Rediscovered Blog

Living Green and Thrifty

2010-06-13T15:04:00.000-07:00

Hi there. Shellie here on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, getting ready to blog. I had a phone call recently from a good friend in California (my home state). She and her husband are trying to tame their budget but value living as environmentally friendly as possible. I've found our family in a similar boat. Sometimes it seems difficult to live frugally and maintain that standard of environmental awareness.

Fortunately, I've been reading over a couple books that tackle this very subject. I was pleased to see that we had already made some of the shifts that the books call for (cooking at home, buying in bulk, making our own green cleaners). But it was nice to get more ideas. Here are the titles that I have been using and will pass along to my friend as she starts her "living frugally green" journey.

Be Thrifty: How to Live Better with Less by Pia Catton and Califia Suntree This book is a great go-to guide with a little bit of everything. It has great simple recipes for both entertaining company or just packing a healthy lunch. It also has easy recipes for making your own green household cleaners that cost next to nothing. This book is wonderfully comprehensive and will get you on the path to living better on less!

Shift Your Habit by Elizabeth Rogers This book is interesting because the author actually recruited real families to make shifts in their living and spending habits. She includes their stories throughout the book. Her chapters include: Home and Garden, Kids, Pets, Work and many more. It's also very helpful that she shows you how much you save per year with each "shift".

I loved the "Be Your Own Barista" tip. Coffee chain cappuccinos were one of the first things that I gave up when we started watching our budget. How thrilled was I to see that we are saving hundred of dollars a year by this simple change? I totally gave myself a pat on the back!

Hope these are as helpful to you as they were to me. I know for sure that I will be referencing both titles in the months to come.

We have an awesome section in the store called: Sustainable Living and it's filled with enviromentally friendly titles. Come by and check it out!

Books that wander

2010-05-30T14:24:00.000-07:00

Hello. Shellie here. I hope that everyone is having a glorious weekend. It sure is pretty outside! Although, I have so much yardwork waiting for me tomorrow...well, let's just say I'm glad that I get a quiet day indoors today.

Have any of you ever noticed that when you call the bookstore to ask about a particular book, we will typically ask you to hold on while we physically find the book and hold it in our hands? Are we eccentric? Well, sure. But we're practical, as well.

You see, the books around here, they wander off. Wally has likened them to socks in the dryer. It's happened to us on more than one occasion. A book will be pop up in our inventory as being "in-store" and then upon investigation--no book!

Where do they go? Do they have a favorite hiding place? It's a mystery. I like to imagine that perhaps they enjoy getting lost and found...a little like hide-and-seek.

Speaking of socks in the dryer, all of this reminds me of a wonderful picture book that we have called Smitten by: David Gordon. It's the wonderful love story of a sock and a mitten. Hope you love it as much as we do!

The weekly conversation

2010-05-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody. It's Shellie and it's time for my Sunday blog. I heard through the grapevine that I actually have people reading this. This is so exciting for me! I thought I was just whistling in the dark every Sunday. But let's get down to business, shall we?

In our house, usually around 5:30pm but sometimes as late as 6:00pm, there is a conversation that regularly occurs between me and my husband. It goes thusly:

Me (with a heavy sigh): What sounds good for dinner?

Husband (with an equally heavy sigh): I don't know, what sounds good to you?

Me: Well, what do we have?

Husband: I don't know. Check the pantry.

At this point, our children start circling us like hungry wolves howling their chorus of: "Mom, I'm hungry! What can we eat? How long until dinner?"

Enter the book that I am absolutely fascinated with this week: SOS! The Six O'Clock Scramble to the Rescue: Earth-Friendly, Kid-Pleasing Dinners for Busy Families By Aviva Goldfarb.

There is a lot to love about this book. First of all, the recipes are both reasonably quick to make and healthy.

I love that the recipes are separated by season! This makes them both economical (it's cheaper to buy in-season) and earth friendly (you are more likely to find your fruit and veggies at a local farmer's market).

Lastly, this book has a wide assortment for vegetarians (like yours truly) and non-vegetarians alike. I love the fact that the recipes are delicious and have a touches of global cuisine, for example: Greek Pasta Salad, Tandoori Chicken and Huevos Rancheros. But they are still simple enough for the beginnner.

I think this would make a wonderful present for the harried mom (or dad) you know and love. Who knows? They may be so grateful, they may even cook for you! Have a great week!

Brontë Sisters Power Dolls

2010-05-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

Transitions

2010-05-09T16:17:00.000-07:00

Hello there everyone! It's Shellie and it's time for my Sunday blog.

Lately, I've been trying to transition our two older boys from our usual picture book stories to beginner chapter books. I've found that the best "transition chapter books" are a good combination of pictures and text. It gives our boys a break from just reading and gives them something to look at. If you have a child in your life who is on the verge of making the leap from picture books to chapter books, here are some good ones we have at the store.

Mercy Watson to the Rescue by Kate DiCamillo

Who is Mercy Watson? A pig, of course! She has all sorts of fun adventures in her stories. The chapters are short and the pictures are darling. Kids just love these!

Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows and Sophie Blackall

This series is all about two little girls who are best friends. They have a lot of fun trying to break world records and ghost hunting. The chapters are a little bit longer than the Mercy Watson series, but not so much as to overwhelm young readers. Plenty of pictures, too!

A Nest for Celeste by Henry Cole

This a sweet little book about a mouse who loves to weave baskets...but she has to watch out for the sneaky cat of her house. Beautiful illustrations, my kindergartener loves this one!

The wheat from the chaff

2010-05-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

It's Shellie here posting today. If I haven't met you yet, I'm the bookshop's newest bookseller. I'm writing to tell you today about how dilligently we try to pick out the best possible new titles for the store. I think it's safe to say that we are all voracious readers here and we happily attack our stack of ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) that we get from publishers on a regular basis. It has been my delight to discover an author's debut novel and get it into the store for our customers to enjoy--specifically, The Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran. This book was wonderful!

But let me tell you, folks. It's not always a walk in the park. I recently read an ARC that was so poorly written. It was only because I am an absolute sucker for Tudor-era England that I stuck through to the end. What was the major issue, you ask? It was the narrator's constant battle with her own stomach acids! At every turn, the protagonist was either "feeling the bile come up into her throat", "combatting waves of nausea", or "swallowing the sickness that rose up inside her".

As Wally aptly said: "Somebody get that woman an antacid!".

Now, I understand that during Henry VIII's reign many perfectly disgusting things were done that would certainly make a modern person cringe. But to read--page after page--of this character's urpy exploits...Well, it was a little much for me.

But you know, it's all part of the job. We separate the wheat from the chaff--always keeping our beloved customers in mind and thinking of what you will like best. Happy reading!

Answer to April 23rd Poetry Challenge- Final Poem of the Day

2010-04-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

So, this is our last Poetry Challenge answer. We will be announcing the raffle winners at our Open Mic Poetry Reading, which will be taking place tonight, April 24th, at 6pm. Come in and read a poem or just listen. Hope to see you all there.

Kubla Khan
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

IN Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.	5
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills
Where blossom'd many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,	10
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But O, that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted	15
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced;
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst	20
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion	25
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reach'd the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!	30

The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,	35
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she play'd,	40
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me,
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,	45
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!	50
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Answer to April 22nd Challenge

2010-04-23T10:46:00.000-07:00

173. She Walks in Beauty, Like the Night by Lord Byron SHE walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meets in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellow'd to that tender light	5
Which Heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress
Or softly lightens o'er her face,	10
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek and o'er that brow
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,	15
But tell of days in goodness spent,—
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent.

Answer to April 21st Challenge

2010-04-22T10:24:00.001-07:00

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Answer for April 20th Challenge

2010-04-21T09:07:00.000-07:00

Stars
by Emily Bronte

Ah! why, because the dazzling sun
Restored our Earth to joy,
Have you departed, every one,
And left a desert sky?

All through the night, your glorious eyes
Were gazing down in mine,
And, with a full heart's thankful sighs,
I blessed that watch divine.

I was at peace, and drank your beams
As they were life to me;
And revelled in my changeful dreams,
Like petrel on the sea.

Thought followed thought, star followed star,
Through boundless regions, on;
While one sweet influence, near and far,
Thrilled through, and proved us one!

Why did the morning dawn to break
So great, so pure, a spell;
And scorch with fire the tranquil cheek,
Where your cool radiance fell?

Blood-red, he rose, and, arrow-straight,
His fierce beams struck my brow;
The soul of nature sprang, elate,
But mine sank sad and low!

My lids closed down, yet through their veil
I saw him, blazing, still,
And steep in gold the misty dale,
And flash upon the hill.

I turned me to the pillow, then,
To call back night, and see
Your worlds of solemn light, again,
Throb with my heart, and me!

It would not do--the pillow glowed,
And glowed both roof and floor;
And birds sang loudly in the wood,
And fresh winds shook the door;

The curtains waved, the wakened flies
Were murmuring round my room,
Imprisoned there, till I should rise,
And give them leave to roam.

Oh, stars, and dreams, and gentle night;
Oh, night and stars, return!
And hide me from the hostile light
That does not warm, but burn;

That drains the blood of suffering men;
Drinks tears, instead of dew;
Let me sleep through his blinding reign,
And only wake with you!

April 19th Answer

2010-04-20T06:53:00.000-07:00

Brown Penny
by William Butler Yeats

I whispered, 'I am too young,'
And then, 'I am old enough';
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love.
'Go and love, go and love, young man,
If the lady be young and fair.'
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
I am looped in the loops of her hair.
O love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away
And the shadows eaten the moon.
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
One cannot begin it too soon.

Answer for April 18th Challenge

2010-04-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

Red, Red Rose
by Robert Burns

Oh my luve is like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
Oh my luve is like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve!
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my luve,
Tho' it were ten thousand mile!

Spring has Sprung!

2010-04-18T15:49:00.000-07:00

Have you been outside this weekend? Taking the time to smell the flowers? Spring has sprung at the bookshop, too! Come and check out all our fabulous books to help you start your garden this year.

Square Foot gardening by Mel Bartholomew is a great book for beginners wanting to maximize their growing space.

Thinking of living more self-sufficiently? Check out The New Self-Sufficient Gardener by John Seymour. It's chock-full of ways to make the most of your crops and save them through the winter.

If you have a friend with a birthday coming soon, we have beautiful cards by a local photographer, Alyson Sickels. The flowers seem to just jump off the card with their vibrant colors!

And don't forget to flock to our "Birds of a Feather" table. Let's just say that if you like birds, this is the table for you.

Hope that you all enjoyed the sunshine. Take the time to smell the daffodils and grape hyacinths--the roses are a few more months away!

Answer fro April 17th Poem Challenge

2010-04-18T11:01:00.000-07:00

The Daffodils by William Wordsworth

**fun fact: this poem was based off of a journal entry made by Wordsworth's wife from which the poet took two lines that he considered to be the best: "They flash upon that inward eye/

Which is the bliss of solitude**

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of dancing daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such laughing company:
I gazed — and gazed — but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Answer to Poem of the Day challenge for April 16th

2010-04-17T08:54:00.000-07:00

IF by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!

Answer to April 15th Poetry Challenge

2010-04-16T09:13:00.000-07:00

A Girl
by Ezra Pound (Idaho Native)

The tree has entered my hands,
The sap has ascended my arms,
The tree has grown in my breast -
Downward,
The branches grow out of me, like arms.

Tree you are,
Moss you are,
You are violets with wind above them.
A child - so high - you are,
And all this is folly to the world.

Answer to April 14th Challenge

2010-04-15T18:43:00.001-07:00

Love is Not All
by Edna St. Vincent Milay

Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again;
Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath,
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
It well may be that in a difficult hour,
Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
Or nagged by want past resolution's power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It well may be. I do not think I would

Answer for April 13th Challenge

2010-04-14T10:18:00.000-07:00

The New Colossus
by Emma Lazarus, New York City, 1883

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Answer to April 12th Challenge

2010-04-13T07:07:00.000-07:00

A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING.
by John Donne
AS virtuous men pass mildly away,
    And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
    "Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."
So let us melt, and make no noise,                                       5
    No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
'Twere profanation of our joys
    To tell the laity our love.
Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ;
    Men reckon what it did, and meant ;                              10
But trepidation of the spheres,
    Though greater far, is innocent.
Dull sublunary lovers' love
    —Whose soul is sense—cannot admit
Of absence, 'cause it doth remove                                     15
    The thing which elemented it.
But we by a love so much refined,
    That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
    Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.                           20
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
    Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
    Like gold to aery thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so                                          25
    As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
    To move, but doth, if th' other do.
And though it in the centre sit,
    Yet, when the other far doth roam,                                30
It leans, and hearkens after it,
    And grows erect, as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
    Like th' other foot, obliquely run ;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,                                    35
    And makes me end where I begun.

Poem Answer for April 11th

2010-04-12T14:23:00.001-07:00

SONNET 18 by Willian Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Answer for April 10th Challenge

2010-04-11T14:20:00.000-07:00

O Captain, My Captain by Walt Whitman

O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done,

The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won,

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;

But O heart! heart! heart!

O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up--for you the flag is flung for you the bugle trills,

For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths for you the shores a-crowding,

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here Captain! dear father!

This arm beneath your head!

It is some dream that on the deck,

You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;

My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;

The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;

From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;

Exult O shores, and ring O bells!

But I, with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

Poem Answer for April 9th

2010-04-10T14:19:00.000-07:00

The Bells by Edgar Allen Poe

I

Hear the sledges with the bells -

Silver bells!

What a world of merriment their melody foretells!

How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,

In the icy air of night!

While the stars that oversprinkle

All the heavens, seem to twinkle

With a crystalline delight;

Keeping time, time, time,

In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells

From the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells -

From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

II

Hear the mellow wedding bells -

Golden bells!

What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!

Through the balmy air of night

How they ring out their delight! -

From the molten - golden notes,

And all in tune,

What a liquid ditty floats

To the turtle - dove that listens, while she gloats

On the moon!

Oh, from out the sounding cells,

What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!

How it swells!

How it dwells

On the Future! - how it tells

Of the rapture that impels

To the swinging and the ringing

Of the bells, bells, bells -

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells -

To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!

III

Hear the loud alarum bells -

Brazen bells!

What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!

In the startled ear of night

How they scream out their affright!

Too much horrified to speak,

They can only shriek, shriek,

Out of tune,

In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,

In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,

Leaping higher, higher, higher,

With a desperate desire,

And a resolute endeavor

Now - now to sit, or never,

By the side of the pale - faced moon.

Oh, the bells, bells, bells!

What a tale their terror tells

Of Despair!

How they clang, and clash and roar!

What a horror they outpour

On the bosom of the palpitating air!

Yet the ear, it fully knows,

By the twanging,

And the clanging,

How the danger ebbs and flows;

Yet the ear distinctly tells,

In the jangling,

And the wrangling,

How the danger sinks and swells,

By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells -

Of the bells -

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells -

In the clamor and the clanging of the bells!

IV

Hear the tolling of the bells -

Iron bells!

What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!

In the silence of the night,

How we shiver with affright

At the melancholy menace of their tone!

For every sound that floats

From the rust within their throats

Is a groan.

And the people - ah, the people -

They that dwell up in the steeple,

All alone,

And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,

In that muffled monotone,

Feel a glory in so rolling

On the human heart a stone -

They are neither man nor woman -

They are neither brute nor human -

They are Ghouls: -

And their king it is who tolls: -

And he rolls, rolls, rolls,

Rolls

A paean from the bells!

And his merry bosom swells

With the paean of the bells!

And he dances, and he yells;

Keeping time, time, time,

In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the paean of the bells: -

Of the bells:

Keeping time, time, time

In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the throbbing of the bells -

Of the bells, bells, bells: -

To the sobbing of the bells: -

Keeping time, time, time,

As he knells, knells, knells,

In a happy Runic rhyme,

To the rolling of the bells -

Of the bells, bells, bells -

To the tolling of the bells -

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells, -

To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.

Answer for April 8th!

2010-04-09T14:23:00.000-07:00

i carry your heart with me
by e e cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Yesterday's Answer/today's Poem of the Day!

2010-04-08T11:36:00.000-07:00

Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Poem of the day answer for the 6th:

2010-04-07T09:03:00.000-07:00

I hope you all are having as much fun as I am with this. Yesterday's poem was: The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Poem of the day answer for April 5th

2010-04-06T07:49:00.001-07:00

"Ode to a Grecian Urn" by John Keats

THOU still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape	5
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?	10

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave	15
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!	20

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearièd,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!	25
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.	30

Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea-shore,	35
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul, to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.	40

O Attic shape! fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form! dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!	45
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'

Answer to April 4th challenge!

2010-04-05T09:09:00.000-07:00

Ooh, it's a long one! The Lady of Shalott by Tennyson

On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro' the field the road runs by
To many-tower'd Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott.
Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Through the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four grey walls, and four grey towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.
By the margin, willow veil'd,
Slide the heavy barges trail'd
By slow horses; and unhail'd
The shallop flitteth silken-sail'd
Skimming down to Camelot:
But who hath seen her wave her hand?
Or at the casement seen her stand?
Or is she known in all the land,
The Lady of Shalott?
Only reapers, reaping early,
In among the bearded barley
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
From the river winding clearly;
Down to tower'd Camelot;
And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,
Listening, whispers, " 'Tis the fairy
Lady of Shalott."
There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.
And moving through a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear.
There she sees the highway near
Winding down to Camelot;
There the river eddy whirls,
And there the surly village churls,
And the red cloaks of market girls
Pass onward from Shalott.
Sometimes a troop of damsels glad,
An abbot on an ambling pad,
Sometimes a curly shepherd lad,
Or long-hair'd page in crimson clad
Goes by to tower'd Camelot;
And sometimes through the mirror blue
The knights come riding two and two.
She hath no loyal Knight and true,
The Lady of Shalott.
But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often through the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot;
Or when the Moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed.
"I am half sick of shadows," said
The Lady of Shalott.
A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,
He rode between the barley sheaves,
The sun came dazzling thro' the leaves,
And flamed upon the brazen greaves
Of bold Sir Lancelot.
A red-cross knight for ever kneel'd
To a lady in his shield,
That sparkled on the yellow field,
Beside remote Shalott.
The gemmy bridle glitter'd free,
Like to some branch of stars we see
Hung in the golden Galaxy.
The bridle bells rang merrily
As he rode down to Camelot:
And from his blazon'd baldric slung
A mighty silver bugle hung,
And as he rode his armor rung
Beside remote Shalott.
All in the blue unclouded weather
Thick-jewell'd shone the saddle-leather,
The helmet and the helmet-feather
Burn'd like one burning flame together,
As he rode down to Camelot.
As often thro' the purple night,
Below the starry clusters bright,
Some bearded meteor, burning bright,
Moves over still Shalott.
His broad clear brow in sunlight glow'd;
On burnish'd hooves his war-horse trode;
From underneath his helmet flow'd
His coal-black curls as on he rode,
As he rode down to Camelot.
From the bank and from the river
He flashed into the crystal mirror,
"Tirra lirra," by the river
Sang Sir Lancelot.
She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces through the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look'd down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
"The curse is come upon me," cried
The Lady of Shalott.
In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks complaining.
Heavily the low sky raining
Over tower'd Camelot;
Down she came and found a boat
Beneath a willow left afloat,
And around about the prow she wrote
The Lady of Shalott.
And down the river's dim expanse
Like some bold seer in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance --
With a glassy countenance
Did she look to Camelot.
And at the closing of the day
She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.
Lying, robed in snowy white
That loosely flew to left and right --
The leaves upon her falling light --
Thro' the noises of the night,
She floated down to Camelot:
And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singing her last song,
The Lady of Shalott.
Heard a carol, mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darkened wholly,
Turn'd to tower'd Camelot.
For ere she reach'd upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
The Lady of Shalott.
Under tower and balcony,
By garden-wall and gallery,
A gleaming shape she floated by,
Dead-pale between the houses high,
Silent into Camelot.
Out upon the wharfs they came,
Knight and Burgher, Lord and Dame,
And around the prow they read her name,
The Lady of Shalott.
Who is this? And what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;
And they crossed themselves for fear,
All the Knights at Camelot;
But Lancelot mused a little space
He said, "She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott."

April 3rd answer

2010-04-04T08:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's poem was "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost. We hope you all have a great Easter.

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Answer for April 2nd Challenge

2010-04-03T09:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's poem was "A Book" by Emily Dickinson. That one seemed to be a little harder for you guys, so today I went easy on you. Don't forget to check out facebook and twitter for the next challenge.

"THERE is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!"

POEM O' THE DAY: Answer to April 1st challenge

2010-04-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's poem was "Tiger" by William Blake.
Congratulations to all who got it right. If you didn't, don't worry, you can try again every day of April. Look on our twitter and facebook every day for a new challenge.

"TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?"

Cool Video

2010-03-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

Don't stop halfway, watch this entire video.

In case you haven't heard...

2010-02-23T18:10:00.000-08:00

The lovely and talented Ellen Hopkins will be doing talks and signings at the Boise Public Library in various locations on the 24th and 25th. Please come by to listen to a fabulous speaker and have your favorite copy of one of her books signed!

Wednesday, February 24th:
4:00 p.m. Library! at Hillcrest
Registration required - call 562-4996 or stop by the library
7:00 p.m. Main Library Hayes Auditorium

Thursday, February 25th:
4:00 p.m. Library! at Collister
Registration required - call 562-4995 or stop by the library
7:00 p.m. Library! at Cole & Ustick

Alchemy and Meggie Swan

2010-02-16T15:34:00.000-08:00

I've just finished a new book by an old friend. I've never met her in person, but I've enjoyed all of the stories she tells. That friend is Karen Cushman and I met her first in her book titled, Catherine, Called Birdy. She's written a few more titles like the Midwive's Apprentice which won the Newberry Medal and the Loud Silence of Francine Green among many others.

Her next book, Alchemy and Meggie Swan is available on April 26. Set in the extrordinarily rich textures of Elizabethan London, takes you on a journey into a world both foreign and familiar and tells a dandy story as well. Meggie Swan has just arrived in London to stay with her father. But Meggie is no ordinary girl, she is lame and can only walk with the aid of two sticks here gran found for her in the woods. London with its slippery, twisty lanes and harsh language daunts Meggie as she begins her new life there.

A very fun trip into one of my favorite parts of history.

Laura

The Tribal Impulse

2010-02-13T17:02:00.000-08:00

So, if asked, "Why do people tell stories?" what would you respond? Is storytelling simply narrative art, designed as an aesthetic object? No, though good literature has intentional aesthetic value (positive or negative), not all good stories are good literature.

I would argue that anthropology holds the key to our storytelling impulse: the first people who played drums, danced, performed rites, memorized lineages, and told stories did so as an act of community formation. We may be so far from our tribal roots that our isolated lives resist participatory and communal acts, but that does not empty these arts of their power.

The act of hearing a story, and by extension the act of reading a story, ignites the communal impulse, the tribal instinct; when we read we become part of the author’s community, having entered into the authorial world, or the mind of the narrator, and we participate in the narrated events. One could argue that, for some people, involvement in the life of a story constitutes a more intentional and genuine involvement than that in which they participate in their unintentional, nearly accidental lives.

This tribal impulse drives us to discuss the story with our friends, start book groups, urge others to read our favorites. Indeed, even the academic impulse to research the lives of classic authors, read what they read, dissect their language, trace the themes of their works, compare their works to others, study the contexts in which their works take place, the people by whom they were first received, and the way in which they have been understood throughout their existence is a mad bid to become part of their tribe.

These things are acts of community formation with the author and with those who share our literary community, and in a world of isolated, deformed, and shallow relationships, our literary tribes are, for many of us, the truest experience of family we have ever had.

Look at the stories that people have used to narrate their lives throughout history, be they myths, family histories, national histories, or traditions, these communal activities have enabled the formation, development, and survival of cultures. Indeed, when we read Virgil, Beowulf, The Bible, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Enuma Elish, Shakespeare, Dante, A Thousand and One Nights, or the Kuzari (et alia) we are effectively inducting ourselves into the literary communities of the dead. Anchoring ourselves in these ancient communities, as well as the literary communities of our parents and grand parents et cetera, combats the impulse toward negative forms of discrimination: racist, nationalistic, political, ethnocentric, or intellectual by including generations and cultures with greater experience, wisdom, and longevity than our own.

In reading classics, the immediacy of the then re-enters our experience through works that encapsulate and define cultures of the past. In the same way, teen literature, for instance, seeks to capture and define the voice of modern youth, and thus facilitate the formation of a generational community. Scott Westerfeld (Leviathan) and John Green (Paper Towns) are the prophets and shamans of our youth.

--Ty

Saving the world one Harry Potter fan at a time, check it out!

2010-02-10T11:49:00.000-08:00

NPR CDs... which is not ONE acronym, but two!

2010-01-07T13:52:00.000-08:00

We recently started getting the most requested albums from NPR, and the selection is quite good! Last month we got the newest David Grey, Sting, and Avett Brothers. This month we have the latest Norah Jones album, as well as the debut solo effort of The Strokes's front man Julian Casablancas. Phrazes for the Young is the store favorite this month because of it's upbeat tempo, and the fact that the songs are loosely based on Oscar Wilde's satirical essay Phrases and Philosophies! Stop by to pick up a copy of these cds while we still have copies!

Wow...

2010-01-01T12:31:00.000-08:00

Just thought we could start the new year with something I discovered on Youtube. This is so cool! I really feel that if someone in America starting producing videos like this, the reading population would grow substantially.

-Whitney

We are truly spoiled by amazing customers :)

2009-12-11T11:37:00.000-08:00

One of our oh-so-awesome customers made us a present! She hand knit us a pillow with our logo on it. Isn't that adorable? Chaucer is thoroughly enjoying it.

We really do love how amazing our customers are, and we all hope you guys have a great holiday season.

Thanks for making my job the best job ever!

The tragic death of books

2009-12-09T19:14:00.000-08:00

So, it's been a long while since I've blogged, and I would like to discuss with everyone the agony I've been facing for the last two years of my life as a bookseller.

My mother has always said that I was a hoarder, a pack rat, a stockpiler. Honestly, I prefer to think of myself as a collector, a connoissuer if you will. So when I moved ten hours from home in a Mitsubishi Eclipse, my cache of books had to be cut down significantly. That included donating about one hundred books, in addition to clothes, and vinyl albums. Needless to say I was crushed; it was like parting with my children. I knew each item as a separate individual possessing qualities that I wanted in my life.

So when Bruce asked me if I could use my past experience of doing returns to start doing them at the bookshop, I cringed. Returning books can be a relieving experience, but there is also the possibility that the process will turn into a anguished goodbye. I say this because I recently had to come to terms with sending one of my favorite books back to the publisher. Last summer I got recommended Dharma Punks by Noah Levine. I picked it up here on a Tuesday and did not put it down until the early morning hours of Wednesday. Like all good books, it got me thinking about life, and the way things move in circles.

When I was pulling from my list of things to return and came across Dharma Punks, I almost lost it. I immediately walked over to the computer and typed in the information that would tell me how many copies of the book I had sold since I had written the staff pick for it. The numbers, to my surprise, were staggeringly low. Then it dawned on me that I had not found the right person to send it home with, and because of that, it had to find a new home with the publisher it came from.

The idea then dawned on me that I needed to find closure. Do you know how hard it is to find closure when you know you could've saved something from going back FROM WHENCE IT CAME?! Impossible. Or, nearly impossible. I shed a single tear, packed the book up with its siblings, and marked the box "fragile" so that the package delivery person would know to be extra-nice to it.

Then, all of a sudden, the answer dawned on me: I had failed myself by thinking that I hadn't found the "right person" to send the book home with. What I really needed to look at was that anyone can be the "right person" if you can accept the purest, least-mentioned fact of the book world: all books are good. My job, as a bookseller, is to help other people find the good in each novel, anthology, cookbook, and reference book that they see, so that they can pass on the message.

-Whitney

A local blogger likes our coupons!

2009-12-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

So, a blog has been brought to our attention that talks about the amazing Think Boise First coupon books.

I'll re-post it here or you can follow the link below.

"Lookin’ to save some money this holiday season? Want to support locally owned businesses? Then make sure you pick up the Think Boise First Coupon Book, for $10 you get over $3500 in savings! I’m no math wizard, but that sounds like a bargain to me.

From discounts at the Record Exchange, two-for-ones at Pengilly’s or the Neurolux to a free “Drink Local” growler from Bittercreek Alehouse there is a coupon for everyone. There are sections devoted to Arts & Culture, Dining and Food, Health and Wellness, Nightlife, Entertaining and Lodging, Retail and Shops and last but not least, Services. The free haircut that you can get from Euphoria Salon (voted #1 Salon in Boise) alone covers the cost of the book!

Not to mention the thing has to be the prettiest little coupon book I’ve ever seen — this coupon book won’t be hiding under my car seat. And remember when you’re out and about shopping this holiday season to think local first.

You can pick up your Think Boise First Coupon Book from the locations listed below.
All About Games
Ashtanga Yoga
Bittercreek
Boise Weekly
Boise Yoga Center
Café De Paris
Edwards Greenhouse
Eyes of the World Imports
Flying M
Newt &Harold’s
Old Boise Guitar
Rediscovered Books
RJM Computers
Think Boise First office (210 N. 6th St.) "

http://treasuredvalley.com/2009/11/go-get-it-think-boise-first-coupon-book/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Baker's Dozen just got a litte more festive!

2009-10-27T14:11:00.000-07:00

Baker's Dozen, our annual event celebrating Idaho authors, is fast approaching. We will again have 13 amazing local authors signing in our store, and here is this year's auspicious group:

Kim Barnes, Brady Udall, Mitch Wieland, Mark Lisk, Leslie Patricelli, Stan Steiner, Gloria Skurzynski, EJ Pettinger, Steve Willhite, Aaron Patterson, Ken McConnell, and James Mace.

We are adding something new and exciting this year. We will be hosting a silent auction, all proceeds going to The Learning Lab. They are an organization dedicated to enhancing the literacy skills of under-educated families and adults in our community.

( http://www.learninglabinc.org/Home.htm)

The item being auctioned will be a designer cake created by local business owner Ruth Howard. Called the "Boise Cake Ace," Ruth is the founder of Cakewalk Custom Cakes, and her work is both stunning and delicious.

(Yeah, that over there to the right is a cake. Amazing! http://boisecakewalk.com/)

So if 13 authors in one place isn't enough to get you down here, then stop in to see what the master chef is going to whip up for us. Don't forget to make a bid to support a good cause.

-Wally

New Art in the Bookshop!

2009-10-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite people of all time, Katrina Knight, now has her artwork hanging in our store. Katrina, or Katy as I have known her for years, is attending BSU as an Art Education and Fine Arts major. She is a performance artist for True North, and she has art on display both here in Boise and in Bihac, Bosnia.

She also is a great salsa dancer, an amazing musician, and she's super ticklish. I met Katy back in high school when we were members of competing jazz choirs; she in Capital's Singers and I in Borah's CDVE. And let me tell you, she sings Ella Fitzgerald like no one that small and cute should be able to.

Ever since then we have been good friends, and I've had the pleasure of watching her grow into an amazing woman and an active/creative force in the Boise community. So, come by and look at her beautiful, book-themed art. And if you want, take some of it home with you.

-Wally

RUMPUS PARTY! and Anniversary Sale!

2009-10-06T13:15:00.000-07:00

We are turning 3 years old! To celebrate our birthday and the release of the Where the Wild Things Are movie, we are throwing a Rumpus Party and having a Roving Rumpus Sale all day!

October 17th 2009

*10am-noon

-WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

KIDS PARTY

-Make Wild Things sock puppets and listen to storytime (including local author Stan Steiner reading Where the Wild Things Are).

-All kids books 20% OFF!

*NOON-6PM

-ROVING RUMPUS SALE!

Follow the monsters through the store to see what's on sale!

*6pm-Close

-LIVE MUSIC!

Featuring local musician Jack Brown!

BEST OF BOISE 2009!!!

2009-10-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks again for voting us Best of Boise for 2 years in a row! Believe me, the feeling is mutual. We often feel spoiled by how awesome our customers are.

Banned Books Week 2009

2009-09-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

Banned books week is in full swing! Join us for our banned book read-aloud on October 3rd, where people can read aloud from any banned book they choose. 10am-8pm, open to close, we want the words of banned and challenged books to be heard in our store, so come participate!

Celebrate your Freedom to Read!!

Enjoy this poem by Ellen Hopkins about banned books :)

A Sequel to look forward to

2009-09-21T18:36:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about running a bookstore is getting preview copies of books. When I went to the recent Pacific Northwest Bookseller Association meeting in Portland I came back with close to 50 books that had not yet been released to distribute to the staff here at Rediscovered.

So what did I read on the airplane? Canticle by Ken Scholes.

Canticle returns to the Named Lands that Ken first wrote of in Lamentation, one of the best fantasy books of 2008 (and just released in paperback). Scholes creates rich characters like Rudolfo, Lord of the Ninefold Forest Houses and Isaac, a mechanical man who was used as a pawn to destroy the library city of Windwir. He places them in a post apocalyptic world where political intrigue and subtle magic fill every page. And he weaves the story with the points of view of 4-6 characters, so as the story unfolds you get shadings based on who is experiencing the events.

I was both excited and a bit worried about Canticle, as I had not wanted Lamentation to end but feared a Sophomore slump. After 4 hours of reading I have to say that Canticle was better than Lamentation. It exceeded my expectations.

Scholes plans 3 more books in the series after Canticle and if he can keep his present course I can see this becoming one of my favorite fantasy series of all time.

-Bruce

A Read Aloud for Adults

2009-09-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

I am not the most typical book enthusiast. This is a truth I've learned to accept over the years I have been working with books. I like classics, but I'm not keen on twentieth century classics in general. I like speculative fiction, sometimes even when it is poorly written. I like most types of non-fiction, though I bemoan the absence of literary aplomb.

Within non-fiction, my favorite genre, if I had to choose, would probably be history, which is perhaps the greatest victim of artlessness . . . not the artlessness that one might find endearing in an old grandfather, who tells the occasional raucous joke; less still the artlessness of the naïve child, who does not yet know enough to lie. No, the artlessness of the genre of history is the absence of spirit, of humanity: the artlessness of technological exigency, of the almanac, the dictionary, the windowless school designed to avoid distracting children with life. The artless historian reduces the life of history into facts and numbers, rather than using the facts and numbers to undergird creative art; conceives of history as the stick-figure rather than the portrait.

Hayden White is my hero: he boldly confronted the community of academic historians with theory that the artless presentation of history is an affectation required by the genre. You see, the failed quest for true objective thought, most often associated with Descartes, leaves the shrapnel of modernity's bold but foolish claim to absolute knowledge scattered throughout the social-sciences. Rather than being satisfied with a preponderance of evidence and rational explanation, historians are constrained by the "standards" of their academic community to pretend to objective truth.

This consideration of the genre of history, though it may be averted in personality-driven works, like those of Bill Bryson or Sarah Vowell, dominates virtually every "serious" work of history for the last century. In other words the regnant modes of discourse in the genre of history preclude art. That is why Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is a classic, but your college textbook can never be.

Lost to the West has made me believe that historiography may once again aspire to beauty. It offers few bold insights, and it makes no claim to controversy, it instead tells the story of a commonly overlooked story in readable language with a rhythm that begs you to read it aloud.

--Ty

Parrrrdon Me Capt'n, What be yer Name?

2009-09-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

I recently read the latest Ender's Game sequel, Ender in Exile, and I enjoyed it. It was typical of the series: a basically likable character with a tragic past, who happens to be wicked smart, is forced into a confrontation against his or her will . . . hijinks ensue . . . or, rather, plot unfolds. The biggest difference in this episode is that Ender is the primary puppet-master, focusing the conflict toward his desired ends. All-in-all, Ender in Exile is an enjoyable read, and anyone who loved Ender's Game, and the "shadow" series will enjoy the book.

There was, however one major obstacle to my own reading enjoyment: the first major challenge to Ender's destiny is an admiral who happens to be the captain of the colony ship on which Ender must travel, and his last name is Morgan. I am not a drinker, but I do watch commercials, so I could not help thinking:

Because that type of picture kept coming to mind, my impression of the good captain was somewhat warped. He kept stumbling around the corridors, shouting nautical orders and tugging on his decorative britches to keep them up, their belt having been removed for some unknown reason.

Then I realized that the background of Captain Morgan may hold the answer to one of the mysteries of children's literature. Captain Morgan is a character based on a Welsh Caribbean privateer from the 17th Century, Sir Henry Morgan. Morgan was well known for his excessive drinking, and for successfully retiring from Piracy.

I submit that Morgan retired from Piracy to pursue his true vocation: Chasing little boys in tights. The high content of alcohol in his bloodstream must have contributed to the mistake that cost him his hand, and his dignity, eventually transforming the retired pirate into a pathetic villain . . .

. . . Thus the question of the origin of Captain Hook reveals itself in the person of a Pirate captain who imbibed beyond his limits, stumbled into a life of debauchery and thus fell into the depths of villainy.

--Ty

It Rained Books Today!

2009-09-01T17:01:00.000-07:00

It's September 1 and we had an entire bookcart of new releases so we decided to have a book eating party. Needless to say, we all left feeling quite full. Normally we have new releases on Tuesday, but this is the second week of truly wonderful titles that I can't wait to share. I'm going to feature just the picture book read alouds today, but over the next few days I'll be sharing my favorite middle grade readers as well as books for young adults. So here we go. . . .

I want to begin with what I think will be one of the favorite titles of this season. Harry and the Horsie by Katie Van Camp, illustrated by Lincoln Agnew. Not since Knuffle Bunny have I read a book that led me back to that special relationship between a child and their furry companion. I can see my own son in this book, especially when he goes out in search of his beloved Horsie though all the magic of space.

I missed Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies ($6.99) by Carolyn Crimi Ills. John Manders, when it released in hardcover, but just in time for national talk like a pirate day is this delightful story about Henry, the son of Barnacle Black Ear, the Captain of the Salty Carrot. Henry loves books, not booty and is very unappreciated until a terrible storm churns up a host of challenges for Henry to solve. This has become a favorite with my 5 year old son for betimes. It's lots of fun to read so I won't be sad if I read it over and over.

The Library Lion,by Michelle Knudsen, Ills. Kevin Hawkes, a book beloved by many, has just been released in paperback as well and this gentle story about the love of words and the value of breaking the rules occaisionaly, but only occaisionaly has many messages for us to share. If you missed this story in hardcover, it's one to pick up today because it's also a great way to start the school year.

Love your locals and love your kids and check out these titles at our shop.

Happy Reading

Laura DeLaney

Motivational Poster

2009-08-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

Bon Appetit...à la cuisine de Ross

2009-08-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

Looking for something unique to make my brother, his boyfriend, and myself for dinner on Sunday night, I muddled through the culinary cuisine magazine, Bon Appetit, while hunkered over multiple glasses of Sweet-and-Low iced tea at Cup of Joe last Friday afternoon. Keep in mind that a typical dinner for myself is a boiled, then grilled, chicken breast or pork chop alongside an assortment of vegetables: nothing fancy, mostly bland, and definitely simple - what can I say, other than I don't mind the natural flavor of meat and garden foods. Also bare in mind that my brother, on the other hand, is studying culinary arts, is a self-taught wine connoisseur, and is currently serving at the swanky Chandler's restaurant in downtown Boise. Needless to say, I'm always mortified to cook for him.

Ultimately ending up dismayed and overwhelmed at the complexity and plethora of recipes in the magazine, I decided to close my eyes, and the magazine, randomly re-open both and make the meal that was printed on the page before me. (After all, random selection such as this has bode well for me in making big decisions like choosing graduate schools, housing, and vehicles - why shouldn't it work for a simple meal)? BIG MISTAKE! The recipe I opened the magazine was Wild Game Hen with Wheat Berries and Pecans.

WTF is a wheat berry? Do I really want to venture the unknown territory of Leeks? How would I ever dismantle (not too mention, put back together) our barbequer - as the recipe required for smoking the once-wild hens - for this meal? Must I really buy a $25 bottle of iced wine when I only need two tablespoons...I mean, really?

At this point, I turned my frustration at the lunacy of this recipe to creativity...and here is what I concocted:

Chicken with Huckleberries and Pecans (Wild Game Hen with Wheat Berries and Pecans...Ross-style)

5 Cups Water, luke warm
1/4 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Cup Brown Sugar, packed
1 Cup Iodized Salt
4 Chicken Breasts
1 Cup Pecan Halves
1 Cup of your favorite Mushroom
1 Pint Huckleberries
8 Slices Bacon, fried, with drippings
1/2 Grape Tomatoes, halfed and de-seeded

Place chicken breasts in 13x9, glass baking dish.

Combine lukewarm water, brown sugar, and salt; stir until dissolved; pour over chicken, ensuring tops of chicken breasts are water-covered - add more water if necessary.

Throw in pecans, mushrooms, and huckleberries; cover with foil and let marinate in the fridge for eight or so hours.

Eight hours later...
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Pull the glass dish of goodies out of the fridge; remove Huckleberries and set aside; re-cover dish with foil and bake chicken, water, pecan and mushroom concoction for an hour and a half.

An hour into baking, fry and chop bacon, keeping the drippings warm in a large skillet.

Remove from oven the mushrooms, pecans, and one cup of the water mixture and place in the skillet of chopped bacon and it's drippings. Add to the skillet the 1/4 cup of cider, huckleberries, and tomatoes, and simmer for ten minutes. (If you would like, as I did, thicken the simmering liquids with some flour or cornstarch).

Once chicken breasts are done, place 1/2 breast on plate (that really is an adequate serving); surround/cover with mushrooms, pecans, huckleberries, tomatoes, and bacon pieces; drizzle thickened sauce over the breast and garnishings. I served the meal with asparagus and homemade bread.

All in all, my brother was impressed, saying that it was really good and even asked for the recipe. Unfortunately his chocolate cupcakes didn't turn out - they were a little dry: silly boy used powdered, rather than granulated, sugar in the batter. I had to giggle a little...you know, the culinary artist biffing up simple cupcake batter:)

~ Ross

Conversation

2009-08-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

The following conversation just happened...

Wally: Man, is it just me, or does the thought of carrier pigeons seem really exciting?!

Whitney: Well, let me just say that pigeons are not as efficient as texts.

Wally: But pigeons are so much cooler than texting!

Whitney: Texts never poop on you...

Wally: Therefore, texts never poop on your enemies!

Gwen: How would a pigeon know friend from foe?

Wally: They're pigeons, EVERYONE is their enemy.

Also said today...

Bruce: If you light a body on fire, technically it's body heat!

Culinary Awakening!

2009-08-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

Since the release of the movie Julie & Julia, I have had several people come into the bookstore with requests for books related to the movie. The movie is based on two memoirs, the first being Julie & Julia by Julie Powell and My Life in France by Julia Child. The movie tackles both Julia Child's story of her start in the cooking profession and the story of blogger Julie Powell's 2002 challenge to cook all the recipes in Child's first book.

The book request that I get most often though, and love getting the most is when I have people ask for Julia Child's actual cookbook: Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The idea that someone has been inspired by either the books or the movie to try their own hand at cooking makes me all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Seeing the culinary awakening of others makes me remember my own foray into the world of gourmet. I was also inspired by a book, but not one of the above. It was a compilation of 5 previously published books: Serve it Forth, Consider the Oyster (my personal favorite), How to Cook a Wolf, The Gastronomical Me, and An Alphabet for Gourmets. Together, these books are: The Art of Eating by M. F. K. Fisher.

Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher was actually a friend of Julia Child's, in fact Julia once said of her,

"Mary Frances has the extraordinary ability to make the ordinary seem rich and wonderful. Her dignity comes from her absolute insistence on appreciating life as it comes to her."

I couldn't agree more. Where Julia Child was a Gourmet and a chef, Mary called herself a Gourmand: someone who takes great pleasure in food. She's basically a glutton with discerning taste. Reading these books opened my eyes, my world, and my palate. Her prose is beautiful and littered with recipes and stories both hilarious and tragic.

Ms. Fisher was my Julia Child. She took me from a life of prepackaged, frozen food, to a life where I can whip up an exotic four course meal just for fun, or I can head down to the Bittercreek Alehouse and really appreciate, gush over even, the goat cheese and local honeycomb. So, seeing other people scanning the hallowed pages of Julia's cookbook, beginning their own culinary journey is ridiculously fun to be a part of. Cheers!

-Wally

We love it when things work the way we think they do...

2009-08-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

So, yesterday I was doing a book buy. A monster of a book buy. This lady brought in a TUB of mass market romances that she had basically inherited from her sister-in-law the week before. She explained to me, without pretenses, that even if she was "a reader," she wouldn't read this pile of rubbish, so she wanted to see how much cash she could get out of it. To each their own.

It took me about twenty minutes to sort through the colossal stack, and decided what we needed and what there just wasn't any room for on our shelves. As I walked over to tell her the amount I could give her, I sensed a bit of disappointment as she saw that I was only taking about a dozen of the hundred-gazillion that she brought in. Prefacing with an apology, I explained to her how the "value" of mass market-sized books works. Mid-sentence she interrupted to let me know that she understands how the book world utilizes mass markets because she deals in returns at [insert big box bookstore here.]

Awesome.

It would appear that ripping the covers off of books (the standard procedure for returning mass market books to publishers) was more than just a job to her, but perhaps also a source of great enjoyment.

So cheers to all the non-reading, romance-hating, book-destroying employees at big box stores; we appreciate you cementing our ideas.

-Whitney

Voting for Best of Boise 2009 is taking place right now!

2009-08-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

Howdy all, I just wanted to remind everyone that this year Rediscovered Bookshop is up for Best Local Bookstore, and we're hoping to keep our title for the coming year. If you want to see a banner that says "REDISCOVERED BOOKSHOP- REIGNING CHAMPION OF B.O.B." please go to http://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/Home and vote for us.

While you're there, you should vote our sister company, All About Games, for Best Local Store and make sure to suggest that next year's ballot include a Best Game Store category!

VOTING ENDS AUGUST 28th!

-Whitney

Cover to Cover

2009-08-15T09:39:00.000-07:00

While surfing the interwebs with Whitney, we randomly started talking about songs that are based on works of literature. There have been an INSANE number of artists who used books as their musical muse. Wikipedia has an entire page devoted to it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_that_retell_a_work_of_literature

Some of the surprisingly well read groups are Iron Maiden, The Police, Led Zeppelin, and David Bowie. Well, David Bowie just has a crush on George Orwell. I would like to share with you some of our favorites.

One of my favorite poems is Kubla Kahn (A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea...."
....etc.
A really great band (Dave, Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, and Tich) wrote a song based on it called "Kubla Khan". There's even, randomly, a whip used as a musical instrument in this song. Pure awesome.

Another fabulous book-song is "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush (obviously based on the Bronte novel of the same name). A former roommate of mine showed this to me, and I was simply flabbergasted. Kate Bush is something else entirely, but her choreography definitely captures the tragic (one might say melodramatic) passion of the novel.

My all-time FAVORITE book related song has to be "Weapon of Choice" by Fatboy Slim. And not just because the music video has Christopher Walken dancing in it, but that certainly helps. You have to be kind of a geek to pick this up, but the lyrics of this song are based on the Dune books by Frank Herbert.
"Walk without rhythm, it won't attract the worm
Walk without rhythm, and it won't attract the worm
Walk without rhythm, and it won't attract the worm
if you walk without rhythm (uh), you never learn, yeah

Don't be shocked by the tone of my voice
Check out my new weapon, weapon of choice"

Thanks for joining us in this strange musical journey of literary gems, I hope you enjoyed it. :)
-Wally

Stumbling Upon Awesome Books On Accident

2009-08-02T15:22:00.000-07:00

For some reason, this summer has not really presented itself with as many awesome books as I anticipated it would, so I've been randomly grabbing books off the shelves to see what I can find. Thinking back on it, some of the greatest books I've ever read I have picked up either on accident, or begrudgingly were forced into my hands. It always makes me think at the end of a really good book that I shouldn't judge books so quickly. So, without much discrimination, here are the books that I've found in the last month that I felt iffy about, but in the end LOVED.

When it comes to staff picks here at the bookshop, each of us has a list of twenty five books that we absolutely can't live without. I recently added The Ghost's Child by Sonya Hartnett to my list of books that need to always be in the store. The last time I went home to California I stopped in at a local bookshop to see what was new and cool, and I headed to the teen section to find some treasures. I found this book and put it on my list of things to look at when I got home, and then I totally forgot about it. Then, last week when I was doing returns, The Ghost's Child was on my list of books to send back, so I took it home and read it instead of sending it away. Let me just preface with, "OH...MY...GOSH!" It's kind of like a fable for older teens, but was so amazingly written that I think it also deserves a spot in adult literature as well. Sonya Hartnett crafts the story of Maddy's whirlwind quest to find the most beautiful thing in the world, and once she finds it, the actions she takes to preserve what's she's found. Seriously, SUCH AN ASTONISHINGLY WELL-CRAFTED MASTERPIECE!

This is another gem I found while doing returns, this time in the kids' literature section, in the last couple of weeks. The cover really misrepresents how cool Confessions of a Closet Catholic by Sarah Littman is. Justine Silver is an average eleven-going-on-twelve-year-old Catholic girl, other than the fact that she's really Jewish. After Jussy decides to give up being Jewish for Lent, her Bubbe (the Yiddish word for grandmother) has a stroke, which Jussy takes as a sign that God is punishing her for betraying her heritage. What follows is the classic tale of trying to figure out what you want to believe and who you want to be as you're dealing the everyday pressures of growing up.

I picked up Mark Harris's Grave Matters so I would have another title to talk about while we were down at the Idaho Green Expo, and...wow. It's really interesting to see just how detrimental to the environment a "traditional" burial really is. In each chapter Mark Harris outlines a different type of post-death option, as well as how each one impacts the ecosystem, your family's pocket book, and your body. This book is not for the squeamish, simply because of the fact that he doesn't waste any time getting down to the gory details of embalming and other processes that occur in the funeral industry.

~Whitney

In Other News...

2009-07-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

WE HAVE GIANT, LIGHT-UP, SPARKLY BOUNCY BALLS! We also got in some crazy animal yo-yo's, Gumpy and Pokey figurines, and KAZOOS!!!

We also still have books, lots and lots of cool books. In fact, for a limited time, all of our used, artsy coffee table books are on sale for only $5!

Did I mention the giant bouncy balls?

-Wally

2009-07-27T13:29:00.001-07:00

Why Read?
To rearrange what you thought you knew
To converse with unavailable people
To restock your conversational larder
To counteract creeping media mindlessness
It’s cheaper than shopping
To see how others do it
To taste the flavor of words
To get high-quality gossip
To discover new questions
For the joy of a graceful sentence
To go places you can’t get otherwise
And come back changed!
We need to teach people not only how, but also why to read. The struggle is not to make people read more, but to make them want to read more. (Andrew Solomon, THe Closing of the American Book (New York Times, July 10 2004)
Thank you Susannah Richards for sharing such great ideas at Edufest 2009 at Boise State University.
Laura

cool retro bookstore video

2009-07-17T15:03:00.000-07:00

Zombies and Sea Monsters and Jesus! OH MY!

2009-07-16T12:09:00.000-07:00

A lot of the members of our staff are big zombie fans. You may have seen our display of Zombie books, all of which are ridiculously awesome. One of my favorites is Zombie Haiku by Ryan Mecum. It's a skin-crawling account of the Zompocalypse told in scrawled haiku, Polaroids, doodles, and blood splatters.

A title I just found is Jesus Hates Zombies (Featuring Lincoln Hates Werewolves) by Stephen Lindsay and Steve Cobb. It's a graphic novel that comes in 4 thin volumes of epically funny violence. It's completely fabulous, but is more than a little irreverent.

Another great one is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. It is all the title promises and more! It even has quippy illustrations! If that sounds interesting to you, then you might also like the upcoming, highly-anticipated, follow-up, hard-core book we just heard about today. The following video of the book trailer had us all cackling this morning. Enjoy!

The League of Super-Awesome Booksellers!

2009-07-16T11:54:00.000-07:00

Remember our Superhero Sale? Well we took some pictures, and I thought you all might want to see them :)

So much win!

-Wally

5,4, 3, 2, 1 Blast Off!

2009-07-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

Forty years ago there was one small step for man and one giant step for mankind.

There are many wonderful books this summer to bring this incredible event to life for your kids that go way beyond the boring textbook information!

One Small Step by P.B. Kerr. Unknown to the rest of us there is a secret mission to land monkeys on the moon before humans. When the lead monkey is unable to complete the mission, NASA discovers Scott MacLeod, a talented 13 year old pilot, and asks him to be part of this top-secret plan. This is the Boys Only Book Club titles for July.

A book with the same title, but very different insides is One Small Step by Jerry Stone -an " 'ology" scrapbook of the the lunar landing. Nonfiction and lots of flaps to lift and pages to explore.
Last but not least, for the preschooler who's fascinated by astronauts and space, there is the Astronaut's Handbook by Meghan MacCarthy. This one explains all of the details of an astronauts life in clear drawings. My son's favorite is the astronaut toilet.

I guess I've always wanted to travel into outer space, and I'm looking forward to sharing this event with my kids. If these books don't seem to fit your kids, I have found many more ranging from a graphic novel about the race to the moon to Stephen and Lucy Hawkings' (of physicist fame) novel about George's Secret Key to the Universe

Happy Reading !
~Laura DeLaney

Not So "Out" There...

2009-07-07T22:45:00.000-07:00

June and July are informally the months when gay pride rallys, parades, and parties celebrate diversity and, well, all things gay. In keeping with that theme, I thought I'd mention some gay-themed titles - from children's books to teen novels to adult literature; biographies/memoirs to religion/spiritual living - that I have enjoyed over the past year. To note, I'm really particular about the content of gay fiction and non-fiction: they cannot be sexually explicit - the following books are works I would feel comfortable handing a teenager or either of my parents; they have to be well-written - I'm a critic of writing styles regardless of the story being told; and they reflect what (I feel) most of us who grow up gay can relate too - sorry, you won't titles like Miami Manhunt or Every Frat Boy Wants It on this list.

Based on the true story of two male penguins at the Central Park Zoo who built a nest and hatched an adopted chick together, this is quirky and fun with a relevant message on diverse families...not to mention the fact that it has been the United States' most banned book since its publication.

Daddy, Papa, and Me - this one's

pretty straight (no pun intended)

forward, not too mention cute: a board book for toddlers.

Rainbow Boys really showcases the "array of gay" that exists: the "flaming queen" with multi- colored hair, the lisp and swish, and feminine tendencies; the guy who's gay, but not too noticably and people silently question; the guy you'd never guess to be gay - popular jock, so normal he's almost boring, but good looking. How all this comes together (dramatically, I might add) in this highschool-set novel is great...I couldn't put it, the sequal, or the third, down!

About the author: this is his first novel, he's a successful attorney, gay, and lives in NYC. Now about the book: it captures teenage emotion about love, family, sexuality, highschool, friends, and more so well that I was up all night - two nights in a row - immeshed in the teens' coming-of-age lives. As with Rainbow Boys, older teens and adults are gonna like this, as well as younger guys ages 13+.

Ellen Hopkins is my favorite teen author of all time. Written in prose, Impulse chronicles the thoughts (and minimal conversations) of three teens, one of which is bisexual, as they are institutionalized for failed suicide attempts. I thought it would be a quick read, but between each chapter, I had to pause, digest what I'd read, reflect, and move onto something else...partly cuz it was intense; partly because I wanted the book to last...indefinitely.

Simple in its complexity of human thought, this reads as smoothly as a love letter. Set in Italy, a young teen male falls in love with his father's graduate assistant who is a foreign exchange student from the United States, and older than he. I fell for this book because of the ambiguity, European setting, and collegiate atmosphere...plus I'm secretly a sap (just don't tell anyone).

Avoidance is not to be missed! Published by Graywolf Press, an independent publisher dedicated quality writing, not to making money with blockbuster titles, has become my favorite small publishing house. This is a POD (print on demand), so we don't readily carry it on the shelves, but one can be printed for you, personally, and shipped to us if you want to special order a copy. I'm super glad that I did.

My favorite scene in this memoir is when Robert "comes out" to his family as being gay and his Texas-raised grandma says, "Honey, we've been working under that assumption since you were a toddler." Fresh, playful, and a happy ending.

Honestly, I picked this one up because of the cover - and its one that I will not ever sell back to the bookshop! In these years when civil unions/gay marriages are so over-controversial, this author has shared his and his partner's quirky love story that reflects the gay community that I see on a regular basis: the lovesick, googley-eyed sap falling for, and creating a life with, the guy who thinks soap is a good anniversary gift or pops the marriage question in a traffic jam (and you know who you are. Haha).

~ Ross

Reminder

2009-07-01T09:37:00.001-07:00

Just a reminder to everyone reading today, tomorrow night the Classics You Forgot to Read Book Group will be meeting to chew-over Mark Twain's classic, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Show up for lively discussion!

-Whitney

The last of the Steve Hely rants, I promise!

2009-06-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

Even though How I Became A Famous Novelist isn't released until July 1st, we received our copies today. I snatched it out of Ross's hands, ecstatic to be holding the final version in my hands, and immediately smelled it. That's right, I smelled the book. And for the record, it smelled AMAZING!

-Whitney

In which Wally uses more exclamation points than are really neccessary

2009-06-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

Hi-ho, Wally here! The bosses just left with their kids for a much-deserved, week-long vacation. So we, the staff, have been left here unsupervised. Naturally, that means we are having a party, a book release party! Local author Laura Bingham will be here to share her new book: Alvor. It's a fun children's novel that I really enjoyed reading, there are fairies and butterflies and a great set of twins. You should come meet a great new author, and pick up a signed copy of her book on Friday the 26th @7 pm.

As if that weren't enough awesome, there's more!!! Saturday the 27th we are having a sale, The Cats Are Away Sale! We get to decide what books will be on sale, so come by Saturday to find out what we've chosen. It's bound to be fun and somewhat ridiculous, as most great things are.

If you're worried because you have nothing to wear to such amazing events, have no fear! We have the gear!!! We just got in fabulous new Rediscovered Bookshop t-shirts that say: "Read Freely." The gorgeous Whitney was kind enough to model one for us. How can you say 'no' to a beautiful creature like that? So, come see us! That's all for now, Wally out!

Amendment to my author soul mate blog

2009-06-21T16:49:00.000-07:00

I got home from my vacation about a week ago, very excited to be back in Boise, but most especially excited to be going to back to work. As I walked in the door of the bookshop everyone reflected my excitement, magnifying my feelings. But once I got back to my locker and retrieved what was posted to it, I just about died! While I was gone Steve Hely (yes, of How I Became A Famous Novelist fame!) had written me a brief note. In it he let me know that some "wag" had written a bit of false information about him on Wikipedia. While I'm not entirely sure how to amend information on Wikipedia, I know how to on here; Steve Hely let me know that he did not, in fact, attend MCI-Concord. It appears that since he wrote me, someone has corrected that bit of information, and Wikipedia is now up to date.
.

-Whitney

The Purpose and Pleasure of Re-reading Books

2009-06-20T10:51:00.000-07:00

I have a print of one of my favorite paintings, Flaming June by Frederic Leighton, hanging on my bedroom wall. I have lived in many different places, but that picture is a staple, it is always hanging in my room wherever I go. My favorite things in life are like that, I can appreciate and experience them over and over again with undiminished enthusiasm.

There are many books that fit into this category. I'm just never not in the mood for some books. But the book that's been on my mind lately is Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. As our Classics You Forgot to Read book club is gearing up for another of Twain's works (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court), I am reminded of just how much I love that book.

When I first read it I was in 6th grade and my Language arts class read it as an assignment. Back then it was just a great adventure story and a classic, but not much more.

Then I moved to another district and had to read it again in 8th grade. At that point I was a little older, a little more attuned to writing devices, and the story unfolded for me. I reveled in Twain's colloquial voice and bold humor. Studying how well this adventure story was written made me a better writer.

Then testing requirements changed and I read it yet again for AP Language in 11th grade. At this point I knew quite a bit about writing, I knew quite a bit about US history, and I was already very familiar with Mr. Huck Finn and Jim. Because of my previous enjoyment and analysis of Twain, the nuances of his prose and social commentary simply came alive.

I can't wait to read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, with any luck at all it will make me love Twain even more!

~Wally

Historical Fiction for the Summer

2009-06-19T12:49:00.000-07:00

I rememeber the summer after fifth grade being the summer that I discovered historical fiction and became fascinated with England's kings and queens. That passion has never really left, and I still make time for a few historical fiction titles every year.

The first author I got to know was Nora Lofts, and recently The King's Pleasure (a novel of Katharine of Aragon) has been reprinted. If you missed her books, this is one of my favorites, and it's here at the shop.

Another past favorite is The First Princess of Wales by Karen Harper. This book tells the story of Joan of Kent and her marriage to Edward during the 14th century. Full of intrigue and a good love story, this is another one for a summer day. She's recently published a new hardcover, Mistress Shakespeare, which I haven't read yet, but looks like a fun companion for a Shakespeare festival summer.

- Laura

So, we've fallen behind on blog posts...

2009-06-18T14:02:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let everyone know, after many requests from our insistent customers, that we now have a twitter account. Make sure to check us out at the link below!

http://twitter.com/RDBooks

-Whitney

Summer Reads Part 2

2009-05-25T10:00:00.000-07:00

Warning: not only is this going to be the second part of my summer reads blog list, but it's also going to serve as the second round of the "how much I love Steve Hely" rants!
So, I'm finishing up How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely, just in time to go on vacation, and I'm kind of bummed that I couldn't have made it last a bit longer. It is a PERFECT summer read. It's not super heavy, and it's pretty easy to put down and come back to when you're filling up your busy summer-time minutes. But, the catch is that it's not the fluffy attitude that most are looking for, in fact, it's kind of the opposite.

How I Became a Famous Novelist is the story of Pete Tarslaw, a snarky college entrance essay writer-for hire, who is stuck in a rut in both his social life and at his job. After he gets an invitation to his college girlfriend's wedding and loses his job, Pete is inspired by a feel-good author named Preston Brooks to write a book; he figures, if Preston Brooks can sell his soul for money by writing a mushy piece of garbage, so can he! Pete winds up shacking up in his aunt's cabin in Vermont, writing a list of every predictable plot theme in mainstream literature, and that list is what he bases his novel, The Tornado Ashes Club, on.

Following the whirlwind of selling his manuscript for print options, as well as the rights to make a film, the rest of the story is Pete's narrative of the absurdity of being an acclaimed author, and how his world changes from mundane to dizzyingly ridiculous.

-Whitney

P.S. I went to do a search for a picture of Steve Hely and it turns out that someone made a website for Pete Tarslaw's fictional work (The Tornado Ashes Club) featured in How I Became a Famous Novelist. How funny!

http://www.thetornadoashesclub.com/

P.P.S. How I Became a Famous Novelist isn't set to release until July!

The Love of Many Things

2009-05-24T13:38:00.000-07:00

"Love many things, for therein lies the true strength,

and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much,

and what is done in love is done well."

-Vincent Van Gogh

As much as I love books, they are not my only love. There are whole gobs of things that I can get equally passionate about. These passions include, but are not limited to, math and science, music, history, and knitting. So, when I find books about other things I'm obsessed with, the joy is multiplied exponentially! For instance...

There are tons of books based on math and/or science that can appeal to just about anyone. Last summer I read The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine. Never has brain chemistry been more fun, more funny, or more applicable in my daily life! She talks about what actually happens chemically and hormonally in a woman's brain through the different stages of life, and she discussed how that alters the behavior of women and complicates/enriches our relationships. The more I read, the more it made sense. A year later, it's still on my mind.

If that's too sciency, then how about a novel? The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt is a fictionalized view of Nikola Tesla, a very famous mathematician, scientist, and inventor. Never heard of him? Well you can thank him for AC electricity and wireless communication. It's a story of love, mystery, dreams, pigeons, and New York...served with a side of good, healthy science.

I love love love love LOVE music, and really, most people like music on some level. The reason why we love it is explored in This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin. He talks about neuroscience, emotions linked to music, music's exploitation of our senses, the difference between practice and talent, and, most importantly, why I can't get that insufferable "It's a Small World" song out of my head! Totally fascinating!

Another fun one about music is The Girls' Guide to Rocking: How to Start a Band, Book Gigs, and Get Rolling to Rock Stardom by Jessica Hopper. The subtitle tells it all, it's a great pick for any girl with some spunk! There's a fold out timeline of women in rock history and a positive review from Joan Jett. What more could you want? It looks fabulous!

Speaking of women in history, I bought a book for a good friend called Knitted Lace of Estonia: Techniques, Patterns, and Traditions by Nancy Bush. I am now so enamoured with this book, that I had to buy another copy for myself. Not only is it filled with the most beautiful lace shawl patterns I have ever seen, but it tells the story of Estonia's lace and the women who invented it.

-Wally

Summer Reads Part 1

2009-05-18T15:25:00.000-07:00

I've been talking to customers lately about what the guidelines are for picking "summer books." It seems to me that things always need to be light-hearted and short. Or, they need to be easy to put down and pick back up at a moments notice. While I see where people are coming from, I'm not really a "light and fluffy" kind of reader, summer or otherwise. I would like to recommend books for those looking to really get involved with some good fiction for the summer months.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón is definitely not a traditional summer read. It's a little dark, a little spooky, and wholly engrossing. It follows a young man named Daniel, who's father is an antiquarian dealer in post-Civil War Spain. One night Daniel and his father go to a place called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where everyone is initiated by taking one book from the shelves and then must protect it with their life. The book that Daniel picks is "The Shadow of the Wind" by Julián Carax. After being sucked into the book, Daniel goes on a quest to find out why Carax's novels are being systematically destroyed. In the meantime, the book turns into a coming-of-age story that chronicles the acceptance of a doomed love.

This really is the perfect story for the late night, drink sipping, laze-about evening where you want to be in Barcelona instead of Boise!

-Whitney

Nostalgiarific!

2009-05-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

One day I was having a conversation in the Kid's Book section of the shop when I happened to see a book we had on a new display. I stopped mid-sentence. It's a book I haven't seen in years: Saint George and the Dragon. Back before I could read, it was my favorite book. I would check it out from the library every single time we went in. It was the beginning of my obsession with dragon books, the first love that led to the rampant Anglophilia of my youth. Seeing it again was like reconnecting with an old friend, and it put a giddy smile on my face for the rest of the day.

It is simply amazing how much a story from that long ago can affect me, and how much affection can be personafied by a book.

Not too long after this, a customer brought us a used copy of a book called The Last of the Really Great Wangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards. This was turning out to be the greatest week ever, I immediately recognized this book too! My school teacher read it to my class when I was about 9 years old. It's a completely enchanting and fantastical adventure story written by Julie Andrews (of Mary Poppins and Sound of Music fame). Just seeing this book brought back a flood of happy memories. So, the next time we got a copy in to the store, I bought it and took it home with me.

Turns out you can buy happiness, and it only costs $6.99 plus tax.

-Wally

R3: The Rare, Random, and Remarkable

2009-05-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

Every other month the bookshop receives ForeWord magazine. It contains "reviews of good books independently published." Independent publishers include university publishing presses (most of which produce dozens of books a year) and micro-presses (who put out one or two exquisitely designed and bound reads). For this reason, books that are independently published are quite often - but not always - rare, random, and of remarkable quality.

Bruce and Laura, the bookshop owners, are allowing me to pick out a handful of titles from each issue of ForeWord. All the bookshop's staff feel its very important to support quality, independent businesses, and bring you, our customers, titles you will be hard pressed to find at Big Box bookstores, and will not find at corporate retailers who buy books in mass quantities to sell at incredible discounts - there are simply not enough of these titles titles printed to allow for such.

Here are the six, independently published books I chose to bring into our bookshop from the March/April 2009 issue of ForeWard magazine:

The Lives Our Mothers Leave Us

by Patti Davis

Hay House / Memoir / $14.95

In this work of non-fiction, prominent women discuss the complex, humorous, and ultimately loving relationships they have with their mothers. Contributors include Patti Davis, Nancy Reagan's daughter, Whoopi Goldberg, Candice Bergen, Lily Tomlin, Anna Quindlen, Anne Rice, Marianne Williamson, Diahann Carroll, and Lorna Luft. A great gift for Mother's Day.

Magic Bus
by Rory MacLean

Ig Publishing / Travel Writing / $14.95

In the 1960s and 1970s, hundreds of thousands of young westerners in search of enlightenment blazed the "hippie trail" that ran through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal. Forty years later, Rory MacLean revisits the trail, where he encounters the tie-dyed veterans who never made it home, meets locals reaping the rewards and regrets of westernization, and crashes up against Taliban fighters and Islamic extremists.

Gold Digger
by Vicki Delany
Napoleon & Company / Literature / $18.95

Its the great Klondike Gold Rush and Fiona MacGillvray has a fortune to make as the owner of a savory dance hall in the newly populated Yukon Territory. This is historical fiction, with a well-crafted mystery, at its finest.

Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate

by Brad Warner

New World Library / Eastern Religion / $14.95

In writing about how he applied the Buddha's teachings to his own real-life suffering, Warner shatters expectations, revealing that Buddhism isn't some esoteric pie-in-the-sky ultimate solution but an exceptionally practical way to deal with whatever life dishes out. This is deserving of a wide audience!

Crossing the Hudson

by Peter Stephan Jungk /translated by David Dollenmayer

Handsel Books / Literature / $14.95

This author gives a profound meditation on a Jewish family and its past, especially the lasting distorting effects on a son of a famous, vital father and a clinging, overwhelming mother, and of the differences between the generation of European intellectual refugees who arrived in the United States during the Second World War and the children of that generation.

Pintxos: Small Plates in the Basque Tradition

by Gerald Hirigoyen and Lisa Weiss

Ten Speed Press / International Cooking / $24.95

Spain's African, Middle Eastern, and European heritage assure a mixing pot of culinary influences resulting in homegrown chefs conversant in the broadest palate of skills. This is the author/chef's third book, he owns and cooks for two restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area, and has been named Best Chef of the Bay Area twice by San Francisco Magazine.

~ by Ross Wulf, Rediscovered Bookshop Bookseller

Author soul mates

2009-05-05T10:54:00.000-07:00

Here at the Rediscovered Bookshop we've been contemplating, for the last couple of months, who each of us is soul-mated to in the literary world. Something akin to matchmaking, if you will. Most of us had an answer automatically;

Wally says that Sara Vowell, author of Assassination Vacation and The Wordy Shipmates, is her book partner because of their similar sense of humor infused with irony and wit;

Ty would like to spend the rest of his days with Annie Dillard: he just rants and raves about how poignant and hilarious everything is in The Writing Life;

Paul Theroux's Ghost Train to the Eastern Star sums up people and relationships in way that Ross totally sympathizes with;
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And as for myself, I automatically thought of David Sedaris a la Me Talk Pretty One Day: there's just something magical about the cynicism that comes from a slightly dysfunctional family.

Today though, I was thrown for a loop. I've been reading this book called How I Became A Famous Novelist by Steve Hely- once again there's just something about the sarcasm with a cynical twist about the main character's views towards main stream literature that I connect with. This is not to say that I feel connected to the main character, but the voice of the writer is definite.
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I went to go look for a biography of Steve Hely, and Wikipedia was the most concrete chunk of information that I found, and while it wasn't much, it sure was astounding: Hely received his G.E.D. while in residence at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, and later went on to receive a B.A. at Harvard. During his Harvard years he served twice as president of the Harvard Lampoon. Following graduation he went on to work as a writer for Late Night with David Letterman, Last Call with Carson Daly, and the animated series American Dad.

Following the reading of his mini-biography, I read an interview with Mr. Hely and his co-author of The Ridiculous Race on the Macmillan Publishing website (http://us.macmillan.com/AuthorExtras.aspx?AuthorKey=7269128&m_type=5); every sentence is so bizarre and absurd, and all of a sudden it connected...STEVE HELY IS MY SOUL MATE AUTHOR.
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There are some moments in life when you just know that you've found the right one for you, and Steve Hely is my author one!

-Whitney

We're gonna party like it's 2009!!!

2009-04-30T10:07:00.000-07:00

Happy Poem In Your Pocket Day!!!

Today is the day when you have a perfectly legitimate excuse to carry around a poem and read it to dozens of people. In fact, if you come read it to us, we'll give you chocolate! Not that I'm saying you shouldn't do it every day of the year, but some people might think you're strange. I, on the other hand, would probably decide that we should have coffee.

Our shop has only been open for a little more than an hour this morning and I have already been graced by one of our customers reading "Forecast" by Carl Phillips. I really enjoyed it, and am really excited about discovering a contemporary poet I hadn't known before. That's what today is all about, sharing a love of poetry! I think it is perhaps both the most worthless and most necessary art form we have, and I do love it!

-Wally

Saved by a book

2009-04-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

In February I read this fabulous book by Chris Cleave called Little Bee about a young girl who escapes with her sister as the only survivors of the hostile raid on their village in Nigeria. Little Bee eventually makes it to England and goes to live with a native Londoner that she met on a beach in Nigeria. The story was beautiful, and heartbreaking, and perfect the way it unfolded.

There was only one problem with Little Bee: it wrecked literature for me.

I have not read any book that even remotely compares to Chris Cleave's masterpiece, and until a week ago I feared that I would be doomed to read books that didn't impact me in any way until I sat down after my shift and Bruce handed me something amazing.

With the responsibility of having to do press releases and outlet calendars, I am one of the first people in the bookshop to see what is coming, as far as author events. So when Bruce put Candy Tan and Sarah Wendell's book, Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches Guide to Romance Novels into my hands I thought that I would read the introduction to become acqauinted with the book enough to appease the authors when they came. But, low and behold, Beyond Heaving Bosoms was the knight in shining armor to rescue me from my slump of so-so books!

Reading the introduction alone made me laugh so hard that I couldn't breathe or see straight for a couple of minutes. Everything that these ladies allude to is not only hilarious, but true. These smart bitches truely know the romance genre, and everything that is wrapped up in its deliciously steamy and verbally bold package.

Needless to say, Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan have quenched my thirst for obscure knowledge, and have touched me in a way that only they would be daring enough to write about.

To shed some light on the awesomeness that is Beyond Heaving Bosoms I will leave an excerpt of the Ten Commandments of Heroine Conduct; enjoy!

"4. Thou shalt not be aware of your beauty. Every villain, sleazy uncle, and otherwise able-bodied male who has ever clapped eyes on thee may make sexual overatures on thee, but thou shalt remain in blissful oblivion.

7. Thy amnesia shalt be sexy and not be complicated by distinctly unsexy side effects such as loss of motor control, speech impediments, loss of cognitive skills, and inability to control bodily functions."

-Whitney

Stickin' it to the man while shopping at The Record Exchange

2009-04-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

On Saturday morning I hopped into my car, equipped with pancakes and the required accoutrements, and headed downtown to meet Wally for coffee. The two of us had made plans to meet at Dawson Taylor on 8th street so that we could have breakfast, and then head to the Record Exchange for Record Store Day, before we had to be at work for the Kids' Lit Fest. Being oblivious to a fair number of events outside of the bookshop, I didn't realize until I walked through the alleyway that connects Capitol to 8th that it was the first Saturday Market of the year. In addition to the normal chaos of Saturday Market it was Earth Day, Robie Creek, and Record Store Day. So, needless to say, navigating through downtown was a bit of a task. After learning that Wally and I weren't going to be having breakfast after all, I skipped out on a very packed Dawson Taylor, and headed straight for the Record Exchange.

I'd been hearing about Record Store Day for quite some time, and was excited to do my part to support one of Boise's best local independents. I had made a decision the night before: I was going to spend the money alotted for my phone bill, which is through a major phone corporation, to support something that will put money back into Boise's economy. In short, I decided to stick it to the man, and participate in the local first movement- all at the same time!

After about 40 minutes of browsing at the RX, I checked out with a couple of amazingly priced used albums, and a copy of Weird Science, all for less than $20.00! While the lovely young lady was ringing me up, we discussed how comfortably snug the aisles were with people in to pay homage to a rarity in today's culture: a record store where the employees know just what you'll love, and genuinely want to keep this option open for generations to come.

So here's to the Record Exchange, and all other bad-ass local independent stores who help me to stick it to the man!

-Whitney

Book Club Mixer!

2009-04-16T09:26:00.000-07:00

We are planning a really exciting event for book club members. Below you'll find a video with more details, enjoy!
-Wally

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW0d_aennZE

Movies that are made into books

2009-04-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

Books are often the inspiration for big Hollywood movies, and while some film adaptations just don't do justice to the novels they are based on, I feel that there are a handfull of good reads floating around that should be put on screen.

For instance, I would love to see someone put Christopher Moore's A Dirty Job to film. Christopher Moore is my favorite author, and if the translation was butchered, I would probably be furious; but if it took the real essence of the characters, and used the excellent wit and dialogue found within its glorious pages, I think it could be my favorite movie, as well as my favorite book by Christopher Moore!

I recently read a book by an Australian author named Toni Jordan about a young woman who has obsessive-compulsive disorder. Addition follows Grace Vandenburg's struggle to overcome her counting, adding, measuring, and timing that puts her life in constant limbo of ridicule and being ostracized. This wasn't necessarily my favorite book, but I think with the obvious character flaw in conjunction with the writing style, it could make an entertaining film. Think As Good As It Gets meets Bridget Jones's Diary.

Lastly, one of the best books I read last year was called The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. The cover of the book would suggest that it is, what I would call a "chick book," but it wasn't, at all. The beginning of this amazing novel, was a bit graphic for my taste (by way of violence, not pornography) but after the initial character introduction, it turns into everything from historical fiction, to bizarre love story, and even a re-imagining of Dante's nine circles of hell from The Inferno. Andrew Davidson's writing style is so vivid and engrossing that it could follow in the footsteps of What Dreams May Come as the one of the most surreal stories about love conquering all else.

-Whitney

Books to beat spring fever!

2009-04-06T13:37:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure about everyone else, but with the new-found sunshine I know that I am feeling the effects of spring fever: wanting to get the months of unused things either used or out of my house, and the constant nagging that I should be outside soaking in the rays before it gets unbearably hot. So here are a few books that will put you in the mood for springtime activities!

As the cover of "ReadyMade: How to Make (Almost) Everything" by Kate Francis so boldly states, "you need this book." Within the glorious covers of this green-made-easy manual are such gems as the "hardcover frame"- for transforming your less-than-cool books into picture frames, and a "cd wall mural"- for utilizing left-over jewel cases to make art. This book is a DIY masterpiece!

A perfect way to use any left-over and unwanted materials laying about the house!

Barbara Kingsolver's newest work, a non-fiction treasure, follows her family's trials and tribulations after they vow to give up industrial-style living for the simplicities of a rural life. "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" is part memoir, part earth-conscious narrative of going back to "old-fashioned," tried and true ways of living: supporting your community and family by only using what is grown and can be shared within your neighborhood.

This book has just the right amount of spirit to inspire you to start a garden, and try to live off of the fruits of local lands!
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Thom, Tree, and Eric are three out-of-place guys going through quarter-life crises, as well as experiencing a strange cosmic connection between each other- and their couch. After a flood ruins their apartment they decide to create a new quest called "Couch Across America."

Benjamin Parzybok's "Couch" serves as the perfect novel to get you up off of your couch and take a needed roadtrip with some friends.

For all you knitters out there, this is a fabulous book!

So many cool patterns are waiting for you in "Stitch 'N Bitch Nation" by Debbie Stoller. One of my favorites from this installment of the Stitch 'N Bitch series is the Itsy-Bitsy-Teeny-Weeny Purple Polka-dot Tankini. It's a simple lounging-by-the-lakeside (or if you're lucky enough, the beach) kind of afternoon get-up. Make sure to start knitting now, so that the spring fever doesn't cause you to procrastinate!

The perfect pattern for the cutest little purple polka-dot tankini you've ever seen!

-Whitney

Where great words and great works meet

2009-04-02T10:37:00.000-07:00

I think it's pretty obvious that everyone on our staff has a life-long, borderline-dysfunctional love of books. But what I love even more are books by great authors. When I say great, I don't just mean great at writing. I mean genuinely great individuals, the kind of people we can admire as authors and as human beings. Let me give you some examples:

1. Dave Boling, author of Guernica. When I read Dave's book I laughed and cried so much that I actually had to stop reading it in public because I was disturbing people. When he came to Boise to do a signing with us down on the Basque block I told him how much I loved his book, and he hugged me! In fact he hugged almost anyone who said something nice about his book. He was sincere and passionate about every aspect of this lovingly rendered story. I could not have been more pleased when he won the Pacific Northwest Book Award, he absolutely deserves the recognition.

2. Joe Gores, author of Spade & Archer: The Prequel to Dashiell Hammet's The Maltese Falcon. Gores was scheduled to make a book tour for this brand new book including a stop here with us. However, upon finding out that his wife was very ill, he made the decision to stay home with her instead. That's a man with his priorities straight, if you ask me! I'm not much a mystery reader, but I wanted to buy his book just to support someone with that kind of integrity.

3. Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and others. Eggers is an amazing author, he has a few books and is a frequent contributor to McSweeney's and many other publications. I recently stumbled on this video where Eggers is explaining a tutoring program that he spearheaded. Inner-city kids can come to the McSweeney's office after school to get help on writing assignments from professional authors. Did I mention this happens behind a pirate supply store front? How cool is that? To hear him talk about it follow this link:
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/233

-Wally

Who is Sasha and how did he get into the room?

2009-04-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

Have you ever tried to read Russian Literature? If you have, I applaud your courage, if you have not, I understand your fear. Russian authors can be quite daunting with their casts of thousands and the depression they radiate, but dismay is not the only answer.

If you really want to tackle the challenge that Dostoevsky or Tolstoy represent, there are a few basic tools that might come in handy:

1. A list of names, nicknames (with a brief description of the character's relationships to other characters). You will find a list like this on page xx of the introduction to version of Anna Karenina by Pevear and Volokhonsky (which is also the best literary translation on the market), so put the bookmark flap there and use a regular bookmark to keep your spot. If the book you want to read does not include a list like this, go to Wikipedia and compile something.

2. An idea of the purpose of the work or a perspective you find attractive. I can enjoy Tolstoy or Dostoevsky because I believe them to be a type of collective spiritual autobiography. They explore the depths to which the world has fallen and reveal it to us: if a person is good, we corrupt them, if we cannot corupt them, we kill them or drive them to suicide etc. In general, one can view Russian literature as a whole through this lens, but it is certainly not the only perspective, you may want to read for the development of Marxist thought, or the content of the social enviornment, or you may want to trace the tendancy of the authors to create paradoxical characters, or you may want to read in the psychologial insights of their times (or ours). The secret here is that you must have something other than escapism or easy entertainment in mind if you are to enjoy (or finish) a classic Russian work of literature.

-Ty

Kicking off National Poetry Month

2009-03-30T16:22:00.000-07:00

Over the last month I have been eagerly anticipating the beginning of April: NATIONAL POETRY MONTH! Wally and I have been brainstorming, preparing, and fan-girling (a term used here to represent the generally uproarious, giddy motions of two people REALLY into poetry) about all the things that we have organized to share and promote a love of poetry with our customers. Over the next coming weeks we will be hosting open-mic poetry reading sessions, a pajama poetry read-in day for kids during the Kid's Lit Fest, as well as a myriad of other events (see the newsletter!)

One of the things I'm looking forward to most is the Poem In Your Pocket Day. The history of Poem In Your Pocket Day, according to http://www.poets.org:

"Poem In Your Pocket Day has been celebrated each April in New York City since 2002. Each year, city parks, bookstores, workplaces, and other venues burst open with readings of poems from pockets. Even the Mayor gets in on the festivities, reading a poem on the radio."

Last year, when I was working at Spellbinder Books in California, we celebrated Poem In Your Pocket Day with astounding results; we offered a homemade cookie to every person who came into the store that day and read us their poem. We had baked five dozen cookies for the entire day, and ran out after the lunch rush of customers! Needless to say, when Laura asked me to come up with ideas to celebrate National Poetry Month, this is one event I could not pass up!

To kick off National Poetry Month I would like to share one of my favorite poems...

"Shake the Dust" by Anis Mojgani

This is for the fat girls.

This is for the little brothers.

This is for the school-yard wimps, this is for the childhood bullies who tormented them.

This is for the former prom queen, this is for the milk-crate ball players.

This is for the nighttime cereal eaters and for the retired, elderly Wal-Mart store front door greeters. Shake the dust.
This is for the benches and the people sitting upon them,

for the bus drivers driving a million broken hymns,

for the men who have to hold down three jobs simply to hold up their children,

for the nighttime schoolers and the midnight bike riders who are trying to fly. Shake the dust.
This is for the two-year-olds who cannot be understood because they speak half-English and half-god. Shake the dust.
For the girls with the brothers who are going crazy,

for those gym class wall flowers and the twelve-year-olds afraid of taking public showers,

for the kid who's always late to class because he forgets the combination to his lockers,

for the girl who loves somebody else. Shake the dust.
This is for the hard men, the hard men who want to love but know that is won't come.

For the ones who are forgotten, the ones the amendments do not stand up for.

For the ones who are told to speak only when you are spoken to and then are never spoken to. Speak every time you stand so you do not forget yourself.

Do not let a moment go by that doesn't remind you that your heart beats 900 times a day and that there are enough gallons of blood to make you an ocean.

Do not settle for letting these waves settle and the dust to collect in your veins.
This is for the celibate pedophile who keeps on struggling,

for the poetry teachers and for the people who go on vacations alone.

For the sweat that drips off of Mick Jaggers' singing lips and for the shaking skirt on Tina Turner's shaking hips, for the heavens and for the hells through which Tina has lived.
This is for the tired and for the dreamers and for those families who'll never be like the Cleavers with perfectly made dinners and sons like Wally and the Beaver.
This is for the biggots,

this is for the sexists,

this is for the killers.

This is for the big house, pen-sentenced cats becoming redeemers and for the springtime that always shows up after the winters.
This? This is for you.

Make sure that by the time fisherman returns you are gone.

Because just like the days, I burn both ends and every time I write, every time I open my eyes I am cutting out a part of myself to give to you.
So shake the dust and take me with you when you do for none of this has never been for me.

All that pushes and pulls, pushes and pulls for you.

So grab this world by its clothespins and shake it out again and again and jump on top and take it for a spin and when you hop off shake it again for this is yours.

Make my words worth it, make this not just another poem that I write, not just another poem like just another night that sits heavy above us all.

Walk into it, breathe it in, let is crash through the halls of your arms at the millions of years of millions of poets coursing like blood pumping and pushing making you live, shaking the dust.
So when the world knocks at your front door, clutch the knob and open on up, running forward into its widespread greeting arms with your hands before you, fingertips trembling though they may be.

-Whitney

Oh! the Books You Can Book!

2009-03-27T09:38:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we will be selling books at Seussical Jr. down at the Morrison Center. In preparation for this event, we have flooded our store with the bright and nostalgic covers of Dr. Seuss books. I have been having flashbacks to some great times in my childhood. I once got in a lot of trouble for taking Hop On Pop too literally, I used to demand my eggs be dyed green, and the first book I translated from Latin was Cattus Petasatus (Cat in the Hat).

I privately think that the reason I became so active in environmental causes is because I read The Lorax as a child. I also think perhaps my best political essay was written in reference to the Star-bellied Sneeches. It's amazing how profoundly one author has changed my world-view.

We do have some awesome new interpretations on the old classics too. We have board books, cook books, pop up books, and a book with an internal elephant puppet! We even have some Seuss books I had never heard of like Hunches in Bunches and the Butter Battle Book.

If you love the good Dr. Suess as much as I do, then you should come in and reminisce with us. Either that or meet us down at the musical: March 28, 7pm, Morrison Center. Be there!

Kafkaesque?

2009-03-26T15:58:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm going to talk nerdy to you. They told me to write a blog about books . . . they didn't tell me to make it appeal to a general audience: I guess that will change if they ever read this.

Have you ever said to yourself, "Kafka is just SO strange?" I'll bet you have . . . if you've ever read Kafka. Franz Joseph Kafka seems surreal and alien, yet his life was as bizarre and bleak as his writing. In fact, The Trial is an autobiographical recounting of his own experiences in an unpredictable regime, as a criminal in thought. Needless to say, Kafka is not the lightest or most coherent author with whom you might dally, but he has an odd way of reflecting the cognitive dissonance of actual experience in bizarre scenes which at once draw in and alienate the reader.

Kafka is not alone in this flavor of expression, yet most people see him as the sole example of his artistic style. Let's set aside, for the moment, Beckett, and those of his ilk who had surreality as their goal.

If you'd like to draw a comparison from authors in English, pick up Johnathan Swift; his humor is less obscure, yet his images fit the same surreal mold. Even in his non fiction, Swift advances his ideas by means of bizarre and surreal imagery; in A Modest Proposal, Swift suggests that the problems of food shortage and over-population might both be addressed by selling the children of the poor as food for the wealthy. This stunning essay not only brings light to the social inequities, but also to the modes of discourse used to justify unethical actions.

So you have Swift down, how about Rabalais . . . wait, chances are you've never read him . . . you may never have even heard of him, though he is generally considered a classic author. Rabalais is a French writer (in the development of the French language he is almost as influential as Shakespeare) who uses scatological categories in his fictional world to reveal the content of his experience and insight into modern culture. He is in fact so far outside the boundaries of what most Anglophone authors of his time considered good taste that, as far as I have been able to tell, no accurate and complete translation exists, probably because no one really wants to translate so much crude imagery.

Rabalais, however was the topic of what is perhaps the masterwork of the great Russian literary critic, Bakhtin. Ironically, or perhaps as a matter of causation, Bakhtin's own life was very surreal. In Bakhtin and Cultural Theory, a short sketch of Bakhtin's examination for doctorate, a topsy-turvey affair where the brash, underqualified, and unskilled puppets of the regime were able to deny his achievement in the face of the reasonable, erudite, and proven body of scholars in their midst. In short, his experience mirrors that of Joseph K. in The Trial.

So, now that I've taken you full-circle, I still can't seem to decide how I feel about the word kafkaesque, but I am pretty sure that it is not a set made of a single class.

-Ty

Winter is, like, SO over!

2009-03-19T18:12:00.000-07:00

A little while ago a former English teacher of mine asked me to read To Siberia by Per Petterson (the same guy that wrote Out Stealing Horses) so that she could talk about it with someone. Even though sad, Northern European literature isn't my favorite, I (being an incurable teachers' pet even 4 years after graduating) dutifully went down to the public library to give it a test run.

Unfortunately it was at about this time that all of the exciting, brightly-colored, cheerful, Springtime books showed up in our bookstore. While living through the tail end of winter, who really wants to read about Russian orphans when they can read about blueberries, fuzzy animals, and some good, old-fashion, fantasy action? Not me!

Just look at the difference in the covers, can you really blame me? So for now, I'm just racking up a library fine waiting for myself to get sick of the sunshine. But I am definitely looking forward to indulging in some more shiny, springy, eye-candy books!

-Wally

Ten weird things I have learned from reading books

2009-03-16T17:15:00.000-07:00

Outside of my bookstore persona, my friends often say that my head is filled with nothing, if not useless facts. But, to be honest, I was not the first person to bring light to these so-called "useless facts." Most things I learned, I picked up from (usually) some non-reference book. Here are a few cool facts I've discovered in the last few years!

1. James Dean only made three films in his short lifetime: Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden, and Giant.

Maybelline "Maybe" Chestnut and her two best friends, Ted and Hollywood, drive cross country in search of Maybe's biological father, all while discussing the classic old school Hollywood films.
-Source: Absolutely Maybe by Lisa See

2. I've actually learned a myriad of things from The Art of Shen Ku; a Vitamin B6 deficiency, for instance, will cause sensitivity to sunlight, and people that are born in the year of the dragon and very compatible with people who are born in the year of the rat.
-Source: The Art of Shen Ku by Zeek

3. In the Old Testament of the Bible it says that when a woman is going through her "monthly cycle," anything that she has touched any male that is in the vicinity is NOT allowed to touch. In The Year of Living Biblically, the author's wife, out of spite, goes and touches everything in the living room while she is "cycling", so that he can not sit down- it is highly entertaining.
-Source: The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs

4. Vegetables can actually taste good.

When Mollie Katzen's The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without was first released I was skeptical that there was ANY vegetable that I couldn't live without. But, being the world's worst vegetarian, I took a look, and low and behold, VEGETABLES CAN TASTE AWESOME! For any skeptics out there, try the cauliflower gratin with capers and bread crumbs: it's simple and can be served as a side dish or an entree!
-Source: The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without by Mollie Katzen

5. In the Florida Everglades there is a critically endangered wildcat called the Florida Panther.

Nick and Marta go on a quest to find their missing science teacher, and on the way help to save a panther cub that has been separated from it's mother in Scat.
-Source: Scat by Carl Hiaasen

6. I have obtained a recipe to make invisible ink!
As a kid I remember thinking that the production of invisible ink was akin to Sasquatch, or the Loch Ness monster- a myth. One day I happened to stumble upon a real-life recipe for invisible ink in The Pocket Dangerous Book for Boys, and was thrilled. Who knew that any organic material that is clear can be turned into a heat-activated invisible ink?

-Source: The Pocket Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden

7. The assassination of President Lincoln included a plot to assassinate both Vice President Andrew Johnson, as well as Secretary of State William H. Seward. After the assassination, John Wilkes Booth, and one of his co-conspirators, David Herold, fled the state and instigated a 14 day manhunt that eventually ended in John Wilkes Booth's death.

Although my public school education did me well in some areas, I don't remember any information about Lincoln's assassination other than the fact that it happened.

-Source: Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson

8. It is possible to have punk rock ideals and follow a Buddhist lifestyle.

Noah Levine, son of Stephen Levine, the author and teacher of guided meditations, grows up in the 80's punk scene in Southern California. It's not until his last stint in juvenile detention that Noah realizes that he can integrate the ideals of non-conformity and need for change into a more peaceful, and less self-destructive, Buddhist existence.

-Source: Dharma Punx by Noah Levine

9. One of the first people to pioneer the reconstruction of dinosaurs based on the bones excavated was a Brit named Waterhouse Hawkins.

I was cleaning up the kids picture books section one day when I came across a really cool book called The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins. In addition to being full of useless knowledge, while simultaneously being the world's worst vegetarian, I also happen to have a weird obsession with dinosaurs. And man, what a book for everyone who loves dinosaurs! Waterhouse Hawkins was a sculptor who brought dinosaurs to life by making life-size models of dinosaurs in the Crystal Palace Park in London.

-Source: The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins by Barbara Kerley and Brian Selznick

10. It is ENTIRELY possible to write a whole book in fraternity-style speech patterns, and be both coherent and entertaining.

Daniel Maurer's new book Brocabulary carefully details how to brommunicate about ho couture, as well as how to be a chilletante, all while putting on the rouse of being an interesting and well-educated member of society.

-Source: Brocabulary by Daniel Maurer

~Whitney

Erin Go Bragh!

2009-03-12T22:07:00.000-07:00

Even since I was young I have had an uncanny fondness for St. Patrick's Day. Perhaps it was the feeling of connection to my Celtic heritage or perhaps it was merely its proximity to my birthday. Every year when given the opportunity to choose my special Birthday cereal I would inevitably choose Lucky Charms because of the Leprechaun. On my 8th Birthday I went so far as to play Pin the "Pot o' Gold on the Rainbow" at my party. Ever since I was young I have also had an uncanny fondness for theme parties.

Every year around this time I take the opportunity to reflect on the glory that is Ireland and Irish literature. I relive the sensuous pleasures of "Blackberry Picking" with Seamus Heaney, the bafflement of my first exposure to Samuel Becket's Waiting for Godot, and the joys of meeting the Irish Poet Laureate, Paul Muldoon.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Muldoon a few years ago when he did a small reading in St. Louis. He had unkempt hair, a wrinkled blaser, and an infectious laugh. He was everything you could hope for in a poet and more. His mellow, even lilt transformed his words into the stuff of legends, and I could almost smell the loam of Irish earth. That might seem a little dramatic, but his poems really did sound Amazing! with an Irish accent and a crooked smile.

So here's a little bit of his Ireland to get you in a festive mood
-Wally

The Frog
by Paul Muldoon

Comes to mind as another small
upheaval
amongst the rubble.
His eye matches exactly the bubble
in my spirit-level.
I set aside hammer and chisel
and take him on the trowel.

The entire population of Ireland
springs from a pair left to stand
overnight in a pond
in the gardens of Trinity College,
two bottle of wine left there to chill
after the Act of Union.

There is, surely, in this story
a moral. A moral for our times.
What if I put him to my head
and squeezed it out of him,
like the juice of freshly squeezed limes,
or a lemon sorbet?

We have AWESOME customers!

2009-03-10T17:49:00.000-07:00

I was working Monday evening last week, when I had a customer come in to find out if she could trade some of her books in for trade credit. Although I couldn't quite help her in that department, she asked if I could order a copy of The Watchmen for her. While I was waiting for my screen to load she told me that her son was really excited about the release of the film adaptation. From there our conversation went from her son's forray into making independent films, to good movies that we had seen lately. We sat and discussed our mutual love of Slumdog Millionaire. Both of us agreed that everything about it was amazingly well done; from the cinematography to the soundtrack, everything was perfectly orchestrated.

Although we were done with the formalities of getting a book order completed, this lovely lady and myself talked for roughly another 30 minutes before she had to go and I had to close down. By the time I walked out the door to go home I couldn't stop myself from thinking what a neat lady she had been, and that I hoped I would be in when she came to pick up her book, so we could chat again.

I wound up missing her by a few hours the day she picked up her book, but in my locker, waiting for me, was a copy of the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack that she had dropped off.

THAT'S how cool our customers are.

~Whitney

Epically Good Poetry

2009-03-05T13:01:00.000-08:00

With National Poetry Month fast approaching, poetry has been on my mind lately. Who am I kidding, I'm an English Major, poetry is usually on my mind. The other day a man came in to tell us about Open Mic Poetry readings at the Bistro downtown starting up on March 31st. Also, tomorrow, March 6th, there is a free poetry reading to celebrate International Women's day! That's at the church in Hyde Park 1520 N 12th Street at 7 pm.

So, I've been thinking, some of our earliest literature was in the form of epic poems: Gilgamesh, the works of Homer, Beowulf, etc. Our first inclination as a species when writing stories is to write poems.

I just finished a modern book called Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas that is hardly an epic, but it is an intense teen novel written in poems. It comes out next month and deals with an abusive father, complicated feelings of neglect and silence, and the ever present themes of adolescence. The details of abuse are clearly implied and thoroughly dealt with, but because it was written in poems they are never actually spelled out. I think that made this easier to read. If it had been prose it may have been too uncomfortable, too brutal, especially since I think this was mostly autobiographical. The veils of fiction and poetic devices do a lot for the subtlety of this book.

A lot of books have come out recently that tell us their stories through poems. Some that spring to mind are the teen books of Ellen Hopkins and Walter Dean Meyers, the children's books of Sharon Creech, and the novel Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow which is at the top of my 'To Read' stack.

What is it about narrative poetry that is so evocative? so addictive to our psyche? Is it a coincidence that we are cycling back to poetic narratives after all these generations? I don't know, but I think not. This is just the kind of thing I ponder while I'm drying my hair (believe me, I wish I was kidding). Anyway, something worth thinking about.

-Wally

The Planet Earth, Tiny Homes, and My Own Space

2009-03-04T10:09:00.000-08:00

When I started college, I was studying architecture - it truly is my first love. Unfortunately, math and science are not my strong subjects of study, and I ended up having to take the first of several math class for the pre-architecture program three times before I passed...and did so only marginally. Though not good with numbers, I could easily forsee that pursuing a degree which required taking classes multiple times would take forever.

Having dropped architecture, I floundered for a while and dabbled in education and literature classes. Eventually I stumbled upon social work and was instantly captivated. To this day, though pursuing a graduate degree in geriatric social work, my love for architecture still exists. Two of the coolest books on the subject that I have come across at the bookshop are A Place of My Own and Little House on a Small Planet.

Michael Pollan is best known for his 2006 work Omnivore's Dilemma and 2008 follow-up In Defense of Food. Written before his newly found fame, A Place of My Own offers up a quarkier, more personal side of Pollan. With guest appearances from builder/construction worker friends, reflections on Woolf and Thoreau, and initial writings on food and its connection between humans and the land from which it comes, Pollan covers an array of topics. What I found most captivating, though, were his thoughts on space; the questions he asked himself and readers regarding how much living space they actually need, and if their homes accurately reflect these answers.

And while I grew up in a household of five where one bathroom sufficed, some of the coolest homes I've yet to see - and currently desire - are not outlandish and huge. Rather, they are smaller and use space wisely; cuter and distinctly unique; eco-friendly and more energy-efficient than modern-day monstrosities. They are, of course, little houses on are ever-seeming-to-become-smaller planet...and suprisingly in sync with my own answers to Pollan's questions. You'll definitely want to stop in and take a peek at both of these titles!

~ Ross Wulf, Bookseller

Oh, Blessed Sleep . . .

2009-03-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

Each evening I lie down to put my two year old nephew to sleep. I take two books from beside the bed. The first book last night was There's a Wocket in my Pocket, the night before it was Go Dog Go, but it needn't always be from the Beginner Books series. The second book is always the same: Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book.

There are some very good reasons for bringing two books: if I come with only one book, he will notice that I have not given him a choice, and he will subsequently demand another book, which is usually next to inaccessible, and interrupt our routine. Another reason for bringing only two books is that I can always be sure that Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book will, at least, be the second book we read. I must admit too, on nights when I am very tired, or have a great deal to do, I pray that he will choose it first, because that way lies slumber.

I pretend for a moment that I cannot see the book, he knows this game. "What does this say?"

"Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book," he says in that halting way only a child can, pointing to the words, as I do when I show him what it says. I turn the page . . . . "This book to be read in bed, Uncle Ty . . . ." From there we follow the path of sleep from the first yawn of a very small bug, named Van Vleck, until he falls asleep, usually before we arrive in the district of Doft. On those rare occasions when he does not fall asleep, we can always read it again; he loves that too.

-Ty

Regarding stickyfish teams, I favor the bigfield fighting Koobish

2009-03-02T13:08:00.000-08:00

Adam Rex's self-potrait

I had the great pleasure of working with Wally both Saturday and Sunday, and the even greater pleasure of introducing her to one of my favorite (if not my VERY FAVORITE) authors, Adam Rex. I was quite surprised, not only as a person that works in a bookstore, but also as a fanatic, that she had never even HEARD of Mr. Rex; as a formidable illustrator and author in both the children's picture book and children's literature markets, Adam Rex is quite recognizable.

I first discovered Adam Rex via one of my coworkers while I was working at Spellbinder Books in California, who told me that if there was any book that could sum up how amazing kids books could be, it was The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex. I was initially a bit hesitant to read Smekday because at that point I had a bit of a mental block about kids books, but my coworker reassured me by bringing in her treasured copy for me to borrow.

I was FAR from disappointed; in fact, I laughed so hard that I couldn't breathe or see, on more than probably a dozen occasions while reading. From that day on I vowed to put The True Meaning of Smekday into as many hands as possible to spread the wealth.

In addition to all of his own books, Adam Rex has been an illustrator for many other people's works. There have been a number of childrens books featuring his illustrations, but it was his original fantasy artwork for Wizards of the Coast, that was initially a hindrance for breaking into his now-established market.

Although I'm still waiting for Adam Rex to write another full-length book, I find myself continuously going to back to his picture books. The award-winning Frankenstein books, (Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich and Frankenstein Takes the Cake) as well as Pssst!, demonstrate Mr. Rex's talent for beautiful and intricate illustrations, as well as his silly sense of humor.

For now, it seems that I'll just have to sit back and wait. But, if you find yourself in the same situation that I'm in, having Adam Rex withdrawals, take a gander at his constantly updated blog for a quick fix to your Koobish blues!

http://adamrex.blogspot.com/

~Whitney

A surprise party, of sorts

2009-03-02T11:57:00.000-08:00

HAPPY 105TH BIRTHDAY, DR. SEUSS!

Peas, books, and blogs: How stalking your favorite authors just got easier!

2009-02-27T12:06:00.000-08:00

It is important for you, dear reader, to know that I have never before been able to make a plant grow. I am the opposite of a green thumb, I am a brown thumb, nay, a dead thumb. That is how bad I am at growing things. Nevertheless, this morning I found myself spritzing my extremely robust looking sugar snap peas. "How did this happen?" you may very well ask. Well, I read a book, that's how! And not a gardening book, at least not in the traditional sense.

I read Made From Scratch by Jenna Woginrich, a book about a girl in her 20's starting a homestead in northern Idaho with not much more than a smile and a can-do attitude. It's hilarious and inspirational, and in fairly short order Jenna had become my personal hero. I now read her blog every day, and it is just as entertaining as her book. (http://coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com/) Now you're asking "What does this have to do with peas?" I'll tell you! She challenged all of her blog readers to take part in the great Snap Pea Challenge! We were all supposed to plant our seeds on the 15th of February so we could track our progress together. There are even t-shirts for this shindig! Now I, the Killer of Kale, the Brutalizer of Broccoli, have five, adorable, half-foot-high sugar snap pea sprouts.

How great is it that we live in a time when something like this can happen. It used to be that authors were distant entities that couldn't be reached by the masses. They weren't your friend much less your gardening companion. Now, you not only can find out what an author had for breakfast on their blog, some authors will become friends with you on Twitter or Facebook or last.fm! Ever wonder what Neil Gaiman was listening to when he wrote Coraline? What an amazing age to be a bibliophile!

-Wally

What is a Classic?

2009-02-25T15:05:00.000-08:00

Quite often people complain to me about classics. "Why do they call this a classic? I hated it. It was boring, depressing, and not particularly well written, as far as I can tell."

Are they right? Can something earn a place in the canon of English literature and still be boring and unimpressive? The answer: it all depends on your point of view. Let's take a few examples:

Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist: a book with a ponderous introduction, two-dimensional characters and fairly predictable plot points. Why does it get to be counted among the classics? Because it was new and innovative in its approach to realism and because it, along with the rest of his corpus, forms a significant building block in the social and ethical consciousness of the western world.

Beyond it's historical significance, Oliver Twist has a historical context that greatly affects its style. During the last sixty years or so, stylistic norms have migrated from a descriptive, narrative style to style which prefers dialogue and informs its readers through dense introductory sections. Due to our modern culture's obsession with easily digestable entertainment, current trends in style have declared narration boring and introductions a waste of the reader's time. Now readers expect action from page one, explanation as the story unfolds, and a rapid, if not frenetic, plot pace.

So, does it get to be a classic? Sure. It paid its dues and it is truly significant for the development of western realism and ethical judgement. Does that mean it's an easy read and that everyone should pick it up? No. People who want an easy read should try something a little lighter.

Don't worry, if you can't hack such serious material, but you still want to start building your classical literacy, start with something a little more accessable; I suggest Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. It isn't too heavy, but it does tell an interesting story, while unobtrusively approaching important issues like democracy and monarchy, the corrupting yet progressive force of technology, and the nobility and ignorance of the lower classes.

-Ty

The Righteous Meat Slurpee

2009-02-24T19:00:00.000-08:00

I recently noticed the 7-Eleven at the intersection of Curtis and Overland was converted to a Jackson's/Shell gas station. I couldn't help but wonder if this was the extinction of the infamous Slurpee in the Boise area.

As soon as Whitney, my co-worker, got to work, I expressed my concern over the potential loss of the Slurpee. She was apparently concerned as well, for a couple days later she stopped by the gas station in question to see if the slushy drink was still available.

To her delight, the Shell/Jackson's gas station was still carrying the refreshing beverage. Having completed her investigation, Whitney treated herself to the nostaligic Slurpee, strawberry in flavor. To her horror, however, the drink tasted like MEAT - triple ICK!!!

Whitney promptly called to inform that Slurpees were still available, but to steer clear of the Strawberry-flavored option. Ironically enough, when Whitney phoned about the "Meat-flavored Slurpee" I was in the midst of reading Nicolette Niman's latest work, Righteous Porkchop.

I originally picked up this book solely because of its catchy title, and I am so glad I did! Miss Niman's chronicling of her investigative research into the factory farming of animals is both pallatable and enlightening. Reading very much like a memoir, what I enjoyed most was that I never felt preached at or scolded for still buying meat at the grocery store. Rather, Righteous Porkchop presents current information on the meat industry, all the while interjecting cander and humor along the way.

NOTE: After having completed this book, however, I felt compelled to buy my meat locally rather than support animal factory farming. Last Saturday I visited Vogel Farms in Kuna and had a great time: these guys are super friendly and know meat like we at the bookshop know books! Comparative pricing and an abundance of locally-raised, organically-fed products have won my business and ensured my return. Also, choosing Buy Local from Vogel Farms is one more way support locally-owned, independent businesses, for if we all shifted just 10% of our business to local independents, 1200 jobs and nearly a $160,000,000 in economic stimulus would be created for the Treasure Valley! Amazing.

~ Ross Wulf, Bookseller

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