It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.
I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. I offer a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment. You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.
Congratulations! Please choose an item out of the PRIZE BOX and email me your choice with your mailing address as well! journeythroughbooks@gmail.com
I knew a week like this was bound to happen. Between my busy schedule and battling this cold and fever I accomplished very little in the reading department. Very little.
Ok… I guess looking at that it does look like I was active. It didn’t feel like it, but two reviews, a movie review and a bookish topic isn’t bad with being gone all weekend. 😀
I have a lot of reviews to write yet. This week I am keeping it light so I can catch up on some of last weeks reading goals. Coming off of the festival I am going with a book that was given to me for review, and one that was a blogger recommendation.
This book was given to me for review from author Carl Brookins at the Twin Cities Book Festival. Carl currently has 9 books out and I am interested to see what this author, who is a member of the Minnesota Crime Wave, has to say.
I was reading My Friend Amy’s Faith in Fiction post this past weekend and she mentioned this book that I had never heard of. When I mentioned that in a comment on her post she replied saying it was one of her favorite books. On my way home today I stopped at Barnes and Noble in St. Cloud and they had a copy which is now… my copy. 🙂
I am ready for a little down time with a cup (or two) of tea and seeing what you are reading! This is one of my favorite things to do each week. Add your What Are You Reading post to the Linky where it says CLICK HERE and we all can visit the posts!
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This past weekend I was on a panel at the Twin Cities Book Festival. Our topic was The Changing World of Publishing: Getting Books To Readers.
Our problem is not too few good books, but too many. How does a reader decide what to read next despite the growing stack of options on their night table? How does a new author break into a dedicated reader’s “To Be Read” queue when traditional media outlets are disappearing fast? What role will new technologies like social media play now that authors are largely responsible for promoting their books themselves?”
Here is who was on the panel with me:
Tim W. Brown has worked behind the scenes at the Printer’s Row Book Festival in Chicago and at the Independent Press Center in New York City. He has also published three novels and his poetry and nonfiction have appeared in hundred of publications.
Andrew Ervin is the author of Extraordinary Renditions, just out from Coffee House Press. He is also a noted reviewer of books for The Believer, New York Times Book Review, Rain Taxi Review of Books, and other fabulous periodicals.
Jeff Kamin moderates the “Books & Bars” reading series in Minneapolis, which won a City Pages Best of in 2009. He’s also a freelance writer, publicist, and event coordinator at the blog “Mustache Robots,” but only after being El Jefe to his two young boys.
Steph Opitz is the membership director of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses in New York, and the former publicist at Red Hen Press in Los Angeles.
Moderated by Kevin Smokler, co-founder and CEO of BookTour.com and editor of the anthology Bookmark Now: Writing inUnreaderly Times.
Me, Tim Brown, Jeff Kamin
Thanks Reagan for taking the pics!
Our first questions was:
What do you see as the biggest change to reading and books of the last 5 years?
Several of the panelists agreed that the ways to read books have really been huge over the past five years. It was also mentioned that the reader’s attention span to get into a book has changed as there are so many options for someone to do now in their free time. You can order up a movie on your TV, play a video game, work or play on your laptop…
I responded with the amazing growth of the book blogger/reviewers. While a few years back there may have been a few hundred book blogs – now there were thousands. I feel, as many of you do too, that the book blogging community carries a strong voice and put many books out there for others to learn about and want to read. I mentioned that most of my book selections come from a review I read on a book blog.
Our second questions was, what is the biggest challenge to what you do each day as a books professional/avid hobbyist?
The panelists spoke of how hard it is trying to get books into the readers hands. How does a reader choose a book, with the costs of books when they first come out. Panelist Tim Brown mentioned that when his first book came out years ago about 200 people would show up for a book signing and he would sell maybe 50 books. Now, with his latest book out in print, a book signing draws maybe 20 people, and he may sell 3 or 4 books. While Tim jokingly mentions, he believes he is not getting worse as a writer.
When the question was directed my way, moderator Kevin Smokler asked how I as an avid reader keeps up, he said obviously I can not be purchasing every book I want to review or I would be broke and penniless on the streets. He is right. 🙂 I spoke on the challenges I see are choosing what to read. I explained that receive 5 – 8 book review requests a day. While I want to read some of the big name books, I also am always hopeful I will find that treasured book in a smaller names publishing company and author. The weeding through the reviews is tricky because obviously I can, nor do I want to, read every book that comes up as a review request.
Our final question was, what needs to change for the book business to be all it can be?
This one I felt was best answered by panelist Jeff Kamin, from Books and Bars (which if you have not checked out this website – I urge you to do so!). Jeff said that maybe publishers should release the paper back versions of books at the same time as the hard cover. He brought up the points of how a select few are going to pay the average $24 asking price for a new hard cover. Book Clubs and other book enthusiasts are going to wait for the paperback version before purchasing.
Tim Brown mentioned that reviewers needed to reach out beyond the popular authors and anticipated books. He mentioned how when a big named book comes out that every where you look that book is being talked about in the newspapers by reviewers and critics and the market online and off is saturated in the same information.
I in turn brought that while Tim mentions that the reviews need to broaden their horizons, that authors need to do so as well. I said no longer can a person publish a book and hope for the best. Building a community around your book and yourself is huge. Having a blog, a website, Facebook in some cases, as well as Twitter. I like to relate to the authors. I enjoy talking with them and I am more apt to read a book from an author I have talked with on Twitter on had the opportunity to look at a website or a blog. Authors as well have to be pro active.
I mentioned that even on my way into the panel I spoke with an author whose book I reviewed earlier this year. He was saying how once the book is out, the publisher can not continue to carry you. The author needs to make things happen, being involved in book events, being seen on-line.
At this point the discussion was opened up to the room, which was packed (including my bloggy friends that I was hanging out with). Questions were asked about book trailers – yay or nay? One lady asked about how do you find good books to read when you don’t want to go with an online book email or trust what the papers or the book stores are saying. You can bet that she and I talked after the panel.
One lady, asked me how I choose from the requests I receive and I mentioned that in my review policy I ask that when people are offering me a book for review that they give as much information as possible about the book as well as a picture if possible and links to websites, etc, about the book or author. I explained that most requests do not do this. They give a brief, “would you review my book” with a title and a little paragraph about it. I said at that point I take the title into Amazon and drop it in there so I can have a look at the book. I said honestly, I am a bit of a cover snob and believe that a cover will tell me a bit about the book. (After the panel was over a few people approached me to say they were cover snobs too).
Over all, this was an amazing experience. It was interesting to hear the concerns of the future of publishing from these different voices. As a “beginning writer/author” it really reminded me that the getting your book out there and published is really only the beginning.
Good Morning! I am still in the hotel in Minneapolis, but barely. I am packed and ready to go out the door as soon as this post goes up. However – first something totally random.
A confession.
You may remember that during BBAW (Book Blogger Appreciation Week) a few weeks ago I did a giveaway a day for the event. The giveaways were for a few of my favorite things (yes, yes… cue the music…). I did a giveaway with a large bar of Lindor Truffles. Mmmmm hmmm…… Lindor Truffles.
Anyway, my winner and I were chatting last week and I had to apologize for the delay in my shipping as well as explain what happened.
I …
uh…..
ate her prize.
……
Twice. 🙄
Yes. I ate the first one…. bought a second one, that night ate that one…. and when I bought the third I had the mailing package ready to go so I could purchase it and pop it in the bag and then the post office without having any time alone at all with the chocolate.
I guess that’s what happens when you try to give away your favorite things. 😳
Yesterday I had a blast hanging out with different Book Bloggers. Reagan from Miss Remmer’s Reviews and I started our morning at a wonderful coffee shop by the event and met us with Kim from Sophisticated Dorkiness, Ash from English Major’s Junk Food, and Alea from Pop Culture Junkie. We had fun talking books and blogs before we walked over to the big event.
Kim and I
Alea, Ash, and Reagan
So much fun! Right away Alea found herself in line for a book signing with Alexander McCall Smith, author of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. I have never read any of these books, but found the price to be right so purchased the first book. SQQUUEE!!!
Alexander McCall Smith
As the day went on I had the chance to talk to a few other authors I have read/and or reviewed. I seen Colin Sokolowski, author of The Accidental Adult. I didn’t get a chance to get a picture with him, but I did have a chance to talk to him about his book and how it was going.
Here are other connections I made throughout the day.
Beth Solheim, author of At Witt's End
JOhn Betcher, author of The Missing Element
For lunch, Joanne from Jo Jo Loves To Read was able to join us. We also met up with Liz from Consumed By Books and she was a new blog for me to check out, which I spent time on last night thinking it was brilliant.
I hope you check out all of these amazing bloggers I linked to here this morning. We had so much fun.
I will post later when I get home about the panel! Saving that one for a separate post 😀
Good Morning from the Twin Cities! I am in our hotel room with Reagan (Miss Remmer’s Reviews) HELLO PEOPLE!!!!!
(If you had any idea how many times I repeated HELLO PEOPLE and waved to my computer screen while trying to think of what to write next….. ) 😛
ANYWAY…
Last night Reagan and I met up with Joanne from Jo Jo Love’s To Read along with her lovely daughter, and Michelle from Red Headed Book Child. We ate at a lovely restaurant called Caio Bella and had a great discussion around books, and blogging, and whatever else we could think of. What a blast! Thanks girls! That was so fun!!!
GAH! I mean… morning! I have been packing this morning and getting ready to leave for the cities right after work. This means instead of planning my morning time with you, I have spent it finding my camera charger, a sweater, something casual, something nice…. GAH!
HOWEVER – before I run out the door to the gym I wanted to stop, have a half of cup of coffee (yes – that is unheard of I know!) and share with you this event going on right now:
I stumbled on to this and unfortunately have not had a lot of time to explore it so I can not tell you all lot about it, however I can give you the website so if you care to you can check it out. It sounds interesting to me. It is called The Novel: Live!
That’s my time. I will try to stop in on Twitter tonight once I am in the hotel room and settled in the cities. Twitter ID: bookjourney
I will give updates throughout the weekend of whats happening at the festival.
The Bell Jar is told from the perspective of Esther Greenwood. You would think she had the perfect life… young, beautiful, talented, successful… yet she is deeply troubled and sinking fast. She starts with a painful month in New York after she won a contest to be Junior Editor on a magazine. What most girls her age would be fascinated to win, Esther only found it troubling. She has a troubled relationship with her mother, and with a boy she dates on again and off again, but really finds she can not commit to anything -including life itself.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
A bell jar is a piece of laboratory equipment similar in shape to a bell. It can be manufactured out of a variety of materials, ranging from glass to different types of metals. A bell jar is placed on a base which is vented to a hose fitting, which can be connected via a hose to a vacuum pump. By pumping the air out of the bell jar, a vacuum is formed.
I read this with my book club for our annual October Classic read. I love that we commit to a classic every year and good or bad, the discussions over a classic are always pretty fantastic. When we reviewed this on Tuesday, I was not done with the read and I blew a chance to really analyze this book with my group. I finished this a couple of days after.
I had read up on Sylvia Plath’s life prior to this book and was extremely fascinated by how much this book parallels her life. While the book is about a deep depression, I did not find it depressing. The start of the book is her time in New York and the last third is while she is in a Mental Hospital. As one of the girls in our book club stated, as Esther finds herself deeper in her depression and break down – the writing becomes even more beautiful.
“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
While not the easiest read, I think it is an important one. As I flip between the pages of information I have on Sylvia Plath and The Bell Jar’s Esther Greenwood… I can’t help but think how much of this book is Sylvia’s story.
The book first published in January if 1961, and Sylvia Plath committed suicide in February of 1963. It was first published under the name of Victoria Lucas. The novel was not published under Sylvia’s name until 1967 and not published in the United States until 1971 per the wishes of Plath’s mother and husband.
Why Was The Bell Jar Banned?
The Bell Jar has been challenged because it openly rejects traditional marriage and motherhood. It has also been challenged for it’s characters discussion of sexuality.
I purchased this book at the local fall library sale
G’ Mornin’! We are here again! This week has flown by so quickly! I had such great plans of what I would get done earlier this week and now…. here it is Thursday and between work, work outs, and meetings…. yeah. I pretty much have accomplished nothing.
Tomorrow after work I leave for the cities to meet up with Reagan (Miss Remmer’s Reviews) and throughout the weekend, 5 other book bloggers from around the area. That will be fun. We will all be at the Twin Cities Book Festival and just yesterday I received questions from the panel I will be on:
1. What do you see as the biggest change to reading and books of the last 5 years? Please name one good and one bad.
2. Based on that, what is the biggest challenge to what you do each day as a books professional/avid hobbyist?
3. What needs to change for the book business to be all it can be?
4. How do you personally decide what to read next? What is your “reading strategy?”
There are great questions and I would to hear your take on these if you have any. I am excited and nervous to be on this panel. I know it will be a lot of fun and I am hopeful that all the book bloggers I am with have a chance to meet some incredible authors and publishers.
I have to run… this cold, or virus, or whatever I have going on has run me down to the point I am sleeping later and not having as much time in the morning as I usually do to hang out and enjoy that extra cup of coffee. 😛
It’s no secret I love talking books. And I am betting that many of you are the same way. I like to read books, discuss books, search out new books…
Well… you get my point. 😛
As per my earlier post today, ♥I LOVE MY BOOK CLUB ♥. We have met for ten years and I have met some incredible women through this group who have stretched me into authors and books that I never dreamed I would read… or enjoy…. and have!
For me, it started with my desire to know the people I worked with better. I had worked the same job foe 10 years and found it sad that many of us knew nothing about each other, other than what department we worked in and maybe what we ate for lunch.
So… the book club idea came to be.
To this day this is one of my favorite books of all time.
I posted a note on the time clock – chose a book (Dance Upon The Air by Nora Roberts), put a time and place and waited. No one said boo to me about it.
I felt like an idiot.
The day of the meeting I showed up at the designated restaurant pretty much planning to drink a diet coke by myself and go home. Then two ladies showed up. We had a blast. And the next month, another one came. And before too long we were 8 and then we grew again to 12, and now we are at 18.
What brings me to this topic today is that I have been blessed by this great group of women and wish everyone had the opportunity to be in a book club. It’s not always easy and with growth we did have growing pains (where to meet as we outgrew spaces, how to keep everyone focused on the book at hand – I am a real stickler that we do discuss the book!) All of us have worked together to bring “more to a group”. By more I mean – we try to bring pictures of events described in books, we discuss the author, we have an annual Queen Event, a Christmas Party, and an October Classic Read. We potluck themes to go with the books, and we do a Year In Review handout every January of the past year, what we read and the funny, or real moments we had. We vote for the best book pick of the year… and the worst.
My questions to you are:
Are you involved in a book club? Why or why not?
Is it online or off-line (or both!)
If you are, what do you do to keep everyone engaged?
Would you be interested in a group that shares book club ideas (ie. fun things to do around certain books, how to get a book club started, how to get the group engaged…)
Good Morning! Wednesday already can you even believe it? I feel like the days are flying by and now I am only two days out from going to the Twin Cities for the Book Festival and Book Blogger Meet Up! WOW! I will talk more on that yet this week 🙂
Last night my book club met and reviewed The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Every October we read a Classic and this year we thought it would be fun to wear old-time hats. My search went on after work yesterday where my goal was to go for the whole look. We have two great second-hand stores in town and my first stop found me the best shoes for the look – in fact they looked a lot like the shoes on the book cover which to me was “SQQQQUUUUEEEEE” worthy.
The Book Cover
My Shoes
However, my first stop had nothing for vintage hats. SO…. I hit the second stop (one of my faves) and they had MANY vintage hats. So I grabbed a couple of dresses and about five hats and of to the dressing room I went. I left with the hat you will see in the pictures and a dress that you will not. The dress was so awesome – black with a pick trim and lace around the bottom, it would have been perfect but was a size to small. It was so cute and I can use it in the future and was such a low price that I could not pass it up (plus now it is an inventive!). Maybe with a little luck by Halloween we can see that dress! Or, err….. shortly after. 😛
We had a wonderful meeting and good food. The way we choose our books for our next read is that we each are allowed to nominate one book. Then we go around and we each get two votes and the book that receives the most votes wins. This was our nominations:
I know right? Look at that selection! It was so hard to choose! A few of these are currently on my shelf to be read! The winning vote went to The Boticelli Secret. That will be our November Bookies book club read.
I am off to work and then Group Power and tonight a planning meeting for Honduras. It’s hard to believe out trip is really only about 6 weeks out.
I will leave you with a couple of pics from last night. This is not the entire book club, just the ones who wore hats.
There are rumors of hardships to come in England and Norman Mortimer’s is not the type of man who just sits around and waits for things to happen. He is a man of action and forward thinking. Anticipating the worst, Norman moves his family from their lovely home to an old drafty castle looking home, a fortress really. He secretly starts spending a lot of time in the basement with his son Geoff, hammering away at something that his wife and his other three children Nessie, Barry, and Ellen know nothing about. Later it is discovered that Norman has built shelves all along the basement walls and has stock piled canned good and food staples. He plans ahead by purchasing clothes for his children in larger sizes to accommodate growth. In Norman’s plan, his family will be able to survive whatever hardships come their way and he will protect them and their home from the outside world.
But can such a plan work? As the times get hard, and food is being rationed and stores are closing and people are starving…. what are the moral realities here?
Well hello dystopian fiction!
Days after I have finished this book I am still questioning how I felt about it. I started out finding it slow and immediately taking a string dislike to Norman as a father and especially as a husband. His lack of including his wife in any of his decisions and how he treated her as a possession without an opinion rubbed me the wrong way.
Early on in the book I sat it down and went on to a different read.
This past weekend I picked the book up again during the read-a-thon and found to my surprise that I was getting into the story line. As England took the predicted economy turn, I had to wonder was Norman a genius or a control freak? Or both? I especially liked Norman’s son Barry who seemed to have a good head on his shoulder’s and cared about others outside his home as families were literally starving to death.
What was interesting is that this book was originally published in 1975 and recently re-published. While there were parts of the book I enjoyed reading and found interesting, the ending felt unfinished to me and I found I had many questions unanswered. I closed the final page with out a solid feeling about the book that still has not really left me.
I found on-line that apparently there once was a TV series of Noah’s castle that is out on DVD.
I also found this ring tone for Noah’s Castle which is supposed to have been taken off the ending theme song.
I received my copy for review of this book from October Mist Publishing
Book Journey 