Movies Sell More Books

Kerry and I are members of a book club. Currently we're reading Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History, by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. It is a non-fiction, women's studies book, that while interesting, takes me straight back to that basement classroom where I my first women's studies course. Not that it's a bad thing, I loved my college women's studies and women's literature courses. The book makes a good refresher utilizing that oft-used motto as a framework of women in history.

Yesterday, I went to the bookstore to pick up the next two books on our list. The February book, Trailerpark, by Russell Banks looks interesting. It is a series of short stories about the lives of people in a New England trailer park.

I am looking forward to reading our March book, as well, The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for literature for this book. I had to search a bit around the book store to find this one, as it had been moved off its regular spot on the literature/fiction shelves to create a display that capitalized on the books' upcoming movie release.

Purposefully, I selected a copy of The Road that did not look like the movie poster. I generally appreciate books as books, not movies. After I bought my book, I noticed a large gold seal proclaiming "Now A Major Motion Picture." No worries about that, I would just peel it off. Which I did. Underneath the Motion Picture sticker were the remnants of the Winner of the Pulitzer Prize sticker. How sad. What does it say that book sellers would peel off the sticker proclaiming the book had won one of the top prizes in literature and replace it with one that advertised a not yet released movie? What does it say about us? Sad, but true, movies sell more books.

Summer Reading List

Summer is filled with children playing, lemonade stands, afternoons at the pool, sleepovers, backyard barbecues, and reading. Of course we still work, a little, but who has time!?

Our book club just finished Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. It was a very interesting book and generated lots of thoughtful conversation.

Our list for the summer includes:
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin

The Next Thing on my List: A Novel by Jill Smolinski
Under the Banner of Heaven By John Krakauer

What are you reading this summer?

My Perfect Mess

Good News!
My messy work bench is a sign of high productivity and sophistication! In fact the TimesOnline (UK) reports, "Do tidy desks mean efficient workers, as the corporate mavens would have us believe? Not according to Abrahamson’s research: “People who said they keep a ‘very neat’ desk spend an average of 36% more time looking for things at work than people who said they keep a ‘fairly messy’ desk.” " Citing a book called A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder — How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place by Eric Abrahamson, who is a professor of management at Columbia Business School, the article goes on to say, "Order and uniformity are the enemies of those serendipitous random connections that can be priceless."
Nevertheless, my perfect mess will be picked up in time for guests on Saturday!

Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries

The girls and I recently picked cherries at my in-law's house. It was a comical experience to pick fruit from a tree with my two girls, aged 8 and 5 1/2.
Mary, my oldest, could reach higher than her little sister, and was able to reap a bigger bounty. But she would scrutinize each cherry for worm holes and scars from the bird's pecking. She tired of the job after 15 - 20 minutes.
Molly, my youngest, seemed busy as could be. Although she couldn't reach as many, she climbed the step ladder and I thought she was picking away.
After 15 minutes, I had several cups of cherries in my bag. Mary had some cherries, but her perfectionist methods limited her quantity. I asked Molly how many she had, her answer, "three." All she had was three. Amazing. It reminded me of my favorite childhood book, Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey.
Such is the life of a five year old.

Kernels of Truth

Have you ever read a book and had a line stick with you? I am reading Saving the World, by Julia Alvarez. It is a wonderful story entwining stories of two women from different time periods in their personal journeys.
Although I read this line a week ago, it has stuck with me:
"People don't just belong to themselves, they belong to the people who love them." p. 89
What kernel of truth have you found in your summer reading?

Summer Reading Marathon

I am a voracious reader. I read all styles of books and feel incomplete without a book at hand. The best kind of book is that one you just can't put down. The kind that you are sad to leave at the end, like you are saying good-bye to dear friends. I know I am not the only one out there that has this love of books, I know Rachel loves them also. (coincidentally we both majored in English in college and no we didn't know each other then.)

As the Summer gets started, I have been collecting books to hopefully guarantee some good summer reading. I leave for Hawaii in a couple of weeks and want to have prime reading material for the plane ride and for lounging by the pool. So here is my list of what I hope to be fabulous page-turners. (I'll let you know when I get back if I was right.)

• Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy. She is my favorite Irish author. I have read all of her books and this is the latest. She has a wonderful way of drawing you into her colorful cast of characters that live through their tragedies and find a light at the end of the tunnel without being overly sentimental.
  
• Prep: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld. I don't know anyone who has read this but it looked like a fun, light read. It is about a girl suffering through an upper brow prep school education. Definite chick lit which is great for by the pool.
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. I was a big fan of The Kite Runner and from the reviews I have read this should be just as good. It has gotten great press and I am looking forward to this story about friendship between women. If you haven't already read Hosseini's first novel "The Kite Runner" you should it is extremely well written and moving.
• My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I bought this book for my mother-in-law, Marilyn. She said she couldn't put it down and gave it rave reviews. It is the story of a girl who is born for the purpose of saving her terminally ill sister's life. Needless to say emotional strife and moral dilemmas abound. This may be my end of the trip read.

I'll let you know what I think of these and the several others on my bedside table. If you have any books you think I should read please pass on the names to me. I love to get recommendations!