awareness of the beauty of every moment as I read the poems.  

The theme of the time passing repeatedly occurs:  in the appropriately named “Time,” time is ”the mongrel bitch, limping along on three legs . . . She holds a bleeding forepaw tightly against her chest and whimpers from time to time.”   Even more poignant for me was “Marston-Bigot, Somerset” which describes the antics of WWII soldiers on New Years Eve at a temporary encampment juxtaposed with the animals (badger, mole) that will continually be present in an ongoing cycle of life.  

Several poems refer to aging, another aspect of time.  My favorite is ”Kontrapunkt” with the repeating lines “I crave another body.  This one will never do.”  References to autumn and winter as stand ins for aging abound in the new poems (some are selected from previous collections).  One of my favorites, “Midsummer Past,” felt like a description of a reprieve in the midst of life, while ”Winter” with “Love has lost its luster.  The rose will not bloom again this year” harkened to an end of life period.

The bird images struck me.  I know certain types of birds have representative meanings, but I don’t know what they are and I don’t feel like I lost anything in the poem by my ignorance.  It seemed clear that that the hawk repeatedly represented death or an ending.  I especially enjoyed “Taymuusya, Rock Wren” which starts with a perky wren who sings all morning long “until I am sick of hearing it.  The same old tune and worn-out words.”  A hawk threatens, then a snake, and the perky bird notices.  The poet asks

What did you hear?
The dry sound of rattling on the rocks,
a sound beyond sound,
it chilled  me to the bones.

Then nothing.  No more sound,
not even beyond sound.
Beyond stillness.
Only the imperceptible hiss
of the rising wind
as the snake slivered off.

I loved this poem.  I enjoyed the wonderment of nature combined with the confession that the bird song we’re supposed to love can be annoying.  It intrigues me that I”m not sure if the poet wanted the bird to survive or not.

From Green to Goldis a collection of poems that prompted images of beauty and caused me to think about nature, art, war and aging.  It’s eco-friendly printing only lives out the underlying message of the collection, that our world and lives are wondrous.

In honor of the Green Books Campaign, we’re giving away a copy of From Green to Gold by Harold Enrico AND a copy of Our Choice by Al Gore, his latest thoughts on helping our environment.  To qualify to win either book, leave a comment with what you think is the easiest thing to do to lessen your carbon footprint.  We’ll decide both winners using random.org on Saturday, November 14th.

In honor of the upcoming gift giving season, we’re adding a new category, “Holiday Helper.”  Buy two books at an independent bookstore, scan the receipt and send it via e-mail to Claire (claire@bookstorepeople.com) or me (kim@bookstorepeole.com) and we’ll enter you in a drawing for a second $20 ABA Gift card.  Not sure what books to buy?  No worries, we’ll be starting our Best Gifts for Readers lists next week.  We’re gathering lists of travel literature, fiction, YA, children’s, independent publishers and more.

We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

While we’re not officially book bloggers, our mission is to highlight independent bookstores, we talk about books a lot.  Plus, Claire and I don’t want to miss out on the fun.  Our prize fits both our goal and the secret wish of every reader and book blogger:  free money for books.  We’ll give a $20 ABA gift card to the winner of our drawing.  We’ll be purchasing the gift card from Skylight Books in Los Angeles, but it can be used in hundreds of independent stores across the nation.  For those of you without an independent bookstore (consider opening one up!), the gift card can be used at many stores online.  Skylight Books assured me that the winner could order a book from them and they would ship it.

How to enter?  One entry for leaving the name on an independent bookstsore you love and a second entry for twittering about this giveaway (put @bookstoreK in the twitter so I can find it and/or leave a comment below about the twitter if I won’t know you by your twitter name).  Leave your e-mail and the winner will be picked mid-day on September 19th with random.org.

Good luck!

I had something amazing happen in the shop last week….  I found a leather-bound copy of the Collected Works of Thoreau at a thrift store and put it in the window of my shop.  Some guy came in the store and was having coffee when a young woman came in and said she wanted to buy the Thoreau book but didn’t have any money today.  She wanted to know if I would hold it for her until the next day, which was no problem.  After she left, the man came up to the counter with the book in his hands and said he wanted to buy it for the young woman so she would be surprised the next day.  I asked him what I should do if she didn’t come back for it.  He said to give it to the next person who inquired about it.  Well, the young woman didn’t come back, and on the 4th day, I put it back in the window.  A young man came in with a dark cloud over his head, and asked about the Thoreau book.  I told him he was welcome to take it, as it had been bought as a gift by a previous customer.  He was so shocked!  He told me that he’d just gotten back to the States after spending a year in Peru with Patch Adams, painting/repairing some slums in a town along the Amazon River, and when he returned to the States, he was distressed at our wealth and how we seemed not to appreciate it.  And then he was given this book by a complete stranger.  He was so thankful and wrote a note to the man (who remained nameless).  I was so very honored to witness this.  It’s all about community, isn’t it?

Yes it is all about community!

If you have any bookstore stories you’d like to share, please tell us!