THIRTEEN THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO AT BEA (in honor of the previous post)

1. Being in New York - I've never been!
2. Alison Bechdel author signing
3. Jennifer Weiner author signing
4. Graphic Novel Buzz
5. Being in New York.
6. Saturday Book and Author breakfast featuring Ken Burns, Stephen Colbert master of ceremonies.
7. The five bazillion free books and galleys I'll come home with.
8. The New Title Showcase
9. The Cookbook Expo. Seriously. I need some new cookbooks.
10. Being in New York (have I mentioned this?)
11. The ginormous exhibit hall
12. Seeing Nancy Pearl speak
13. Oh, and, uh, working (since Bob's Hogs is sending me and all...)

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. Marcia

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I'm going!!

The Boss Lady called today to tell me.

Which is cool, because as of last week, I wasn't going. The idea had been floated six or eight months ago, but in the end my position wasn't budgeted in. That's still true, but the Boss Lady made special arrangements for me.

Not to brag (OK - totally to brag) she said, "I think you deserved it with your performance over the last year, and I know you will put it to good use."

Now I just have to schedule it all in, as my sister Katie's wedding is the Sunday before - all happening in less than a month!

And I'm going to have to find a place for all my galleys and free books! Woohoo!

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THIRTEEN BOOKS I WANT TO READ (in no particular order)

1. Austenland - I sent my Mom the galley and she said it was fantastic.
2. Cat Women: Female Writers on Their Feline Friends
3. Through Deaf Eyes: A Photographic History of an American Community - I saw the documentary recently on PBS and it was fascinating. I really miss signing.
4. Slightly Married - Although I'm not a romance reader at all, this is the third in a very cute series.
5. True Porn - Ariel Schrag
6. Girls: Extinction - Oh. My. God. I'm chewing my fingernails off waiting for the conclusion in TPB.
7. The Noble Causes series (minus the first one)
8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (duh)
9. Whatever Julie Powell writes next
10. Fifty Acres and A Poodle
11. The Parrot Who Owns Me
12. Eat Pray Love
13. PostSecret - which I just checked out from the Tacoma Public Library.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. (leave your link in comments, IÂ’ll add you here!)

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How much better can a title get? But it's true:

Two teens, 14- and 16-year-old Kyle Adams and Ryan Adams, went to the Bentonville PL, AR, in February so the younger brother could look up material on military academies. However, they wound up looking at The Whole Lesbian Sex Book (registration required to view), by Felice Newman, a book their father said left his sons "greatly disturbedÂ… and this matter has caused many sleepless nights in our house." Earl Adams, according to The Morning News, has asked the city to pay $10,000 in damages per child, which is the maximum under the state obscenity law. While the library director, Cindy Suter, first moved the book to a less accessible location, the library advisory board subsequently agreed the book should be taken from circulation, saying they sought to find a more suitable book. "A more sensitive, more clinical approach to same material might be more appropriate for the library," one member said.

Somehow I doubt that the book traumatized the boys in any way. And since they were supposed to be looking at military academies...

I would be interested to know if The Whole Lesbian Sex Book was moved to an alternate area of the library while leaving books on heterosexual sex readily accessible. This title has been reviewed and recommended by the Library Journal for all public library collections. The father has stated that any attempts to return the book to the library will "be met with legal action and protests from the Christian community."

This story prompted a quick email between my boss and I:

Ensie: "Greatly disturbed"? This is my favorite story ever from the library journal.

Boss Lady: I knew you were going to come back with a comment. "Sleepless nights"? Yeah, I'll bet.

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At King's Books the other day I was able to pick up my button for Tacoma Reads: The Pact. If you aren't familiar with Tacoma Reads Together, you should be.

Tacoma Reads is a program created after September 11th, 2001. From the Tacoma Public Library website:

In the aftermath of the tragic event of September 11, 2001, Tacoma educator Patrick Erwin sought a way to bring the Tacoma community together to talk about the issues which appeared to keep the community apart. Remembering What if all Seattle read the same book?, a project begun by Seattle’s Nancy Pearl, Erwin met with Mayor Brian Ebersole and others to suggest that perhaps Tacomans should be encouraged to come together to read, reflect upon, and then respond to the ideas and issues raised by one good book – one book which the entire community would be encouraged to read and discuss. In short order, Tacoma Reads Together was born.

The rest of the Tacoma Reads Together history can be found here.

The 2007 Tacoma Reads selection is The Pact by Drs. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins and Rameck Hunt. This is the inspiring true story of three young black men from the projects in Newark, New Jersey. All three were chosen to attend University High School, a magnet school in the city. As they bonded together as friends, the three made a pact to graduate, and go on to become doctors. All three succeeded.

I was lucky enough to meet all three doctors at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) in 2003. They were the keynote speakers and I was running the books sales for the event. I sold 600 books in less than 2 hours. The line wrapped around the room. Their story wasn't just amazing, they were great speakers, and they stayed afterwards to meet with every single person (1000 people attended the session) who wanted to shake their hands.

There is also a version of The Pact written for younger readers called We Beat the Street.

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1 Altoona's April book is "To Kill A Mockingbird."

Posted by: Eden at April 05, 2007 02:41 PM (BDCWt)

2 I have never read "Mockingbird". I really should. I'm reading "Emma" right now. Considering I work in a bookstore, there are a number of classics I have shamefully ignored.

Posted by: ensie at April 05, 2007 03:20 PM (6We+3)

3 Just skip the unnecessary background that starts on page 2 or 3 or so. It's dry and doesn't have an impact on the story. Then it'll hook ya.

Posted by: Eden at April 06, 2007 06:05 AM (BDCWt)

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Frinklin and I stopped by King's Books on our way home from the Emerald City ComiCon to visit the Small Press Wayzgoose, which was quite fun.

There was paper-making going on outside and Kings was packed with people admiring the works of numerous talented Washington paper-smiths.

I purchased an incidental relation, a very cool handmade book about an almost unseen piece of furniture. I told the book-maker, Jenny Craig of Notta Pixie Press that it reminded me of Edward Gorey's book The Curious Sofa, in which various people perform "pornographic" acts around a stationary chiase. She informed me that she based it purposefully on that style, which you can see a sample of here.

I also had the opportunity to make my very own Beautiful Angle poster, and meet Lance and Tom in person. The guys said they were up late last night creating a new "Parking in Paradise" poster that is very cool. Hopefully it will be up at their website for purchase shortly.

A few shots from the afternoon, taken on the camera phone.

Handmade paper drying

Notta Pixie Press Table

Jenny Craig of Notta Pixie Press

My very own Beautiful Angle poster

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Click the picture for a larger image.

Eh. Rather vague. I'm withholding judgment.

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Got a hold of the publicist for How Sassy Changed My Life today. There is a copy now winging its way to my doorstep as I type.

Mission accomplished.

It's really impressive the impact this magazine had on me as a teen, as well as on other women as they grew up.

January 1991 was the first issue I remember purchasing. I accidentally left the magazine at my grandmother's house. She called me the next day and offered to buy me a subscription, telling me, "I'd like to buy you a subscription of the magazine you left here. I looked through it and I liked it. I think it's a very good magazine for teenage girls." God, I miss my grandmother.

You can still purchase old issues of Sassy on eBay for pretty reasonable prices. I still have my originally purchased issue, other copies that were sent via subscription, and a few back issue copies I swiped from the trashcan of my friend's older sister while at a slumber party. I am sorely tempted to bid on the late 80s copies I don't have. Especially the premier issue.

When Jane Pratt, creator of Sassy, introduced Jane magazine in 1997, I was a charter-subscriber and bought gift-subscriptions for my sister and best friend, thinking it would be similar to Sassy. Was I wrong. Jane was exactly like every other bad teen/young adult woman's mag on the rack. I didn't renew any of the three subscriptions after the first year. What an incredible disappointment.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, however. I've found BUST. If you were a Sassy reader as a teen, and are looking for something to fill that void, BUST works nicely, er...not so nicely. Including regular sections as "Why Jane Sucks". BUST isn't afraid to be mean, more snarky, more, dare I say - sassy?

A perfect example of how Jane differs from BUST is here.

You can also check out Bitch magazine, if you haven't already. Bitch's tagline is "A Feminist response to pop culture." Bitch tends to be a little more rant-y and angry than BUST, but when that's what you're in the mood for, it's perfect.

Look for a review of How Sassy Changed My Life here soon!

UPDATE: Apparently, the owner of the "bad Sassy" died this past weekend. Check out the obit on How Sassy Changed My Life's website.

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The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film looks exceptionally cool. From Library Journal:

The film's history unfurls through interviews with Lucas, cast, and crew members offering both positive and negative remembrances, plus script remnants revealing the story's multiple incarnations. And that's just the appetizer! Half the feast-with heaps of dessert-are the never-before-seen production pix and concept art offering serious behind-the-scenes peeks fanboys live for (keep 'em coming!) Portions of this info have appeared previously, but never in such fine detail.

Only $75 - Available April 24th!

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As I sat down at the computer this evening, I planned to check my e-mail briefly and then blog about the various adventures in animal husbandry in our household. But you can blame Violet for keeping me from posting an amusing story here tonight. She happened to send me a link to Good Reads, a website where you can list the books you are currently reading, have read, and would like to read. You can review them, comment on other's opinions, and the like. Suddenly it was two hours later and I rose, stiff after sitting immobile for so long.

I wish I could say that I listed nothing but tomes of immense volume and weight, immediately showing the level of sophisticated reading that I like to do. But the only thing that would come to mind was comic books. Tons and tons of comic books. If you look at my profile, it appears that all I read are comic books peppered here and there with a few animal stories. While I have been doing a significant amount of comic book reading as of late, and I admit that I've been on a Herriot-kick over the last couple of weeks, I do read other things. I swear. Now all I've got to do is waste a few more hours listing them all.

Anyone want to help me figure out how to make the sidebar on my blog large enough, or the parameters on this things small enough, to be compatible?

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