thebooksage

Monday, September 28, 2015

Some Randoms

I've just got 3 quick ones for you this time. The 1st is an article in the New York Times from last week. It's very good news about independent bookstores. The 2nd is an article from national best-selling author Laurie R. King about a book's dust jacket and artwork. And the 3rd is about 2 appearances that Kate Allure will be making in the Bay Area - including this coming Friday night, from 7:30-9:30, at Barnes & Noble on Stevens Creek Blvd., San Jose.

There are some blurbs, but mostly links.

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/business/media/the-plot-twist-e-book-sales-slip-and-print-is-far-from-dead.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share

2. "Writing the cover copy for books–those snippets on the dust jackets–is a delicate art. A bit of plot is great, but not just plot, and NEVER spoilers. (Yes, I've had those.) A hint about the characters: who they are, where they're going, and perhaps a reminder of where they've been if the book is from a series. The" […]

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Top 12 and 2nd 12

Kathy, from bermudaonion.net (an excellent book blog if you're looking for a 2nd blogger - or maybe even a 1st!), looked at the list of recommendations and my personal preferences and wondered what my top books were. She said we appeared to like the same books. It occurred to me that it's been 2.5 years since I posted my top 12 and almost a year and a half for my 2nd 12. This seemed like a good time to re-post. The 1st group, not surprisingly, consists of the bigs. And the 2nd list is a little bit less big. Feel free to let me know which ones you agree with. If you disagree, keep it to yourself. No, actually, you can tell me know about those, too (at which point, you will be excommunicated from The Book Sage!).

Baldacci, David - Wish You Well
Clavell, James - Shogun
Conroy, Pat - My Losing Season (non-fiction)
Conroy, Pat - South of Broad
Diffenbaugh, Vanessa - The Language of Flowers
Follett, Ken - Pillars of the Earth
Follett, Ken - Winter of the World
Haley, Alex - Roots
King, Steven - 11/22/63
McMurtry, Larry - Lonesome Dove
Michener, James - The Source
Walls, Jeanette - The Glass Castle (non-fiction)

1. Conroy, Pat - Beach Music (he's already got 2 books in the top 12 - this one takes
place over 3 generations
2. Follett, Ken - Fall of Giants (#1 The Century Trilogy - book #2 is in the top 12)
3. Follett, Ken - World without End (sequel to Pillars of the Earth - Pillars is in top 3 ever)
4. Franklin-Willis, Amy - The Lost Saints of Tennessee (February, 2014 VHOB Book Club
author/book)
5. Hart, John - Iron House (this guy is an ace)
6. Hart, John - The Last Child (2 aces)
7. Hoffman, Beth - Saving CeeCee Honeycutt (April 1, 2014 phone-in VHOB Book Club
author/book)
8. Ludlum, Robert - The Matarese Circle (the best cold war book I've read - top U.S.
spy and top Soviet spy, mortal enemies, have to collaborate)
9. Patterson, Richard North - Exile (a Jewish lawyer, 20 years out of law school,
defends a former Palestinian law school classmate/girlfriend who is accused of
assassinating the Israeli prime minister
10. Picoult, Jodi - The Storyteller (I've read them all - this is the best)
11. Uris, Leon - Exodus (1958 - the story of Israel's war of independence)
12. Wallace, Irving - The Plot (1967 - a story about a number of individuals with individual
stories who come together for the climax)
13. Follett, Ken - Edge of Eternity (#3 in the Century Trilogy)

Notice this 2nd list has 13 books, instead of the 12 that I posted April of last year. That is because I recently added #13. And don't forget that Goodnight June, by Sarah Jio, is a 4.0+. It's not top 25, but it's higher than a 4.0. The ratings pressure is enormous!...but I'll be okay.

EGO-DRIVEN CONTEST: Okay, let me know how many of the 25 you have read, whether you liked them or not. Whoever has the most common reads gets his/her choice of any book on the list, in any format he/she wants - hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook. Fun, eh? And if you don't want to put your answer on the blog, you can email me at lloydrrussell@gmail.com. Now I'm done.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Recommendations from/for the Masses

Well, book fans, we've got our recommendations. This is a list compiled from 21 people. You can see that Pillars of the Earth easily tops the list, followed by Les Miserables and Beach Music. Those are the only repeaters. Of the ones on the list that I have read (not counting my top 3 of Pillars of the Earth, Shogun, The Source), 3 are in my top-12 all-time (The Glass Castle, The Language of Flowers, 11/22/63), and 2 are in my 2nd 12 all-time (Beach Music, Iron House). Of the others, I gave high ratings to The Kite Runner, Not Me, The Boys in the Boat, and Me Before You.

Take a look, people. There's something for everybody.

Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett - 6
Les Miserables, Victor Hugo - 2
Beach Music, Pat Conroy - 2
Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
1984, George Orwell
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Shogun, James Clavell
The Source, James Michener
Will Grayson, Will Grayson, David Levithan & John Green
Hyperbole and a Half, Allie Brosh (graphic book)
Arcadia, Lauren Groff
The Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon
Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
Drop City, T.C. Boyle
San Miguel, T.C. Boyle
The Road to Wellness, T.C. Boyle
Crimson Petal and the White, Michael Faber
The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls
A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt
Tortilla Curtain, T.C. Boyle
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
The Bone Setter's Daughter, Amy Tan
The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory
Power of One, Bryce Courtenay
Winds of War, Herman Wouk
Clan of the Cave Bear, Jean Auel
Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
Gates of Fire, Steven Pressfield
First Blood, David Morrell
The Boys in the Boat, Daniel James Brown
The Tin Drum, Gunther Glass
The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
Cider House Rules, John Irving
A Child's Garden of Verses, Robert Louis Stevenson
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
Fellowship of the Ring trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien
Shadows of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Awakening, Kate Chopin
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
Collapse, Jared Diamond
All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Not Me, Michael Lavigne
11/22/63, Stephen King
The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
Inferno, Dan Brown
Fifty Shades of Greg, E.L. James
A Thousand Names for Joy, Byron Katie
Nothing Real Can Be Threatened, Tara Singh
The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri
Auto Biography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda
Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver
The Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Iron House, John Hart
Cancer Ward, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
TOTAL: 61

Monday, September 21, 2015

Review of Local Author - Novel

In my last post, I mentioned that I had recently read books from 2 local authors - a memoir and a novel. The 1st one was the memoir. This one is the novel. It's called San Francisco, and it's the debut offering from Marian Lindner. I enjoyed this one too. It's a pretty simple storyline. Anna O'Malley is a 19-year old socialite who is constantly being pushed toward suitors by her mother, and who is discouraged from thinking for herself. She has a secret, though. She and a girlfriend like to perform burlesque at a late-night club in the heart of the city. This brings her in contact with a bunch of different elements of society that she definitely does NOT come across in her social circles.

What makes this story so unusual, you ask? Let's see. Oh, yeah. She's on the roof of a building in downtown SF following a performance when the 1906 earthquake hits. I don't think it's a spoiler alert to tell you that she survives the initial devastation. What follows is Anna's story in the aftermath of the shaker.

Marian has done some very good things in this book:

1. She introduces quite a few characters in such a way that you are not confused when they come up later in the book. I don't think that's a small observation. How many times have you read a book when a character appears, and you say: "Who's this person again?" That does not happen in San Francisco.
2. Marian makes us feel what it must have been like to live through this natural disaster. And we get to feel it from a lot of different economic perspectives. We see it through the eyes of the elite, as well as the servants of the elite. We even see the devastating effects the earthquake has on the poor.
3. We read about all of the emergency medical services that sprout up immediately following the earthquake. We get a good sense for the heroism of the medical community.
4. We even get romance, but I won't tell you who's involved (duh!).
5. I'm a very good visualizer when I read a book. But these visuals were more vivid somehow. I appreciate that.
6. I connected with the characters and had a couple of "teared up" moments.
7. Although this comment doesn't go to the story itself, it's important to me - the book is very well edited.

If you want to learn about the effects of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake on the city's population, and how the citizens responded to it (with some romance and intrigue thrown in), this is a good way to do it.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Review of Memoir for Local Author

As you know, I'm a big fan of supporting our local (Bay Area) authors. I have recently read 1st-time books from a couple of locals. One is a memoir, and the other is a novel. In this post, I will concentrate on the memoir.

Dinah Lin's book is Daring to Dream Once Again, It's Never Too Late! Here is part of what the back cover tells us:

"Dinah Lin is living proof it's never too late...for anyone. Now in her 70s, she has become a published author and begun a new career. Daring to Dream Once Again shares her amazing journey-spanning seven decades while living in six countries.

"Dinah narrowly escaped Communist China with her mom and siblings in the last boat leaving Shanghai in 1949. What was it like growing up in a small town in Ohio as the only Asian family? How did she make the transition from housewife and social hostess to the senior executive levels in both corporate America and in Washington, D.C.?"

Dinah's story is a pretty remarkable one. To go from a refugee to a powerful corporate executive and government influencer is truly amazing. In fact, Dinah has a number of Reflections throughout the book that I enjoyed. Here's one in particular that is a takeaway for me: "In a way, I've never given myself credit for whatever I've achieved. I just take it all in stride, expecting nothing less from myself. While this can be admirable in a way, it also takes away from allowing myself to feel pride and a sense of accomplishment for what I've done. I've since come to believe it's important to acknowledge and celebrate myself, and my wins, though sometimes I still forget." I think Dinah is right. It's important that we stop and take the time to say to ourselves "Nice job."

In fact, several of the Reflections resonated with me. There was one that said "...I definitely had an inclination to downplay and devalue what came easily and naturally to me, and instead, to value what was hard and took a lot of work." Our daughter, Lauren, could have gone to UC Santa Barbara for college, which was about 4 hours south of where we live; but, instead, she chose Boston University. She felt that she needed to challenge herself and not take the easy road. It turned out well - especially since she met her husband, Joe, there!

I think you will find Dinah's book an interesting one. Very few of us have had to overcome obstacles as big as hers.

Friday, September 18, 2015

Vanessa Diffenbaugh Scores High on Her 2nd Book - We Never Asked for Wings

How do you follow up a book like The Language of Flowers (let's not forget that Flowers is in my top-12 all-time!)? Is We Never Asked for Wings as good as Language? No. Is it a very good book that I really enjoyed a lot? Absolutely. Do you remember how good The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini was? And then he came out with A Thousand Splendid Suns. It wasn't TKR, but it was still darn good. I'm really pleased that Vanessa wrote a top-notch follow-up. Flowers is about the foster-care system. This one addresses immigration. Here's the short of it:

For fourteen years, Letty Espinosa has worked three jobs around San Francisco to make ends meet while her mother raised her children—Alex, now fifteen, and Luna, six—in their tiny apartment on a forgotten spit of wetlands near the bay. But now Letty’s parents are returning to Mexico, and Letty must step up and become a mother for the first time in her life.

Navigating this new terrain is challenging for Letty, especially as Luna desperately misses her grandparents and Alex, who is falling in love with a classmate, is unwilling to give his mother a chance. Letty comes up with a plan to help the family escape the dangerous neighborhood and heartbreaking injustice that have marked their lives, but one wrong move could jeopardize everything she’s worked for and her family’s fragile hopes for the future.

This book reminded me of Gone Girl in one regard. In GG, I liked the 1st half and really liked the 2nd half. That happened to me here too. Maybe I tend to sleep in the 1st half of books. I don't think so, but you never know. Regardless, I was sailing along and enjoying Wings, and then, BOOM, it took off. It never slowed down again. Kudos to Vanessa for building the book up to a take-off point and then carrying us along until the end.

Of course in Language we learned a lot about the meaning of flowers. In Wings, we learn how to mix a drink and about the part the different ingredients play. We also learn about a variety of birds. Vanessa is always teaching us things. I like that about her books.

There are a couple of other references that I internalized (because you all know that it's about me!). At one point, a customer says to Letty: "You've got yourself quite a teacher there." Letty says: "Self-appointed." Why is that about me, you ask? Because when I am recommending books on Sunday morning out in front of Recycle Books, people will look at my book business card and comment on my name - The Book Sage. I always say: "Self-determined." Close enough.

There's also a paragraph in the book that describes 2 of the main characters walking through Stanford University. My 1st reaction was to tell everybody to go take a walk around the campus. It's spectacular. It also reminded me of a book written by a local author, Betsy Franco (James' mother), called Naked. It's all about the Rodin Museum that's located right on the university grounds. (I recommend that book, too.)

That's all I've got. We Never Asked for Wings is a very good book. I think you'll like it.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Ann Bridges' Launch + 2 Announcements

Well, today was the launch for Ann Bridges' Private Offerings. She did a meet and greet/signing at Barnes & Noble on Stevens Creek in San Jose. She's got a lot more appearances scheduled. I've already listed those in an earlier post (9/6). Here are a few pictures from earlier today, including one of Ann with another Balcony7 author, who is looking at a Spring 2016 pub date for his children's book, Little Boy Soup. His name is Josh Russell, and he happens to be my son. Nepotism, you cry? Absolutely...not! He got his contract with Balcony7 without any (lack of) influence from his father.

Onward with the pictures.

I also mentioned in the title that I've got a couple of announcements:

1. I'm going to extend the top-3 all-time timeline. The lists are still coming in. So let's give it another week. The new (and final) deadline is next Wednesday, September 23.

2. I have already told you that JoJo Moyes is going to be in Pleasanton on Monday night, October 5, promoting her new book, After You, the sequel to Me Before You. Towne Center Books is sponsoring the event. Initially, JoJo was going to be at the Firehouse Arts Center. But because of the response, they have to move it to a bigger site. It will now be at the Amador Theater, located at 1155 Santa Rita Road, also in Pleasanton. You can still contact Towne Center Books and reserve your space (it's only $10/person!).

COMING UP: My next post will be a review of Vanessa Diffenbaugh's new book, We Never Asked for Wings. Spoiler alert - I really liked it a lot.