I won!!!

I won! I won! I WON!!!

I don't get to say that very often, so I'm saying it with lots of passion while I can.  I clicked "Like" on a facebook status from my favorite local little bookstore and won a $10 gift card for the store.  Not like I had to do anything showcasing my multitude of talents, it was just random.  All the same, I'm pretty excited! 

Knowing me and my love of owning my own books (never did like giving books back to the library), I will most likely spend more than $10.  I'm kind of like that I guess. Not sure where I will put any more books or when I will have time to read anything, but I will sure have fun buying something new.

Wheels are turning

My favorite little bookstore here in town was in the newspaper recently.  In the article, the journalist sort of went off on a tangent and started to discuss a new machine at the library.  It sounds so cool!

It's a book publishing machine.  You can print a book that the library doesn't own, if it is available in the database of thousands of titles, or you can print your own book.  It comes out all printed, covered and bound.  Isn't that the neatest thing?

And did you catch that bit about printing your own book?  Yes, my friends, a person could self-publish.  Self publish.  Hmmmm.  I've got wheels spinning in my head.

I was on the phone telling my husband about this machine, and I started to tell him there was this big exciting thing at the library and then I interrupted myself and said, "I've turned into my mother haven't I?"  My mom the librarian, always telling me library news. Haha!  Now here I am spouting off library news. Oh well, I told him anyway. He thought it was pretty cool!  And next thing you know he's encouraging me to write a book. He even had a bunch of ideas for me.

Wish it was as easy as blogging!

August Book Club

I joined a local book club. I miss the great discussions in class about the books; the discussions always added so much more to the book. Other readers had ideas and interpretations that I didn't think of, so I figured a book club would be fun. Literary discussion to enrich the text in a social grown-up setting! Wow!

I googled "book club Murrieta" and bingo, found one. From their website, which was awesome, I found out they were reading Wicked by Gregory Macguire for the August meeting. No problemo! I read it, Loved it, and saw the play. Then I read other books by the same author because I loved Wicked so much.

I read this book quite some time ago, two or three years maybe? I then lent it to my friend who saw the musical three times and was hungry for more. Every time I asked her if she liked it, or if she finished the book, she told me she hasn't finished it yet. I finally stopped asking. So, I never did get my copy of Wicked back. I called her last week for it and she didn't know where it was but she'd find it and bring it over "tomorrow". Uh huh. I checked around town for the book and didn't find it; I went to the public library and they didn't own a copy. How does the library not own a copy of this book? Anyway, I went to the book club without being able to refresh my memory on the nitty gritty details, but that's ok. I remember enough. I hope.

We met at this awesome little book store, Eclectic Books. I love it! I had no idea it was tucked back in the corner of the shopping center, maybe because I never go to that shopping center, but it was a gem of a find! Of course, the bookstore owners knew Katie and told me to wish her well. Katie played a show there before she moved to South Carolina.

There were eight ladies there including me. And three of us were named Mary!

I walked into the book store and found a group of ladies sitting around and walked up to them and said, "Hi. Is this the book club?" and one of them said "That's us" so I introduced myself and sat down between two Marys. Someone said, "Did you like the book?" Of course I responded enthusiastically, "I loved it!"

There was a collective groan. They went around and said how they all hated it. Most of them didn't even read to the half-way point. What? Seriously? My big balloon of enthusiasm deflated.

The bookstore owner, Tess, came to the group and handed out bookmarkers and explained the store specials and offered her help to the group. She was nice. She also started to read Wicked and didn't get very far. Ugh. Another one.

At this point, I was very disappointed. I got up to get a cup of coffee that Tess made for the group and I needed to take a moment and shake off the shock. How on earth could anyone not love this book, let alone a group of people! Shock and dismay!

Back to the group. Fine, lets talk about why they didn't like it. I gotta figure this out!


[Gracie wants some attention... this post will be continued... stay tuned!]


Part II...

I got my coffee and sat back down, then another gal showed up. She was perky and happy. She said she liked the book! Yes! I was so outnumbered! Still outnumbered, but not alone now.

We went around and discussed the novel. Mrs. Laid-Back, she said she didn't understand it. Too much politics and religion and ah phooey, so boring. Miss Quiet said she finished it but struggled to the end, just hated it. She gave no reasons why and she never spoke again. Another speechless one said she didn't finish it, it was boring. One of the Marys said she didn't like the tone. The other Mary said it wasn't her genre. (Finally, one of them gives a reason!) On the other side of that Mary, she said she was bored, she almost got halfway through, she just didn't get it.

There were comments about how the book lacked romance, it had too many adult elements, politics was boring, it was hard to follow, the characters weren't like they were in the Wizard of Oz movie, and there were too many big words.

This conversation was just killing me! The group was throwing out all these excuses but they weren't giving examples and they weren't backing up their statements with anything specific. They didn't seem to want to discuss it.

The other lady who liked the book talked about why she liked it. I agreed with her and we talked a bit about how great it was that it is an adult book, had deep characters, involved politics and religion, included geographic imagery, and was complicated and twisted. We talked about the characters, some of the events that took place in the story and some of the characters' traits. We compared the story to the movie Wizard of Oz.

A couple of ladies mentioned they saw the play. I saw the play too, a year ago. It was an amazing musical! So, were these ladies thinking they would be reading a musical? The lady who liked the book hadn't seen the musical. Hmmm....

Conversation quickly turned to Stephanie Myers' Twilight series. They all perked up and got excited, even the two quiet ladies sat up a little taller. I guess they read two of the books in previous months, and the third book they read on their own. Now it was my turn to lose interest. I haven't read any of the Twilight books; I think I'm the only one on the face of the Earth who hasn't.

The next book for the book club is The Time Traveler's Wife. The ladies all decided to go see the movie. Really? Is this a book club or a movie club? Are they all going to like books for young teens and books that are current box office hits? I'm not too sure about this book club. I picked up the book, and I hope it is a good story, but I don't really have my hopes up about this book club. I left the bookstore feeling disappointed.

Does this mean I miss college? Ah, Shucks.

Jimmy Wooten

In the town where my family is from, there is a legendary tale about a man named Jimmy Wooten. I hear the story every summer and someday I hope to go visit his gravestone.

Briefly, here is how the story goes: One Hundred Years Ago... A mail carrier was on his route in the middle of nowhere Wyoming. It was blizzarding cold, he was drunk on "Four Roses" Whiskey. He died. El Fin.

Now, there are a few details I may have glossed over, but really, that's the meat of the story. A mailman froze to death in Wyoming a hundred years ago. I am amazed by this story, totally astonished! Why? Because it's a local legend! It's a story that is being passed down the generations. The grave site is protected and cared for by several people who never knew him. Stories have been written about him. The local historian can talk for hours about his life and death.

Really, it's amazing that this man became a legend. That is what astounds me. I am not saying he didn't deserve the attention. I'm just saying that the story of this man could have very easily been lost under the snow that winter. He very easily could have been nobody. Very easily just a "Hmm, where's my mail?" and that would have been all. I venture to guess that a lot of people froze to death in the bitter Wyoming winters in the 1800s. The 1900s too. And the 2000s.

I think the story is significant though. As simple as it is, it tells the truth about the harsh life and hard times that we've all come from. It's a story about Mother Nature vs Man and she wins. But mostly, it's a story about the wonderful caring people of Wyoming who refuse to forget, who respected a man they barely knew, who do what's right instead of what's easy. The story is more about the people who tell the story than it is about Jimmy Wooten. He's a legend, but the real story is in the people he left behind.

The local historian, Big Jim, wrote a book about Jimmy Wooten after my grandfather told him the tale. My grandpa used to care for the secretly located grave site, then Big Jim, now he's passed it on too. If you like a good story, with all the details, rather than my one sentence summary, you can order the book from Big Jim. It is worth owning.

After sitting with Big Jim for a few hours and discussing the legend of Jimmy Wooten, my husband was inspired to write a song. You can hear the tune HERE.

Rest in Peace, Jimmy Wooten.

New Book from Sandra Dallas

I love this author! I have all of her books, except this one because it hasn't arrived yet. My favorite genre is historical fiction and this is exactly what Sandra Dallas writes. Good fun novels with some reality in them. This new one is called Prayers for Sale, looks great!

My grandma, my mom and my sister also read her books. We have the full set between us, and I am lucky enough to be the keeper of the books. We get one book and pass it around so we all get to read it, then I shelve it with the set. One of these days my other sister will have some spare time and we'll let her borrow the set; I'm sure she'll be hooked too.

I hesitate to say that Sandra Dallas is my favorite author, only because I have a lot of favorite authors. But she's right up there. If I'm waiting for a new book release and order it as soon as possible and I'm all excited waiting for it to arrive, I think that qualifies the author as one of my favorites without having to say it! I don't like to use the word "favorite" because it's just too exclusive. I like leaving my options open.

My other favorite author of the moment is another contemporary historical fiction author from the midwest, Ana Castillo. I've got a thing going for this kind of work I guess. I only own one of her books, but rest assured I will have them all soon enough. Her new book, The Guardians, was just released in 2007 according to her website, but I think it was just last year that it finally came out. Time flies and I lose track. Anyway, I am looking forward to reading her new book as well as her other novels.



I have only read So Far From God, and some of her poetry. The novel was a great mix of historical fiction and magical realism and feminism, and Southwestern Culture - just about everything! That book was just enough to get me all excited and put her up there with Sandra Dallas in my favorite of the favorites list of authors. Another book that I will lend to my family and then I'll shelve it next to my Sandra Dallas books.

I also have sets of JK Rowling books, just the Harry Potter series, not her other supplementary writings. And I have almost all of the Gregory McGuire books. Those are fun! Neither of these are historical fiction, but I branch out. They are fun books. I have a few of the McGuire books yet to read and I need to replace Wicked. I lent it to a friend and never saw it again.

I can't wait for my college semester to end so I can get on with my fun reading list!