The Thirteenth Tale
I whipped through The Thirteenth Tale so fast, I didn’t even get a chance to list it in my sidebar. The funny thing is I didn’t really like the beginning all that much. I started it on Tuesday and read a couple of chapters before I went too bed. I didn’t like the writing at the beginning; it seemed a little too “in the know” somehow, too self-reverent: oh, look at me, I’m the beginning of a dark and creepy tale.” It just didn’t do much for me.
But I guess the joke’s on me, because I sped through the rest of the book in a marathon reading session yesterday. My eyes were really burning from a day of staring at a computer screen so I came home and took my contacts out. There’s really not much I can do without my contacts except read (gee, what a shame!). So from about 5:30 to 1:30 the next morning, I just couldn’t put this book down.
Now, it’s not the best writing I’ve ever seen. And there just a few too many pointed references to Jane Eyre. One or two would have been fine; you don’t need to beat the reader over the head with it. But it is a compelling, gothic story and moves along very quickly. It’s fun to get so caught up in a book you don’t want to put it down.
Spotlight on Indies: Cover to Cover Books
Cover to Cover Books
We have poetry and writers’ mixers each month; you can check out our Events page (http://www.covertocoverbooks.net/events.html) to see what’s happening through the holidays.
Literacy Charity Profile: FirstBook
For almost 20 years, First Book has been providing new books to children in need addressing one of the most important factors affecting literacy – access to books. The organization is the brainchild of Kyle Zimmer, a corporate lawyer who volunteered in an inner-city soup kitchen. When she realized that these kids had no books, she left her day job behind and, with two friends, launched First Book.
Accomplishments and Impact
- First Book has delivered more than 65 million books to programs serving children in need across the United States and Canada.
- There are more than 275 First Book Advisory Boards. Together, they form an extensive network of volunteer community leaders serving as ambassadors dedicated to fundraising.
- The First Book National Book Bank (FBNBB), created in 1999, now receives donations from more than 50 publishers.
- The largest single donation to the FBNBB was 1.9 million books from Random House in 2005.
- The largest single distribution of the FBNBB was 2 million books in 2002.
Is there a First Book Advisory Board in my community?
First Book calls its community organizations an Advisory Board network. An Advisory Board is a committee of local volunteers, representing a community or campus, that come together to raise awareness and funds in order to provide new books and educational materials to local programs serving children from low-income families. Click on this map to find an Advisory Board in your area. If there is no Advisory Board in your area and you are interested in starting one, you can send an email.
Can I Donate Books to First Book?
First Book accepts large-scale donations of new books directly from publishers. If you’re interested in becoming a publishing partner, contact the organization via the First Book National Book Bank.
First Book does not accept donations of used or new books from individuals. Through a partnership with Better World Books, you can sell your used books in the BWB online market place and have the proceeds donated to First Book. Learn more about this program here.
How Else Can I Help First Book?
Volunteer ~ First Book needs volunteers to help with book distributions and special events across the nation. Please click here for more information on getting involved: for more information on getting involved.
Bookmark First Book’s sponsor page ~ Another way to help is to bookmark the Click to Give™ Free Books link. There is a sponsors page on the First Book website. When you click the “Give Free Books” link each day, you are encouraging sponsors to buy books. Shop some of the sponsor links and First Book earns even more. 100% of these donations go to getting books to kids.
Shop online ~ Shop www.betterworld.com/firstbook and a portion of the proceeds will help First Book get more books to kids! Better World Books accepts pre-paid book donation shipments from the general public in support of First Book. Saleable donations will be made available for sale on more than 17 online marketplaces and a portion of the proceeds will benefit First Book. Non-saleable items will be made available to another one of Better World Books’ non-profit literacy partners or recycled.
On it’s Get Involved page, First Book lists ideas on ways you can support their literacy work, from starting your own Advisory Board to sponsoring fundraisers to making donations.
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Keep Reading
This concludes our series of profiles on literacy charities. That said, there are community book drives for communities near and far. In this week’s Children’s Literacy and Reading News Roundup, Jen Robinson has quite a few links to seasonal and ongoing initiatives around the world at Jen Robinson’s Book Page.
Making sure that kids have books of their own is the most important thing we can do to encourage their growth as readers. If you know of other programs, please be sure to leave a comment.
*Social media icons courtesy of komodomedia.com and iconarchive.com. Both companies use a 3.0 Creative Commons license to promote sharing of their work, with attribution.
Spotlight on Indies: Old Firehouse Books
Old Firehouse Books
We’ve been here for 11 years now, and still having a blast! We carry new and used books and love to do special orders. We have a great regional interest section and also carry cards & prints by local artists. We hold group signings in the summer, this year we had more than 40 authors plus David Delemare and 2 of his models. Authors who have joined us in the past include Patricia McKillip, Greg Rucka, Irene Radford, Robin Gunn, and many more.
Dickens World
I am not making this up.
Charles Dickens Theme Park Set to Open.
What I’ve Been Reading
Kind of fell off the wagon for awhile there, didn’t I? Well, at least I have been reading that whole time, though I haven’t been blogging. So there’s lots to catch up on.
The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason was great fun. As I’m sure many of you have discovered, it’s very weird to read the novel of someone whose blog you read on a regular basis. And who lives in the same state that you do. I love books that have such strong heroines — and it’s amusing watching Victoria trying to be the proper Englishwoman that she is, while at the same time saving the world. And the next book in the series, Rises the Night, comes out in less than a month — yeah!
I also made it quickly through E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime. I’d never read him before, so I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. I would describe his writing style as staccato — and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Short sentences, sometimes just sentence fragments. The way the plot was laid out reminded me a little bit of Pulp Fiction. It was these seemingly disparate stories that all kind of melded together and made sense. It was an interesting take on turn-of-the-last-century America.
Then I finished the Lindbergh biography, which was fantastic. I’d wanted to read more about Lindbergh after he played such a central role in Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America. Lindbergh was a fascinating character; he really was the first celebrity, yet he hated the attention. It was interesting to read about his famous flight across the Atlantic; today, air travel seems such a burden and inconvenience. It’s nice to know that at one time it really was something amazing. What particularly interested me was Lindbergh’s actions around World War II and the taint of anti-Semitism he carried his entire life. The bio did a great job of putting Lindbergh’s actions in perspective; I felt better about him after I’d finished the book.
I’ll save current reads for my next post.
100th Post!
Woo hoo! My 100th post. Happy anniversary to me. Considering I’ve had this blog since last summer, it’s hard to believe I’m just reaching my 100th post — some bloggers could do that in much less time. But it’s been fun and I’m sincerely grateful to my very, very small group of regular commenters.
On to the reading. Just yesterday, I finished The Introvert Advantage. If you are an introvert (and you know who you are), GO BUY THIS BOOK! If you are an extrovert (and you definitely know who you are) and know and love an introvert, GO BUY THIS BOOK! I really can’t think of any other book I would recommend so highly. Even though I know I’m an introvert, there were several “aha” moments in the book for me. The section on brain chemistry was fascinating: Did you know that in some people (usually introverts) it actually takes longer for the brain to access long-term memory? That’s why we take so long to answer a question sometimes — or even get completely tongue-tied. And I now totally understand why I hate returning stuff in stores.
What I really liked is that the author (an introvert herself) takes pains to make sure you understand that there is nothing wrong with you. Being an introvert is like having brown hair or fair skin. It’s just as normal as anything else — except that we are outnumbered by extroverts by 3 to 1. She also talks about ways to handle stress and how to break out of your shell just a little bit to live a fuller life. Really, just go buy it and read it.
I’ve moved on to another biography: Mao, The Unknown Story. When I was an undergrad, everyone at my university was required to take a class on another culture. I chose China — and was fortunate to have one of the best professors I’ve ever had in any subject. I am fascinated with old cultures; America is still such a young country that it’s always intriguing to read about cultures that are thousands of years old. The bio is supposed to be the first in-depth look at Mao from someone whose parents were killed in the Cultural Revolution. The book is unsettling — Mao’s almost total lack of empathy develops early on — but it’s also hard to put down.
Spotlight on Indies: Bound to be Read Books
Bound to be Read Books
Holiday Book Ideas – Book by Black Authors
I blog about books by black authors at White Readers Meet Black Authors. Last year I designated December as National Buy a Book By a Black Author and Give It To Somebody Not Black Month. This year I created a list of 50 great gifts at IndieBound and I recommend that people looking for children’s books by black authors go to this list created by the Happy Nappy Bookseller.
Since I’m a writer of women’s fiction and mostly read women’s fiction (and since there was all the hoopla about Publisher’s Weekly best of 2009 list not including any women), I thought I’d contribute a list of 20 of my favorite novels by female authors that you may not have heard of. I tried not to repeat titles I’ve recently listed on my blog, IndieBound or Amazon. Not all of these were published in 2009; some are oldies, but goodies. All make great holiday gifts!
A New Kind of Bliss by Bettye Griffin
Black Girl in Paris by Shay Youngblood
Blood Colony by Tananarive Due
Bring on the Blessings by Beverly Jenkins
Caucasia by Danzy Senna
Finding Me by Darnella Ford
Getting Mother’s Body by Suzan-Lori Parks
Gotta Keep on Tryin’ by Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant
Life is Short But Wide by J. California Cooper
Loving Cee Cee Johnson by Linda Leigh Hargrove
The Middle Sister by Bonnie Glover
Nappily Ever After by Trisha R. Thomas
No Girl Needs a Husband Seven Days a Week by Nina Foxx
Sassy by Gloria Mallette
Some Things I Thought I’d Never Do by Pearl Cleage
This Bitter Earth by Bernice McFadden
Tumbling by Diane McKinney-Whetstone
Ugly Ways by Tina McElroy Ansa
The Vow by Angela Burt-Murray, Mitzi Miller, Denene Millner
Yellow Moon by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Carleen Brice is author of the novels Orange Mint and Honey and Children of the Waters.
The movie version of ORANGE MINT AND HONEY–”Sins of the Mother,” starring Jill Scott–airs on LMN Feb. 7th!
Educational, but Depressing
Haven’t posted in more than a week again, but I have been reading. Currently in bed with me at night is Mao: The Unknown Story. It is one of the most unrelentingly depressing books I’ve ever read. Now, I don’t know as much as I should about communism. But I don’t think what Mao was doing had anything to do with communism.
Mao was easily more evil than Hitler and Stalin combined. He seems to have been a complete sociopath who cared only about his own comfort. He sacrificed millions of his own countrymen to amass personal power. Seriously, I haven’t read one good thing about him yet, and I’m more than halfway done with the book. I haven’t even come to the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The author’s parents were killed in the Cultural Revolution, so there may be some bias there. But it appears to be well-researched with ample sources. I’m waiting until I’m done with the book to read some reviews (I generally like to make up my own mind before reading reviews).
I suppose I’m getting a better background in world history. But I may have to cheat on Mao with something with no literary value whatsoever. I can’t take this much longer.
