I Think That I Suffer from Circadian Misalignment

You might not be aware of it, but while you are all cozy asleep at night, there are millions of us awake, working, keeping the world running and safe for ya all.
Yes, I am a shift worker! I work for a utility company...picture Homer Simpson, but without the nuclear part.

Some shift workers work steady night shift...some steady evening shift...but I work all of them! Actually, in the world of shift workers it is not an unusual schedule, working 12 hours, changing back and forth from days, 6 a.m./6 p.m., to nights, 6 p.m./6 a.m., every couple of days.
Yes, really. Yes, I can hear your moans of sympathy.

Well, there is another study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that ties shift work, the way it disturbs our metabolic systems and a variety of diseases. Of course, the worst offender is my rotating shift. From Wired Science...

"For years, scientists have known that people who work night shifts — about 15 million people in the United States — are unusually prone to heart disease, bone fractures, cancer, diabetes and obesity.

The patterns were initially explained as a function of poor nutrition and low exercise, but night workers don't necessarily live less healthy lives than their day shift counterparts. Risks remained high even when lifestyle was removed from the equation.
That left hypotheses about links between biological clocks and metabolic hormone regulation...The latest findings, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, chart a clear path from work-sleep cycles to metabolic disregulation to disease...

If the findings are replicated, researchers will try to find therapies capable of restoring metabolic order. The best therapy of all, said Van Cauter, would be a permanent move to night work."

No thank you!! Believe me, the people that will work a permanent night shift are few and far between. Most likely reside in mental institutions...because they world be even more nuts than those of us that work a rotating shift.

Now this idea, tying shift work and various illnesses together, is not new to those of us in the shift challenged world. We make copies of these articles and pass them around.
When we are not in the hospital of course.

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Spring is just around the corner. Ignore the foot of snow outside.

It has been a very busy week...which is my excuse for why I have not written the two book reviews I need to write. Monday, we got more than a foot of snow, which was grand fun driving through on the unplowed streets at 5 a.m. Monday morning on my way to work. But since Bermudaonion has the snow pictures taken care of, I thought I might post a few pictures to remind you that Spring is just around the corner. Hopefully I will get to those reviews shortly...

But until then, let my give you a brief taste of my trip yesterday to the Philadelphia Flower Show, the largest indoor flower show in the world! Every year, the show has a theme and this year it is Italy, warm and sunny Italy.

The huge, and I do mean huge, center displays, gave a feel for five different regions of Italy, complete with lovely buildings and fountains, reflecting pools and in Venice, a gondola!

..some lovely statues...


And of course, trees and plants and beautiful, beautiful flowers.


Lovely Spring bulbs, summer annuals and perennials, flowering trees and shrubs...

..and more flowers.
But the flower show is about more than just beautiful displays. There are competitions in all sorts of categories for individuals and garden clubs, there are lectures and demonstrations, smaller displays form area schools, musical performances, displays from a variety of Italian products and a big Marketplaces with all sort of vendors, many garden related...and many just very nice.

I also enjoy going to the Flower Show because the Convention Center is just across the street from the Historic Reading Terminal Market, another place with way too many things to buy and some great food. I had breakfast at an Amish run lunch counter...I love scrapple...and then a late lunch at DiNic's, the home of the best roast pork sandwich in the world, with sharp provolone and sauteed spinach. I swear, they serve that sandwich in Heaven.

After just 11 hours there, I made my way home, a couple of pounds of scrapple in my cooler and a vision of Spring in my heart.

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How to break the Early Reviewer Bad Luck Mojo....it's a Tuesday Thing!

Yes, I am late with my answer, but I had to work! Since the question was not up when I left at 5:15 a.m. and it seems my employer now has all blogs blocked on the internet while I am at work...well, it had to wait.
But now I am home, and ready to consider this week's question, presented for our consideration by Wendi at Wendi's Book Corner.

Over the past few weeks, as we explore LT and blogging, I've seen a lot of comments about Library Thing's Early Reviewer program as a place that you receive books and ARCs from...
Fun facts from the February ER batch: There were 68 books available, with 1,760 copies available all-together. 2,093 people applied for one of 30 copies of Stupid American History: Tales of Stupidity, Strangeness, and Mythconceptions by Leland Gregory!

Question: Were you aware of the Early Reviewer Program? Have you received any books from the program? If you have, how have you liked the book(s)? Any other thoughts on the LTER program?


Have I heard of Library Thing's Early Reviewer program?
Well, to answer that, let me share my tale of woe. Have I told you before?...It is very very sad. A box of tissues will be right over here if you need one.

Just about a year ago, I joined Library Thing. Let me just say that I love LT...I love the order it brought to my books, I love that never again will I buy a look because I forgot I already had it, because now my friend Library Thing will tell me "Stupid...you have that book already. Pick a different one!" See, I love Library Thing, but it is a little ambivalent about me. As you will see by the fact that it called me stupid.
Anyhoo, right off the bat, while still stacking piles of books next to my computer, books who waited patiently for me to enter their ISBN number in LT, I happen upon the Early Reviewer program. Never before was I aware that publishers and authors gave books to people, people who in return would write a review. Wow!

I entered.
I won a nice book.
Next month, I entered, again.
Next month, I won, again.

In all, I won 10 books, in eight months in a row. One month I won 3 books in a series by the mystery writer Arnaldur Indridason. I was in heaven.
But then, I mentioned my great luck here in blogland, in a post or a comment...and have never won a good since. So started the ERBLM...the Early Reviewer Bad Luck Mojo.
5 months, 5 messages of my sad misfortune. In fact, I recieved another negative message just today.
So sad...a tear falls gently to the keyboard. {{sob...sob}}

Ok, I would love to score some more ER books but seriously, how can I be sad? I paid $25 for a lifetime membership to LT and as a plus, beside the wonder that is Library Thing, I have received 10 lovely free books.

Have I like them? Some not so much, some very much! Several were written by authors I had not heard of before, so I also found new authors as another plus. And then I also get the chance every month to read the descriptions of all the books offered, entertaining in itself. Many very, very interesting books, some going on my wish list for future purchases. Because you know, I am in desperate need of more books....NOT! lol

Ok, now to you think I might have broken the Early Reviewer Bad Luck Mojo and might get another one someday? Someday soon? I will read it very quickly, it will go right to the very top of the pile. I will write a review just as fast as my little fingers can type...both of the ones I use to type.

If not, I will take another off the TBR pile. Watch out Kitty!!! {{meow...meow}}

>^,,^< Look! It's a kitty!

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Don't pick on me...I'm slow....and Musing about Monday

Another week has flown by, so once again it is time for our Musing Monday post, via Rebecca at Just One More Page

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about boys and reading…

When reading do you read every word? Do you ever skip chapters or skim over parts?

Ok, am I just slow...I don't get the thing about it being about boys. So I will ignore that and skip on to the skipping part.

And speaking of slow...
I once thought that I was a fast reader. I remember when I was in grammar school, we took one of those state wide tests that measure things...like reading ability and I got this REAL high score. How high I am not sure but I remember they called my mother in to talk about it. Unlike the things they called my mother in to talk to about regarding my brother...but that is another story.

Anyhoo, somewhere along the journey of life, I think I lost it. I see these people who blog and read like 15+ book in February. What did I read...5?
Now, I have read that one of the keys to fast reading is not to read every word. That you see the sentence as a hold. I don't do that. I guess I read every word. Actually, I guess I am not sure that I get the point of trying to read faster. Sure, it might be nice to one day get to all the unread books I own before I die, but isn't it suppose to be about pleasure? Do we want to listen to music faster and play it at higher speeds so we could listen to more. Or fast forward through Gone With the Wind so we could watch the DVD faster? Hey, sounds like a pretty good excuse to me

Do I skim over parts? Hmmm....not really. Not unless I really dislike a book and recently I have decided if I dislike a book, after giving it a fair try, I am not going to read it. As I have read somewhere in the blogsphere recently, life is too short to read book that you don't like. Now granted, if it is an ARC someone has sent me, I do feel an obligation, but even obligation only goes so far. Not as far as skimming chapters.
No, this is ultimately about pleasure and enjoyment. Hey, maybe that is where the boys were suppose to come into the question!

Actually, I think the reason I am a slower reader as I get older is that I am increasing easily distracted. Oh, look....a shiny object. pretty.....
Seriously, unless I TOTALLY love a book, I find my mind wanders a bit as I read. To tell the truth, I find my mind wanders a bit no matter what I am doing. Does anyone know where the remote is for my Bose clock radio? I was cleaning and not paying attention, well, at least not to cleaning, and now it is missing. For the last week.
Say you are vacuuming and thinking about what you need to get at the supermarket and whether you should go to the post office today or tomorrow and do you need to get the oil changed in the car..and next thing you know, you run over your bare foot (hint, don't vacuum barefoot) and whoosh....no more nail on you big toe.

It grew back.

But an injured toe is a good excuse to stay home in your comfy chair, with a cuppa tea and read! Every single word....

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"It's always darkest just before it goes pitch black."

If you read here regularly...and if not, you really need to ask yourself why not for heavens sake!...you might remember that some weeks ago I wrote a wee post about my trip to the Goodyear dealer to get a repair done on my car. As fascinating as my car repairs are, no doubt, the point of the post was how happy I was, as I sat there waiting, to see my two fellow customers take books out and start to read. Real books too, not a magazine or a newspaper, but actual books. It did my heart good.

Well, time to come down off the mountain. My joy has been squashed. I am in despair.

This week I had to go to get blood work done, a task that always involves a goodly amount of waiting. I have gone very early, I have gone later...I always wait. You arrive and sign in and sit in the waiting area, filled with about 25 other folks. In about 30 minutes they call you to come up and give them your paper work, show 14 kinds of ID, answer a large number of questions and then direct you to sit down again and wait until you are called, to be taken back for the actual blood letting.

So, there I sat with my 25 fellow victims. A perfect occasion to do what, my dear readers? Of course! READ! But as I took a quick glance...and then a long look in disbelief, at all of these people, only I and 2 others were reading. Only three of us sat down and look a nice book out of our bags or pockets or briefcases.
Some were staring at a TV up on the wall, blaring out some Morning Show. Many were just sitting there, doing nothing. Nothing!

Is it an age thing? We at the lab tend to be a little older that the general population, but actually I would think that would make us more likely readers, not less.
Low blood sugar due to fasting? Fear at having a needle stuck in their arm? The bland, sterile waiting area. The appeal of those wonderful morning talk shows. No, I think not. The Goodyear waiting area was no more cozy, the TV there just as annoying, the fear of our car repair bills as overwhelming as a little vile of the red stuff.

No, I fear Goodyear and our 100% reading rate was a fluke. The 10% of LabCorp the truth of the American reading situation. That is the reality; the majority of people would rather stare into nothingness than lose themselves in a nice little book.
..{{sob..sob}}

And if that is not depressing enough, let me share this idea about blogging, from our friends at Despair.com, a wonderful source of snarky, sarcastic posters, mugs, shirts, stationary and other useless things, available for purchase. "It began with one man's dream. A dream of the perfectly-realized American company. A company that would create dissatisfied customers in the process of exploiting demoralized employees while selling overpriced and ineffective products to remediate the problems caused by the very process itself."

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a review of "Irreplaceable"

Irreplaceable by Stephen Lovely (Hyperion, IBSN978-1-4013-2282-3)

Once, organ transplants were very rare and extraordinary. But now, although not enough to fill the need, there are more organ donors than there once were, and while still not common, transplants are not the rarity they once were. In fact, it is possible that some of us know someone who has received a transplant. Or perhaps someone who became a donor. Maybe that makes us forget just how remarkable transplants, especially heart transplant really are. Organ transplants are quite different than other medical procedures, in that, except for the cases of live transplants, possible for some organs, when someone receives a transplant and a new chance for life, it happens because someone else has died. What is the cause of celebration for one family, is as the result of a terrible tragedy for another. When someone receives a transplant, it is not the happy ending of the story, but just the beginning for all those involved.

In Irreplaceable, we are presented with a view into both sides of the experience, those who have lost someone they loved, and those who were saved from losing the one they love, someone on the verge of death. Actually, we get a glimpse of a third part of the equation as well, the man who caused the death and set it all in motion.

The book opens with Isabel, out on the open road in rural Iowa, on her bicycle for the first ride after a long winter. The weather is starting to turn for the worse, getting windy, the sky getting gray, a ominous storm rolling in. A truck crests the hill; she, a little too far into the lane, is unseen by the driver...and for those that love her, a nightmare has begun. For others, a life has been saved from certain death.

Isabel's husband, Alex, was with her when she signed the organ donor card, and as she lays in the hospital, brain dead, hooked up to the machines keeping her heart pumping and the organs viable, as angry and upset as he is, he knows that he must follow her wishes. After her organs are taken and transplanted, one recipient, the woman who received her heart, is able to contact him and his mother-in-law, but he wants nothing to do with her. His wife is gone..or is she really, totally gone? Because parts of her live on.

“He feels bitter and aggrieved and spiteful. He feels entitled to feel bitter and aggrieved and spiteful. This bitterness, this spite -is this the evidence? Of Isabel's presence? Is this the proof?”

Isabel's mother, Beatrice, looks at her only daughter, lying there “like some beautiful slaughtered animal” and is broken hearted, but not filled with anger like Alex.

“She always used to suspect that the price for happiness, the price for enjoying the company of a person you loved, was the steadily increasing risk of losing them...Beatrice didn't think she could stand it, didn't think she could go on living in a universe whose laws forced her to submit to such a terrible fear. Now she sees what a small price it is to pay, what staggering joy she received in return. You should be willing to pay that price for as little as a few days or hours with a person you love, she thinks, rubbing her fingertips across a patch of linoleum the years have worn down to a cloudy smear.”

Then we have Janet, the woman who received the heart, her husband David and their two young children. Janet is an art teacher in an inner city Chicago school, her heart ravaged by a virus. Over the last couple of years, she has become weaker and weaker, unable to work, unable to care for her family, finally confined to the hospital for months, surrounded by those like her, who are waiting for someone to die so that they might live. She is one of the lucky one who receives the gift, but is is a gift with a price. The medications, with their side effects, the special diet, her immune system suppressed, the knowledge that her body may reject the heart, and even if it does not, her expected life span is only 5 to 10 years, when the vessels of the new heart with block up. But she is very thankful for her relatively good, newfound health and whatever additional time the heart will give her.
David, her husband, is not so sure...

“The way Janet looks at it, she's been given a reprieve. While David understands this, and feels happy for her, he's filled with dread at the prospect of having to live through the past three years, the worse years of his life, all over again when she declines.”

And finallt there is Jasper, the driver of the truck that hit Isabel. Let's say that he has a rather unique view of his role in all this.

No, the transplant was in no way the end of the story.

This is Mr. Lovely's first book and it is a very good one. His ability to capture the emotions of these different characters is skillful. He is able, on the one hand, to educate the reader about the whole issue of organ transplantation, while on the other hand never losing sight of the very personal repercussions these decisions will have for all involved. As medical science becomes able to do more and more, we can never forget the human and emotional cost...because one day it may be someone we love, or ourselves, asked to pay that price.

Now you know I can't let Mr. Lovely off without at least one negative word. I wish I could...and I almost did, but then there was one blip in the plot, one scene near the end of the book that such stuck me as so false....aaagh...well, if I gave those stars or little lighthouses as a rating I would have grabbed one back and stepped on it. Maybe ground it into the dirt. But one false note in an otherwise very good book is not bad.
My only other issue is with the cover. Now my copy is an advanced review copy, and from what I can see, they changed it for the published version. But I can't say which one I like less.
It just screams chick-lit, or sappy love story, which totally misrepresents the book. If I saw it on a table in a bookstore, I would most likely not pick it up, not being a great fan of the chick lit. Which would be a terrible shame, because I think this book is bigger than that and should attract a wider audience. Yes, I know hearts are pink and red, but I think a stronger cover would have really better expressed the strength and excellent emotion of this book. But they don't let me decide these things...

So just ignore the cover and pick up this book and I think you will be happy you did.

For another review, check out...
Pudgy Penguin Perusals
As They Grow Up
Reading With Monie
Just a Mom's Take On Things

Available From Amazon

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Let's start Lent off on the right foot

For something a little different, today I am going to join in a meme being hosted by RAnn at This, That and the Other Thing, about Lenten reading. As you may, or may not know, today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent, which is a period of 40 days leading up Easter and helping to prepare us for the feast, the pinnacle of the Christian year. One is encouraged to fast, give alms, do acts of penance, prayer and spiritual reading.
So let's see what the question is....

What books have you read and/or reviewed in the last year that you would recommend to people looking for Lenten reading? What book/s is/are you reading this Lent?

Unlike RAnn, who also reviews for a Catholic bookseller, my reviews have tended to be of a more secular nature. But what have I read? Well, it is not something that I read this year, but a book that I loved, that I think is a true classic about the spiritual life and would recommend to any reader is The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton, his autobiography of his journey from a VERY secular young man to a Trappist monk. I have my issues with Merton in his later life, and not everyone is so positive about this book, but I loved it and really, as i said, think it is a classic.

What am I going to read? Well, I have picked a recent arrival off my TBR pile {{watch out Kitty!!}}, Mother Teresa's Secret Fire by Joseph Langford.
I have not read it yet, but it comes highly recommended from someone whose opinion I respect, so I will quote a bit about the book from the cover description.

"Christians and non-Christians alike long for something larger than our daily routine, something more meaningful and sustaining that anything money, fame, or power can buy.


There is no better example that Mother Teresa. She continues to be a worldwide icon, a symbol of the nobility of the human spirit and every person's capacity to do extraordinary things.

At age 38, Mother Teresa broke out of her safe and reliable routine as a teacher. With only five rupees to her name, she began going daily into the slums of Calcutta. By the time of her death in 1997, her Missionaries of Charity had spread to more than 120 countries and touched millions of lives.

What was it that caused this transformation? How do we account for her universal impact from such extreme, humble conditions? What was it in her that touched so many so deeply?"

I had the privilege once to hear Mother Teresa speak and I will never forget it...and maybe when I review the book by the end of Lent, I will tell you about it.

In the mean time, be sure to go over to RAnn's blog and read her suggestions and maybe join in with you own.

It's no mystery why I love Tuesday Thinger!

It's Tuesday and Wendi, at Wendi's Book Corner has a cold, so she says she came up with a really easy question. I am not sure how easy it is because it made me think, and thinking early in the morning makes my head ache a bit....
But here is this weeks question....

Today's question: Do you have a specialized blog where you only review a certain genre or type of book? If so, what is your favorite thing about that type of book? If not, what is/are your favorite genre(s)? What makes that genre(s) a favorite?

Specialized, no...but SPECIAL yes! Now, of course, all blogs, particularly book blogs, are special, but mine is just the most special. Well, it is to me...
But no, I review a variety of books. Not a huge variety, because to be quite honest, there are many books I have no interest in reading. They don't interest me, so I would not request them or buy them because not only would I not enjoy reading them (which is still sort of the point of this) but I could not be fair in a review. For example, sorry, but I hate romance novels. Self help...oh, please, NO!

Do I have a favorite genre and why is it my favorite? Why, I am so glad you asked and yes, in fact, I do.

I love mysteries.

I always have. It was certainly the first genre I read in large quantities, very large quantities. I have in my bookcase, that I am looking at as we speak (if you are reading this, we are 'speaking' in a sense) a nice hardcover edition of 'THE Complete Sherlock Holmes' that my mom gave me as a birthday gift when I was a wee Caite. I read it cover to cover. Mr. Holmes was shortly followed by everything Agatha Christie every wrote...Rex Stout, Dick Francis....Oh, I had found my genre. Those were the days that my local library, talked about yesterday, got a workout. I like thrillers, police procedurals, detectives, PI's, cozies, medical mysteries, gothics. They can be mysteries set at race tracks, by the ocean, in the desert, in foreign countries. I like them set in the past, in the present...and within reason, in the future.

Now some of you may say "Oh, mysteries...they are so..." and then insert a negative term. Light, silly, gory, dark. Yes, I am sure some are. But that is the thing about mysteries. There are so many types, something for every taste! The settings travel the world, from Trenton, NJ, (Evanovich) to Iceland (Arnaldur Indriðason), present day to the 1800's, with Edgar Allen Poe's The Murder in the Rue Morgue, often considered the first modern mystery story.

And see, there is another thing about mysteries. Yes, they can be light, even funny, but also some of the great works of literature are actually, at their heart, mysteries. Look at this list of the 100 Best Mystery Novels of all time from the Mystery Writers of America, or this one from the Crime Writers Association. Poe, Dostoyevsky, Bram Stoker, Graham Greene, Martin Cruz Smith, P.D.James, John le Carre, Dorothy L. Sayers; we mystery lovers claim them all! Some of the greatest works of literature are, at their heart, mysteries.

Why do I love mysteries? Well, they are intellectually challenging, they make you think. Can you rise to the challenge and 'figure it out'? The setting, the characters can be as varied as the writers imagination. But ultimately, even in the most scary or funny mystery, it comes down to a battle of good vs. evil, right vs. wrong. Mysteries present a world where, not always easily, not always clearly but fundamentally, logic and order and The Good ultimately come out on top.
And I guess that is how I see Reality...at least on my better days.

Gee, that didn't seem so easy...lol.

..and now, a picture of Bandit
or two...

I may be about the last person in the blogsphere...

The last to get tagged with this meme, that is.
Seems I was tagged, the blog version of a chain letter...lol...by Fleur Fisher for this photo meme
Here are the rules...

“Find your 5th photo file folder, then the 5th photo in that file folder. Then pass the meme to 5 people.”

So first, the picture.

This a picture of Carnegie Hall, a view of the hall from the stage looking back. So if you were performing, this is the view you would have. We were there, just before Christmas, for a performance and because one of the people I was with was in a wheelchair, we got to go in before the general admittance. Actually we were in that huge place all by ourselves...it is very impressive.

I am sorry folks, but I have to do it! I can't break the chain! If you have been subjected..I mean lucky enough... to get this before...well, just post a different picture. A nice picture is always nice. A bad one is even more funny. So I 'tag'...

Joseph, at Peace of Brain

Carol at Carol's Notebook

Bobbi at My Muse and Me

Emily at The World Inside My Head

and last but most certainly not least the Cutest Dog in the World,
Bandit at the world from down here

Musing Monday...about where I left my library card.

Well, it is the start of a new week, so let's all mosy over to Just One More Page and check out this weeks musing!

"Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about the library…
How often do you visit the library? Do you have a scheduled library day/time, or do you go whenever? Do you go alone, or take people with you?"

Library...the library....I forget....is that the place that loans out books for free? I think they have periodicals and maybe videos there too. Is that the place?

Of course, I am joshing.
But in all honesty, I rarely go to the library these day. That being said, I was actually there this week. But that was an aberration.
If you have read on my blog before, no doubt you are familiar with my oft mentioned towering To Be Read pile. The one that is threatening to fall over and crush my
imaginary kitty, Kitty {{meow...meow...good kitty}} In fact, I know for a fact that many of you have a very similar TBR pile somewhere in your own house. So since I have found a number of ways to SCORE FREE BOOKS gratefully receive free review copies, I am not really in need of any additional reading material at the moment.

Why did I go this week? Well, I was reading a particularly gushing review of The School of Essential Ingredients, a book I was not able to get as an ARC, one of those review copies. I was actually considering buying it, but then checked the on-line catalog of my county library, and low and behold, they had it. Not at my branch and out on loan but I put it on hold and they called me in just a few days that it was in. Imagine that!
But here is where the real danger started. It was terrible! Scary!!
Because, when I went to the library, first I had to pass several shelves in the entryway, filled with books they were selling for 10 cents-25 cents. I DON”T NEED MORE BOOKS! But what a bargain.. BUT I DON"T NEED MORE BOOKS!! That is just so, so wrong to have those there, right out in the open. Like laying out a table of drugs for an addict, opening a beer for an alcoholic!
I was strong.

I only bought one.

But then, right next to the checkout desk, were the 'new books' shelves. I glanced, just glanced and saw at least 5 books I have been reading about. But I did not pick one up, not one. Kitty would be so upset if I came home with more books. I was able to sneak the two I had into the house under my coat, but Kitty is very sharp. The librarian might have wondered about my soft sobs , my halting steps, as I exited though.

I love libraries, don't get me wrong. My childhood is filled with happy memories of libraries. In fact, one of my earliest memories is walking to our local branch with my mom, an avid reader, when I was just a very wee Caite, coming home with a big tote bags filled with books. Granted, most were hers... This was before I was old enough to get my own library card, the receiving of which was a happy, memorable day in my life. I was happy to spend as much time as possible, upstairs in the children's section, reading, browsing, as she made her weekly choices downstairs.

And I was a student in the dark, pre-Internet day, when one had to actually go to a library to do research. I grew up in Newark NJ, a city that did not have much good about it except a very nice library system. I can remember as a teenager, going to the main public library building downtown, a lovely building, doing research for papers and reports. Searching the microfiche for magazine and newspaper articles, the old wooden card catalogs with actual cards, searching the stacks. I can remember this room where they had with just big files of images, huge folders. I was doing a paper on the Hudson River school of painting and they had all these prints that I could request and look at....I thought it was wonderful! I spent many a happy, happy day wandering around that library...

What was the question?? Oh, do I go to the library?
I visit about every year or so...lol. On no particular day then, of course.
Alone or with people? Well, if I went, I would go alone. One needs to concentrate, not idly chatting and such. Unless I bring someone to help carry my loot....that's an idea. Leave my hands free. But no talking.

That is what lunch is for.

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a review of Lethal Legacy

Lethal Legacy by Linda Fairstein
(Doubleday, ISBN 978-0-385-52399-8)

As you walk past the stately entrance to the NY Public Library, past the twin sentinels of the stone lions, Temperance and Patience, who guard her entrance, you can't help but be impressed by the sheer beauty and historic significance of the building. But when author Linda Fairstein use the history and back scene operation of the library as well as the fascinating building itself as a character in her latest book, Lethal Legacy, I dare say we will gain a new found respect for this landmark of NYC.

Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cooper, as well as her police co-workers and friends Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace are back for their 11th appearance and I am sure fans of the series will be thrilled.
Alex, who has a background working with sex crime victims, is called to the scene of what appears to be an apartment invasion and assault of a young woman. But the woman in the apartment will not let police in and even when she finally talks to Alex, she refused to get medical attention or give any information to allow police to investigate the crime. It appears that will be the end of the case, until the woman, who turns out to be a curator of rare books and maps for the library as well as doing private work for several of the library's trustees, disappears. Alex's boss District Attorney Paul Battaglia, one always to have his nose in the prevailing political winds, shows an interest in the case and call Alex in for a discussion with Jill Gibson, third in charge at the library, with talk of thefts and intrigue, Alex is assigned to help in the investiagtion. It seems that many of New York's richest and most powerful families, founders and trustees of the library, are involved with a tale of priceless books and mysterious maps and when a couple of dead bodies turn up...well the mystery is on.

For someone like myself, who is both a book lover and always interested in stories that are set in NYC, the NY Public Library may be the real star of this book. Fairstein has done her homework and give us a fascinating glimpse of the history of the building and some of the famous families involved in it creation and a view into the massive stacks and private collections that make up it's holdings, things few of us will ever get a chance to see. To quote the description on the book,

“(Fairstein) takes readers on a breathtaking ride through the valuable first editions, lost atlases, and secret rooms and tunnels of the great New York Public Library.”

Tunnels! Secret escape hatches into neighboring Bryant Park! Priceless maps! Who knew the library was so exciting? And then we have some very good characters in Alex, Mike and Mercer. They are very likable and their friendship with each other...and do we catch perhaps a bit of sexual tension between Alex and Mike?...seems very believable and a nice addition to the plot,. My only quibble would be with Alex and her job and the endless amount of time she seems able to take out of the office or out of the courtroom, to be in the middle of the investigation. Surely she has a lot of other cases that need more than a phone call or two to keep on track. But I will cut Fairstein some slack on that (I am sure she is concerned...lol) because she once actually worked as an ADA in NYC and my total knowledge of the job comes from watching countless, and I mean countess, reruns of Law and Order.

Overall, Lethal Legacy is a pretty good read; a little light on the mystery, a little predicable and a little murky in it's plot...but, for this reader at least, those flaws were overcome by a wealth of book and New York Public Library trivia and a tiny glance, if only fictionally, at some priceless rare books.
Most likely, I will give the series another go and start with the first in the series, Final Jeopardy.

For a few more reviews, check out...
A Reader's Respite
Shhh I'm Reading
Bookreporter

Available from Amazon

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Who...who me...addicted?? No, I can stop any time..really!

At least it wasn't 100%!

82%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Don't be scared. You can skip the ad for the on-line dating...just click for your results down in the right hand bottom.
But if you are addicted as me, you will see that...lol

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Tuesday Thingers on the Tower of TBR

Yes, my dear readers...and you are my dear readers...this week's always interesting question via Wendi's Book Corner...

This week, our question is inspired by all the group threads that are dedicated to finding the next great book to review.
In order review books on your blog - you've got to GET books!

Today's question: How do you get your books for reviewing? (Feel free to participate in the poll below, you can check more than one answer) Do you track them somehow (excel, database, etc), or just put them in a tbr (To Be Read for anyone that doesn't know) pile?

Well, there was once a time, in the not so distant past, when I was totally unaware of ARC's (advanced review copies), book about to be published in the near or not so near future that publishers GIVE to folks to read and review and get folks talking about and such. Yep, I was totally unaware. But then, I joined Library Thing and here is all this talk about their Early Reviewer program...and I join and check off a few books that look interesting...and I win one! Wow..I think i may have mentioned it here, but I was lucky enough to win a book there every month for like 9 months. Until I mentioned it. I have not won a book there since.

Happily, I found a few other sources. Shelf Awareness ads...a few self published (that is another topic..) from Bostick, some successful cold requests, several books won from contests on other blogs, a few offered to me from book publicists, a few requested from publicists after they are offered on Book Blogs...and I am sure a few other places I have forgotten for the moment.

How to I organize my TBR pile? Well, there are two. One, ARC's with a certain publication date. They are stacked, a literal pile, in order of that date, nearest..or most recent past, on top and working down. Little post-it notes with their dates.
Non ARCs, my personal TBR books...are in various places. Some doubled shelved, some in a precarious teetering tower, some on a narrow shelf at the top of the stairs that was not really meant for books, a couple of boxes in the extra bedroom, on the floor next to my recliner....you get the idea.

So see, here is the thing. Don't get me wrong, I love ARC's! I have gotten books that in all likelihood I would not have read otherwise. It got me out of reading my usual, safe little genre and I have read several books that I just loved and would likely never of heard of otherwise.

But I don't need ARCs to have books to review. The question says In order review books on your blog - you've got to GET books! No, not really. I have at least 100..maybe 200 unread books around here. So, let's say I could read and review 2 books a week or about 100 in a year (which I will not). That means I have at least a year, if not 2 years of books readily on hand. And then there is the rest of my current library. I have read them, but some as far back as high school and college, back in the foggy past when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Very long before blogland. Before the internet. Before cable TV!
So I could re-read and review them. According to Library Thing, I have 1115 books in my house, minus say 200 in the TBR pile...another 9 years right there. Then, there are all the books I have read and no longer have. I am not sure where they went. Given away, loaned out and not returned, but they are not here, which is bad because I miss them but good because other wise I might have to get bracing in the basement to support the weight.
Take Dean Koontz. I like his books (some are very good, some are good, a few are just weird) and I have read over the years, mostly likely every book he has written, which is about 100 books. I don't have most of them anymore, but I could find them somewhere..there is another year right there. Take Agatha Christie, most of which I read while I was in school. Another 80 there, another year.
And countless other authors, countless other books.

And let's not forget the library, that as we speak, is holding a book I requested and is, I understand, a place that gets new ones all the time. Yes, those are free to take home and read too! Imagine that...thousands and thousands of books, lovely, beautiful books, calling my name..."caite...caite...read me...me...."

So my point is, I love the books, but I don't need the books. Well, I NEED books. I just don't need any more. Not the two or three I requested on Shelf Awareness this week, not the three I order used online, not the ones in my cart on Amazon, not the ones I will buy with the Border's gift card I got for Christmas, not the ones I find at lighthouses or ferry terminals or everywhere I go...I think I have book magnetism or something! They are like little puppies that follow me home...cute little fuzzy puppies. Like Bandit! How can I say no?

P.S. I went to the library this morning to pick up the book I had on hold. But before I got inside, there was the ever present shelves of books for sale...hardcovers, just .25! Paperbacks a dime!
I only bought one...but then as I was checking out, I noticed the 'new books' shelves. I will just glance. Oh, look...I have been reading reviews of that one...or...and I saw an add for that one...oh, look, I have wanted to read that one.

I ran, screaming from the library...lol

Maine and Musing Monday...and Maine

This week's questions, from the pages of Just One More Page... Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about book reviews…
Do you read any non-blogging book reviews? If so, where (newspaper, library etc)? Do you have any favourites sources you'd like to share?

Review...reviews...reviews...
Do I read any non-blog reviews. Why, yes I do. From where? Well, I usually read the N.Y. Times reviews. Here is this week's as an example. Lots and lots of reviews, articles, blogs....you could spend the day here. Which is good, but also bad. Bad because if I spend the day there, I will not spend the day reading and certainly not reviewing my own completed reads.
Then, I also usually at least glance at the reviews at the Philadelphia Inquirer. Being a resident of south Jersey, Philadelphia is our nearest big city and I was once very fond of the Sunday Inquirer, which includes the Book Section. That is until they started fooling with it some months ago, discontinuing some of my favorite sections, moving others to weekdays, in an attempt to 'save money', they say. Well it had the effect of me usually not buying the Sunday paper as I once did and adding the book section to my Goggle Reader. It did save me money, I will say that!
I also read reviews on Publisher Weekly. Fiction, non-fiction, children's; again, lots and lots of reviews. Then, for a little overseas slant, I also glance at the reviews at The Guardian, a British newspaper. Good reviews, many interesting articles, a place to 'waste' a large chunk of time.

New York, Philadelphia and London...that about covers the world, right?
Well, it is enough for me. Or at least all I have time for. And you may notice a trend. All online, all free, all easy. I think that I have said it before, but either I am not the fastest reader in the world or I an really poor user of time, but there are just not enough hours in the day to do it all.

I personally blame my need to work for a living. Those 40+ hours are a big waste, reading wise. I NEED to win the lottery, so that I can retire to the little house I will then buy on the coast of Maine, where I can spend the day reading, visiting lighthouses. Maybe I will take up sailing...or painting watercolors...lobster for dinner, fresh off the boats down in the harbor...blue cloudless summer skies, stormy winter nights, waves crashing against the rocky coast as I sit by the fireplace...

What were we talking about? Reviews?? Yes, something about reviews I think. I got distracted...


courtesy of HistoryImages.com

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A review of Hotel on The Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Hotel on The Corner of Bitter and Sweet: A Novel by Jamie Ford
(Ballantine Books, ISBN 978-0-345-50533-0)

If you are looking for a very nice book, well written, with some wonderful characters and a fascinating historical background, have I got a book for you.

The story opens in 1986, when Henry, a recently widowed man in his mid-fifties with a college age son, comes across a crowd outside the Panama Hotel in Seattle, his hometown. The hotel had been boarded up and empty since WWII, and when it was bought and renovations began, it was found to hold a forgotten 'treasure', the possessions of dozens of Japanese families who had stored there belonging they could not take with them when they were shipped out of coastal port city to inland relocation' camps. Henry is so deeply effected by the sight and by the remembrance of those things stored there, forgotten, because he knew one of those families, the Okabe's, and in particular, their young daughter Keiko.

As the book changes times, and it does, back and forth throughout the book, it is 1942, and 12 year old Henry, the son of Chinese immigrants, is having a difficult time. Sent by his father to an all 'white' school for the advantages he thinks it will give his son, he is hated by the other Chinese children for being too 'white' and hated by many of the white kids for being Chinese. The only saving grace is his job, part of his “scholarshipping”, working lunchtime in the school cafeteria and the arrival of a new helper, fellow student, Japanese American Keiko. It might be difficult being Chinese at the time, but to be Japanese in a west coast port city after the attack on Pearl Harbor is becoming next to impossible. From the first, they are fast friends, but it is a friendship that must remain secret from his family, especially his father, who is a Chinese nationalist who hates the Japanese, not for their bombing of Pearl Harbor but for their invasion of China. If his father finds out, he will disown Henry, but no matter his sense of duty and loyalty to his family, Henry will not give up his friendship and ultimately his love for Keiko.

Or will he?

While set partially against the often forgotten story of the Japanese relocation..or internment..or as FDR himself called them at times, concentration camps of World War II and partial in the 1980's, The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is ultimately not a story about history or politics so much as a story about family and responsibility and love and the decisions we make because of these things. And whether, with the passage of time and changes in circumstances, we can, as Henry's old jazz musician friend Sheldon implores him, ”fix it” and perhaps undo some of the mistakes we make in our lives and repair relationships while there is still time.

It is not a perfect book. First, and to me, most disconcerting, was the age of the characters. The 12 year old Henry thinks and behaves like someone at least several years older. If the characters had been say 15 or 16...but 12 just did not rings true. I actually though at one point that I had misread and missed a jump of a few years in the timeline, but no. On the other hand, the older Henry is just 56 (I say this as someone a few years younger...lol) but he acts like someone much older, like an old man. A minor point overall, but a bit grating.
Second, there is a Japanese phrase that Sheldon teaches his young friend to show off to Keiko. It is oai deki te ureshii desu, translated as 'How are you today beautiful?', a phrase that reoccurs throughout the book and is rather key to the story. The only problem is that it seems that the phrase actually mean something closer to just “hello, I am glad to see you”. If I can google it and get it right, so should the author or an editor.
Ok, maybe I am nitpicking...but things like that bother me a bit ...lol
Of course, I also wondered how realistic it was that the Panama Hotel stayed boarded up and unused for decades, with all those belonging unclaimed in the basement. Except that part is actually true!

Overall, it was a very nice read, at times a touching story, a book that I would certainly give a recommendation to. If you do read it, and I hope that you do, watch out for my two favorite characters, the afore mentioned Shelton and the cafeteria lady, Mrs. Beatty. She might not say much, but you can often tell a person's heart and their mettle by their actions and not just what they say.
A point very true to many of the characters of this very enjoyable book.

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for a few more opinions, check out....

The Book Lady's Blog
Booking Mama
The Biblio Brat
Medieval Bookworm
Shhh I'm Reading
Pudgy Penguin Perusals
Many a Quaint and Curious Volume

Available from Amazon

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