Books Etc's Blog

2010-01-06T11:02:00.003-05:00

Chananel 6's 207 finally posted Donna's pre-Christmas children's segment linked here for your viewing pleasure!

2010-01-03T19:58:00.000-05:00

Book Signing with Jennifer McMahon

2009-06-10T14:04:00.028-04:00

Join us on Thursday, June 25th at 3pm

Dismantled
by Jennifer McMahon

"A failed marriage. A long-buried secret. A lonely
child's imaginary friend. From these simple ingredients,
Jennifer McMahon has constructed a fun, twisty
thriller. Expect Dismantled to earn comparisons to
The Secret History."

- Stewart O'Nan, author of Songs for the Missing

About the Author
Jennifer McMahon writes full time and lives in Barre, Vermont with her partner, Drea and their daughter, Zella. Dismantled is her third novel, following Island of Lost Girls and Promise Not to Tell.

Donna's Favorites's

2009-03-19T16:18:00.010-04:00

Pictured here are a few of the books I spoke about while doing a recent "207" on wsch6 TV.
The 2 books I'm probably the most excited about are Backyard Homesteading by Carleen Madigan and Gardening When it Counts by Steve Solomon. Both are very comprehensive and through, with lots of very useful info. They are easy to follow and process and Backyard Homestead is full of great illustrations. Gardening when it Counts is so complete I can't imagine that you'd need any other book on vegetable growing, at least to get you started .. let's face it though if your like me, collecting gardening books can take on a life of it's own.

THE LAST " 207 " SEGMENT THAT BOOKS ETC CONTRIBUTED TOO

2009-03-19T16:00:00.005-04:00

Listed below is the full list of titles on sustainability/gardening that appeared on the table during the '207" segment I did that aired Friday, March 14th.

The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest - Carol W. Costenbader

Root Cellaring - Mike & Nancy Bubel

Build Your Own Underground Root Cellar- Phyllis Hobson

Easy Composters You Can Build - Nick Noyes

Growing Herbs In Containers - Sal Gilbertie & Maggie Oster

The Homebrewer’s Garden - Joe & Dennis Fisher

Organic Crops in Pots - Deborah Schneebeli-Morrell

In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan

Preserving Summer’s Bounty - A Rodale Garden Book

Community Gardening - Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Putting Food By - Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzberg, & Beatrice Vaughan

The Omnivore’s Dilemma - Michael Pollan

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingsolver

Complete Guide to Home Canning and Preserving - U.S. Department of Agriculture

The Renewable Energy Handbook - William H. Kemp

How to Grow More Vegetables - John Jeavons

The Complete Compost Gardening Guide - Barbara Pleasant & Deborah L. Martin

Living Green - Greg Horn

Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning - The Gardeners & Farmers of Terre Vivante

Sharing the Harvest - Elizabeth Henderson

The Backyard Homestead - Carleen Madigan

Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn - Fritz Haeg

Grow It. Eat It. - Linda Larson

Don’t Throw It, Grow It! - Deborah Peterson & Millicent Selsam

Food Not Lawns - H.C. Flores

Gardening When It Counts - Steve Solomon

Fresh Food From Small Spaces - R.J. Ruppenthal

On Guerrilla Gardening - Richard Reynolds

Grow Organic - DK Publishing

2009-03-18T16:15:00.003-04:00

Books Etc was lucky enough to be part of a celebration to honor Maine's own Melissa Sweet on Saturday-March 14th . Melissa recently was awarded a Caldecott Honor, the book world's highest honor for book illustration, for the book, River of Words-The Story of Williams Carlos Williams, written by Jen Bryant and illustrated by Melissa Sweet. The text, part brief biography of his childhood and later career as a doctor interspersed with the constant stream of poems he wrote about everyday objects, weaves it's way around the lush and jewel-like illustrations that are full to bursting from this fabulous book.
Well over a hundred people stopped by to congratulate Melissa, try their hand at a collage, buy a book or eat some of the fabulous cupcakes provided for the guests.
Kirsten Cappy of Curious City planned and organized this wonderful event and brought it all off with her usual panache.
We still have a few signed copies of this amazing book, which is selling briskly.
If you would like one set aside call soon.

Pictures From the Melissa Sweet Party and Images From the Book

2009-03-18T14:14:00.009-04:00

2009-02-14T15:58:00.003-05:00

JOHN MONAHAN IS FALMOUTH 'S "GO TO" GUY TO FIND OUT ABOUT CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED ADULT FICTION.
SEE HIS LATEST REVIEW BELOW:

2009-02-14T15:51:00.002-05:00

A Free Life
by Ha Jin
paperback 672pgs.
vintage

Ha Jin's new novel, A Free Life, is a wonderfully meticulous and subtle account of a Chinese Family's experience as immigrants in the United States. The acclaimed author's lengthy work received mixed reviews upon it's initial publication in this country. I believe this is due in large part to it's pointed avoidance of melodrama, in favor of a deliberately paced accounting of the banal details of life's everyday struggles. This thoroughness may not provide a conventionally satisfying dramatic experience but it does authentically portray the rhythms of life and is genuinely moving it this respect.
It tells the story of Nan Wu, his wife Pingping and their son Taotao and their struggle to make ends meet after their immigration to the U.S. in aftermath of the Tainanmen massacre. Nan Wu and Pingping share a fragile relationship complicated by it's lack of romantic love, their bond being forged primarily by their commitment to raising their child. Nan Wu's struggle may be difficult for some readers to sympathize with as he constantly pines for his lost love to the detriment of his marriage and struggles with his ambition to write poetry while facing the practical demands of supporting a family. Yet these concerns are precisely what render the narrative an authentic portrait of life's real tribulations and provide an emotional thread to bind the largely episodic narrative together. A Free Life is Ha Jin's first novel written directly in English and this gives it's language a simplicity which some may find awkward, yet it's crucial in giving the work an authentic clarity. New in paperback, A Free Life is a long and in some ways demanding work that moves at a slow pace but it rewards one's attention thoroughly and leaves the reader pining for more at it's conclusion.

-john

Elegance of the Hedgehog

2009-02-14T14:09:00.006-05:00

Elegance of the Hedgehog

by Muriel Barbery
Translated by Allison Anderson
325pp. paper $15.00

This book has been a bestseller in France and Lola from our Falmouth store is fast making it a best seller right here.
Read her review below:

The book I'm most excited about right now is "The Elegance of the Hedgehog," by Muriel Barbury. (It's published by Europa Editions, and they have never bored me. Not once.) "Hedgehog" is a wonderful book -- one person might read an engaging story of an unlikely friendship between the concierge of a tres chic Parisian condo building and a 12 year old girl. Another person will realize belatedly that s/he thinks something about philosophy, unthought before the book. Another person will internalize it all and try to figure out whether she or he is a hedgehog or a fox. (Many Tolstoy references, subtle, and not so, in this book. The author doesn't give you a trail, but I will: Archilochus, Tolstoy, Berlin. I forced my book group to read this. To a person, they said thank you. And I was really grateful to have friends to discuss it with. This was my absolute favorite fiction of 2008.

A great young adult recommendation by Karen Keyte, manager of the Falmouth Books Etc. Who says nothing exciting every happens in Maine?

2009-02-05T16:47:00.004-05:00

Need
by Carrie Jones (ages 12 & up)
Bloomsbury USA
Zara White collects fears the way other people collect baseball cards or state quarters. She memorizes the names of obscure phobias and repeats them to herself, the better to ward off her own fears. “It’s a lot easier to understand things once you name them,” Zara thinks. “It’s mostly the unknown that freaks me out.”
Once an avid runner and a passionate supporter of Amnesty International, Zara’s world changed dramatically with the death of her father (“My stepdad, really. I call him my dad. He was my dad. He raised me.”) After a couple of months of watching Zara stumble through life like a zombie, her mother has decided to pack the high school junior off to Maine to live with her grandmother, ostensibly to "get her spunk back."
Almost immediately, Zara notices a several strange things about the tiny town of Bedford: it's very cold, colder than you’d expect; the boys all seem to be taller than average; almost all of the students at her new school are fast runners; and, oh yeah, it may be infested with pixies.
Just to be clear, we're not talking the Tinkerbell kind of pixie here. We're talking pixies that use glamours to disguise themselves as humans so that they can use local teens to feed their terrible needs.
Luckily for Zara, her new friends Issie, Devyn and Nick (as well as her grandmother, Betty) are made of stern stuff. She’s going to need all the help she can get when the evil lurking in the Maine woods comes calling for her.

Peter Turner this Sunday!

2009-01-30T15:49:00.002-05:00

We've just scheduled local furnituremaker Peter Turner, featured in the February issue of 'Fine Woodworking,' for an event this Sunday at 2pm here at our Portland store. He'll talk about the process of working on the article, as well as displaying the blanket chest shown above. A discussion time will follow his presentation.

The Awesomeness That Is Hannah Holmes

2009-01-30T12:05:00.008-05:00

Last week we hosted one of our funniest local authors, science and nature writer Hannah Holmes. She was here promoting her newest book, The Well-Dressed Ape: A Natural History of Myself.

Just in case you weren't aware, she's awesome!
And good at showing off her Pinnal Flap, as you can see...

Her reading technique this time around was quite innovative, and started with a little bit of a story. She said (roughly): "So I was at a concert recently, an unplugged concert, and the musician had all these guitars lined up across the stage, so somebody yelled out 'hey, what's with all the guitars,' and he answered that each guitar was for a different song, as they all sound different and are tuned differently too. So some other wiseacre calls out 'play number fourteen!' So he did, and abandoned his set list and just played the songs in the order that the audience called out."

And this is the methodology she employed - audience members called out page numbers and she read whatever was on that page. It was actually quite effective for this kind of book as there's something interesting on every page, and every page makes you wonder a bit about the context and what else might be mentioned nearby. The audience certainly seemed to appreciate it. Though Hannah might appreciate not suggesting page 16 ever again, as it involves a section titled 'Prominent Mammary Glands.'

Just for future reference.

Hannah was also featured on the local television newsmagazine '207' a couple weeks ago, if you want to see her in live-action here.

Inventory 2009

2009-01-16T08:57:00.008-05:00

In bookselling, as in all retail ventures, it becomes periodically necessary to do an inventory of goods. We here at Books, Etc. always do ours in January because inventory involves closing for an entire day and ripping the store basically to pieces, and this is the slowest time of year. We begin prepping as soon as the holiday rush is over, doing all sorts of organizing and running all sorts of fun reports. Inventory is always on a Monday at the Portland store and the following Tuesday in Falmouth so that we can sequentially share the laser machines(!) that we rent to scan the books.

The day before inventory we go around and work down every display, endcap, window, tabletop bookstand, etc., and then in the morning we shove everything around on the shelves to make it as easy as possible to scan everything quickly. The end result is something like this:

Understandably, and especially in this economic climate, we spend a good proportion of both Sunday and Tuesday explaining what's going on and that no, we're not closing, remodeling, or moving. We did have one woman this year who walked in on Sunday evening, took one look around, smiled, and cheerily commented "Wow, you must be doing inventory!"

I kind of wanted to hug her.

Of course, the best part about inventory (other than the computers being updated so that they're actually accurate!) is that Allan (the Big Cheese) always buys us coffee in the morning and lunch at lunch. The past few years it's been Asian fusion from Fuji, across the street, but this year we tried out a new pizza place, Joe's New York, that opened up around the corner in the old Granny's Burritos space. It was pretty darn tasty, and they even brought it to us in the middle of the snowstorm that inevitably seems to accompany inventory.

There's definitely something to be said for sitting around with your coworkers and your boss, eating and shooting the breeze. Downright relaxing it is, and very unlike our usual customer-service buzz!

Sidney Hall, Jr. Event Roundup

2009-01-15T22:44:00.003-05:00

This past Thursday we were lucky enough to have Sidney Hall, Jr. here at our Portland store. He read excerpts from his newest, Fumbling In The Light, as well What We Will Give Each Other and Chebeague, a collection of poems he wrote while visiting that island in Casco Bay. It was a wonderful reading with an enthusiastic audience!
Elizabeth Tibbetts was unfortunately ill and not able to make it this time around, but we look forward to rescheduling an event for her in the future.

Up next in our events schedule is fellow local Hannah Holmes on January 22nd, who was profiled in the January 4th edition of the Maine Sunday Telegram. The article can be read here, though you may need to free-register to access it.

2009-01-13T09:43:00.005-05:00

For those of you who are wondering how a book gets produced and sold, the digital marketing department at MacMillan produced this amusing explanation

To be taken with a grain of salt!

January and February Events

2009-01-07T10:29:00.003-05:00

Fumbling In The Light by Sidney Hall, Jr.
and
In The Well by Elizabeth Tibbetts

Sidney Hall, Jr.has lived most of his life in southern New Hampshire. His poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals such as Graham House Review, Chattahoochie Review, Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, and Hollins Critic . He was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and three of his poems have appeared on NPR's "The Writer's Almanac." He is also a publisher, book designer, and typograher. Fumbling In The Light is his third book of poems.

Elizabeth Tibbetts lives in Maine and works as a nurse. She has received a Maine Arts Commission Fellowship and Good Idea Grant, and a Martin Dibner Fellowship. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The American Scholar, The Beloit Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, and North American Review.
She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and two of her poems have appeared on NPR's "The Writer's Almanac." In The Well is the winner of the 2002 Bluestem Poetry Award.

Where & When
5:30 pm Snacks and Coffee
6:00 pm Poetry Reading

Thursday, January 8th

38 Exchange Street
Portland, Maine 04101

The Well-Dressed Ape: A Natural History of Myself

Hannah Holmes

With wit, humility, and penetrating insight, science journalist Hannah Holmes casts the inquisitive eye of a trained researcher and reporter on . . . herself. And not just herself, but on our whole species-what Shakespeare called "the paragon of animals." In this surprising, humorous, and edifying book, Holmes explores how the human animal-the eponymous well-dressed ape-fits into the natural world, even as we humans change that world in both constructive and destructive ways.

"A very important book - a graceful and forceful reminder that the natural world is everywhere all around us." - Bill McKibben

Hannah Holmes is the author of Suburban Safari and The Secret Life of Dust. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Discover, Outside, and many other publications. She was a frequent contributor on science and nature subjects for the Discovery Channel Online. She lives with her husband and dog here in Portland.

Where & When
7 pm

Thursday, January 22nd

38 Exchange Street
Portland, Maine 04101

Asta In The Wings
Jan Elizabeth Watson

Asta In The Wings is a poignant and often darkly funny story narrated by Asta Hewitt, a resourceful seven-year-old growing up in an isolated house in Bond Brook, Maine. Shut off from the outside world and restricted to the company of a delusional mother and a bookish older brother, Asta is content to be part of a "society of three," constructing fanciful, theatrical worlds of their own. When circumstances push her into a strange outside world - with all of its discontents - Asta must find a way to assimilate while remaining true to herself and her fractured family.

Jan Elizabeth Watson was born in Washington DC, grew up in Maine, and spent nearly a decade in New York City, where she received her MFA from Columbia University. She has worked extensively as an editor, copywriter, and adjunct professor of creative writing. She lives in Maine and has one child, a daughter. Asta In The Wings is her first novel, and has received starred reviews in Booklist and Publishers Weekly.

Where & When
6 pm
Friday, February 6th
38 Exchange Street
Portland, Maine 04101

Lincoln: The Biography Of A Writer
Fred Kaplan

Since Lincoln, no president has written his own words and addressed his audience with equal and enduring effectiveness. Acclaimed biographer Fred Kaplan focuses on the elements that shaped Lincoln's mental and imaginative world; how his writings molded his identity, relationships, and career; and how they simultaneously generated both the distinctive political figure he became and the public discourse of the nation. This unique account of Lincoln's life and career highlights the shortcomings of the modern presidency, reminding us, through Lincoln's legacy and appreciation for language, that the careful and honest use of words is a necessity for successful democracy.

Fred Kaplan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of several biographies, including The Singular Mark Twain, Gore Vidal, Henry James, The Imagination of Genius, Charles Dickens, and Thomas Carlyle, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Boothbay, Maine.

Join us in celebrating Lincoln's 200th birthday this February 12th!

Where & When
5:30 pm
Thursday, February 12th
38 Exchange Street
Portland, Maine 04101

Random photo of the day!

2008-12-28T20:41:00.004-05:00

Because we're all in a little bit of a post-holiday retail haze, as I'm sure everyone can appreciate, and sometimes we just need a little help with our regular daily activities.

Never let it be said that booksellers are above pointing out the painfully obvious!

We now return to our semi-regularly scheduled holiday update on the status of the back door...

2008-12-25T09:57:00.000-05:00

A new tradition is in the offing here at the Books, Etc. Blog: the holiday status check on the back door (and possibly other temperamental fixtures - who knows what the future may hold)!

At Thanksgiving we discussed the unfortunate waterfall that appears above our back door with any good rain. Well, the Christmas corollary to that waterfall includes the following, plus several inches of ice on the steps proper. While this sight inspires mild terror when I'm fumbling with my keys or a Dumpster-bound armful of boxes, I must admit that the icicles growing at a 45 degree angle are quite fetching and most awesome!

Happy Christmas to everyone who's celebrating the holiday!

Random photo of the day!

2008-12-17T10:08:00.005-05:00

For a staff that never really exceeds nine or so, we take our coffee very seriously...

Word to the wise: don't get between a bookseller and her caffeine!

2008-12-16T10:29:00.004-05:00

December 11, 2008. I've been talking to booksellers lately who report that times are hard. And local booksellers aren't known for vast reserves of capital, so a serious dip in sales can be devastating. Booksellers don't lose enough money, however, to receive congressional attention. A government bailout isn't in the cards.

We don't want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods. So let's mount a book-buying splurge. Get your friends together, go to your local bookstore and have a book-buying party. Buy the rest of your Christmas presents, but that's just for starters. Clear out the mysteries, wrap up the histories, beam up the science fiction! Round up the westerns, go crazy for self-help, say yes to the university press books! Get a load of those coffee-table books, fatten up on slim volumes of verse, and take a chance on romance!

There will be birthdays in the next twelve months; books keep well; they're easy to wrap: buy those books now. Buy replacements for any books looking raggedy on your shelves. Stockpile children's books as gifts for friends who look like they may eventually give birth. Hold off on the flat-screen TV and the GPS (they'll be cheaper after Christmas) and buy many, many books. Then tell the grateful booksellers, who by this time will be hanging onto your legs begging you to stay and live with their cat in the stockroom: "Got to move on, folks. Got some books to write now. You see...we're the Authors Guild."

Enjoy the holidays.

Roy Blount Jr.
President, Authors Guild

From The Author's Guild, re-posted at the New England Independent Booksellers Association website.

Roy Blount, Jr. is the winner of the 2007 New England Book Award for Non-Fiction, awarded at the 34th Annual New England Independent Booksellers Association Trade Show in Providence, RI. Many of us here at Books, Etc. were lucky enough to be there, hear him speak, and snag a copy of his then-new book Long Time Leaving: Dispatches From Up South. His new-new book Alphabet Juice promises to be just as witty, informative, and funny as his earlier work.

Random photo of the day!

2008-12-15T20:32:00.004-05:00

The view across Exchange St. from inside our winter window. We've had several people come in and ask both where we bought our snowflakes and also if they can buy them from us, which is only really funny because these were all about our staff, scissors, an x-acto knife, craft paper and a whole lot of time and achy wrists. But it's still nice to hear, and the paper snowflakes are certainly more fun than the real wintry mix we've had on the other side of that window!
(Also, am I the only one bothered by the fact that the adjectival form of "winter" is "wintry," not "wintery?" Personally, I'm rather fond of that snubbed e! But maybe that's a topic for another post entirely...)

The whole things-dangling-from-fishing-line theme seems to be a pretty common one on Exchange St. this year - I've seen paper snowflakes, foamcore snowflakes, cotton balls, jingle bells, ribbons, various assorted ornaments... I suppose it's just a reaction to the economy, as fishing line and little tchochkes are pretty darn cheap, but I really like the unintentional unity it creates in the shopfronts as you meander down the street.

Don't Like Reading? Buy a Book Anyway

2008-12-12T09:51:00.002-05:00

Brought to our attention this morning by Shelf Awareness, this opinion piece by the DC Examiner's Meghan Cox Gurdon offers a slightly more sarcastic yet no less valid reason to keep buying books this season...

~~~

Every year when the mistletoe goes up, the plea goes out from America’s dwindling band of independent booksellers: Please, people, keep us alive! Buy our books, give them as gifts!

For decades, small bookshops have battled the twin menaces of massive, price-cutting chains and the vast, easily browsed shelves of on-line retailers.

Many have failed. Not a month seems to go by without the lights winking out at yet another small store. Washington’s own Olsson’s closed in September after 36 years in the business.

Now, it’s a shame when any company folds, but the bleating from independent bookstores has often seemed rather tiresome. Why should readers conspire to make prices higher for themselves?

The sympathies of conservative book buyers are further strained by the seemingly inevitable lefty aura of independent bookstores. (Can you imagine Politics & Prose replacing its supply of mocking anti-Bush paraphernalia with, say, anti-Obama stocking stuffers? Neither can I.)

Yet now it’s no longer just precious, tweedy, bookstore-owning progressives who are in trouble. The book business itself has entered a new and frightening stage that even the arrival of mistletoe seems unable to forestall.

Barnes & Noble is forecasting fourth-quarter sales declines of as much as nine percent. In the last two weeks, major publishing houses -- Simon & Schuster and Random House among them – have announced sweeping layoffs that are taking down even some of the most commercially successful editors. Macmillan U.S. has just frozen wages; San Francisco’s Chronicle Books is downsizing.

Scariest of all for authors and agents was last week’s news that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has apparently stopped buying any new manuscripts. To say this sent a wave of panicky terror through the industry is an understatement.

Books, like automobiles, have a long production process. If a publisher doesn’t buy titles now, it won’t be in a position to deliver boxes of glossy new hardbacks to bookstores later.

“A ban like this is most worrisome to me for what it says about publishing’s bet on the market 18-24 months from now,” observed Publisher’s Weekly editor-in-chief Sara Nelson. “Will the market just be smaller—or nonexistent?”

Now, perhaps you don’t care whether bookstores exist, and maybe you are not, yourself, an avid reader. Still—don’t be indifferent. You live in a culture that since Gutenberg has been more open and free because of the wide availability of books. Even today, when we’re all inundated with reading material, books stand as a particular measure of liberty.

Societies in which books are a rarity are simply not as open or inquiring or free as those with an abundance of them. Consider: The UN’s 2002 Arab Human Development Report found that more books are translated for sale in Spain every year than have been translated into Arabic, for sale in the Arab world, in the last thousand years.

Books -- even bad ones, even cheesy romances, even snooze-worthy political biographies -- don’t simply furnish a room, they furnish the mind.

Fine, you may say, but why should I give someone the gift of a lump of dead tree when they can read on their computer? And if I want to give them a book, isn’t it more hip to buy an e-book and a Kindle? One answer: Real books don’t need a power source. Another: The Kindle is sold out until 11-13 weeks after Christmas.

A couple of weeks ago, the publisher Random House launched an ad campaign with the message: “Books = Gifts.” It may be unabashed self-interest for a company to try to push the products it creates, but in the case of books it’s arguable that we all benefit.

So for the holidays this year, please, people: Buy lots of books. Wrap them up. And give them to the people you love.

Books make great gifts!

2008-12-09T13:41:00.003-05:00

This video from YouTube has a host of authors including Maya Angelou, Elmo, Martha Stewart, Jon Stewart, Deepak Chopra, Julie Andrews, Cesar Millan, , Alec Baldwin, Jim Cramer, Nora Ephron, Mary Higgins Clark, Kathie Lee Gifford, Bill O’Reilly, Frank McCourt, Arianna Huffington, Deidre Imus, Dan Brown, Judy Blume, Jonathan Lethem, Scott Westfield, Rachel Ray and John Lithgow all talking about how books make great gifts!!

Check out our storewide sale while it lasts. Up to 25% off in both locations!

Hanukkah for Grownups

2008-12-07T13:13:00.016-05:00

In all of the hubbub of the season, one oft-overlooked demographic is the Hanukkah-celebrating adult, which is really tragic as there are so many wonderful gift ideas out there!

Just released this fall, Songs For The Butcher's Daughter is an extremely well-researched novel, chock full of subtle clues that Peter Manseau not only loves his subject matter, but also really knows what he's talking about. Manseau ably demonstrates his knowledge of the canon of Jewish-American literature, at one point essentially recreating an iconic scene from Abraham Cahan's Yekl, crafted in such a way as to be a knowing nod to his literary predecessors rather than a cheap imitation. Having known several people over the years who have worked at the real-life National Yiddish Book Center (as did Manseau), Songs also bears the slightly dusty patina of true experience. While this novel will be enjoyed by anyone, those with any background in Jewish literature, the NYBC, or even just Jewish geography will be aware of an entirely different and subtly witty story. And for all you teachers and students of the literary canon out there, it will raise all sorts of interesting questions about the fate of the Jewish novel when one so well-crafted and poised to be a classic in its own right was in fact penned by a Catholic.
Songs is a most excellent companion read to Aaron Lansky's Outwitting History, an account of how Lansky first began the organization that turned into the National Yiddish Book Center - an account deliberately echoed in dramatic book-rescue scenes in Songs. Lansky, who deserves to be called one of the greatest cultural adventurers of our time, writes a gripping chronicle that travels from New York to Moscow to Cuba on a quest to save the world's Yiddish books from the rubbish bin. Along the way with him, you'll want to laugh, cry, and try smuggling books across the border!

Reference works are always a good choice for gifts, and a couple titles stand out this year. Edited by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, the newly-revised edition of Jewish Literacy is the ultimate one-volume everything Jewish reference book, with hundreds of short, cyclopedic, cross-referenced entries from Torah to modern Jewish thought and everything in between. If Bible is your thing, the Jewish Publication Society has recently released a pocket-sized edition of their translation of the Hebrew Bible. I can't speak for anyone else, but I know that I've been waiting for a nice portable all-English edition of the Bible for years! They've even made it available in a variety of covers (white gift edition, denim like a jeans back-pocket, moss, and rose) to suit anybody on your gift list...

Two collections of short stories also deserve special mention - Nathan Englander's For The Relief of Unbearable Urges, and Shira Nayman's Awake In The Dark. Englander's are beautifully sublime stories on some of the most difficult topics, told with the ineffable aura of truth only fables posses. The writing is nearly unbearable itself, so heartbreakingly dense and beautiful that I had to read the stories like I would eat dark chocolate - slowly, in small pieces, and with a bit of a break in between tastes. Nayman's stories are no less dark and wonderful and difficult to read, as she weaves beautiful, terrible, dreamily surreal stories of loss and discovery.

Daniel Radcliffe & Vocab.

2008-12-01T17:34:00.006-05:00

So the other morning I had an odd dream. I was in Portland for work, but I was out on my lunch break at a diner, akin to Becky's Diner but somewhere over near India Street. Anyway, there I was sitting at the bar having my lunch when in walks Daniel Radcliffe* with his mother & brother. (disclaimer: I know absolutely nothing about this actor, or his family) So I smile & make polite conversation (they take the booth behind my bar stool, so this is easy) and mostly spend the time talking to Mrs. Radcliffe about Portland and the weather. Then she & the younger brother leave, and Daniel moves up to the stool next to me. As his family is leaving I say something like "I sincerely hope you have a lovely visit" and they head out the door. Then Daniel looks at me and says, with a slight smirk "Sincerely?" and I probably blush a little bit and say "What? I always use big words when they're not necessary! I use words like 'succinctly' in everyday conversation." Anyway, I proceeded to defend my vocabulary to this complete stranger, explaining about vocab games in middle school, etc. Really, in the end, he was very nice about it. Sadly, I woke up before I could say anything remotely cool.

I'm pretty sure I had this dream because when I was at the bank there was a brief clip of Daniel Radcliffe appearing on some late night talk show.

*In case any of you live under a rock, or have dysnomia, Daniel Radcliffe is the actor who plays Harry Potter

Because Everyone Loves Mary Oliver

2008-12-01T16:34:00.019-05:00

The other day a customer came to the counter with a copy of The Truro Bear and Other Adventures by Mary Oliver. My coworker Anne got very excited, and started rifling through to show off one of her favorite poems, while I got very excited and dashed off to find my favorite poem in Mary Oliver's other new book, Red Bird.

Funnily enough we were looking for the very same poem, and it's probably obvious why we both like it so much!

Percy and Books (Eight)

Percy does not like it when I read a book.
He puts his face over the top of it and moans.
He rolls his eyes, sometimes he sneezes.
The sun is up, he says, and the wind is down.
The tide is out and the neighbor's dogs are playing.
But Percy, I say. Ideas! The elegance of language!
The insights, the funniness, the beautiful stories
that rise and fall and turn into strength, or courage.

Books? says Percy. I ate one once, and it was enough.
Let's go.

Baruch Dayan Emet

2008-11-28T12:02:00.003-05:00

Baruch Dayan Emet, meaning "blessed is the true judge" is the traditional Jewish response upon hearing of a death. As of this morning (Eastern time), it has been confirmed that among those dead at the Mumbai Chabad House, known as Nariman House, are Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife Rivka.

In all of the reporting that I've been following, including the BBC, CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, there has been some confusion as to what exactly Chabad is and what they do, and what the Holtzbergs were doing in Mumbai. Possibly the best resource out there is The Rebbe's Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch, a book that I read several years ago in my own effort to better understand this particular branch of Hasidism.

We extend our deepest sympathies to all of those who have been affected by the recent and ongoing events in Mumbai.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T18:01:00.000-05:00

Having already stuffed myself and given many personal thanks, the time has come for my bookstore thanks.

Going into this wet and icy season, I am thankful that the management company cleaned our gutters, at least partially preventing the waterfall onto our back steps. The waterfall which overpowers the weatherstripping, comes in all around the door (even through the wall above the door), soaks into the carpet, warps the floorboards, and fells all sorts of dumps (like these from the blog of the amazing Scott Westerfeld) with the greatest of ease.

Also check out this super awesome video of the leaky door. Keep your eyes peeled for the splash from above, and remember the previous comment about wall involvement in this whole leak business!

And remember to support your local independents when you go shopping tomorrow (even if they aren't located in leaky old buildings)!

November Events Roundup

2008-11-26T17:26:00.000-05:00

This past month has been full of wonderful authors, both new and returning Books, Etc., and for my first month of being the person-in-charge-of-events, I couldn't have asked for nicer authors or more interesting books!

Falling firmly into the 'returning' category was Gail Straub on the 8th with her new book, Returning to My Mother's House. Eve Ensler, founder of V-Day and author of The Vagina Monologues said that it is "a book of enormous transformation, intimacy, and heart."

Gail Straub is coauthor of the best-selling Empowerment: The Art of Creating Your Life as You Want It and author of the critically acclaimed The Rhythm of Compassion: Caring for Self, Connecting with Society, as well as Circle of Compassion, a book of meditations. Considered a leading authority on empowerment, she codirects the Empowerment Institute, a school for transformative leadership.

On the 20th we were thrilled to welcome Portland's own Colin Sargent. Colin is founding editor and publisher of award-winning Portland Magazine, as well as a board member of Maine Reads. He has been awarded the Maine individual artist fellowship in literature and earned a Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing. He is a playwright and the author of three books of poetry. Museum of Human Beings is his first novel, and tells the story of Sacagawea's son, Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau.

Last but certainly not least was Stephanie Kaza on the 21st. Stephanie is a Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont, and has been actively engaged in campus sustainability initiatives to reduce waste, conserve energy, and promote environmental values. She has authored, coauthored, and edited innumerable articles and books on the environment and religious practice. Her newest work, Mindfully Green: A Personal and Spiritual Guide to Whole Earth Thinking draws upon her background in Buddhism, presenting a simple philosophy for engaging in environmental action in real, practical, and effective ways.

We have some exciting new authors lined up for after the holiday season - keep an eye out for more info, or drop a line to bookhappenings@gmail.com to sign up for email notification of upcoming events!

Preamble--or a view from the owner's desk.

2008-11-11T12:24:00.000-05:00

It's with great pleasure and little fanfare that I introduce our new blog, a melting pot of thoughts and musings, reviews and recommendations, news and event announcements on the subjects we love best here at Books Etc.: Books and Authors! Contributors will be our fabulous team of booksellers, a diverse group of veterans and emerging leaders of the Southern Maine bookselling world.

We are indeed in challenging times, all cutting or conserving in some way as the economy lurches (do I dare call it) forward in fits and starts and stops. In the same way, many people wanting a book might consider their options especially in ways to save. The question becomes, "why should I purchase a book at a locally owned independent bookstore, especially when I have to pay a few dollars more?" Because if you purchase the book at a Seattle based mega online retailer (c'mon, you know the one I mean), you may save a couple of bucks, but you have sent every dollar of that purchase out of Greater Portland and out of this great state of Maine. In these economically harsh times, we need to think of our local communities first, and sending all of your money out of state does little for the community. With all the money leaving town who is going to pay for the roads on which the UPS truck rolls delivering your package? Who is going to patronize the local banks, ad agencies, lawyers, doctors, and restaurants? Who is going to bring you authors and book fairs, and who is going to contribute to the local PTO fund raiser or the local library?

This morning I heard a colleague of mine, Mitchell Kaplan, a bookseller extraordinaire from Miami who organizes the Miami Book Fair. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the fair, NPR interviewed him, and when asked why he remains optimistic in these ever so competetive and challenging times of bookselling, with huge chains and online retailing, he responded that we independent booksellers are selling the past, and by doing so, we bring comfort as one of the many added values that we offer. Comfort. Mmm. Now doesn't that sound like something we can all use this holiday season?