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May
23
The Sunday Salon 5.23.10
2010 at 9am Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
Ahhh, Sunday. I’m jammied up, snuggled up, rested up, and gearing up for BEA. And damn, it feels good. Especially the whole part about being rested up. That hasn’t happened in a while.
It was a big week around these parts, in every way except for reading. I rolled out my snazzy new design (if you haven’t seen it yet, I hope you’ll take a minute to click through from your RSS reader and take a look) and announced the Get in Bed with a Book Blogger campaign I’ve been working on with SIBA and Fountain Bookstore.
While all of the backroom stuff was transitioning for the blog, I wasn’t allowed to post new content, and I got all antsy not being able to chat online, so I decided to play with Formspring. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s a simple social media thingy that allows you to (anonymously) submit a question, and I’ll answer it. So, get your nosy on here.
I’m STILL reading Matterhorn, and it is STILL amazing. I’ve given up on the goal of having it finished before BEA, but I’m looking forward to having airport and flight time dedicated to it.
I mentioned last week that Bob and I had taken our nephew out to dinner, where he proceeded to eat the biggest piece of chocolate cake ever. Look what I found when I finally got around to uploading photos last night:
I’m not sure that the photo really captures the scale of this ginormous piece of cake, so suffice it to say that it was really quite amazing to watch an eight-year-old devour it. And the plate was C-L-E-A-N when he finished. I’m pretty sure he would’ve licked it if we’d let him.
And for something much more civilized, here I am with the lovely Elise Blackwell, whom I had the pleasure of meeting during her signing of An Unfinished Score (which is going to New York with me) at Fountain this week. Elise has a fabulous guest post in the works, and I look forward to sharing it with you soon.
I’ll be spending the rest of the day with Matterhorn and my BEA packing, then it’s time for a LOST finale party with a few close friends. I head out for New York tomorrow morning and have a few things lined up to keep you company while I’m gone. And one last reminder that if you can’t make it to BEA, you can still participate in Armchair BEA.
Have a great Sunday!
Now tell me….what are you reading?
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Rebecca Schinsky
Get in Bed with a Book Blogger!
2010 at 2pm Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
For the last several months, I’ve been raving about my partnership with Fountain Bookstore. Hooking up with an independent bookseller just made sense to me, and I’m lucky that it also made sense to Fountain’s owner Kelly Justice, who is quickly becoming my favorite partner in crime. Kelly and I spent this past Sunday lolling about in a fancy bed at Richmond furniture store La Difference (which was cool enough to allow our crazy behavior during business hours), and it was all in the name of books!
It seems that the fun Kelly and I are having is contagious, and today SIBA (that’s the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) announces that it is jumping on the crazy train with us and encouraging other independent booksellers to partner with local bloggers. We call it “Get in Bed with a Book Blogger,” and we want you to party with us, too.
It just makes sense, people! Read the full article here, and email wanda@sibaweb.com to find out about how you can be part of Get in Bed with a Book Blogger.
Special thanks to Jamie Lewis of Spa 310 for styling, photographer PJ Sykes, La Diff, and SIBA Executive Director Wanda Jewell for enthusiastic support of this project.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Rebecca Schinsky
Just Read It: THE SINGER’S GUN by Emily St. John Mandel
2010 at 12pm Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
Published May 4, 2010 by Unbridled Books
How good is The Singer’s Gun? So good that it defies description. So good that I’ve been raving it about it nonstop. So good—and so full of twists and turns and subtle surprises—that I can’t write my traditional review of it because I don’t want to give away anything.
This is what Unbridled’s website has to say about it:
Everyone Anton Waker grew up with is corrupt. His parents deal in stolen goods and his first career is a partnership venture with his cousin Aria selling forged passports and social security cards to illegal aliens. Anton longs for a less questionable way of living in the world and by his late twenties has reinvented himself as a successful middle manager. Then a routine security check suggests that things are not quite what they appear. And Aria begins blackmailing him to do one last job for her. But the seemingly simple job proves to have profound and unexpected repercussions.
As Anton’s carefully constructed life begins to disintegrate around him, he’s forced to choose between loyalty to his family and his desires for a different kind of life. When everyone is willing to use someone else to escape the past, it is up to Anton, on the island of Ischia, to face the ghosts that travel close behind him.
And here’s what I think: whether you normally read thrillers or not, you NEED to read The Singer’s Gun. Mandel’s characters are complex, conflicted, and carefully drawn. Her prose is beautiful, and her examination of identity—on many levels—and family and the drive to create “a different kind of life” is quietly mindblowing. They live in the moral gray areas, and they know it. Anton’s father tells him “You have to do things that are a little questionable sometimes…It’s all part of making a living,” and his mother tells him, “It isn’t black-and-white, what we do or what anyone else does in the world.” Read more
Now looky here…
2010 at 11am Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
If you’re reading this in your RSS feeder, congratulations! You succeeded in following my less-then-subtle nudgings to make sure you had the correct feed as I prepared to launch a re-design. *clap clap clap* for you!
Now click on through and come check out the new look!
You’ve seen some of the header images before, thanks to the fun of #pantyworthy, but I want to give a big shout-out again to photographer PJ Sykes for sharing his time and straight-up skillz to make the photos happen and to Fountain Bookstore for being cool enough to let me run around in my unmentionables during business hours.
But the biggest thank you of them all goes to Karen Lewis of Simply Amusing Designs for creating this superfab design, answering my ridiculous emails, and putting up with me when I couldn’t remember the difference between gravatar, blavatar, and favicon. Karen took the time to understand what I do here at The Book Lady’s Blog and to capture my vibe, and she exhibited the patience of a saint when I obsessed over finding the *perfect* shade of green. I was really hesitant to make the transition to self-hosting because I had heard tons of horror stories, but Karen’s made it easy and painless, and if you are thinking about having your blog or website redesigned, I can’t recommend her highly enough.
On the off chance that the DNS (whatever the hell that is) is still propagating—don’t be fooled; I have no idea what that means—and I might lose new this post, I’m going to stop here and let you know that we’ll return to business as usual tomorrow. And I have some fun things coming up!
In the meantime, I’m feeling chatty, so I started a Formspring account. If you’re unfamiliar, Formspring allows you to submit questions (anonymously!) for users and see their answers. It can be serious, silly, substantive, or downright ridiculous. We all know that I love me some oversharing, so head on over there and ask me anything.
And if you’re new ’round these parts or had to come here the old-fashioned way because the feed in your RSS reader up and died after you ignored (how dare you!) my multiple reminders, you’re just one click away from reconnection, thanks to the handy RSS icon in the “connect” box at the top of the sidebar. Hope you’ll join me on this next part of the ride!
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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Rebecca Schinsky
Going to BEA and the Book Blogger Con? Let's get together!
2010 at 11am Posted by Rebecca Schinsky
This time next Monday morning, I’ll be on a plane to New York for BEA and the Book Blogger Convention. In many ways, it will be the culmination of a lot of hard work and planning, and in others, it will be the beginning. I’m trying to sleep a ton this week, knowing I’ll be lucky to get four hours a night next week, and I’m gearing up for that exhaustion that comes with being “on” for days on end.
It will be tiring. But it will be awesome.
I have comfortable shoes, business cards, and fun outfits ready to go, and I only wish I’d thought to ask the #pantyworthy stylist if I could keep the pink flower from our shoot to wear in my hair so you could recognize me.
I have my Google Calendar to keep me organized and a highlighted list of events and author signings, and I’m looking forward to several meet-up/tweetup events.
And I’d love to meet you, too! So if you want to get together to gab or gossip or gush about great books next week, let me know! Email me at bookladyblog at gmail dot com or DM me on Twitter so we can trade cell numbers and make plans. Also check out Dawn’s post to enter your info into a book blogger contact form that will organize all of our deets and simplify the process.
I’m off to look at that schedule one last time and do some additional highlighting. What are your can’t-miss events for the week?
And if you can’t make it to New York next week, you don’t have to feel left out of the action. Several awesome bloggers put their heads together and created Armchair BEA, in which you can participate from the comfort of your couch. Register for Armchair BEA here.
Let the countdown begin!
