Throwback Thursday: Beyond the (Armchair BEA Agenda) Borders

I'm going "beyond the borders" a bit and deviating from the 2014 Armchair BEA agenda by revisiting a post that was part of the very first Armchair BEA in 2010. I've edited and updated a little, but for the most part, I feel the same way now as I did then.

Writing what you want to read, in your own voice

The session titled "Engaging Your Readers: Take Your Writing to the Next Level" at this year's BEA Bloggers Conference particularly interests me. I've been at this for over three seven years, I want to keep stretching and developing my writing muscles, and I want this to be an interesting place to visit.

Along those lines, Jeanne of Necromancy Never Pays asked a pertinent question during my (third) Blogiversary in March (2010):

Here's my blogiversary question: what would you like to see more bloggers doing, and why? 

I'd really like to see bloggers express more of themselves on their blogs. Unless they stipulate that the only reason for their blog's existence is to review books or products, it's disappointing to me to see a post only when they're reviewing something they've received just for that purpose--especially when the review doesn't tell me much I couldn't read on the book jacket or in the ad copy. It's also disappointing to me to see content primarily driven by the Meme of the Day. I don't necessarily mean that the blogger needs to share a lot of personal information; I know that quite a few book bloggers, in particular, choose to be more reserved with that, and that's fine. But one of the most important reasons I'll decide to follow a blog is the voice of its writer (emphasis added); if I don't get a good feel that the writer has a voice of her or his own, I probably won't hang around for long.

To me, that's what content-building comes down to--developing a blog that sounds like you. It could come out in certain turns of phrase you particularly like to use. It might show in a unique recurring feature that you create, or in the way you tweak a meme into something more self-expressive. It may be apparent in the format you use for your reviews--or the fact that you don't follow a format at all. It may reveal itself in the little bits of your life and personality that slip into posts that you don't consider especially "personal," or it may speak up in the life experiences you choose to post about every now and then.

I am primarily a book blogger, but not exclusively a book blogger. I don't read fast enough to post reviews more often than once a week, and some weeks I can't even pull that off. I'm also a fairly wordy reviewer, and I like to discuss the books I read in some detail, but I don't always discuss the same details. Sometimes it's the writing itself that will get most of my attention. Sometimes it's one or two of the characters and my reaction to them. Sometimes it's the theme or setting or some element of the plot. I try to mix the objective--this is what happens--and subjective--this is how it affected me--in my comments about the book, and I'll try to explain why I responded to the book the way I did. I do rate books, but I give the rating at the end of each review; my goal is for the content of the review to be supported by the rating, and not the other way around.

I've been doing this long enough that most memes have just lost their appeal for me--and if I'm skipping others' meme posts, I probably don't need to be writing my own. Besides, I just don't have enough time to blog-hop and read other responses, and that's part of joining a meme, in my opinion.  I do think memes can be very good for newer bloggers, both as food for thought and posts and as a way to network with other blogs, but it is possible to over-rely on them; it's also possible to outgrow them.

It is possible to keep a focus on bookish content even without frequent reviews and meme posts, though. Do you find yourself reading two or three books in a row that share some themes or story elements? Compare-and-contrast posts can be a lot of fun. You can do features on books you loved in your pre-blog days, or books you're hoping to read soon, without linking them to an established meme on a specific day of the week. Posts about author events and book-related field trips are entertaining. 

Write what you'd like to read. Granted, you may really like reading daily memes and review after review, but if you don't get a sense of the person behind them, chances are your interest will wane before too long--I can tell you for certain that mine does, and that's one reason I vary my content. You don't have to share personal details if you're uncomfortable with that, but any blog that's not corporate in some respect is, by definition, "personal," and it's nice to get to know the person behind the writing.

Your blog is your place to speak your own words, in your own voice.

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Wordless Wednesday: Fabulous (NYC)!

These were taken two years ago in the city I'm in this week. Greetings from New York!

An InLinkz Link-up

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More Than Words: Audiobooks for Armchair BEA

More Than Just Words ("Genre" Topic, ArmchairBEA Day 2)

"There are so many mediums that feature more than just words and enhance a story in a multitude of ways. Examples may include graphic novels and comics, audiobooks, or even multimedia novels. On this day, we will be talking about those books and formats that move beyond just the words and use other ways to experience a story. Which books stand out to you in these different formats?"

Despite the fact that I’ve had an eighty-mile round-trip daily commute for over a decade—in Los Angeles, where it can sometimes take over two hours to cover that distance—I’ve come to believe that the main reason I didn’t embrace audiobooks until three years ago is that I didn’t want to carry around dozens of CDs just to read a book. I got my first iPhone in the spring of 2011, and not long after that, I downloaded the Audible app and signed up for a subscription.

I have not regretted it in the slightest. Adding audiobooks to my reading diet has been beneficial in so many ways:

• During weeks when I don’t have much time to sit and read print or e-books, I can still manage a few hours of reading by ear, and so…
• Audiobooks allow me to feel productive while I’m sitting in traffic.
• Also, long books feel much less intimidating on audio, since I’d be spending all those hours in the car anyway.
• Because absorbing audio reading requires more conscious effort for me than visual reading does, I find I read more attentively when I’m listening to a book, which often means I remember it better.
• Because of the need to pay more attention, I’ve found that narrative nonfiction works surprisingly well for me in audio format.
• Audiobooks have become my preferred way to indulge in my favorite guilty-pleasure reading, celebrity autobiography/memoir. And while not all authors are the best narrators of their own work, actors and other performing-arts types tend to be pretty effective at it.

#488326499 / gettyimages.com

I tend to rely on the opinions of fellow bloggers more when choosing audiobooks than for any other type of reading, for a few reasons:

• I’ve found I’m more open to exploring genres, particularly mystery and science fiction, in audio than I am in print, and I look to other bloggers for guidance to these less-familiar styles.
• On the other hand, I tend not to seek out literary fiction in audio unless it’s received good word-of-mouth from bloggers I trust—or I’m really in a hurry to read it, because I can get to, and through, an audiobook faster than a print copy. But when neither of those is a factor, I still prefer taking in non-genre fiction with my eyes rather than my ears.
• I’m still getting to know narrators, and am interested in learning which readers other bloggers like.

I label all of my audiobook reviews here on The 3 R’s Blog, and I’d like to highlight a few of my favorites here:

• Bossypants, by Tina Fey—My very first audiobook!
• Just Kids, by Patti Smith
• Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography, by Rob Lowe
• Rules of Civility: A Novel, by Amor Towles, read by Rebecca Lowman—My first experience with a narrator who has become one of my own favorites
• Where’s You Go, Bernadette? A Novel, by Maria Semple, read by Kathlee Wilhoite—This epistolary/multimedia novel shouldn’t even workas an audiobook, but it does, and remarkably well
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Original Trilogy), by Douglas Adams, read by Stephen Fry and Martin Freeman
• Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, by Sheri Fink, read by Kirsten Potter—Exhibit A of narrative nonfiction succeeding in audio
• Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, read by Rebecca Lowman–could be my favorite audio of 2014

Are you an audiobook reader? What works for you in reading by ear–and what doesn’t?

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Good Day, and Welcome to Armchair BEA!

It's Day One of the fifth annual observance of Armchair BEA! This virtual companion to Book Expo America is getting the jump on the real thing this year, but that gives us all a little more time to hang out and get to know each other. Here are my answers to five of this year's Introduction questions.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging? Where in the world are you blogging from?

My name is Florinda, and I’ve been blogging here at The 3 R’s: Reading, ’Riting and Randomness—-The 3 R’s Blog for short—-since March 2007. I’d never been diligent about keeping records of what I’d read, but having been a reader for nearly four decades at that point, I was starting to forget too much of what I read, and I felt a need to do something about that. I’d been reading blogs for a year or two at that point, and it seemed like a blog of my own might be a good solution. It seems to have worked out well.

In addition to being a blogger, I’m the second wife of my second husband, mother of one, and stepmother of two. After several cross-country moves, I’ve been in Southern California for over a decade; I blog from the Los Angeles area, where I live and work as an accountant (which is why I almost never blog about my work–who wants to blog about accounting?) However, this week I’ll be blogging from New York City, where I’m attending Book Expo America…but as a founding member of Armchair BEA, I’m joining the virtual fun as well!

Describe your blog in just one sentence. Then, list your social details – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. – so we can connect more online.

This blog has a tagline that follows the “Reading, ’Riting, and Randomness” subtitle: “It’s not just a title, it’s a mission statement.” I’m not sure I can sum this up any better than that, which works in tandem with my basic credo/philosophy of blogging: “There’s no one right way to do this.”

If you’d like to get a feel for what The 3 R’s are all about, I’d recommend a visit to my “Posts About Posts” page, where you’ll find my annual wrap-ups and other collections of links to what I’ve written here (and occasionally elsewhere). In addition, my Book Review Archive spreadsheet has been updated just in time for Armchair BEA!

My most-frequented other online haunts are Twitter (@florinda_3rs), Facebook (personal and blog), and Instagram (florinda3rs).

What was your favorite book read last year? What’s your favorite book so far this year?

I had four “Books of the Year” for 2013, but if I have to single out just one of them, it would be Sheri Fink’s remarkable account of post-Katrina New Orleans, Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital.

2014 is shaping up as a pretty good reading year, based on the ratings I’ve assigned on my BookLikes shelf, but when I’ve been able to read alot of books I’ve really liked, I have a lot of trouble choosing one I like best. At this point, I’d pick the most recent novel by one of my favorite people, Going Over by Beth Kephart.

What does your favorite/ideal reading space look like?

I’m lucky. I actually have my ideal reading space, which I showcased during the Spring Readathon last month.

What is your favorite blogging resource?

It may be because I was a reader of blogs before I became a blogger, but in all seriousness, my favorite blogging resource is—bloggers! I use my Feedly to find and follow them; I get ideas for content and design from the things I see them do; and I love to communicate and converse with them, which is why I’m doing both Book Expo and Armchair BEA this week.

Thanks for coming by, and I hope you’ll let me know you did!

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What's What in the Sunday Salon--May 25, Pre-BEA Edition

The audit is done, I have officially been on vacation since Friday, and I leave at way-too-early-AM on Tuesday for New York City! My roommate Kim and I will meet up at the airport that afternoon—I’ll lose three hours flying west to east—and get a cab into Manhattan to start another Book Expo America adventure.

I will be moderating the “Technology 201: Ad Networks” panel on Wednesday at the BEA Bloggers Conference, as I mentioned last week:

“(This panel) is intended to offer information and advice to ‘advanced bloggers with more than 3 years’ experience who are looking to expand their ad networks and generate more money and/or awareness from their blog.’ If you’re looking to make your blog earn its keep–-and maybe a little extra–-come by and hear what panelists Jason Chambers of the Litbreaker ad network, Henry Copeland ofBlogads and Swapna Krishna of S. Krishna’s Books have to say on the subject.”

I sent a tentative agenda to the panelists on Friday, and I’m hopeful for an enlightening conversation. I’ve marked several interesting-sounding conference sessions and exhibitors that I’d like to visit on Thursday and Friday during BEA proper, and I’ll leave for home next Saturday. I am not making any promises that I’ll be in this spot next Sunday.

What I’m reading

• in print / on screen

I’m packing three ARCs and the iPad for the trip. I may not have much time to read other than when I’m in airports or on planes, but those cross-country flights are long. If I’m not too sleepy, I can get a lot of reading in!

• on audio

I finished Call the Midwife at the end of last week, and since I won’t be commuting this week (airplanes don’t count), I may be officially between audiobooks right now.

What I’m watching

The “mid-season finale”/last episode of 2014/seventh show of Season 7/“it’s halfway to OVER” episode of Mad Men airs tonight. I’m not ready to talk about it.

What I’m writing

Today and tomorrow, I’ll be drafting up a few posts for Armchair BEA. I’m not sure how closely I’ll follow the official agenda, but I’m also not sure how much time I’ll have for “live” blogging this week, so I’m trying to work ahead.

What Else is New?

I’ve been thinking about my OneWord for 2014 lately, as my year-end frenzy has been winding down at work. I’ve been feeling far from “Present” in the blogging world for the last couple of months. However, I do believe I’ve offset that with being “Present” in my working life, and not-entirely-absent (if not as fully present as I’d like) in my family life and reading life…and those are the places where I’ve needed to be “Present.” That said, I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to be more “Present” in my online life again before too long. Fingers crossed, folks!

Gratuitous Photo of the Week

My new cards from Moo.com--ask for one if you see me at BEA!

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Wordless Wednesday: Milk

...is very good friends with coffee.

I only wish this post had been sponsored by Dunkin' Donuts.

An InLinkz Link-up

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Book Talk: NEW LIFE, NO INSTRUCTIONS, by Gail Caldwell

New Life, No Instructions: A Memoir

Gail Caldwell (Facebook)

Random House (April 2014), Hardcover (ISBN 1400069548 / 9781400069545)

Nonfiction/memoir, 176 pages

A version of this review was previously published in Shelf Awareness for Readers (April 15, 2014). Shelf Awareness provided me with a publisher-furnished galley to facilitate the review, and compensated me for the review they received and posted.

Gail Caldwell's 2010 memoir, Let's Take the Long Way Home, explored the losses that defined her fifth decade: her parents, her best friend and her beloved Samoyed, Clementine. She came into her 60s determined to move on, including starting over with a new puppy. But living with and training an active young dog forced Caldwell to confront just how difficult "moving on" was becoming for her, in aphysical sense. Caldwell had been compensating for the effects of polio her entire life, and this was getting harder every day. New Life, No Instructions is the story of how she learned she didn't have to continue to compensate, and of how a common medical procedure enabled her to see her life, literally, from a new perspective.

Caldwell's medical history led her and her caregivers to an exotic explanation for her painful limp, poor balance, fatigue, and other symptoms; for years, they had been trying to address her issues as manifestations of the relatively rare Post-Polio Syndrome. In 2011, a new doctor identified her problem as something far more ordinary: her right hip had completely deteriorated--perhaps due to post-polio complications, but perhaps for completely unrelated reasons; she needed surgery to replace it, and which would also make both of her legs the same length for the first time in her life.

New Life, No Instructions is an affirming and hopeful reminder that sometimes the stories that we tell ourselves turn out to be wrong, but they can lead us to something very right. Caldwell's brief (under 200 pages) memoir of a year of unexpected midlife transformation is clear-eyed and plainspoken. She vividly conveys her sense of wonder and possibility at being in such a new place at such an unexpected time, and it's hard to resist being caught up in that feeling.

I read this memoir in the weeks leading up to my 50th birthday, and while I'm inclined to think it will especially resonate with Caldwell's midlife contemporaries (and fellow dog people), it's a worthwhile read for anyone who appreciates good writing...and the idea that change is always possible.

Book description, from the publisher's website

The Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author of Let’s Take the Long Way Home now gives us a stunning, exquisitely written memoir about a dramatic turning point in her life, which unexpectedly opened up a world of understanding, possibility, and connection. New Life, No Instructions is about the surprising way life can begin again, at any age.

Opening Lines

"Cambridge 2011 

"My first tip-off that the world had shifted was that the dogs looked lower to the ground. I dismissed the perception as a visual misread: Because I was on crutches and couldn't bend down to touch them, of course they seemed further away. Then a friend came to visit, a striking woman whom I'd always considered tall. She was standing across the living room, and I was smiling, happy to have her there, and I thought, Tink is small! And I never realized it before."

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What's What in the Sunday Salon, 5-18-2014

This is Post #2100 on The 3 R's Blog

What I’m reading

• in print / on screen

I had hoped to get two June releases read and reviewed for Shelf Awareness, but the day job has shoved the freelance work aside (no pun intended–well, maybe a little pun intended), and it looks like time won’t permit that to happen. However, considering that last year I completely stopped contract reviewing during audit season, I should be pretty pleased that I’ve been able to manage one Shelf review per month since March. Since I’ve already received some good-looking selections for July from them, I’ll be moving on to those…and maybe I’ll be able to get into some completely discretionary reading by the end of the week! Frankly, that’s going to feel a little weird at first, but I’m sure I can adjust.

• on audio

I’m about halfway through Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth. Like Orange is the New Black, it’s a memoir that inspired a TV series that I haven’t watched, but I’m having no trouble seeing how it could make that transition successfully. Narrator Nicola Barber is making this a delightful listening experience.


What I’m watching

Seasons have finale’d, people! How long is it until fall? I don’t think we have much summer viewing lined up on the DVR other than the return of Jack Bauer, so I suspect we’ll be resuming our deferred, never-ending catchup of Supernatural pretty soon, and trolling around for something new (to us) on Netflix.


What I’m writing

I would like to get two reviews written today–one for the Shelf, one for the blog. And if things actually do slow down this week–I’ve been wrong about that before!–I’ll be preparing my introduction and some topic posts for Armchair BEA–I can’t not join in, even though I’ll be out of my chair at the real, live BEA next week.


What caught my eye this week

Speaking of BEA, I came across a few helpful conference-prep tips this week. They don’t address comfortable shoes or planning your time or getting around the city–these are more about mental readiness:

• "Introvert or extrovert, a weekend surrounded by strangers—whether that’s for a company getaway, a wedding, or a family trip—is always a little challenging. For introverts, it’s about finding a balance so you can survive the weekend.
• “(I)ntroverts tend to do best when they have time to recharge away from people…”
• “(W)e introverts tend to like plans and don’t like when plans change. The thing is, when you’re in a large group, those plans are going to change a lot.”

–“An Introvert’s Guide to Surviving a Weekend with Strangers” at Lifehacker

In the case of BEA, the “weekend” is figurative, as the event runs from Thursday through Saturday, and the bloggers meet on Wednesday.

"Once upon a time, you met a blogger, and you felt a bond. Now, we walk past each other in the conference hall— the book blogger, the coupon blogger, the advocacy blogger, the mom blogger, the dad blogger, the LGBT blogger— as if we were strangers. Once we asked, ‘What’s your name?’ and ‘Where are you from?’ Now we ask, ‘What is your blog about?’ or ‘Who is your sponsor?’ 

"Has blogging died? In some way, yes. But before I get angry emails saying that blogging LIVES, let me go zen Buddhist on you and talk about the concept of death. 

"‘What causes death?’ a student once asked his zen master. 

“‘Birth,’ answered the guru.”

–“Has Blogging Lost Her Soul?” by Neil Kramer on BlogHer.com

Bloggers get their day at BEA, but it’s books that bring us there:

“So what about the 1%, the never-published novelists who fly in the face of reason and the odds, keep slogging away, and then – cue the thunderclap! – land an agent who sells their work. Is their writing process somehow less vexing in retrospect?”

–“First Novels: The Weird, Thrilling Trip Through A Very Narrow Door” at Monkey See

And because you don’t have to be a “book blogger” to write an insightful, affecting, and deeply personal book review, I give you my friend Kim Tracy Prince and her thoughts on Everybody Has Everything by Katrina Onstad:

“No, the events are not real, because it is a novel, but the subject matter is My Worst Nightmare, and it’s a book that I shouldn’t have accepted for review especially in the wake of personal loss, but something drew me to it and I loved the writing and story and in the end it made me get off my ass and hire an estate planning attorney to finish the job that I started and never could bring myself to complete.”

What Else is New?

Just a few days ago, I was invited to moderate a panel at the BEA Bloggers Conference, which I’ll also be writing up for Armchair BEA after it’s over.

“Technology 201: Ad Networks” is intended to offer information and advice to “advanced bloggers with more than 3 years’ experience who are looking to expand their ad networks and generate more money and/or awareness from their blog.” If you’re looking to make your blog earn its keep–and maybe a little extra–come by and hear what panelists Jason Chambers of the Litbreaker ad network, Henry Copeland of Blogads and Swapna Krishna of S. Krishna’s Books have to say on the subject.

(And if you have questions or thoughts to share on this topic, please let me know--even if you won't be at this session, or at Blogger Con at all, I'll try to get them addressed for you!)

Gratuitous Photo of the Week

From three years ago, in the city where I'll be ten days from today

Happy Sunday! How are you spending this spring weekend?

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Wordless Wednesday: Window/Shopping

I'm sad to report that the fine little shop pictured at the upper left, the Village Book Store in Littleton, NH, just closed for good last week. I'm glad I did my little bit to support them when we stopped during our New England trip last summer..

An InLinkz Link-up

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(Audio)Book Talk: A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING, by Bill Bryson

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Bill Bryson (Facebook)

Abridged audiobook read by the author / Unabridged audio read by Richard Matthews

Broadway Books (2004), trade paper (ISBN 076790818X / 9780275980528)

Nonfiction: science, 544 pages

Source: Purchased audiobook (Random House Audio, 2003, ISBN 9780739302958; Audible ASIN B00009OYYM)

My first experience with Bill Bryson was 2010's Home: A Short History of Private Life, and I knew it wouldn't be my last. I also knew it wasn't Bryson's first experience with "short history," and when I took my long-overdue first steps into the land of audiobooks a few months later, his own reading of his 2003 work A Short History of Nearly Everything was one of my earliest purchases. Audiobooks don't tend to languish in TBR Purgatory for as long as print and ebooks do, as a rule, but it took me almost two and a half years to get around to that one. Honestly, the premise seemed just a bit intimidating, as you might imagine from that title--"nearly everything" covers a LOT.

However, once I finally dove in, I was disappointed and chagrined--not by the book, but by the discovery that, as an audiobook noob, I'd purchased an abridged version. I was so not disappointed and chagrined by the book itself that I remedied the situation in the most appropriate manner: I downloaded the full, unabridged version, and began listening to it immediately after I finished the short one. The full version is not read by the author--which may be another reason I passed it up originally--but that turned out not to be all that much of a drawback, as it allowed me to focus more on Bryson as a writer. (I have to admit that Bryson's voice as an audio narrator is a bit unexpected and something of an acquired taste, and although I'm mostly on board with it, I appreciated hearing his words read by Richard Matthews--more than I expected to, if I'm being honest.)

A Short History of Nearly Everything does not misrepresent itself; it ranges from theories on the origin of the universe and how long ago that (probably) really happened, to the structure of atoms and cells and the most basic, essential foundations of life and its evolution on Earth (which is all we Earthlings are really able to study at this point.) The book was originally published in 2003 and is therefore missing a decade of scientific developments, including the identification of the Higgs boson and the demotion of Pluto from "planet" rank. However, I think that's an inherent hazard of writing history on any topic, let alone science, without confining the discussion to "historical" time periods, and I don't think that the book suffers for it. Bryson's emphasis on the often obscure people and personalities who have developed and documented our understanding of the physical world, and his meanders down narrative sidetracks for further exploration, make it all work.

Having now spent more time with A Short History of Nearly Everything than just about any audiobook I've read yet, I would actually recommend the approach I took by accident. While Bryson is not a scientist and his work is very approachable, the abridged audio serves nicely as a highlight reel, introducing most of the key names, events, and ideas that are explored more fully in the long version. Even in plain language, there are some complicated concepts here, and if you're more oriented to processing information visually, there's an added level of challenge to reading this by ear; keeping the first listen in mind as a detailed outline for the second reading helped me a lot. (It also helped that there's overlap in the material here with Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, which premiered while I was listening toA Short History of Nearly Everything, and which we're still watching; you could make a nice little self-instruction course out of this combination.)

I've now read Bryson on a variety of subjects, It seems to me that he's one of our best contemporary storytellers...and he can make an engaging, compelling story out of just about anything. It's a rare gift. The way that A Short History of Nearly Everything made me recognize, appreciate, and rejoice over just how remarkable it is to be alive--in this here and now, with the knowledge we have and the potential for so much more--may be an even rarer one.

Rating: Book and Audio, 4 of 5

Other reviews, via the Book Blogs Search Engine

Book description, from the publisher's website

In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail -- well, most of it. In In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand -- and, if possible, answer -- the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.

From Chapter One:

"NO MATTER HOW hard you try you will never be able to grasp just how tiny, how spatially unassuming, is a proton. It is just way too small. 

"A proton is an infinitesimal part of an atom, which is itself of course an insubstantial thing. Protons are so small that a little dib of ink like the dot on this i can hold something in the region of 500,000,000,000 of them, rather more than the number of seconds contained in half a million years. So protons are exceedingly microscopic, to say the very least. 

"Now imagine if you can (and of course you can't) shrinking one of those protons down to a billionth of its normal size into a space so small that it would make a proton look enormous. Now pack into that tiny, tiny space about an ounce of matter. Excellent. You are ready to start a universe."

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What's What on Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms--hope you have better things to do than read blogs today. (And as a friend of my husband's posted on Facebook this morning, "To all you non-moms and four-legged moms, Happy Disposable Income Day!")

What I'm reading

• in print / on screen

I'm glad that I can read in the car again--there was a long time when I couldn't physically tolerate it for long. I may manage to finish Brutal Youth (June 2013) on our drive home from Oceanside later today. My good luck with Shelf Awareness review candidates this year is holding up.

• on audio

I finished The Cuckoo's Calling late last week, and while I have several promising candidates in the queue for my next audiobook, I haven't made a pick yet.

What I'm watching

Nearly every one of our shows is having its season finale this week, except Mad Men. It's going to be a long summer without new Arrow episodes...

What I'm writing

BlogHer is marking the 10th anniversary of its annual conference with "Selfiebration"

...a 10-week content event that will take a look at where we started, what we’ve built, the mistakes we’ve laughed at, the memories we’ve so lovingly created, and more. We think of it is an internet-wide lovefest, soapbox, and time machine, and we hope you'll take part. Every week, we will be publishing posts that fit the following categories, all under the hashtag #Selfiebration. And we'll be serving up prompts and asking for you to link up on topics that inspire you to write your own memories.

and with my busy season officially winding down (the audit's almost done, woohoo!), I really hope to join in.

What caught my eye this week

I didn't get much blog-reading done this week because of crunch time on the aforementioned audit, but I did save "The Busy Person’s Guide to Content Curation: A 3-Step Process for Your Blog, Newsletter, or Timeline" from Buffer's blog with an eye to improving this section of the Salon.

Gratuitous Photo of the Week

 

Posted with Blogsy

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A Mother of a Throwback Thursday

Mother's Day is this Sunday, so it seems appropriate to revisit some Thoughts from My Reading on motherhood. I first posted this piece five years ago this week--during the period when I was wading around in the shallow end of the mom-blog pool--but on re-reading it now, I don't think my perspective has changed much.

Bad mothers, good mothers, and mothers who think about motherhood

If you would have asked me at 18, I would never have predicted that by the time I was 45, I would have been a mother for over half my life. (And five years later, it's up to 60%.) My son will be 25 30 (!!) this summer, and I've lived more of my life with him in it than without - I can't imagine it otherwise, even if I try. There have been changes in our relationship as he's grown, of course, and he doesn't really "need" me for much any more - which seems completely appropriate and is just fine with me (most of the time). If objective "outcome measurements" could be applied to parenthood, I think most of them would say he's turned out pretty well - and in the most important outcome measurement of all, I think he (mostly) appreciates me. So, by extension, does that make me a "good mother"?

The thing is, if the hallmark of a "good mother" is that she puts nothing ahead of her children, then I am not qualified. One reason that I didn't want more than one child is that I was not prepared to lose myself in raising kids. (Then again, I had my one child so young I'd barely found myself yet; and besides, I think I lost more of myself in my first marriage than I ever did in motherhood. Both of those matters are stories for another time.) I'm sure that many women would contend that they've found themselves in motherhood and lives centered on their children, though - and that's fine. We see it from a different angle, that's all.

I've reviewed two books on modern motherhood here this week (in May of 2009), and I think that they have more in common than one might suspect at first glance. The root of Ayelet Waldman's judgment of herself--by others, and also by herself - as a "bad mother" is that she has, at times, made her own needs and concerns at least as important as her children's, if not more so. How selfish is that? If it's helped her maintain her "mojo," as Amy Tiemann would call it, it's a necessary sort of selfishness - a self-nurturing. How "bad" is that? We often hear, during times of stress, that we need to remember to take care of ourselves if we're going to be any good to anyone else - does that not apply to mothers too?

Granted, entering motherhood is something that changes who we are - forever. We may never again be the women we were before we had children - and if we're happy with that, great. But we may want to incorporate elements of who we were then into who we are now, and keep some of ourselves just for ourselves. I just don't believe that makes us bad mothers - or bad people, for that matter.

I'm kind of an odd case myself. I was pregnant at 19, and married and a mother at 20. As I said, I barely had time to know myself as an adult before becoming a mother and wife, and it's impossible to guess how different I might be today if my life hadn't followed that path. But I did absorb a lot of the concepts of second-wave feminism while growing up, along with the encouragement of my mother, and I fully expected to blend education and career with motherhood. I worked full-time outside the home for most of my son's life - and still do. While I did read to and with my child, I didn't breastfeed him. I made time for myself as often as I could - I refuse to grasp the concept of "no time to read" - and still do. Our family schedules were driven by the parents' responsibilities more than the child's interests; with two full-time-employed parents, my son didn't get too many extra-curricular opportunities until he was in high school and old enough to arrange them for himself, and my stepchildren are in that position now too (with three full-time-employed parents). I rarely got involved with school activities unless they were done at home, and I helped with homework only when asked; I seldom volunteered for school functions, but I attended parent-teacher conferences regularly.

Looking at that history now, I see so many ways that I could be judged a "bad mother." I recollect the many times I've felt like a bad mother. During the difficult last few years of marriage to my son's father, I often felt like the worst mother ever for subjecting my child to all of that upheaval. However, we've all weathered that storm, and I believe we've come out OK and that my child had a reasonably healthy upbringing. I may not have set my own needs and wants aside for his, but I believe that I didn't ignore or neglect his at the same time - he's always had my attention, and always will.

On balance, I'd say I'm a not-so-bad mother, maybe even a pretty good mother - and I suspect many of us could say the same about ourselves. Maybe we're not "Good Mothers" according to the well-recognized and popularly accepted definition (stereotype?), but it's never been clear to me where that standard comes from, and I've yet to meet anyone who conforms to it completely. Even so, it's rare to find a mother who hasn't felt judged against it - and found lacking in one way or another. I'm not sure how much of that judgment really is coming from others and how much of it is self-inflicted, because this mysterious standard has been so internalized, but we still apply it - to ourselves, and to each other.

I do believe there truly are bad mothers out there, though - mothers who use and manipulate their children, who commit or enable abuse or neglect - but I suspect they're not spending all that much time contemplating what kind of mothers they are. If you worry about being a bad mother, I'd say chances are pretty good that you're not.

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Book Talk: THE BOOK THIEF, by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief
Markus Zusak (Facebook) (Twitter) (Tumblr)
Alfred A. Knopf (2007), Paperback (ISBN 0375842209 / 9780375842207)
Fiction (YA), 576 pages
Source: Purchased

I have no good excuses for why it took so long for me to read The Book Thief. I bought it more than four years ago–it was logged into my LibraryThing catalog on January 1, 2010–and began reading it just over four months ago, on January 1 of this year. It was the first book I started reading in 2014; I think it was the 17th that I finished. That is absolutely no reflection on the quality of the book, and almost completely a reflection of a reading life not exclusively subject to an individual reader’s whims.

However, now that I have read The Book Thief, I will be putting it on one of my “keeper” shelves. I’ll probably read it again. And I’ll be telling anyone who hasn’t read it yet that they must fix that.

There are so many reasons one might hesitate to read The Book Thief, and I think they can easily be summed up in a sentence:

This is a novel about a girl in Nazi Germany during World War II, narrated by Death.

That narrator gave me more pause than the Nazi Germany or World War II elements, to be honest. For one thing, it suggested that The Book Thief might have paranormal elements, which rarely appeal to me; that was a misconception, fortunately. It also suggested that this novel might be a sad, weepy downer–which actually fits with the Nazi Germany/WWII elements. And there are parts of The Book Thief that are hard to get through without getting a bit choked-up and misty-eyed. They are honestly earned. There are also parts that are amusing, heartwarming, and provoking.

The story told by Death is one of the most life-affirming novels I’ve ever read, and is ultimately a story of love–love of friends, of family, of home, and of books.

The Book Thief is stylistically ambitious, and Markus Zusak’s writing is gorgeous–at times, breathtaking. When I was actively reading this novel over the past four months–and I’ve acknowledged there were weeks at a time when I wasn’t–I’d gobble up large sections at a sitting because I loved the writing so much. The characters and their relationships are vividly and memorably rendered, and tension and suspense feel organic to the story; Death is the narrator for a reason.

This novel is classified as Young Adult because its central character is a young girl, but The Book Thief is one of the best examples of “YA crossover” fiction you’re likely to find. The subject matter and the way it’s portrayed are mature, and I think the readers will need a fair degree of maturity themselves to appreciate this novel fully.

I have no good excuses for taking so long to read The Book Thief, but I’m so glad I no longer have to worry about making excuses for not having read it at all. It’s a remarkable work, and a must-read.

Rating: 4.5 of 5

Other opinions, via the Book Blogs Search Engine

Book description, from the publisher’s website

Markus Zusak’s unforgettable story is about the ability of books to feed the soul.

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. 

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement. 

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

Opening Lines:

"First the colors. Then the humans. That’s usually how I see things. Or at least, how I try.

"HERE IS A SMALL FACT:

"You are going to die.

"I am in all truthfulness attempting to be cheerful about this whole topic, though most people find themselves hindered in believing me, no matter my protestations. Please, trust me. I most definitely can be cheerful. I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And that’s only the A’s. Just don’t ask me to be nice. Nice has nothing to do with me.

"REACTION TO THE AFOREMENTIONED fact:

"Does this worry you? I urge you–don’t be afraid. I’m nothing if not fair.

"–Of course, an introduction. A beginning. Where are my manners?

“I could introduce myself properly, but it’s not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A color will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.”

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What's What in the Sunday Salon, "Star Wars Day" Edition

May the Fourth be with you!

What I’m reading

• in print / on screen

The day after the Readathon, I finally finished what was supposed to be my first book of 2014. Because that was a self-imposed deadline as opposed to an external one, I picked it and put it down several times, but after nearly four months, I’m done with The Book Thief. I haven’t written up my thoughts about it yet, but I think I’ll get that done in a much shorter time (maybe even this week) However, this much I can say now: it’s joining The Sparrow on my short list of Books Everyone Must Read.

Having caught up on several unfinished books (and my “read in 2014” shelf on BookLikes), I’ve moved on to June ARCs for Shelf Awareness. I’m actually looking forward to my two cross-country plane trips later this month to and from BEA for the reading time!

• on audio

I’m a little past halfway through The Cuckoo’s Calling. I have to be honest: if it hadn’t come out that it was actually written by J.K. Rowling, I doubt I’d have even thought of reading it–but I’m liking it quite a lot, and really enjoying Robert Glenister’s narration. That said–and I’m not complaining–Rowling seems to be pretty much incapable of writing short fiction any more.

What I’m watching

As I write this on Saturday evening, we’re watching Jim Gaffigan: Obsessed for the second time this week–he’s really that funny (and family-friendly, too)!

What I’m writing

Writing is not coming in very high on my list of Things I Have Time to Do lately, but I’m seeing a light at the end of the annual-audit tunnel, and starting to think there’s a chance of getting back on the blogging-journaling-expressing-thoughts-in-words train by June…

In the meantime, I revisited some thoughts about reading diversely on Throwback Thursday. It seemed like a good time…

What caught my eye this week

…because readers and bloggers are talking about how #weneeddiversebooks and authors.

“As readers, we need authentic stories to better our experiences, and as writers we need our voices to be authenticated. The few mainstream stories that feature minority characters are often still written by the majority speaking for those groups, not the groups themselves. For example, stories about women of color written by white authors (see Secret Life of Bees and The Help) soar to the top of best-seller lists, while stories about people of color written by people of color still have problems getting traditionally published.”

–“Why All Bloggers Should Care About BookCon’s Lack of Diversity” (Queerie Bradshaw on BlogHer.com)

BookCon takes place on the last day of Book Expo America, May 31. From Left to Write offers “13 Tips for Book Expo America Attendees”, like this one:

“Don’t take every book handed to you. Really, it’s ok. I know it’s hard to turn down free books, but be honest with yourself. Are you going to be able to read all of them? You might take one to give to friends, but be realistic. Besides, your shoulders will thank you.”

And if you won’t be going to BEA, hopefully this caught your eye–the Armchair BEA agenda is posted!

Gratuitous Photo of the Week

Sorry, Duolingo, but this will never be true if I can help it!

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Throwback Thursday: A Diversion on Diversity

I spent a part of my workday yesterday on a field trip...to the theater. We had extra tickets donated for a Center Theater Group school-group performance.

We were there to see The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, a Broadway translation of the classic American opera about a rural Southern black community written by a couple of white guys from New York. I found myself a bit conflicted by some of the baggage this show carries, particularly in light of the big diversity discussion going on in the book community lately. 

And with that conversation in mind, I'm bringing back this post from July 2011 for Throwback Thursday. Let's talk about it.

Diversifying...or trespassing? An awkward circular argument

Every time I read a post about someone’s plans to “diversify” their reading I feel a little awkward. I haven’t always felt this way, but I’ve noticed it over the last decade or so, and I was reminded of it while reading Tayari Jones’ Silver Sparrow last week. My reading choices tend to have a cultural sameness...and I’m mostly OK with it, except when I branch out and then start questioning it.

In my post-college years and into my thirties, I recall more readily seeking out and read fiction by authors of color and different cultures - but I don’t recall it being that much of an effort, because I don’t recall literature being as sub-classified and segmented (I hesitate to use the word “segregated”) as it seems to be now.

My early adult years coincided pretty closely with the onset of “political correctness” and increased awareness of cultural diversity, and I think those developments have been much more good than bad, overall. But at the same time, there’s been increased fragmentation in society - it’s become a “niche” world. For my part, increased awareness and sensitivity to cultural niches outside my own has come with a uncomfortable feeling that I’m trespassing if I explore them those niches too deeply - because they’re not my own. I wonder if the growth in art and literature produced by people of other cultures is primarily meant for the previously neglected audiences within those cultures, and whether outsiders are really even welcome to partake of it.

And so it becomes a circular thing: I find myself reading more within my own cultural niche. That becomes my comfort zone. And because it’s comfortable, I feel even less comfortable when I try to step out of it.

But when I do step out of it, it’s usually worth it; I become aware of new stories and different worldviews, and I question myself about why I don’t get out of my reading comfort zone more often. (See the preceding paragraph for the answer to that - I’m going in circles again.) I wonder if I’m engaging in that word I hesitated to use, but against myself.

I don’t have an answer, but I’d like to get to a place where I feel less awkward, and I’d love to know your thoughts about reading diversely.

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