Spring and reading

I’ve been wanting a good book to read, as this spring has been a little chilly yet for my tastes. Even if it was warm, I would be looking for a good book. I like to read no matter the weather.

I’ve got a few humor books on reserve at the library, but they won’t be in for awhile. I’m also 39 on the list for Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton. It is the Amazon Best Books of the Month for March 2011. Blood, Bones & Butter is a memoir about a woman who owns a restaurant in New York. She is getting wonderful reviews as a talented writer.

I also ordered Please Look After Mom by Kyung-sook Shin, an Amazon Best Books for April. It is a best seller in Korea.

It is a real art form to get on the library list early and to have a steady flow of books. An art form I just haven’t quite mastered. But, once and awhile, I do get on it. I’m on the list for Dreams of Joy: A Novel by Lisa See, which is still on order from the publisher. I find that she is one of my favorite authors. I missed reading Shanghai Girls: A Novel. I understand that Dreams of Joy is a sequel of Shanghai Girls. Well, I just ordered Shanghai Girls. Now, to see if I can get it from the library and read it before Dreams of Joy comes in. That will show that I am at least a little versed in controlling the library list. Sometimes the library throws a kink in the waiting game, because at my library you can never tell how many copies they have in circulation. So, lots of times I get way too many books to read all at once, or I have no books to read at all. Right now, I have a book out that does not appeal to me much. But the beauty of getting books from the library is that I don’t feel compelled to finish it just because I spent money on it.

New books for October

I’m finishing up a light read, Carol Burnett’s This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection, a memoir of her times as a comedienne. She is funny. Towards the end of the book is a chapter on getting updates about her soap operas in Europe, and I about died laughing, with no one in the room but me. I loved Carol Burnett as a kid and still remember the funny variety show that she had. They don’t even have shows like that anymore. Now people have to get their laughs with junky reality shows that are really making fun of people in a mean way. Always “eliminating” this one and that one. A real shame.

Anyway, I got an e-mail from Amazon (like I do every month) about the best books in October. One that stood out for me was Bill Bryson’s new book, At Home: A Short History of Private Life. This time, he is looking into domestic life, including the rooms and items we use. He created a journal about where these things came from. The book will be good, because he knows how to bring these things to life; at least he did for the English language in The Mother Tongue, one of Tracey’s picks from long ago. I reserved At Home at the library, and it is still on order so the library doesn’t have it yet. I can’t wait to get into that one.

Now I have Finders Keepers: A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession by Craig Childs waiting for me at the library. It examines what history is being served by archeology, and ethical problems that they have in revealing history, from what I gather. It may be a pretty intense read, but I’m going to read it next. I also have some cookbooks that have shipped, so I am trying to wait for them to come in so I don’t waste a trip (and gas). I don’t know if I will review them or not, but they are the books by the doctors that recommended that Bill Clinton go on a vegan diet. I’ve really been trying to eat more vegetables, so I got the cook book along with The Spectrum: A Scientifically Proven Program to Feel Better, Live Longer, Lose Weight, and Gain Healthby Dean Ornish. To top it off, (while I was at it) I did order Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trailbut I don’t know if I can get them all read before they are due with the archeology book, too. I’ll try.

A fresh start

Book Reader’s Traverse is now using the Joomla content management system. This past year, I realized that Book Reader’s Traverse was in need of a makeover. There were so many improvements I wanted to make, but it just didn’t make much sense to continue building Dreamweaver templates when what I really wanted to do was add some structure to our Web site. I wanted it to look sleek and be functional. I wanted to take out some of the tedious chores I had with updating the HTML pages. Meanwhile, I had read about content management systems and wanted a chance to learn one. So in August, I downloaded the Joomla and started learning how to use it. I’ve published the Joomla site to our site now. I’m in the process of converting some of our old files from other reviews, one at a time, into the Joomla site. There may be a way to convert all the files over, but this way I get a chance to look over our old reviews and maybe decide to let some of them go. So far, I’ve all the structure in place and have published some new reviews that I wrote.

I can tell you, it has been a lot of fun learning Joomla and I couldn’t believe I actually did learn it–I was so befuddled when I first saw it. It just uses totally different concepts than regular web designing does, so once you get a little understanding of the concepts, most of it falls right into place. I found actually working with it got me over the other humps. But of course, like a lot of things, there is so much more to learn! Now I want to learn how to make a template and work with the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).

I like a lot about Joomla. I like how neatly it arranges things on the page, for one. I like the fact that Joel and Tracey can add their own reviews if they want to, and we can add them from anywhere, at any time. I like that there is (finally) organization to the site. We can give you our latest picks and our most popular picks effortlessly. There are so many things that you can do with the dynamic pages. It is just really cool. I’m pretty excited about using it for the Book Reader’s Traverse site. I plan on growing the site as quickly as possible and working on the blog. I am waiting to hear from Tracey (and I heard from Joel this past weekend) in order to get them on the site and publishing their own reviews. I know they will contact me when they are ready. I’m eager to get them some “representation” on the “new” site! Meantime, I still have work to do with the blog and with the site, and I have to get started on our mailing list. So I have a lot to do for Book Reader’s Traverse.

Happy reading!

Best books of April and beyond

Just as I suspected, I was so busy this past March that I didn’t get finished with The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea by Philip Hoare and will now have  to order it again.  I really was enjoying the book, too. 

I just finished reading A Gate at the Stairs, by Lorrie Moore.   I am waiting for The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni to come in at the library.  But in the light of the fiction I’ve read lately, I am really looking forward to the non-fiction, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. But now, I am reading a comedy non-fiction, Why My Third Husband Will Be A Dog: The Amazing Adventures of an Ordinary Woman by Lisa Scottoline.  I have been on a comic kick lately.  But my selections were running a little thin, so I needed to find some more books to read. 

Of course, I looked over the New York Times Bestseller List to find books; I’m on their e-mail list so I can’t miss them; even though I’ve rarely read a book that really grabs me from them.  But I accidentally got on another e-mail list from Amazon.  Amazon will send you an e-mail just for looking at something.  I looked at the best books of the month one time.  Now, I’m on the Best Books of the Month mailing list! Anyway, it’s a good source.  This month, The Imperfectionists: A Novel by Tom Rachman is highlighted.  I thought this title sounded familiar, but the plot doesn’t, as one that Joel had picked and reviewed.  I was way off base, though, as the one I thought that was similar was The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, and the story is nothing like The Imperfectionists. I guess the titles just struck me as similar for some reason.  Anyway, The Imperfectionists is about English speaking reporters for an English paper in Rome.  It’s a first novel for Tom Rachman.  Another book listed is The Hand That First Held Mine, by Maggie O’Farrell, which just sounds like an interesting title.  There I go again, enjoying the titles, hopefully not more than the book.  It’s about an artist and I assume her mother.  We will find out.  More to come, folks.  I felt it was quite productive to get two books out of one e-mail, though.  Now I have four books on hold at the library. 

Happy reading!

Jane of Book Reader’s Traverse

Confessions in April

I have a confession to make. I kept a book overdue from the library—A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore—simply because I’ve been busy and did not want to make a trip just to the library. I was finished reading it, mind you. I ended up owing almost a dollar on the book, but the real guilt comes from the fact that I couldn’t renew it because other people were waiting on the book. I, myself am waiting on books to come in, so I know how it feels to wait on a book. But the library makes it easier now because you don’t have to pay your fines in person anymore. You can just use your credit/debit card on the Web site. So you don’t have to feel embarrassed about owing the fine, at least.

Anyway, I am still waiting on my books to come in from the library, and I deserve to wait. Meantime, I’ve got plenty of reading to do stacked around the house; books I received from Joel and Tracey, and a few friends. I had no reason to go out and buy a book, but that is exactly what I did. And I didn’t even go out with the intentions of buying a book. I was just waiting in the book isle while my sister was busy on an outing to the store. It was a total impulse buy. In fact, I hadn’t even heard of the book before. It is called Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. I just finished the first chapter. The book is set in Seattle, Washington, in the mid-1980s and reaches back into World War II and the Japanese internment camps. The cover had blurbs written by Sara Gruen and Lisa See, two writers I’ve enjoyed before—also, there was a blurb written by Garth Stein—one of Tracey’s authors. So it just has to be a good book! I like it so far.

I have a few chores to finish up with the Book Reader’s Traverse Web site, then hopefully the reviews will start coming in for this time. I already have a few from Joel, and I do mine as I go because I don’t have the retention in my memory to wait until I’ve finished reading all my books. I finished up Why My Third Husband Will Be A Dog: The Amazing Adventures of an Ordinary Woman by Lisa Scottoline, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I also saw her latest novel in the book isle, Think Twice. It was in hard cover and I was already having trouble spending money for a paperback. Last time I bought a paperback novel, it was $4.99; but I can’t for anything tell you what the title was—it’s been a long while. This time the paperback was $15.00. So, I placed another hold request at the library for the Lisa Scottoline book, and I am 105 on the request list.

We will also have a pleasant surprise on the Web site—we have a new writer for the Traversing Guest Station. Sonya reviewed a story by Anne Rice–Angel Time: The Songs of the Seraphim. I can’t wait to get the review and bio in hand.

Comedy

I’ve been reading comedies lately, trying to lighten up my reading some and enjoy a few laughs.  Most of the books I have chosen are not comedy fiction.  I find that good comedy fiction is hard to find; although I love comedy fiction.  My favorite in that genre is still the Miss Julia series by Ann B. Ross—the first book,  Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind, then Miss Julia Stands Her Ground and the books following are also funny.  However, most comedy books I’ve found are true to life, such as the one I’m reading now, American Thighs: The Sweet Potato Queens’ Guide to Preserving Your Assets by Jill Conner Browne.  I hadn’t heard of this author until I found this book, which I found at the library.  Apparently, she is the Sweet Potato Queen writer.  She has many books out in a series of comedies.  She is a Southern woman whose writing is full of all kinds of antics.  The author claims everything in her books to be  true.  For an example, she talks about a tornado coming at a hair salon and her daughter was talking about how good the hair stylist was to take her by a sink to rinse out her hair dye.  Most chapters have a “word to the wise” or “lessons learned” tip at the end.  They are hilarious, but true.  I have to get more of these books.

Jane of Book Reader’s Traverse

Best books of February

Today I ordered some books that were in the “on order” status at the library.  I found the books through an e-mail sent out by Amazon about the best books of February.  I probably will not get the books for a while, so I suspect they will be books of March, at least, for me.  They are both non-fiction books.  One is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, which is about a woman who died of cancer.  We benefited from the research done on her cancer cells, taken without her permission or even knowledge.  It promises to be interesting because it seems to address that issue, as well as explain some of the medical research done.  The other non-fiction title I ordered is The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea, by Philip Hoare.  I was the first to order that book, so hopefully, it won’t take long to get it in.  However, for the Henrietta Lacks’ book, I am in 50^th place and it hasn’t even arrived yet.  I am looking forward to reading them.  However, I still have a comedy on order at the library.  It is Why My Third Husband Will Be A Dog: The Amazing Adventures of an Ordinary Woman, by Lisa Scottoline, which sounds like it will be funny.  I’m also still on hold status for the book, A Gate at the Stairs, by Lorrie Moore.  I can’t remember what that one is about, as it’s been on hold for a while.  So those are a few of my future book reviews–that is–if I do finish all the books.  Sometimes, I get stuck on a book that just doesn’t grab me, and I end up not reading it.  This bunch sounds good, though, and I hope they don’t all come in at once, which typically happens to me.  I don’t speed read, especially when I like a book, so I end up having to order books again.  Well, I’m off to work on the Web site a little tonight, then I will get to read some.  Happy reading!

Hello world!

This blog is actually in Phase Two, as I previously posted a blog at Blogger.com.  I’m switching over to our own domain in order to get the benefit of the blog for the Book Reader’s Traverse Web site.  The previous posts are outdated now, so I didn’t import the blog.  It was just a learning experience. 

Tracey, Joel, and I have been working on the Book Reader’s Traverse Web site since 2004.  It has been a great partnership.  We have reviewed hundreds of books.  We love to read.  Of course, like all readers, we tend to have opinions about what we read.  So we decided to work on the Web site, www.bookreaderstraverse.com.

We also encourage guest reviewers to contribute to the site.  Many people have opinions about what they read and like to share.  

 Well, I’ve got to get back to my reading.  It’s beckoning.