This and That (AKA Quick Hitters, Part Trois)

1.  There are some very cool author events coming up:
-Anthony Doerr, he of All the Light We Cannot See fame, will be at the Santa Clara Convention Center on Tuesday night, April 4, at 7:00. You can get tickets from Books, Inc.
-Jacqueline Winspear, author of the Maisie Dobbs series, will be at Kepler's on Wednesday, April 5, at 7:30.
-Barry Eisler will be launching his 9th book in the John Rain series on Thursday, June 29, at 7:30.  (I've already got tickets - wouldn't miss it!)

2.  Thanks to my dear friend Ken, I've got some short books for you to read:
Things I Cannot Afford, by Bill Gates
Guide to the Pacific, by Amelia Earhart
How to Live Life to the Fullest, by Dr. Jack Kevorkian
The Amish Phone Directory
How to Drive and Drink Safely, by Ted Kennedy

3.  I picked up Laurie Frankel's This Is How It Always Is, based on 2 strong recommendations from bloggers I trust.  Unfortunately, this time it didn't work.  I got to page 105 and had to stop.  It's actually my 3rd DNF (did not finish) in the 1st 3 months of the year.  The other 2 were This Grave Hour, by Jacqueline Winspear (I know she is hugely popular), and Selection Day, by Arvind Adiga.  I firmly believe it's me and not them.

4. As you know, I subscribe to BookBrowse.  Here's what came up earlier this week: 

BookBrowse - based on a book called All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

Every time we review a book we also explore a related topic. Here is the "beyond the book" article for All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

Elan Mastai is the latest in a long line of writers, thinkers, inventors, and visionaries who have speculated about what our future might look like.

All the way back in 1888, a writer named Edward Bellamy, in his novel Looking Backward, forecast the emergence of debit cards, describing the citizens of his utopia carrying a card that would pull credit from a central bank, without having to use paper money.

H.G. Wells had a hand in these kinds of predictions too. For example, in his novel Men Like Gods from 1923, he envisioned e-mail: "A message is sent to the station of the district in which the recipient is known to be, and there it waits until he chooses to tap his accumulated messages. And any that one wishes to repeat can be repeated. Then he talks back to the senders and dispatches any other messages he wishes. The transmission is wireless."

Pretty cool, right?

5.  Finally, I've got some pics for you.  If you aren't in my area (Northern California), or haven't otherwise been to any RBC (Recycle Book Club) meetings, then you don't know one of our very early members, Nikki.  But that doesn't mean you can't appreciate how cute her son Dougie is.