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Oct
31
A Book Lady’s Blog Exclusive: Audrey Niffenegger reads from HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY
2009 at 10am Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
The good folks who represent Audrey Niffenegger at Regal Literary love bloggers, and I think they just might have appreciated my extensive gushing about Her Fearful Symmetry. So they’ve offered me an exclusive of this video of Audrey reading a chapter entitled “The History of Her Ghost.” There’s nothing better than getting awesome content just for talking about a book you love, right?
As a Halloween bonus, scroll down to the second video to see the amazing Ms. Niffenegger answering the question “What is a ghost?”
If you’re reading this in your feed reader, you’ll need to click over to my site to view Ms. Niffenegger’s reader.
[vodpod id=Groupvideo.3790052&w=425&h=350&fv=]
Regal is also running a special offer on Facebook where they’re giving away 25 hardcover copies and 10 ARCs of Her Fearful Symmetry. All you have to do is become a fan of the HFS Facebook page by November 13th and follow the instructions on the special offer page. You get bonus entries for tweeting and blogging about the giveaway, so be sure to head over and check it out.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Rebecca Schinsky
Wanted: Audio Book Recommendations
2009 at 8pm Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
So, I started a new job last week, and one of the beautiful perks is that I work out of a home office. Which means that Mondays and many mornings, I can pretty much slog up the stairs in my PJs, sit my iPod in its little speaker thingy, and get down with the productivity (which, by the way, is INCREDIBLE without all of the distractions of regular office life).
But the challenge is that when I’m not in the (home) office, I’m out working with team members in company locations throughout Richmond, so I spend a lot of time in the car.
AND I’M GETTING BORED!
So I’m thinking audio books are in order…..but I don’t really know anything about them. And that’s where you come in.
I usually read literary fiction, serious memoirs, and narrative nonfiction, and I’m not sure how much of that will translate well to audio, when I’ll need to be giving most of my attention to the road….but I do know that many of you love audio books and listen to a lot of them, and I would love your recommendations.
So fire away! Handsell me the audio books you think would fit me best.
I will be most appreciative, and the drives of Richmond will thank you. The happier I am, the less crazy gesticulating I do. And that’s good for all of us.
My horrible dare is complete!
2009 at 9am Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
If you’ve been following along here lately, you know all about the HORRIBLE DARE in which Trish challenged me to read a Nicholas Sparks novel. I completed the dare during this weekend’s Read-A-Thon by reading and tweeting about The Last Song. Check out those tweets with my customized #IHeartTheSpark hashtag. Before I get into the nitty gritty, let me explain a bit about where all of this came from.
I’ve never really given much thought to Nicholas Sparks. Sure, I’ve seen The Notebook (still mad at my sister for forcing that one on me), and in my bookselling career, I’ve watched a virtually endless parade of sentimental teenage girls who haven’t yet discovered Jodi Picoult and little old ladies whose book clubs read only Nicholas Sparks novels, but I’ve never really done more than roll my eyes and move along. I may be a snobby reader—a fact I’m willing to admit—but at the core, I just want people to read.
Even if it means they read Nicholas Sparks or James Patterson or Dan Brown or, god forbid, Stephenie Meyer.
(Yep, there’s that book snob thing creeping in again.)
Usually, when people rave about some author I consider commercial or pedestrian, I just smile and nod and then suggest something that is, at least in my opinion, similar but better. It’s the gateway drug concept I’ve mentioned before. Your teenage daughter got hooked on poorly written vampire romance novels? Well, the good news is that the characters in those novels actually read classic literature, and you might be able to hook your kid into it that way. You get the idea.
So Nicholas Sparks has just always been one of those authors whose existence and success I tolerated but tried to ignore. He just wasn’t on my radar.
But that all changed at the National Book Festival, when Nicholas Sparks spoke in between John Irving (a hard act to follow for anyone) and Junot Diaz and really, well, made an ass of himself (read my wrap-up here). If you don’t believe me, or if you’re just morbidly curious, you can watch the video yourself. Read more
The Sunday Salon 10.25.09
2009 at 11am Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
We all know I usually relish my lazy Sundays on the couch, and I’m sure today will be no different, except that I spent 19 out of the last 26 hours on this couch, and I’m starting to worry that my ass my have permanently fused itself to the leather. Seriously.
I was really hoping to make it all the way through my first 24-hour read-a-thon yesterday, but after 19 hours of reading with only a few short breaks and no napping, I had to call it quits at 3am. I was starting to lose it, and if you don’t believe me, just scroll down and read my last update. Here’s a quick recap:
I kicked off the morning with three hours of Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving. I slow down when I read Irving because I want to absorb the details and savor the language and allow myself to be pulled completely into the story, and Last Night in Twisted River hasn’t disappointed so far, but it didn’t do much for my page count because I do read Irving more slowly and deliberately than I read most other authors.
That’s okay, though, because the read-a-thon wasn’t about quantity for me. I can admit that I’m a snobby reader, and if I was going to spend 24 hours reading, I wanted to spend them reading good books.
So, of course, after three hours of Irving (which I then put on hold until after the event), I picked up Nicholas Sparks.
I made it through 172 pages of The Last Song, happily tweeting along at #IHeartTheSpark until my brain just couldn’t take any more. I had to switch to something with substance.
So I read Ayelet Waldman’s Bad Mother, then I jumped into Same Kind of Different as Me, which was wonderful, but damn, if I had known it was going to be an emotional read, I wouldn’t have read it in the frazzled-nerves portion of the read-a-thon, and I felt pretty accomplished for finishing those two heavy-ish books.
But my brain was turning to mush, so I figured it was a good time for more Nicholas Sparks, so I read another 100 pages, and then I just couldn’t take it anymore.
So here I am, on Sunday, snuggled in my jammies on my favorite corner of the couch, and I still have 100 pages of The Last Song to finish before I can move on to my book club’s selection for this Wednesday, Gossip of the Starlings, and then, someday, finally finish the Irving.
Aside from the read-a-thon, I had a pretty quiet week here at the blog. It was the first week of my new job, and I just didn’t have much reading or writing time. I did review Vera and the Ambassador, though, and I’m hoping to have a full week of reviews if I can just motivate myself to write about the books I read last night.
Before I wrap up, I just want to give a shout out to the cheerleaders who faithfully commented and tweeted and kept me motivated throughout the read-a-thon. It really did make a differene, an I SO appreciate it.
So tell me, did you read-a-thon? What are you up to this weekend?
