Month: November 2012

Arthur Rackham

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A typical Rackham brown reprint, and human tree.

When I first discovered golden age children’s illustration, Arthur Rackham reigned supreme. I was enamored with his fairies, elves, sprites in various forms–from Peter Pan, to English Fairy Tales, to Rip Van Winkle and The Wonder Book. Not able to afford first editions, even then, I settled for typical reprints. Not exactly the finest copies, at least they made more of his illustrations available to me than did the David Larkin outsize paperbacks showcasing the various artists. After a trip to London and a bunch of postcards later, I was so transfixed by his art, I decided to write a thesis for a theatre class in college. The thesis had three

Trees a la Rackham.

parts. The first, a written analysis of his work and influence, second, makeup based up his characters, and third, a small production utilizing aspects from his artwork.  I can’t for the life of me remember what the makeup consisted of, nor what the small production was all about–but I still have my paper–with grammatical errors, misspellings, and postcard examples of his work, still intact.

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One Month In and New Bookshop Doing Well

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Tomorrow begins the second month of Circle City Books’ existence. That’s the day on which I change the coding that I assign to every book when I price it. Until now, I’ve coded all my books “CC1” indicating that the book went on the shelf during the store’s first month. Starting tomorrow, and lasting for another month, the coding will be “CC2.” At some point I suppose, books that have been on the shelf too long will be sentenced to some kind of punishment: the bargain bin, execution, maybe a pep talk. In any case, the end of my first month finds the store still in business, and doing better than I expected.  (I admit to low expectations.)

we're open signThe time change has revealed to me a heretofore unknown problem. When the sun sets at 5:00 p.m., it means that the last hour and a half of business passes with my store cloaked in darkness. When I first opened it was light until closing time. But I have no neon light; no flashing sign; no spotlight illuminating my storefront. I do have lights in the window, but even with those on, it is surprising how dark the store looks from the street. People driving by wouldn’t know I am open. So this is one of the things that I overlooked. Sometime soon I’ll have to correct that.

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Get A Clue! Penny Warner’s Amazing Output of Writing

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Accomplished Author Penny Warner has three juvenile mystery books in a new series under her belt, The Code Busters Club: The Haunted Lighthouse  is the latest. Each book deals with codes, and breaking them. I am terrible at those types of things, but Ms. Warner creates such intrigue, even I believe I could untangle a word or two! I became acquainted with Penny Warner when as a mystery bookseller I came across her  unique protagonist, Connor Westphal, a deaf reporter. The first book in the series won a Macavity Award. This multi talented lady also writes a party planning mystery series with  lovely amateur detective  Presley Parker. I love the first book’s title, How To Host a Killer Party. What warped mind sets a wedding on Alcatraz? Penny does!  I don’t want to leave out  Haunted Caves: A Troop 13 Mystery which won the coveted Agatha Award from Malice Domestic for Best Children/Young Adult Fiction in 2001, and to ice the cake, grabbed the other most desired fan award, The Anthony, bestowed at the Bouchercon convention the same year. It doesn’t end there–she’s written over 50 books, for both adults and children, and been translated into two many different languages to list. Her bestselling non fiction titles include: Healthy Snacks for Kids, Kids’ Party Games and Activities, Best Party Book, Games People Play, Kids’ Holiday Fun, Learn to Sign the Fun Way, Baby Play and Learn, Kids Pick-A-Party, and Kids’ Party Cookbook. And, for all of us fans, The Official Nancy Drew Handbook, which was also nominated for an Agatha. Whew! I’m exhausted just reading the titles, I can’t imagine having written them all, plus make TV appearances on various networks such as HGTV. To make me feel even lazier, she teaches Child Development at local college. And has done so for—20 years! That’s just too much talent for one person to possess.

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Graceful Exits

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Sumerian Enoch

In the midst of begats and died one name stands out – Enoch. In the Christian Bible book of  Genesis the story is told that “Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him” .
I know that I am not the only one who has wondered about this story. Later in the Bible the story is told of Elijah who was taken up to heaven in a chariot – no mention is made as to what happened to him or Enoch afterwards. Did they die ? Did Enoch live forever ? I don’t think we will ever find the answer to those questions. And don’t even get me started about the Sumerians and the Annunaki ! I am fascinated with something that happens to everyone – everyone dies. Most people don’t like to talk about such a supposedly morbid subject , but I find the topic to be of great interest. One of my favorite stories about the death of anyone is the story of the death of Socrates. I believe that every learned person should take the time to read this story. The story of the death of Socrates that has come down to us is a quick read. Written by Plato the story describes the trial of Socrates and his subsequent death which was brought about by drinking hemlock. Socrates meets his death in a stoic fashion. I can’t remember when I first read the story , but it is one of my favorite stories. Death is fascinating – it is life’s greatest and final mystery – which brings me to the point of this post – two books on the subject that describe the death stories of beings who seem to be much more prepared for death than most. When Socrates took the hemlock he did so with no apprehension of what was to come . He had expressed the notion that in his belief system death was NOT the end. It would have been very nice if Socrates could have come back in another life and elucidated for us the details of his journey from this world to the next and back again. Alas , no one has done so ? Or have they ? My answer to that question will have to wait for a future post as it is not the subject of this particular post . The subjects of this particular post are two books that describe the death events of mystics and masters.

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Gifts of the Earth: Vegan and Vegetarian Cookbooks

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by Jas Faulkner

A quick note here, since I have received some questions about this: It’s no accident that many of the books on these lists are older. My purpose is twofold.  I want to point readers to books they might have missed and booksellers, especially resellers, to books that might move off the display table .  The genres I’ve chosen are those I read, enjoy and refer to fairly frequently. 

Before we take a look at this week’s list, let’s consider the supposed audience for vegan and vegetarian cookbooks.  People who choose to live exclusively on plant-based nutrition have gotten a bad rap over the last half-century.  They are the target of ridicule by celebrity chefs like Anthony Bourdain and Gordon Ramsey and in day to day life they have to dodge and weave around the stereotypes.

The stereotypes.  Do we even want to go there?  Alas, they do exist, those mental images of underfed, pasty, testy, self-righteous types who glare the plates containing a cut of something that once mooed, baahed, oinked, or clucked.  Those Birkenstock and hemp sock wearing culinary pharisees are enough to scare anyone away from the vegetarian shelves in the cookbook section.  This is a pity, especially when so many otherwise good general cookbooks tend to go light on the sides and veggie main courses unless they’re heavy on the starch, fat, and salt.

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A Little Too Embedded

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When does getting close to your biographical subject become too close for the subject’s wife? Or husband, if that ever happens–you know–a 60 some year old female has her 30 some year old biographer fall for her?  Yeah, right, you hear about it all the time–an older woman who has power is simply irresistible to the opposite sex, even if in her 6th decade. Writing a bio for the opposite sex shouldn’t lead TO sex–how often does this happen? Have there been other examples of two collaborators finding their time spent together turning into something other than reminiscences on a page? All In: The Education of General David Petraeus is a first for me–I’ve not encountered this concept before. Unless I’m woefully uninformed and it happens all the time. But here’s my question–what exactly did Paula Broadwell write? Because she didn’t do the book alone–another name is on the dust jacket–Vernon Loeb. Who is Vernon Loeb?  I checked what other books he may have written, and seems as though he co-authored another bio–King’s Counsel with Jack O’Connell, O’Connell’s name in larger letters– about war and diplomacy in the Middle East.  So–Vernon is the ghostwriter? A ghostwriter for the ghostwriter?–no, Petraeus isn’t pretending to have written his autobiography, Ms. Broadwell is pretending to have written his bio? Why was she chosen to write the book to begin with–especially if she needed someone else to dot the i’s and cross the t’s for her? After writing the above, I found a news story that contends Mr. Loeb had no clue anything was going on between subject and pseudo biographer. at the time.

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Black Alibi–Best 100 Mysteries of All Time

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Black Alibi— Cornell Woolrich–1942–used

The Leopard Man played on Turner Classic Movies yesterday. It’s a must see, again, film. Atmospheric, and in some parts, downright suspenseful and terrifying, it cannot hold a reader’s breath, the way the original source does, Black Alibi. I’ve proclaimed it before, Cornell Woolrich in all his various nom de plumes is my favorite writer, period. Not just favorite crime writer, but writer, of fiction. Yes, that means I like his work more than Dickens, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Poe, Collins, Steinbeck etc.,  ad nauseum. Is he a finer writer? By most standards, probably not. To mine, yes. Because he delivers life at its most frightening, vulnerable, frantic. Hysteria is never far from breaking out in little pustules–here and there–in one of his novels. Fear is attempted to be kept at bay, yet finds its insidious way back into a character’s life, sometimes as an expected guest, others as a stranger wreaking disaster. Black Alibi is a series of  horrific events in separate stories, all part of the larger novel. It begins with U.S. citizens, Jerry Manning, and Kiki Walker finding small success in the South American city of Ciudad Real. Kiki is a headliner entertainer at a local club, and Jerry, her manager. He thinks up a wild idea for publicity, accent on wild. He convinces Kiki to lead a black jaguar into the club for shock and awe, which in turn shocks the jaguar to escape into the night in the city. Each subsequent chapter follows a young woman as she is stalked as prey by what appears to be the missing jaguar. And it’s within these stories Woolrich’s best work is revealed.

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