Lucy's Books

January News

2012-01-12T16:50:00.000-08:00

And January is halfway over. How about that? I thought the older you got, the slower the days. NOT TRUE. The two truisms: death and taxes. So, live on even if the days fly past. And taxes, well, there you are.

After Christmas the store seems empty (of customers) but not books. I'm stocking up on gardening books (for both adults and children) and bird and nature logs for kids. Got to get ready for spring...it's time to plan the garden, plot the plans out on paper, and dream of the bounty that will come at the end of summer! Until then, while those little seeds are warming up and growing, it's time to take the children or grandchildren out to watch those flighty feathery friends. Record what you hear and see, look through the binoculars; observation is another way to teach ourselves to just be still. Remember: make sure the books are indigenous to your area.

Some books that I have in the store for such gardening and birding events are:

GARDENING
Gardening for a Lifetime: How to Garden Wiser as You Grow Older by Sydney Eddison

The Pruning Answer Book by Lewis Hill & Penelope O'Sullivan

Gaia's Garden by Chelsea Green

The $64 Tomato by William Alexander. This memoir is about a man who was on a quest for a perfect garden, and the cost to grow one of his Brandywine tomatoes.

It's a Long Road to a Tomato by Keith Stewart. This gardening, nature book is about how a man quit the big city for the life of organic farming.

For Children:
Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots by Sharon Lovejoy. this is a gardening book for parents and children.

BIRDING
Again, remember these books are recommended for Oregon and Washington. You can order these specific for your region.

Lone Pine puts out a beautifully illustrated book Birds of Oregon by Roger Burrows & Jeff Gilligan

The National Geographic Field Guide to Birds edited by Jonathan Alderfer.

Audubon Pocket Backyard Birdwatch by Stephen Kress

For Children:
Beginning Birdwatcher's Book by Sy Barlowe. This is a Dover Children's activity book that includes stickers of birds, facts about their habitat, eating habits, bird size, and more.

So, getting ready for spring will be a fun read.

Now, events coming up:

January 26, 7:00 p.m.- at Lucy's Books -this is the first night of Lucy's Books book club. We are reading A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka.

February 9, 6:00-8:00 p.m.- at Lucy's Books - a book signing by Charly Heavenrich. His book Unimagined Gifts will be the focus. Charly is a Master Storyteller, Personal Life Coach, and Expert on Change Management. He has quite the career going so check out his website www.charlyheavenrich.com.

February 11, 6:00-8:00 p.m. at Lucy's Books - a book signing evening with Northwest author Richard Powers who wrote The Astoria Chinatwon Conspiracy. The evening will also include discussion on the writing and publishing of his novel.

March 30 6:00-8:00 p.m. at Lucy's Books- an evening with Scott Teisworth and his discussion and signing of his book Krishna in the Sky with Diamonds More to come about this in the February newsletter.

I want to thank Kayla Sewell for her tender and sweet note. Yeah, it brought tears to my eyes. If it had'nt been for students like her, I would have quit teaching long ago. Kayla, come visit me when you are in town!

2011-12-21T12:24:00.000-08:00

Season's Greetings, Happy Solstice, Merry Winter, and December Celebration to All:

We have had a busy season so far. Many thanks to loyal Lucy's Books customers!
We could not survive without you.

The weather has been mild here in Astoria. We have had many sunny days that is not typical during this time of year, so I'm told by the NBA's (native born Astorians).
I on the other hand am a ABC, Astorian by Choice. Just a little bit of local jargon and trivia that always seems intriguing with small communities.

The Christmas Season, Hanukkah, and other Celebrations are fast upon us- I had planned to get something out before now. It is a season for giving and forgiving. Of buying gifts, those special ones, that makes the receiver tickled down to their toes. Of giving good cheer, and continuing it in the New Year. Giving is the easy part- forgiving might be a little harder for me. I have been pondering over this for a few weeks, not to mention worrying too.

What's on my mind is the greed of a large online company that, paired with the ever smarter smart phone, is now offering a discount when a person goes to a store, scans the ISBN number or code off an item, then buys it through that large online company which the customer will receive five dollars off the already discounted price. This is, to me, not just (as in fair) business practice...it encourages and propagates greed. It is unethical and underhanded. How will the small business owner survive this onslaught- he can't compete on their level. Is it the end of the small businesses in this country? We've heard about the middle class disappearing...is this yet another step involved in that? How did the Grinch get so...so selfish, fat, destructive, and gluttonous? It is unforgiving if small businesses go under because of the big cyberspace company's need to eek out every last dime.

On a happier note...I still have to be grateful to this community here in Astoria who still believes in having a small bookstore in town and supporting it when they can. That's love and devotion. And a great Christmas gift for Lucy's. We'll keep on plugging through despite the obstacles.

Wow, these books have been popular here and flying off the shelf...if you have any holiday cash to spend between now and after the season, check these titles out (if you haven't already):

Fiction:
Faithful Place by Tana French
Swell by Corwin Ericson
The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht

Non Fiction:
The Dirty Life:A Memoir on Farming, Food,and Love by Kristen Kimball
Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food by Paul Greenberg
Profit Over People by Noam Chomsky
Matter Horn and What It Is Like To Go To War by Karl Marlantes
Working in the Shadows by Gabriel Thompson

Young Readers:
The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
The Graveyard Book by Niel Gaiman

Children's:
I Want My Hat Back by John Klassen which won the Best Illustrated Children's Book Award from The New York Times.
The Frog Wore Red Suspenders by Jack Prelutsky, and this book is a New York Best Seller plus it's a selection of the Junior Library Guild.
Ugly As A Toad by Jullie Fox. This simple book shows how things can ALWAYS be worse. Tommy is a toad who thinks he's ugly. However, what would be worse than that? Well, you could be an ugly toad WITH ants in your pants and butterflies in your stomach! Being a toad isn't so bad,eh?

Have a Happy Season and a healthy New Year!

November Already!

2011-11-14T15:50:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it? November. How time does fly when you're selling books.
November brings to mind fall leaves, cold crisp days, blue blue skies (not always available in Astoria), cocoa, and (gulp, do I really say this?)Football. Charlie Brown football, I mean. AND November means curling up with a good book.

Some of the books that are piquing my interest (and if I get the time I'd like to read all of these) are: Wingshooters by Nina Revoyr, fiction, which tells of a young American Japanese girl growing up in a small town. Of course more happens to thicken the plot but this is always a subject that is tender, hurtful, and ever present in our society STILL.

The next read, Christmas Exposed, by the outspoken newspaper- The Onion- which provides a tongue in cheek satire about mall shopping, dysfunctional family events, and more. Now, remember here, these are books I haven't read yet so I have to go on what I sneak peek through the pages and from reading the back of the books.

There are two children’s series that are calling my name:
The Secret Series written by Pseudonymous Bosch (the author’s name alone makes me want to read the book); with the first book titled The Name of this Book is Secret . This is a mystery around finding a dead magician's diary and trying to find immortality.

The second series The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart is about an ad in the newspaper asking children to take a series of mysterious tests. Only four of the most intelligent and resourceful are chosen to go on a secret mission.

I’d love to hear what you have read and recommend.

As far as the store goes...I'm still climbing that learning curve, and I certainly have made my mistakes and foibles. A very humbling lesson. I will learn from this and grow.

Happy Thanksgiving.

What a Whirlwind!

2011-10-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

Greetings,
Having been in beautiful Astoria for almost two months, I have to say that I love it here. I do miss my family back in Idaho, and confess to a boo-hoo breakdown in Fred Meyers (no less) but after an hour and a half conversation with my best friend and daughter, I cheered up. She will be here for a visit in a week. My husband? Who's he? Naw, I guess I miss him too. What a great guy, eh? He's doing all the packing back in Idaho while I mind the store.

What wonderful customers I have. Thanks to all of you! This is all due to the previous owner, Laura. If I forget to mention her name in thanks, the sentiment is still there. Anyhoo, I have learned so much from our customers about this book or that author. I so wish I could read everything that folks buy here. However, I am still reading my pile of books at home, then maybe I can get to that big list in the sky.

I can't thank Brie enough- she is invaluable has taught me so much. She has a terrific sense of what the customers want to read. As a matter of fact, she and I want to start a Book Club soon. If you are from the area and might be interested, give us a call at the store. We have room for eight more readers.

There will be some events happening- at least I'm trying to get things rolling.
On October 26th, at 6:00 p.m., Dina James will do a signing and answer/question session. I'm very excited. And for Dina, this is her first novel about a character her fans have pleaded with her to develop. Thus came All Wounds which will be released October 11. A list of her other works can be found on her website www.dinajames.com. Being a local gal, I hope to see a great group of fans out to meet and greet her.

The next event, happening Saturday December 10, time T.B.A., is a reading for moms, dads, and kids. Local area illustrator Adam Taylor's first children's book
George In The U.K. is a beautiful example of his talent as a story teller and illustrator. The illustrations are so fabulously tactile, who needs words? And the quality of color print and paper- this book is a visual delight as well. The age range is newborn to nine. As December gets closer, there will be more on this event.

So, as I step into the whirlwind (no ruby slippers, darn it!) I can say "There's no place like Astoria," and honestly mean it. "There's no place like Astoria, there's no place like Astoria, there's no place like HOME."

Patti

A Post, Finally!

2011-09-18T11:21:00.000-07:00

Hello All,
As I fire up this dagged nab machine again to write a second “Hello All” to you, the first one is floating in cyber space. For some odd reason, when I closed my document it CLOSED for good. And I’d spent a good hour agonizing over what to say, trying to carefully choose my words so as not to affront anyone, because as we all know, the tongue-in-cheek intent doesn’t always translate in the written form. Totally at a loss for the lost document, my husband tried to retrieve it from the cyber gods. Unsuccessfully, I might add, although kudos for trying. We decided that it was time for bed. As I tried to sleep, my mind kept coming back to the lost doc., stewing that the computer had won this round. Not to be defeated, no not me, I decided at 12:35 a.m. that enough was enough. So…
Mark and I were so lucky to have bought Lucy’s. For some fortuitous cosmic reason, Laura was ready to sell and we were ready to buy. Let me clarify that. I was ready to buy. My stable accountant husband wasn’t as sure as I, but being the kind man he is, he couldn’t say no. I’m as persistent as a dachshund with a t-bone. Chew, chew, chew.
Laura had been in the book business for thirteen years. I had been a high school art teacher for thirteen years. Coincidence? I think not. Actually, I’m not sure, but I’ve always wanted to say that. Like when I was a kid and asked “Are we there yet?” Mom and Dad would say in that humming tone “Almost.” And then when we had children I got to give the exact same humming response to them! Back to the not coincidence. It all worked out, for both Laura and us, and here we are, living in my dream town, beautiful Astoria, with my other dream. Owing a book store.
I have been greeted by some wonderful members of the community so far. They’ve been so welcoming. And I have been asked why I wanted to DO this, or have I had ANY experience in owning a book store before. Mark would answer the first question: to make money. And he’d love to answer the second question: yes, and we made money. I, on the other hand, haven’t had any experience in owing a book store other than I love to read. I love books, love the relationship created with each new book I read, love physically turning the pages, and I love the feel of paper. More than a few customers have asked me if I’ve read this book or that. Imagine my chagrin when I have to say no. But there are so many books out there and many genres to choose from that most of the time we may not have read the same thing. I take the challenge that keeping up with the needs of the readers will be enough for now. They are the important ones.
Having the magnificent Brie Mathews, a long time friend and employee of Laura’s, is such a boon. She has an eye for what our readers love. With her help, I hope to stock the titles loved by the community. I will add my quirkiness to the mixture, no doubt about that.
Do forgive me if I don’t recognize a local artist’s name or a local author. I have only been local for a week and a half. I will get on it, at it, with it and any other its I need to get with to familiarize myself with the who’s who-er and outwards.
With Laura leaving, I have some pretty big boots to fill. If there was a way to fill them and keep everyone happy, I’d certainly do it. But I know that Laura’s take on things are hers and you wouldn’t want a faitour. Plus, in everything evolving and changing like the world commands, we know that nothing stays the same. Oh, I forgot, death and taxes do. Being neither, I’ll wear my colorful boots around the store. We’ll see what happens, eh?
I look forward to hearing from you,
Patti
Here are a few books that got my attention this summer:
Fiction
Anything Terry Prachett. An amazing writer whose dry sense of humor tickles my funny bone.
For the more serious reader:The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson: A heavy read but poignant.
Non- fiction
For fun: Amy Stewart’s Wicked Plants and Wicked Bugs. These light reads kept me engaged and itching. For the light organic gardener,
From the Ground Up and Flowers Confidential .
The Imperial Cruise by James Bradley is an interesting look at Teddy Roosevelt’s quest for Americanization. For me, the take on our own history and how it has been spooned to us as children is a reminder that we really need to write more truth in such histories, raw and hurtful as it might be.

Bitter/Sweet

2011-08-19T10:49:00.001-07:00

It’s with many mixed feelings that I tell you that I’m selling Lucy’s Books. It’s taken me a couple of years of waffling to come to the conclusion, finally, that I need change in my life (I guess rearranging the furniture won’t satisfy the urge for change this time around!), something new to do after 13 years at Lucy’s, however wonderful those years have been. The serendipitous timing of this choice, combined with an ad placed in the paper, and an enthusiastic answer to that ad, tells me it’s time to go. I started Lucy’s with a passion for reading, a big dose of ignorance, some luck, and nothing in the way of experience running a business. The passion part helped me to realize 13 years of one of the best livelihoods a person could ever hope to have. The ignorance and general haplessness taught me patience, and to appreciate all of the locals and tourists alike who were patient with me, kind and good humored, while I learned to become a bookseller.
I’m so pleased I’m able to pass the business, in healthy condition, to Patti Breidenbach. Please welcome her and her husband Mark to our lovely community. We will try to make the September 1st change as seamless as possible for our customers and community. Thank you for your years of patronage and support. I will miss you all, and my life as a bookseller, as I take a deep breath and plunge into my next adventure (whatever that may turn out to be). With any luck, it will turn out as well as the last.

My Friend Tony - The Literati

2011-04-18T15:15:00.000-07:00

My friend and longtime customer Tony died unexpectedly over the weekend. It is fairly unfathomable that he will no longer walk in the door on his way to tend bar across the street, sit down and chat for a while, gather up the Times Book Reviews and New Yorkers I save for him, and ask me, “Whaddaya got for me today?”

A dozen years ago at the beginning of the Lucy’s experiment, Tony Sales walked in. He brought with him the trace of tobacco smell that unavoidably came second hand (back then anyway) when you were Tony of Tony’s Tavern, and spent most of every day and night in a bar. Tony was one of the many, many people that have taught me to leave my assumptions at the door. He was one of the most literate, well-read people I have ever known.

The minute he spoke, I knew he was from some northeastern city or another, and clearly one rife with Italians. Sure enough, and oddly, it turned out he was from my own hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts. Here in Astoria, 3000 miles from there, I had a friend who remembered Snyder’s Market, my grandfather’s grocery on Sumner Avenue. How weird is that? I felt a connection to Tony because though he didn’t personally know my parents and grandparents (I don’t think the Jews and the Italians ran around together much in Springfield), he knew where I came from. He knew who I am, and who my people are, in a way difficult to quantify, but which felt familiar in a faraway place.

Of course, I also felt connected to Tony through books. Simply put, he was a true Reader. Now, with his unexpected passing, I feel pretty sad that I have yet to read “Zorba the Greek.” I figured I’d get around to it eventually, and would talk with him about it later. The mere thought of “Zorba” brought a quick smile to his face. He loved “The Brothers Karamazov,” “Don Quixote,” Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian.” If you were game for arguing, you could try telling Tony that a novel that is not “Blood Meridian” is the greatest 20th century American novel. Recently I felt triumphant, having convinced Tony to read David James Duncan’s “The Brothers K,” (my Great American Novel) and getting grudging approval of its worth. The last book he read may have been Laura Hillenbrand’s “Unbroken,” which he loved. It’s a story of triumphantly overcoming the absolute worst adversity, dealt out by the worst humanity had to offer. We really had to finish our conversation about it.

Tony sort of disappeared for a few years along the way. When he walked in the door after that long hiatus, I found out he’d gone back home to care for his mom, up until she died. All became right in bookstore-land with Tony back around, bantering and arguing with me about the usual stuff: writing, writers, novels. He convinced a lot of people that reading a certain book was a great idea, and if he told you to read something, generally you listened. I know – many locals showed up here for one book or another that Tony had decreed that they needed to come here, acquire, read, and (of course, the fun part), report back.

Rest in peace, Tony. You will be missed.

Gratitude

2010-12-24T14:46:00.000-08:00

Thank you. Yes, you.

2010 was an easy year in which to worry. About the economy, about the advent of the e-reader, about many larger and more pressing things in the world. As an independent bookseller, Lucy's is one of about 1400 left standing in the United States. A staggeringly small number, in all our 50 states. This holiday shopping season has been, counter to everything it should have been in this "brave(?) new world" we live in, wonderful. Being in downtown Astoria is a joy. I have never encountered so many people out and about, determined to patronize their very own small, local businesses. I feel sure that my neighbors downtown would agree. This has been a season of immense good will, and good cheer, every day.

Mr. Mattson, as you know, is regrouping after fire took his entire home, one of his beloved dogs, and his vast book collection. I have rarely seen such generosity as in the dollars (for books) and books themselves that have found their way here for him. At least one other local family has been temporarily displaced by fire, and the loss of #1 and #10 6th Streets to fire, and everything irreplaceable within and without, have given me pause to consider my blessings.

For my family, of course, and for Lucy's Books, which has given me another kind of family and community, I am profoundly grateful. My co-bookseller Brie is another source of my gratitude. She has been steadfastly present in my life for several years, and without her I honestly don't know what I'd do. I have found in my almost two decades living here, that this community cares for each other like no other place I have ever experienced.

I could go on, and it would just get sappier. Suffice it to say, I thank my community for the place and the people you are. Happy holidays, whatever those are for you, I hope for you peace and calm, health and happiness in the new year and all the years to come.

Laura, and Lucy's Books

Top Ten for 2010

2010-12-20T14:43:00.000-08:00

Mind you, these are the very best books I read this year; I don't require that they were published this year to include them. I'm not a huge new release reader. I choose based on my mood, and what is on the table! I know I'm jumping on the bandwagon here, doing something that I find the tiniest bit annoying. I guess my family can confirm that I have the capacity to annoy...

In no particular order:

1. Anything by Jean Hanff Korelitz. She wrote four novels: Admission, The White Rose, The Sabbathday River, and A Jury of Her Peers.

2. Where Men Win Glory, by Jon Krakauer.

3. How to Leave Your Hometown for Good, poetry by Tim Sproul. If you know how to reach him and get more books help me! I can't seem to track him down!

4. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot.

5. Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand.

(OK, I know that 4 and 5 are on lots of lists, but many people know a good book!)

6. The Nine, by Jeffrey Toobin - if you are as thrilled as I am by Supreme Court doings...

7. Making Toast, by Roger Rosenblatt - the saddest and loveliest memoir.

8. Just Kids, by Patti Smith.

9. Faithful Place, by Tana French.

10. Gimme Refuge, by Matt Love - really one of the spectacular teacher memoirs ever.

Bonus #11. My Stroke of Insight, by Jill Bolte Taylor, accompanied by her amazing talk on www.ted.com.

Mr. Mattson's Books

2010-11-26T14:07:00.000-08:00

This morning when I came to work there was a long message on the answering machine from long-time Lucy's Books customer and supporter Dick Mattson. By itself that is unsurprising. He often leaves us long messages, with lists of books he wants us to find. Mr. Mattson is a lifetime resident of Warrenton, who I believe lives in the home, and on the land on which he grew up. He is one of my favorite customers, and one reason I am grateful for the job I have. Without it I might not know him. Curious and friendly, sharply and yet humbly intellectual, he always has kind words for and about my family, my service to him (he might not realize he serves me in immeasurable ways with his presence in my life here at Lucy's) and his kindness and wit extend of course to Brie, his other biggest fan here at Lucy's.

In the message Dick told me his home and book collection burned two nights ago. This alone is enough sadness for today, but I must explain the significance of his enormous book collection. I have mentioned his collection often to others, knowing that there is likely no collection like his anywhere. For years he has doggedly collected, with my help finding and acquiring titles (he does not use computers) a likely unrivaled collection of northwest and American history through the eyes of its most influential (and not necessarily most famous) figures. Dick is one of the most well-read, knowledgeable people on the history of this place and of the exploration and settling of the North American continent, and his obsessive collection of journals, first person accounts, biography, and history reflects his interest.

He said two very Mr. Mattson-like things in his message. He said he needs to start his collection over, and he mentioned he'd like to continue reading the book he had started the other night and would I order him another copy. Oh, and he said Happy Thanksgiving to Brie and I and our families.

I share all this with you because Lucy's would like to donate this year's holiday season percentage to replenish those parts of Dick's collection he chooses. We'll buy him what he needs at only cost so any money collected will line only his bookshelves. And we'd like to offer you the opportunity to donate what you can to this fine community member. Mr. Mattson quietly gives much to this community. I know that he and his sister spend lots of their free time buying and delivering untold pounds of food to our local food bank.

So in the spirit of the holidays, whatever they mean to you, I'm here to say that this is one good cause, and reason for sharing what we have this year. Peace this holiday season,

Laura & Brie

Lucy's Review Fall 2010

2010-09-10T16:06:00.000-07:00

First, Events!

Robert Michael Pyle
Thursday September 30th
7:00 at Lucy's Books

Celebrate the release of Mariposa Road: The
First Butterfly Big Year
Part road-trip tale, part travelogue of lost and found
landscapes, all good-natured natural history, Mariposa Road
tracks Bob Pyle's journey across the United States as he races
against the calendar in his search for as many of the 800
American butterflies as he can find.
Like Pyle's classic Chasing Monarchs, Mariposa Road
recounts his adventures, high and low, in tracking down
butterflies in his own low-tech, individual way. Accompanied by
Marsha, his cottonwood-limb butterfly net; Powdermilk, his 1982
Honda Civic with 345,000 miles on the odometer; and the small
Leitz binoculars he has carried for more than thirty years, Bob
ventured out in a series of remarkable trips from his Northwest
home.
Robert Michael Pyle is the author of fourteen books,
including Sky Time in Gray's River, Chasing Monarchs,
Where Bigfoot Walks, and Wintergreen, which won the John
Burroughs Medal. A Yale-trained ecologist and a Guggenheim
fellow, he is a full-time writer living in southwestern Washington.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Clarence B. Parker
Book Signing
Wednesday September 15th
1-3 pm at Lucy's Books

Shades of Glass is Mr. Parker's first novel, and tells the
story of the journey of returning Vietnam veterans in 1970 in the
Pacific Northwest. The publisher calls it an explosive and
resounding mystery.
Clarence B. Parker is a native Astorian, now living in
Arizona. He graduated from Oregon State University and served
in the United States Air Force.

Fishes & Dishes Cookbook Celebration
Reading & Signing
Friday October 8th, 7:00 pm
at Lucy's Books

Sisters Kiyo and Tomi Marsh were fishing in the Bering Sea on
Tomi's 78-foot commercial fishing boat, the Savage, when they
dreamed up an idea of publishing a cookbook combining seafood
recipes and personal stories from other fisherwomen they had
met and worked with in Alaska.
Tomi, who lives in Ketchikan where the Savage is based,
owns and skippers the vessel. Her sister, Kiyo, who now lives in
Seattle, ran the deck and galley. Between fishing openings, they
both turned out creative, mouth-watering dishes taking advantage
of the bounty of seafood available to them. Laura Cooper of
Seattle, a friend and former fisherwoman, brought her own
illustrations and a philosophy that stresses the importance of
seafood sustainability to the project.
What began as a joke about "cooking in the ditch"—the
trough of the wave—became The Fishes & Dishes Cookbook:
Seafood Recipes and Salty Stories from Alaska's
Commercial Fisherwomen.
In addition to sharing 80 mouth-watering recipes, the book
describes the adventurous lives of women who work in America's
most dangerous industry. They relate many funny and harrowing
stories, from the travails of running their own boats, to the
danger of working on deck in the Bering Sea. These women have
been involved in most of the Alaskan fisheries, from the king
crab fisheries of TV's "Deadliest Catch" fame, to long-lining
black cod and halibut in the Gulf of Alaska, to tendering salmon
in Southeast Alaska.

Celebrate the Spirit of the River

A festive evening of music, dance, photography, spoken word, and fine art!
Saturday, October 9th
7 pm Silent Art Auction with refreshments ~
Masonic Lodge, 1577 Franklin Ave.
8 pm Program
Clatsop Community College Performing Arts Center
16th and Franklin, Astoria

This year's special guest, award winning writer William Layman, is the author of River of Memory: The Everlasting Columbia, and Native River: The Columbia Remembered. Says Layman, "Whatever gratitude I feel at given moment has its source in the water that sustains my life. I will always be grateful to the rivers that carry such a miraculous life-giving substance to us." Layman's books will be available for purchase and he will be happy to sign them after the program.
Also embracing the spirit of the river are
performers from both the WA and OR sides of the Columbia Estuary.
This 4th annual event benefits Columbia Riverkeeper and the work to keep our beautiful river LNG free!!
Put it on your calendar and see you there!

A Meandering Literary Path... by Laura

If you follow Lucy's on Facebook or have spoken to me personally in the last several months, you have heard of Jean Hanff Korelitz. I seem to yammer on about her latest novel Admission, and the others I've sought out (two of which are out of print mysteries), at the drop of a hat. Her writing is sublime - intellectually sharp, observant, stylish, sardonic, yet without the depressing tendency of being overly ironic and devoid of basic humanity. Her stories are New England stories, after my own heart. Admission's protagonist is a Princeton admissions officer, struggling with her present and her past. The bonus is Korelitz's impeccable description of the college admissions process (parents and students - be entertained while learning how to apply for college!) from a true insider point of view. The White Rose was an equally fine New York City love story, with some unusual elements.
Alafair Burke is my other recent everything-I-can-get-my-hands-on author. A lawyer herself, she's written one series about a Portland assistant district attorney and another about a New York City detective. Both are vastly readable, smart, and fun, with the added bonus of the familiar neighborhood feel of the Portland (Samantha Kincaid) series.
Oh Serena... Oh Ron Rash. Where to start: This novel was painful, difficult, and mildly stomach-turning (as all novels with psychopaths as protagonist tend to be). And yet, it was brilliant. At once a classic tragedy (complete with a spot-on, hilarious chorus of a timber crew) and a lesson on Depression era environmental pillaging, it's a story of unchecked logging in the Great Smoky Mountains by ruthless and greedy lumber barons. As Serena made my stomach turn and my blood boil, I also learned a great deal about the politics surrounding the battle between lumber interests and the philanthropists and politicians who would create the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Thank you Tony, for the must-read recommendation!
Jon Krakauer is at his investigative best in his latest book Where Men Win Glory. He tells the story, in excruciating detail, of Pat Tillman's death by friendly fire in Afghanistan, and the subsequent cover-up of its circumstances by the federal government. But what is astonishing and uplifting are the many, many pages Krakauer devotes to telling Tillman's life story. This extraordinary man's biography is one not to miss. Tillman was a far cry from any expected stereotype of a professional football player turned soldier.
Meanwhile, the beloved, much worshipped (by some of us) Anthony Bourdain has grown up. Medium Raw is the wonderful and vastly matured follow-up to Kitchen Confidential. Don't worry, he still curses and screams about everyone from Alice Waters to Food Network executives, but his perspective has changed in twenty years, and getting off drugs and becoming a father has done remarkable things for this remarkable food icon.
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a remarkable person. And not just because she had the unique experience of being a brain scientist who consciously observed the inner workings of her own brain while having a stroke. I think she was probably quite remarkable before that. I've read lots of medical and science memoirs and novels, and I've never experienced physiology described so spiritually as in My Stroke of Insight. During her stroke Taylor completely lost the ability to process any future or past. No memories, no anticipation. What she realized was left was only the present moment; she observed that she experienced nirvana and I guarantee you will love reading about her experience. The book also provides much useful and practical information regarding strokes.
Jeannette Walls' (The Glass Castle) Half Broke Horses was one of my favorite books this year. Walls essentially channels her grandmother by writing her life story from the first person, in what she calls a "true life novel." Lily Casey Smith's life spanned much of the 20th century, from all over the southwest to Chicago and back again, and what a life it was. Her independence was astonishing for the time, and her determination and at times hilarious level of self-confidence is something to which our 21st century daughters should aspire.
Free-Range Kids wins my most entertaining parenting book award. Lenore Skenazy is hilarious! Though the ideas in this fast-paced book are serious and worthy of your deepest consideration, Skenazy's presentation is readable, self-deprecating, and down-to-earth. She addresses the issue of our 21st century obsession with children's safety through the myths and misconceptions by which many parents operate. She debunks many myths, for example the one about the hazards of poisoned Halloween candy (there has never been a case of this documented), and she lobbies hard for giving children a good measure of freedom and independence. I loved it!
Hopefully the extremely well reviewed film version of Winter's Bone will eventually show up in my little burg on the edge of the universe, but until then I'm satisfied with having read Daniel Woodrell's beautiful novel. It's reminiscent of the rural classic The Beans of Egypt, Maine, though I think Woodrell does a better job giving the reader even glimmers of hope for the life of his protagonist, the shimmering, outrageously determined teenager Ree Dolly. (Cormac McCarthy as well could take a lesson from Woodrell on hope!) I highly recommend this dark, disquieting, blunt story of a life of poverty in the Ozarks.
Brian Turner (Here, Bullet) has a new poetry collection, Phantom Noise. Turner is a truly gifted and eloquent poet who addresses war from the soldier's perspective. He served in Bosnia and Iraq and has much to say about war and its aftermath.
Newport native Tim Sproul's collection, How to Leave Your Hometown for Good is a gem. Well crafted, accessible, elegant, and true, my favorite was "Fisherman Grocery Shopping." Sproul lives in the Portland area; don't miss a chance to hear him read if you can.
I'm not so great at calming down and reading enlightening books, which probably implies I am just the type of person who could benefit from contemplating what's inside them. I did succeed this summer with a lovely small book by John Tarrant, Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans That Will Save Your Life.
What a pleasure! Tarrant has the gift of bringing some pretty esoteric ideas down to earth for someone like me, and I loved it. He lovingly chooses a group of koans to share and then guides readers in applying them to aspects of their own lives. He emphasizes happiness, which is lovely.

Paperback Release Extravaganza!
There are so many I'm just going to list them. All are out between now and January. I'll put an asterisk by the winter releases, so as not to overly excite anyone! I'm sure I have missed many!
June
Half the Sky, Kristof and WuDunn
Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger
War Dances, Sherman Alexie
A Short History of Women, Kate Walbert
July
Lit, Mary Karr
Swimming, Nicola Keegan
Under the Dome, Stephen King
The Vintage Caper, Peter Mayle
August
Where Men Win Glory, Jon Krakauer
The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver
Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
The Collector, Jack Nisbet
A Gate at the Stairs, Lorrie Moore
Chronic City, Jonathan Lethem
September
The Big Burn, Timothy Egan
Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran Foer
The Case for God, Karen Armstrong
The Immortals, Amit Chaudhuri
Stones Into Schools, Greg Mortensen
Half Broke Horses, Jeannette Walls
The Unnamed, Joshua Ferris
Juliet, Naked, Nick Hornby
October
Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
Cockroach, Rawi Hage
November
Too Much Happiness, Alice Munro
Glover's Mistake, Nick Laird
January:
Committed, Elizabeth Gilbert -
Nurture Shock, Po Bronson
Spark, John Ratey
Born to Run, Christopher MacDougall
The Help, Kathryn Stockett
Nothing Was the Same, Kay Redfield Jameson
_________________________________________________

Ms. Ani's Reviews
Aside from counting the days until she can drive, Ani has spent lots of her summer reading books. I can't remember the last set of reviews that did not include the author Meg Cabot, indicative of Cabot's across-the-ages appeal. I rue the day that Ani will not write these any more. I keep thinking that day is near but my begging won out once again. ~Mom
House Rules, by Jodi Picoult, is a book that you won't be able to put down until you've finished it. It is about a boy with Asperger's Syndrome, which is a form of autism. Jacob is obsessed with forensic science, which has to do with crime scene investigation. He often shows up to crime scenes and tries to help the detectives. When his social skills tutor shows up dead, her boyfriend is the first suspect. After further investigation, Jacob is arrested and forced to stand trial.
House Rules is very suspenseful, with lots of surprises. Anybody from middle school students to adults would enjoy this book. It is written so that each chapter is in the point of view of a different character, which makes it really fun to read. I promise that if you pick this book up, you will spend all of your free time reading. I know I did.
Pants on Fire, by Meg Cabot, was a really fun read. It is a good book for teenagers to read just for fun in their spare time. Katie has told a few too many lies in the past few years. She lives in a small east coast town where quahogs are the specialty. There are quahogs as in the clam, the Quahogs are the high school football team, and there is a contest for Quahog Princess. Although Katie dislikes football, she is dating the star of the football team. Although she hates quahogs (the clams), she is running for Quahog Princess. She has told so many lies that some time or another they will all have to be revealed. Meg Cabot is one of my favorite writers - her books are laugh-out-loud funny, while still full of unexpected turns.
Ed.: My friend Tony loves Ken Wells' Meely Labauve, so I convinced Ani to read this Louisiana coming of age story. If how late her light is on is any indication, it's good:
Meely Labauve is an interesting book to read. It is written in the way that the main character talks, so there are lots of misspellings and strange grammar (otherwise known as Cajun patois). Once you get used to it, it's actually really fun to read. Meely is a fifteen-year-old boy growing up on a bayou in Louisiana. His dad hunts gators, and is often gone for days at a time. His dad also drinks a lot, and he has had a lot of close calls with the law.
A fight at school balloons into an incident where Meely, his dad, and his friend Chilly have to take off in their truck, hoping to escape from the police. This book is full of unexpected surprises, many of which will make you mad. Once you get into it, you won't want to put it down.
_______________________________________________

Speaking of Tony - I've been bugging him endlessly for a Top 5 reading list, because he IS such a favorite literati of mine. He finally obliged, though he wouldn't commit to this list being an absolute - the top Top 5 was pretty hard to contemplate. Here, very succinctly, are five Tony says everyone should read. (And for those who know Tony, we do what he says.)
The Brothers Karamazov: Dostoevsky's novel covers the complete range of human emotions better than any novel ever written.
Don Quixote: de Cervantes created literature's best-known character. It's funny, poignant, and highly readable.
Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy has written the great American novel.
Zorba the Greek: Kazantzakis' message: Live your life. Love your life. A truly unforgettable character, Zorba is the great free spirit of modern literature.
Lonesome Dove: It's purely American. McMurtry's gives us old time fun and Western adventure.

Lucy's Review Spring 2010 - at long last!

2010-04-13T16:12:00.000-07:00

Introducing… Red Dot Books!
After almost 12 years, we at Lucy’s are in the mood to be slightly innovative, slightly attuned to our customers’ desires, slightly, um… modern.
We are ready to buy very gently used, contemporary paperbacks back for resale! This means, that new novel you bought, read once, and you don’t want to keep? Bring it here! We want to provide the opportunity to recycle and share books – it’s a win-win for sellers and buyers. Now, to the nitty-gritty:
We will buy books for 25% of the cover price, that we feel we can resell. We will base their pricing on desirability, cover price, our current stock levels, and condition. What we buy from you will be for sale here for 65-75% of the cover price. We reserve the right to pick and choose what we will buy, based on the parameters above. We will not buy:
~books older than 3-4 years (at our discretion based on title and condition)
~ hard covers (exceptions may be current, high demand titles not yet paperback)
~ books with broken spines or hinges, markings, loose or missing pages, mold or dampness, odors, or excessive wear
~ bibles, textbooks, audio books, encyclopedias, Readers’ Digest, magazines, comics, etc.
Basically, we will buy the types of books we already sell here. We plan to maintain our used area upstairs – this is the place for trade credit only (for other upstairs books) on old mysteries, romances, and miscellaneous titles at our discretion. These are not Red Dot books and credit upstairs may not be used on Red Dot titles.
To keep things smooth and happy, please be reasonable and choosy in the quality and quantity of what you bring!

What I Talk About…. Laura

If you know me, you know 2009 was my Year of Running Dangerously. 2009 brought me the ecstasy of a half marathon and the agony (ok, and ecstasy) of the full Portland Marathon as well. I am not super-athletic but have always been intrigued by long distance running. This felt like a good year to make good on a big item from the to-do list of my lifetime. Of course, doing anything necessitates reading about it, and I’ve found some truly fun reading about running, though surely I’m going to hit just the tip of the iceberg here.
Thank you John Irving, for making Garp a runner, as well as Daniel Baciagalupo, a protagonist (and a writer himself) of Last Night in Twisted River. Dexter Filkins both kept his sanity and took his life into his hands by satisfying his intense need to go running in the streets of Baghdad during his years on assignment there, detailed in The Forever War. How many other writers and their creations are runners? And why?
I sat in my shop furtively reading someone’s reserved copy of Born to Run, half hoping that the person wouldn’t show up. Well, I ended up with my own copy, thankfully, and am naming it my Book of the Year of 2009! In all my Books of the Year I get that let down feeling of finishing, and not quite being able to follow them with anything for a while. Celebrated magazine columnist and runner Christopher McDougall took his running obsession to the remote Copper Canyons of Mexico to uncover the secrets of the Tarahumara tribe, who practice techniques that allow them to run literally hundreds of miles fast, injury free, without rest, and wearing minimalist sandals. McDougall is funny and self-deprecating, and runners and non-runners alike who love great non-fiction will love the way he leaps wildly yet gracefully among sports science, anthropology, hardcore adventure reportage, and memoir. McDougall, the barefoot runner, makes book writing (and reading) seem as fun and effortless as running should be, if your mind, heart, and feet are in the right place. Getting there is my challenge for 2010!
Haruki Murakami’s memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running provided evidence for the beginnings of my conclusion that distance runners are a strange and quirky lot. It’s a wonderful, quick read about this renowned novelist’s relationship with running, the emptiness of mind that it affords him and the support it provides him to enable his writing.
Bernd Heinrich is Mr. Detail. I suppose to be a biologist of his stature one must be attentive to the details. Why We Run, his study of the biology of running intertwined with his own reflections on his illustrious ultra-marathon career is nothing if not detailed. I was partial to the personal story more than the mechanics of grasshopper legs but hey, there’s something for everyone, and it sealed the deal on my distance runner theory.
Liz Robbins writes about running for the New York Times and her bias for NYC shines in A Race Like No Other, a fabulous and fun homage to the New York City Marathon. That said, she expertly weaves on and off the course, giving non-New Yorkers a wonderful picture of the variety and diversity the great city offers, alongside the personal stories of the elite and not-so-elite runners, walkers, and wheelers. The stories are rich and powerful, and help explain just what completing a marathon means to so many.
Don’t read First Marathons for the artful writing (it isn’t there). Do read it for three things: a great historical perspective on early distance running; a synopsis of the evolution of women in distance running; and a wide variety of experience, from Bill Rodgers’ early days (he dropped out of his first marathon, by the way) to the 300-pound chain smoker turned marathon runner. There is wonderful, inspiring material in this densely packed book.
Danny Dreyer’s runner’s bible Chi Running is an excellent source of wisdom and will encourage you to rethink the mechanics of and approach to your own running. Dreyer’s philosophical approach can really increase the enjoyment and meditative qualities of running, which is probably why most of us run.
For you swimmers out there, I don’t want to neglect you! The Chi Running equivalent for swimmers is Terry Laughlin’s Total Immersion. And, if you love reading about swimming I recommend Lynne Cox’s memoir Swimming to Antarctica and Nicola Keegan’s ethereal novel Swimming. Given that the former is about a cold-water (I mean really cold water) endurance swimmer and the latter is a fictional account of the life of an Olympic swimming sensation, there is probably not a lot of direct relatability (my invented word) for us mere mortals. Nevertheless, they are wonderful reads.

A Reader’s Miscellany by Laura

“State briefly the ideas, ideals, or hopes,
the energy sources, the kinds of security,
for which you would kill a child.
Name, please, the children whom
you would be willing to kill.”
Leavings, Wendell Berry’s new poetry collection needs no more introduction than that. I find myself grateful for this man and for his prolific writing life each time I open any one of his many books. In poetry, fiction, and essay, Berry speaks to the beauty, and the horror, of the world in which we find ourselves. He has a new essay collection as well, Imagination in Place.
Dexter Filkins leaves nothing to the imagination in The Forever War. In his time as an embedded journalist with a group of Marines in Iraq, he weaves the dignity of the men who find themselves in the midst of this urban war, with his frank assessment of the futility of the U.S. presence there. Filkins is an eloquent writer, and doesn’t shy from an admission that his own life has been forever altered for the worse, as a result of his time in Iraq. If it’s so for a journalist, imagine the lives of the soldiers returning home. This was excellent, difficult reading with something to say to all of us.
The Nine, Jeffrey Toobin’s account of the Supreme Court of the last 40 years brings to detailed life the individual Justices and the universal implications of their collective work. As a nerd who turns up the volume and moves to the edge of my seat when Nina Totenberg starts quoting Justices on NPR, I loved this book! I appreciated reading of each Justice’s background, philosophy, and worldview, especially those of Sandra Day O’Connor. O’Connor’s pivotal role in all of our lives cannot be overstated, and in the aftermath of finishing this amazing book I look forward to reading her own memoir The Majesty of the Law.
And one more political book – there are just no words that can describe how much fun I had reading Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. Yes, it was several hundred pages of juicy gossip. No, it wasn’t exactly educational or life changing. But if you want to know the answers to life’s persistent questions such as why Sarah Palin said “Hey, can I call you Joe?” when her debate with Joe Biden began, then you are a good candidate for this unhealthy, yet delicious snack of a book.
Abraham Verghese is the kind of guy I envy. A physician and professor of medicine at Stanford, a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop as well and contributor to all the upstanding magazines… Anyway, his novel Cutting for Stone is the work of a truly gifted human. Verghese reaches deep into so many areas – the immigrant experience, the political turmoil in Ethiopia in the 70’s, a fifty-year historical span of descriptions of the practice of medicine – this was a novel I sunk my whole self into and it is still with me. As soon as I finished it I read an early Verghese memoir called My Own Country, which details his time practicing medicine in Tennessee in the 1980’s, as the AIDS epidemic began to appear in small town America. It’s a fascinating, personal look at a fascinating and painful time.
I have a thing for medical memoir. Don’t ask me why – I never took a single non-required science class in my life, a statement of which I am less than proud now. Nevertheless, my alter ego is totally drawn to books by doctors, books about doctors, descriptive passages about surgery or disease, and treatises on public health. Some of my favorites you know: Mountains Beyond Mountains, How Doctors Think, Abraham Verghese’s books, anything by Atul Gawande. I just picked up a new (to me) one called Match Day: One Day and One Dramatic Year in the Lives of Three New Doctors. So far, it’s promising, with author Brian Eule following three women through their first year of internship. I’d pass it to Ani when I’m done, but she asked me the other day if one ought to plan to be a doctor if one doesn’t really like science class. This begs the ancient question (Mom? Thoughts?): Am I still a Jewish mother without at least one child inclined toward practicing medicine?
I just finished the luminous Making Toast, Roger Rosenblatt’s heartbreaking and life-affirming memoir. In the aftermath of his daughter Amy’s sudden death he and his wife moved in to the home of Amy’s husband and three young children. Rosenblatt shares Calvin Trillin’s gift of rendering ordinary encounters and conversations with loved ones as the gifts we should all remember they are. I am unable to conjure up the largesse of the sensations I had while reading, teary and with a lump in my throat throughout the entire book, an entirely un-sappy sense of the richness of life and the largeness of grief. This book is simply beautiful, and honestly, you really should read it right now.

The Ani Section by Ani Graves, 14 (!)
Lately I’ve been reading lots of different books and genres. The last book in Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries series, Princess Forever, was hilarious, as they all have been. I read a couple of books by Han Nolan, great books about dealing with hard situations. The Catcher in the Rye was an interesting book, and I liked it. Chris Crutcher’s books Deadline, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, and Whale Talk were great too.
Han Nolan’s Born Blue was an amazing book with a really tough story. Janie, the daughter of a heroin addict, was removed from her mother and put into foster care at a young age, but she still misses her mom and wants her to come back. Janie’s foster brother, Harmon, is her best friend. They listen to music together, and that’s how Janie discovers the thing she loves the most – singing. That’s what keeps her going when Harmon is adopted. To escape from the hardships of her life, Janie changes her name to Leshaya and takes off. On her way to achieving her dream of being a famous singer, Leshaya gets addicted to drugs and alcohol, has a baby, and much, much more. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone under the age of 13; it was a hard story and very well written.
I read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass because I was going to see the movie. That book is really weird. There isn’t much of a story, but lots of things happen very randomly to Alice, and it’s just really interesting. I really liked it, even though a lot of it was just plain random. It did a great job telling what happens in a dream, because dreams are weird and confusing, and so was the book. What happened to Alice could only happen in a dream, which it did, so I guess it all makes sense.
Deadline, by Chris Crutcher, is a great book about life and death. If you had one year to live and you knew it, what would you do? 18-year-old Ben Wolf finds out that he has a rare disease leaving him with roughly one year to live. Instead of getting treatment, which might or might not make him better, Ben decides to live his last year to the fullest. He doesn’t tell anybody at first, and he is 18 and won’t let his doctor tell anyone, either.
Ben is a cross-country star for his high school, but after finding out about his sickness he decides to do something he has always wanted to do – try out for football with his brother Cody. Ben makes the team, which wouldn’t be that big of a deal, except that he is barely 5 feet tall and just over 120 pounds. Ben does many new things in his last year and the people who are close to him will remember him forever.
Nightlight, by the Harvard Lampoon, is a very funny and well-done parody of Twilight. In this hilarious book, Belle Goose moves to Switchblade, Oregon to live with her dad. Belle is very full of herself – none of the boys at her new high school are up to her standards, but when she sits next to Edwart Mullen in biology, that changes. Edwart is a major computer nerd and pretty antisocial. Belle is soon convinced that he is a vampire, but is she right? He DID leave his lunch untouched, and he DID save her from a flying snowball, and he DID sparkle in the sun. Belle really hopes that her theory is right, because she has always wanted a vampire boyfriend. Will Edwart turn out to be a bloodsucking monster? Will he bite Belle and turn her into a vampire? This is a perfect parody – if you are a Twilight fan, this will make you laugh.

And the boy... by Laura
As for my 12-year-old son (quite different in book tastes from his sister) we just read together one of the best books for young people I have ever read. If you haven’t given yourself the treat of reading Gary Schmidt’s The Wednesday Wars, stop what you’re doing right now and start this wonderful book. The story of a 7th grade boy in the turbulent years of 1967 and 1968, Schmidt gives us in one book personal experiences of the Vietnam War, the King and both Kennedy assassinations, a pitch-perfect young people’s study of several Shakespeare plays, and a depiction of a boy’s relationship with one of those exceptional teachers that transforms one’s life. Tim loved it, but sent many a sideways glance my way as I sniffled, wept, and laughed through it.
We’re also reading Touching Spirit Bear, Ben Mikaelsen’s tough love coming of age novel about a teenage boy who avoids going to prison by agreeing to participate in Circle Justice. Circle Justice involves being deposited on a remote southeast Alaskan island for a year, and also going beyond the concept of simple punishment to make amends and take responsibility. It’s an intense, fabulous middle reader book.
I am quickly becoming versed in the category whose name I just learned is “high interest/low vocabulary.” Research for my son has netted me a couple of publishers who specialize in Tim-style action stories at his interest level but written at his dyslexia level. Ask me for help if you need these! I must add a nod to the Wimpy Kid series: I don’t love it one bit, BUT… I have witnessed my son sitting on the stairs in here quietly READING these for prolonged periods, a sight for which I have immeasurable gratitude.
I’m attempting to insert some literary novels into Tim’s life between junior spy thrillers. Don’t get me wrong - many junior spy thrillers are well-written, fabulous books. It’s just that I can only take so many thousands of pages of them! We have finished eight Alex Rider novels (almost back to back – that’s a couple of thousand pages read aloud by yours truly, people) and will get started on James Patterson’s Maximum Ride series when my boy begins to feel explosion deprivation.
I have one of those brains people (my husband) liken to a hamster wheel endlessly spinning. Mostly that wheel spins about my kids – I found my wheels spinning so hard I had to read a book - aptly titled Yes, Your Teen is Crazy: Loving Your Kid Without Losing Your Mind. I’m pretty skeptical of parenting books and their seemingly one size fits all solutions. That said, I gleaned some good information from Michael Bradley’s engaging, often funny book. I was reassured by the discussion of brain chemistry (fully detailed in Barbara Strauch’s great book The Primal Teen). And I found especially helpful the emphasis on my (ahem…) behavior as a parent as more important and productive a focus than picking apart and analyzing the behavior of my teen. Next up: Get Out of My Life, But First Could You Drive Me and Cheryl to the Mall? Ah, life…

Dear Chamber of Commerce

2009-10-20T15:35:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr. Hauke and Chamber Board of Directors,

At the end of August I wrote you an email to let you know how uncomfortable I was (and still am) about the Chamber's position on the current county commissioner recall. I told you that many members, including myself, do not share this view, and wondered why the membership was not polled or surveyed to find out whether this was in fact a position that the Chamber should take. Most of your members would prefer that you do not take political positions, as we are a diverse group. I never received any acknowledgement from you, if only to say you had received the note.

Now, adding further insult to many of your members, you have decided, in spite of our opposition to your taking any political position at all, to install a large "no recall" sign on Chamber property. As a long-time Chamber member, I respectfully ask that you remove this sign.

Or, perhaps you would consider posting a large anti-corporate-chainstore sign on your property, and taking an equally passionate position on the encroachment of these chains, including Wal-Mart, into our area, which will surely have a huge and direct negative impact on your members throughout the region. I have not heard a peep from the Chamber regarding this issue of import to your members. I would like to know what exactly your position is on the possible presence of Wal-Mart in our area. Wal-Mart is well documented as a predatory pricer whose stated business practice is to put all retailers and service providers selling anything that they also sell out of business. It is also well documented that when those pesky independent businesses do fail, Wal-Mart prices inevitably revert to the normal. So, I would hope that my Chamber would have something to say in support of their independent business members on this vital issue.

Laura Snyder

Lucy's Review Fall 2009

2009-09-16T14:57:00.000-07:00

Spirit of the River welcomes Robin Cody
CCC Performing Arts Center
16th & Franklin, Astoria
Saturday October 3rd beginning at 7:00

Celebrate the “Spirit of the River” with a festive evening of music, poetry, dance, spoken word, and fine art on Saturday, October 3rd at the Clatsop Community College Performing Arts Center in Astoria.
The evening begins with hors d’oeuvres, music and a silent auction of works by favorite regional artists at the Josie Peper building, next door to the PAC on Franklin St. The performance starts at 8 p.m. at the PAC, at 16th and Franklin. This third annual event benefits Columbia Riverkeeper and the opposition to liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the Columbia River.
Award-winning Oregon author Robin Cody is this year’s featured guest. Cody canoed from the headwaters of the Columbia to its mouth at the Pacific Ocean and in 1995 was winner of the Oregon Book Award for Voyage of a Summer Sun, an account of his Columbia River paddle. In 2005, his fictional book set in Oregon, Ricochet River was selected as one of top 100 literary works produced in Oregon in the last two hundred years. Cody has won national awards for his essays and articles and lives in Portland. Of the river, our region, and his relationship to it, Cody says: Mom graduated from Astoria High with "The Tall Firs" of basketball fame. Dad had his fatal heart attack while fishing near Buoy 10. My sister Sue lives in Astoria and works at The Daily Astorian. Her daughters -- Leslie and Brooke Duling -- bleed purple and gold, and I've been all over this river. One summer -- all summer -- I canoed 1,214 miles of it, from the Canadian Rockies to the West Boat Basin. Rivers have spirit, you know. Rivers will give you a bad time of you get cocky. Rivers can lift you when you're down. The Columbia River from Bonneville to Astoria has waaaaay lots of spirit, and is sometimes wild. The wilder the better, if you ask me. The idea of a liquid natural gas terminal on the lower river -- just the idea of it -- is like a fart in church.
On that note, don’t miss this year’s Spirit of the River event! Lucy’s is honored to “person” the book table and offer river revelers the opportunity to purchase Robin’s books. Part of the proceeds will go right to Riverkeeper.

It’s a huge fall season for book lovers. A lot of titles I have been waiting for in paperback are coming in, and an unprecedented number of beloved authors have new hardcover releases just out or coming soon. Highlights for yours truly include a new John Irving novel, and Michael Chabon’s forthcoming essay collection. Life is good.

An Unbelievable Fall for New Releases!!!!!!!

I’m pretty sure I shared with you the post-Michael-Chabon-talk giddy high I was on last fall, but perhaps not my long and failed quest to find the text of the talk he gave. I can’t be sure it will be there, but I’m strongly hoping that Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son will contain it. I can’t wait to read this collection of essays by one of the modern masters of the written word (in my humble opinion of course)!
At long last, after an 11-year hiatus, the supremely gifted short story and novel writer Lorrie Moore returns with the novel A Gate at the Stairs. As Jonathan Lethem succinctly puts it in the Times Book Review, this “is reason enough to start Google-mapping a route to the nearest surviving bookstore.” Moore exactingly tackles class issues – from the micro- of neighboring farmers, to the macro- of the post-9/11 world.
See you when I see you, that is, don’t bug me ‘til I finish the new John Irving. I’m sort of beside myself with anticipation for Last Night in Twisted River. According to the publisher comments: In a story spanning five decades, John Irving’s twelfth novel depicts the recent half-century in the United States as a living replica of Coos County, New Hampshire, where lethal hatreds were generally permitted to run their course.
It seems like everyone is writing a book about eating, and food, and where our food comes from, and all the implications of all of that. So, I’m not sure why the incredible, eclectic novelist Jonathan Safran Foer has chosen to jump off this crowded cliff. That said, I’ll grab Eating Animals and dig in as soon as it comes in, as since I read a pre-publication excerpt of Everything is Illuminated in the New Yorker, I have worshipped at the altar of Foer. From the publisher: On the brink of fatherhood, facing the prospect of having to make dietary choices on a child’s behalf, he visited factory farms in the middle of the night, dissected the emotional ingredients of meals from his childhood, and probed some of his most primal instincts about right and wrong.
My daughter is going to be really jazzed when I bring home Sherman Alexie’s new short story collection, War Dances. I have to share my favorite-ever author photo of the great Alexie – he laughs with abandon, but if you’ve read him you know his incredible humor is the needle that stitches together quilts of incredible sorrow, rage, and love.
(I didn’t write the following – it’s the publisher synopsis! But I know nothing of the book except that I LOVE David Byrne….) Since the early 1980s, David Byrne has been riding a bike as his principal means of transportation in New York City. Convinced that urban biking opens one’s eyes to the inner workings and rhythms of a city’s geography and population, Byrne began keeping a journal of his observations and insights as he pedals through metropoles from Berlin to Buenos Aires, Istanbul to San Francisco, Manila to New York. Bicycle Diaries also records Byrne’s thoughts on world music, urban planning, fashion, architecture, cultural dislocation, and much more, all conveyed with a highly personal mixture of humor, curiosity, and humility.
It’s been Ta few years since Barbara Kingsolver’s last novel. In The Lacuna, Kingsolver explores new emotional ground and new geography in the journey of Harrison Shepherd from the Mexico City of artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo to the America of Pearl Harbor, FDR, and J. Edgar Hoover.
Tracy Kidder’s Strength in What Remains is now available. Kidder tells the unlikely story of Deo, a Burundian medical student and genocide survivor who, through determination and some luck, attended college and medical school in the U.S., then worked for Partners in Health, the worldwide global health organization founded by Paul Farmer, the subject of Kidder’s prior book Mountains Beyond Mountains. Deo has since founded a medical clinic in Burundi, which was always his dream.
Stieg Larsson’s explosive hit mystery The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo now has a follow-up, also translated and published post-humously. The Girl who Played with Fire will surely make Larsson’s many fans swoon, as the intense, quirky hacker Lisbeth Salander takes center stage.
_____________________________________________

Brie’s New Release Picks…

In his latest book Zeitoun, Dave Eggers (What is the What, McSweeneys) has found the perfect subject in Syrian born Muslim Abdulrahman Zeitoun to depict the ills of our times. As Hurricane Katrina headed for New Orleans, Zeitoun stayed to protect his property. Distributing aid after the storm, he was arrested for suspicion of terrorism leaving him unable to contact family or prove his innocence. Eggers spent three years with the Zeitoun family researching the story on these mistreated citizens and discovering more little reported, excruciating realities of post-Katrina life. The proceeds from this book will go to non-profit group The Zeitoun Foundation and will be spent on cultural revitalization in New Orleans. The fun stuff now... in The Wild Things, Eggers taps his never-ending imagination to create a sort of back-story for Maurice Sendak’s beloved book Where The Wild Things Are.
At long last, John Twelve Hawks (Traveler, The Dark River) is releasing the final book The Golden City in his Fourth Realm trilogy. How to quickly explain the intricacies of this series? When reading you may experience subversive politics, oppression, futuristic science and technology with a heart-pounding plot that keeps all synapses firing. My friend Hal would call this trilogy a hotdog of literature!
Tucker Crowe is a washed up musician raising his son and living in rural Pennsylvania staging a comeback album – Juliet, Naked – and unexpectedly finds love. Nick Hornby (A Long Way Down, About a Boy) returns blending humor, heartbreak, love and music into one juicy novel.
I thought Aravind Adiga’s debut novel The White Tiger was fantastic and am excited to read his new book Between the Assassinations. Set in Kittur, India during the years between Indira and Rajiv Ghandi’s assassinations, these stories are connected by place and time. Adiga writes with a biting wit and keen observation, shining a light into lives very different from ours in the western world.
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (Zoli, Dancer) is getting rave reviews as one of the best novels this year. Let the Great World Spin has a promising beginning with Philippe Petit (Man on Wire) walking a high wire between the Twin Towers in 1974. Four very different stories spring from witnessing this event which McCann weaves into one larger novel that focuses on the theme that we are all connected in both mundane and mysterious ways.
Fans of Jim Lynch’s debut The Highest Tide will be happy to know his latest novel Border Songs is available. Small town antics and international politics collide north of Bellingham, Washington, at the Canadian border. Smugglers of a variety of contraband are in danger of the Border Patrol’s newest employee Brandon VanderKool. Although Brandon seems harmless for all his height, severe dyslexia, and obsession with birds, he has a knack for catching smugglers. Neighbors from both sides of the border including a mysterious masseuse, a green card holding cancer patient re-enacting all of Edison’s experiments, and dairy farmers populate Border Songs with vigor and comedy.
__________________________________________

Books I’ve Loved this Summer… Laura

My surprising and awe-inspiring top pick this summer is Nicola Keegan’s first novel Swimming. Olympic swimming sensation Philomena Ash is one of the most interesting characters I’ve ever read. Pip springs out of a small town in Kansas to take the international swimming world by storm, but her interior life, marred by family tragedy, is the real starting block for her personal transformation. Keegan channels this young woman in astounding and unique ways.
I guess most people will agree with absolutely everything or nothing that Alfie Kohn writes. I find myself in the former group. I keep quoting from the fine essay collection What Does it Mean to be Well Educated? in such a wide variety of contexts that though he mostly addresses the education community here, parents, students, and interested citizens of the world will glean much from Kohn’s unique perspectives on standards, achievement, rewards, and motivation.
I finally sat down with The Worst Hard Time, by Timothy Egan, and I stayed sitting for a long time. There was so much about the middle of our country, the plains, the Dust Bowl, Depression politics, farming… so much I had no idea about. Egan is a beautiful writer who makes the political personal, and weaves a particular historical time, place, and people into a can’t-put-down page-turner.
I moonlight as an elected school board member, and there is always discussion (because we always seem to have to eliminate programs) regarding the value of the “extras” – shop class, for example – as compared with straight academics. A must read is Matthew Crawford’s Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work. Crawford is a philosophy professor and motorcycle mechanic, with strong opinions on what is wrong with the relative values placed on high prestige white-collar work vs. the work of the hands. It’s a fascinating, well written, deeply felt philosophical treatise.
_____________________________________________

To reread or not to reread: that…is the question. Laura

While we were in Maine, the Bridgton library hosted a talk with awesome children’s author Andrew Clements. He gave a wonderful talk about his life as a writer to a packed house, and one thing in particular he said has stuck with me. A young person asked him the impossible question, what’s your favorite book ever? Charlotte’s Web was his answer, but the interesting part was that Clements suggested that E.B. White’s masterpiece is a book that one should read every five years for his/her entire life, and that with each reading a completely different experience would unfold. This made complete sense to me! It got me thinking. I don’t reread books, because I can never catch up on my list of haven’t-reads! And yet, books I yearn to read again began popping into my head.
I often recommend Hermann Hesse’s masterpiece Siddhartha to graduating high school students. I read it when I was eighteen, and while I have zero memory of the details (this should surprise no one who knows me), I remember that upon finishing I immediately started again. I was transformed and inspired by this fictional account of a young Indian mystic’s coming of age, but gosh darn it, I can’t really remember why! So, a strong #1 on the reread list.
It was many years ago that I read John Nichols’ The Milagro Beanfield War. It seemed so subversive then, that the “little” people had the last laugh on the corporate interests disregarding their lives (think southwestern water rights squabble turned epic). Now no matter who we are, we are probably those “little” people in one context or another, as those corporate interests have grown so monstrous. The book ended up comprising the first of a loose trilogy, and I never quite fell in love with the other two, but Milagro will forever have a huge, warm place in my heart.
I have a personal list of books about war that perhaps aren’t the standard ones – Brian Turner’s poetry collection Here, Bullet, David James Duncan’s The Brothers K, and John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany. Irving’s coming of age epic, like these others, makes our government policies personal, as characters we grow to know and love are affected by the wars of their eras. I have read Owen Meany a couple of times but would read it again in a heartbeat.
Maybe this seems sacrilegious but I’m going to say it. I miss the old Isabel Allende! More recently I have loved her memoir Paula, but recent novels have not held a candle to The House of the Spirits or Eva Luna. Rereading the great South American writers in their primes seems like a project worth doing. I would read the above, as well as One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. Then I could spend another winter, after my Latin writers’ summer, rereading John Steinbeck’s American epics The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden. Alas, what will I do about all the new releases?

New Fall Paperbacks

Julia Child: A Life: The cover photo of Julia in a burst of laughter is worth a thousand words. For the already or newly minted Julia-philes, Laura Shapiro’s award-winning biography is here. Julia’s own My Life in France is also highly recommended by my good friend Jane, the best cook I’ve ever known, and of course, Julie and Julia, Julie Powell’s memoir and the basis for the movie, is in paper as well.
You may know Isabel Fonseca for her incredibly thorough, brilliant history of the Roma people (Bury Me Standing), but I’m here to tell you she is brutally skilled at the marriage-on-the-brink novel as well. Attachment, which I put on my list after reading the NY Times review last year, is here in paper.
Terry Tempest Williams’ latest book, Finding Beauty in a Broken World, draws on her experiences in Italy, Rwanda, and home, finding common connections between humans and the natural world. Her writing, as in the past, promises to be expressive and exquisite.
I live with two parrot people, so Alex and Me, as well as Of Parrots and People, have been on my radar. You’re probably familiar with Irene Pepperburg’s 30-year long study of animal intelligence through her relationship with the African Gray parrot Alex. The book is made more poignant by Alex’s recent death. The latter title is Mira Tweti’s exploration of the strange unlikely relationship between these two species.
Brie loved this new paperback: Narrated in turn and perspective by two sisters, Julia Glass’s (Three Junes) novel I See You Everywhere is one of the best I read this summer. Strong individuals both, Louisa and Clem struggle with the love and rivalry that makes up sisterhood. Spanning 25 years, I See You Everywhere asks the question: can anyone really see another person as they truly are, or do we only see each other’s definition in relation to ourselves? Glass’s beautiful prose effectively portrays the complexities of family relations.
You’ll need to be patient until November for Thomas Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded. Friedman is the master of connecting us to the world through policy and politics. When I get the chance to read him, he strikes me as someone with common sense, and a vast comprehension of the big picture, a rare and valuable combination.
David Sedaris’ latest, When You are Engulfed in Flames includes his future classic story about quitting smoking. For his cult and not-so-cult following, it’s a worthy collection. Fans of Sedaris will find Sarah Vowell’s new book The Wordy Shipmates’ October release a happy occasion. Vowell’s brand of historical exploration focuses this time on the Puritan experience – both its historical and cultural relevance, and in classic Vowell style, its oddities.
I haven’t read Sarah Hall’s (Electric Michelangelo) work, but Brie is a huge fan, and has already brought home her copy of Hall’s new novel How to Paint a Dead Man. The Guardian calls Hall “one of the most significant and exciting of Britain’s young novelists.” Here she explores the lives of a dying painter, a blind girl, a landscape artist, and an art curator through five decades.
Toni Morrison never falters. Her novels continue to challenge and illuminate with their intense beauty and portrayals of people deep in struggle. I’m looking forward to reading A Mercy, which continues Morrison’s lifetime exploration of what lies beneath the surface of slavery, and within the relationships between mothers and daughters.
Nam Le’s collection of seven stories herald the presence of a stellar new voice. Born in Vietnam, Nam Le’s stories span the entire world. He is the winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize, and The Boat is a New York Times Notable Book.
I know, everyone is writing about food. But read Wendell Berry about food. This farmer has been extolling the virtues of local agriculture and what it means to grow, eat, buy food, for five decades. Berry is much more than a locavore or an analyst of trends; he is a philosopher, and one of the great moral voices of our country. Add a reverent introduction by Michael Pollan, and Bringing it to the Table is required reading.
Linda Hogan is the beloved author of the Pulitzer Prize winning Mean Spirit, and Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World. Her latest novel, People of the Whale, explores the life of a Native American man returned from Vietnam to find his tribe in conflict over the decision to hunt a whale. Hogan once again addresses the most difficult Native issues with a reverent sense of spirituality and grace.

facebook

2009-07-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

Howdy! I just wanted to let you all know that I have been busily setting up Lucy's Books' page on facebook. I'm finding it's a fun and easily interactive way to do updates, muse, and have a nice back and forth with Lucy's community. I will continue to post longer texts here. If you're on facebook, look up Lucy's Books and become a fan! If not, and you dare to risk all your grade school friends finding you, join up and look for us. I hope your summer is treating you well.
Laura

Lucy's Review ~ Summer 2009

2009-06-18T16:26:00.000-07:00

Happy summer! I have to admit it’s excellent to contemplate the end of school. My daughter had her 7th grade year (need I say more?), and my son another year adjusting and readjusting to his learning style. I will be glad for them both that they can relax and do what few people seem to do anymore: nothing. Hanging out, looking like you’re staring into space, imagining a world of your choosing.
My family was joking in the car the other day about how someday maybe my shop would be a museum-like stop on people’s search for antiques and depictions about the way life used to be. A book shop full of paper books would be like the Sturbridge Village of my childhood field trips, where people in Shaker village costumes showed us how people made butter, quilted, and entertained themselves in the “olden” days. People have begun to ask me whether I am going to start selling e-books. I muse on an interview with Sherman Alexie, in which he said:
"Have you ever fallen in love with somebody, a stranger, just because of the book they happened to be reading? And what about the recent awe of walking onto an airplane and seeing that forty or fifty people are reading the same Harry Potter novel? How many times have you talked to a stranger just because they happened to be reading a great book, an eccentric book, a book that you arrogantly thought that only you and the author and his or her mother had ever read? That's not possible with a Kindle.”
I hope you enjoy this newsletter after a brief hiatus this spring. I wish you all a peaceful, quiet, boring summer of watching the bird feeder, listening to the frogs and geese, and blowing off your chores.

Ani’s Winter & Spring Reads by Ani Graves, 13

I’ve read lots of books, both serious and funny, in the last few months, and they’ve all been great. I’ve been getting books from the Astoria High School library that the librarians pick out for me, and they’re always funny. (Mom says “Thanks library ladies!”)
Notes from the Midnight Driver, by Jordan Sonnenblick, is a hilarious yet very deep book. When 16-year-old Alex gets drunk, sneaks out in his mom’s car, and gets in a crash, beheading a garden gnome, his life gets even more complicated. With his parents divorced, his dad threatening to move out of the state, and his court trial for drunk driving coming up, Alex is overwhelmed. He gets sentenced to 100 hours of community service at a nursing home working with a grouchy old man. With encouragement from his best friend Laurie and the distraction of his new electric guitar, Alex and Solomon (the old man) become very good friends. They help each other out in every way, and Sol will reveal a secret that Alex never would have guessed…
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, is a great book by a great writer. I’ve read a few others and loved them all. This book shows what it’s really like being an Indian. Junior is an Indian boy living on a reservation. He has medical problems, and is picked on by everyone except his best friend. When Junior decides that he’s had enough of everything, he starts attending a school with only white kids. It’s really hard for him to fit in, and to add to the tension, his best friend on the reservation hates him now for ditching their school. Everyone at the reservation except his family seems to have turned against him. Junior finds confidence in himself and even makes friends at his new school. This book is very funny, but shows the reality of hardships that Indians have.
Peeps, and its sequel, The Last Days, by Scott Westerfeld, are really good books. Scott Westerfeld is an awesome, funny writer. In Peeps, 19-year-old Cal is a parasite positive, or vampire – a peep for short. Cal’s job is to find people who have been turned into peeps and help them overcome the worst symptoms. When he meets Lace and reveals his secret, she helps him discover a huge cult of rat peeps, and they discover something unheard of (if you just can’t get enough of the vampire thing…).
Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger, is a well-written book. 11-year-old Rueben has a great life, despite his bad asthma. When two troublemaking teenagers break into his house and threaten his family, things get bad. One night they take it too far. Reuben’s brother Davy ends up in jail for defending his family, breaks out, and disappears. Reuben, his dad, and his sister Swede head out in their camper looking for Davy and there the adventures begin.
Ttyl (talk to you later), ttfn (tat ta for now), and l8r g8r (later, gator), by Lauren Myracle, are all in one of the best series I have read in a long time. They’re written in a very interesting style – the instant messages going between three great friends in high school. Angela (SnowAngel) who is always happy, Zoe (zoegirl) the good girl, and Maddie (mad maddie), who is wild and outgoing, are always together, always talking. They go through some tough times and hard situations, but always figure it out. Some are sidesplitting, some are heartbreaking, but the three friends always make up and get everything figured out.

Books for the “Middle-Aged” by Laura

Describing people like me as middle-aged is silly. I am an adult, have been for a couple of decades, and will (hopefully) continue on this path for a couple of more. Being a young teenager, however, seems to me to be the Middle Age. You are not a kid and you are not an adult. I have a pile of books with young protagonists, beautiful writing, and both relatability and an intellectual challenge for the reader. The trick is, then, to convince said middle-aged folk that they really do want to read the books that their mother suggests to them… Therein lies the middle age conundrum. Ani read Anne Frank’s diary recently. Though she chose not to review it, I think it’s a necessary and compelling read. To Kill a Mockingbird deserves strong mention as well.
Michael Dorris’ classic, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, is the coming of age story of half black, half Indian, fifteen-year-old Rayona. Set in the harsh, wintry, yet beautiful Montana landscape, it is a hard, haunting, redemptive story of three generations of women.
Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees is one of my favorites to recommend when a young person is just too old and sophisticated for the kids’ section in the back. Taylor Greer is an independent minded teenager who leaves her Kentucky home in a beat up Volkswagen Beetle, with her mom’s blessing, at least after Mom takes off all the tires and makes sure Taylor knows how to put them back on. The adventure turns serious when a Cherokee woman hands Taylor her baby and disappears, and Taylor must muster her spirit and strength to appreciate the difficult gifts of her unexpected motherhood.
Bee Season remains a longtime favorite of mine. Myla Goldberg, pretty young herself when she wrote this lovely novel, is spot on in her portrayal of the world of competitive spelling bees. I got fascinated with watching the National Spelling Bee after reading it, and was amazed, appalled, and enthralled by the stress of it. Nine-year-old Eliza Nauman finds her own remedy to stress in this engaging novel of family, religion, and spelling bee stress.
I know years ago there was a small uproar (pre-Oprah even) about Forrest Carter’s beautiful memoir The Education of Little Tree, but the questions about whether or not it’s true have never distracted me from the beauty of this story of a Cherokee boyhood. If you can convince a young teenager to have some read aloud time this is a stunningly beautiful book to read aloud. My memories of reading a chapter a night of this on the deck of a boat at sea are priceless.
Briefly, because there are so many of these “middle age” selections, I will mention Chaim Potok’s The Chosen, one of my favorite novels, and a coming of age story in as distinctive a culture as many of us will ever encounter – that of orthodox Judaism in early 20th century Brooklyn, New York.
Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, from the point of view of an autistic teenaged boy dealing with life’s challenges through his very unique lens, shimmers and explodes off the pages. Whether autism is a particular interest or not, the intensity of this first person narrative amazed me.

Random Reads by Laura

I was going to write about Flight on the previous page, but thought I’d better put it here. Ani loved it, and I read it, and thought wow, that is pretty mature for a kid who’s not a kid and not a grown-up. Sherman Alexie unbottles a lot of anger here, along with a lot of love if you’re patient. Zits (yes, Zits) is an angry 15-year-old foster kid many times over, his violent, turbulent skin a graphic metaphor for his anger and pain. Possibly Ani was taken with the time travel, possibly with Alexie’s winningly perfect writing – I’m proud to say my daughter is an accurate connoisseur of quality writing. In any case, caution to younger readers: the language and situations are as you would imagine from the point of view of an angry teenaged foster kid. Still, it’s in the end a beautiful story of our potential as people.
Nic Sheff’s memoir Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines will do its job as a total turnoff for any person tempted to try meth. It’s billed as a book for young adults, for the obvious lessons within, but be forewarned here as well about language and difficult situations. I found it compelling, and needed to read it after I read the beautiful and poignant memoir by Sheff’s father David Sheff, which documents Nic’s addiction as well but from his father’s point of view. Both Tweak and Beautiful Boy are eye-opening stories that taught me (yet again) to check my judgements and assumptions at the door.
It was difficult to pick up Elizabeth McCracken’s memoir but I’m glad I did. This wonderful novelist writes in An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination about the death of her baby boy just before he was due to be born. There is only so much one can read about a subject like this, but from McCracken it is quite real and quite beautiful. She faces her pain head on and helps us understand, if just a little bit. Well worth reading.
I feel like my new obsession with Richard Price will cause some literate people to sigh with exasperation, kind of an adult “Well, duh….” Lush Life was the most outstanding vacation book choice I’ve made in years. Sadly I found myself rationing it, as my other picks didn’t pan out so well. I have never read such true dialogue, such perfect characterizations of city cops, “perps,” urban hipsters, and the whole fraught community of lower Manhattan seething with tension. I also read Freedomland, and found it equally satisfying, though much more sad than ironic. Price “gets” people in that same razor-like way that Tana French (In the Woods), John Burdett (Bangkok 8), and yes, John Irving, “get” people. If you know me, you know a bigger compliment I could not pay him.
If you ask me what is the best setting for a novel, these days I’d have to answer New York City. Adam Mansbach’s gem of a novel The End of the Jews situates its characters in the true melting pot of greater New York City. In no other setting could Mansbach’s characters come together in such rich and interesting ways. He links the lives of Nina, a young Czech photographer, Tristan, an aspiring writer steeped in hip hop culture, and Nina’s and Tristan’s parents and grandparents in an epic and poignant treatise on love and art.
I loved A Country Called Home, by Kim Barnes. It’s a quiet, small novel about an adventurous and idealistic couple that moves from the city to a remote piece of land in Idaho. After the birth of her daughter, the woman is paralyzed by loneliness and isolation, craving both people and the creature comforts she left behind. The story turns in surprising and powerful ways, and Kim Barnes (In the Wilderness) evokes the Idaho landscape and those who love it incredibly beautifully.
Poetry is an on-again-off-again love of mine, and I’m way on right now after reading an amazing New Yorker article about and then the collections of identical twin poets from Portland, Oregon. Matthew and Michael Dickman are yin yang poets, close, close brothers and compatriots, and fascinating chroniclers of urban life, in very different and beautiful ways. Matthew’s wild and exuberant language spoke more clearly to me than Michael’s, which is concise and spare. I loved Matthew’s collection All-American Poem, and as always, am storing poems away for my holiday book group poetry swap. Maybe we should share poetry more frequently – ladies? Michael’s collection The End of the West is equally powerful in a very different way.
____________________________________

Brie’s Spring Favorites

Several years ago a man and his daughter were reportedly living in Forest Park in Portland for nearly four years. Now local author Peter Rock has re-imagined their lives in his new novel My Abandonment. Thirteen-year-old Caroline narrates her secretive existence in the woods with her father, detailing their habits and her unconventional but effective schooling. Their alternative lifestyle requires a combination of paranoid vigilance and free spirited will. Once discovered, their lives take a turn through society with startling effects that bring Caroline’s father’s mental fragility into focus. Striking out on their own again, away from civilization, things go from bad to worse. As Caroline gets older, the lifestyle choices she makes are a product of her childhood. My Abandonment is riveting, as the story edges along between psychosis and free will and in the end questions where the line between the two is drawn.
Man Booker Prize winner The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga, is a novel as rare as its title. The entire novel is formed as a letter to the Premier of China and gives a hilarious and heartbreaking account of Balram Halwei’s life. Descending from the baking class, Balram has scored a job driving the “air conditioned egg” around India for his master. It is hard to decide if the roads of Delhi or dealing with his master’s privileged and temperamental family require more dangerous negotiations. As this self-proclaimed “half-baked Indian” philosophizes and rants, you also get a feel for the geography, politics, and contradictory social norms of India. The White Tiger is a fictional masterpiece offering a character at once conflicted, angry, compromised, and dangerous; yet I found myself cheering him all the way to the end.

Summer Reading for ‘Tweens & Teens

No promise of advanced intellectualism here, but I will promise fun. Which is what summer reading is for, isn’t it?
Ani emailed me: “The House of Night series, by P.C. and Kristin Cast, is one of the better vampire series I’ve read (ed.: this is saying A LOT). In the first book, Marked, Zoey Redbird is marked as a vampire fledgling, and her life seems to have been ruined. She went to a good school, had a best friend, and a great boyfriend. All vampire fledglings have to stay at the House of Night until they are fully changed vampires, so Zoey has to leave everything and everyone behind. The House of Night turns out to be a great place and she makes lots of new friends. All she wants is to fit in, but that is very hard when you have been blessed with powers that no vampire has had before. These are great books!”
I have another young teenaged customer who chose a couple of interesting titles the other day, that on first glance might not seem to be for the age. But on second glance… My Sister’s Keeper – Jodi Picoult’s page turner about a child born to a family for the purpose of being a bone marrow donor for her sister. The ethical conflicts loom large, and the emotional hits never stop. There would be lots to talk about, if you happen to have the type of young teen in the house that likes talking!
The same lovely young woman chose Holy Cow, a memoir by Sarah MacDonald. I would gravitate toward this book just looking at the cover, for sure. Eleven years after a backpacking adventure to India in her twenties, MacDonald finds herself moving to New Delhi to be with the love of her life. She chronicles the chaos and contradictions of India – from war zones to spiritual retreats to Bollywood culture. Again, I may not have thought of it for teens, but why not?
I don’t know any girls that read Tony Horwitz’s Alex Rider series. A challenge to you girls out there, maybe… Then again, being a girl myself, I wouldn’t be reading them except that I am reading them with my son, who adores them. And what boy would not adore a teenaged James Bond-type guy working for MI6 and getting into scrape after deadly scrape with evil doers trying to blow up the world, clone themselves a thousand times over and take over the world, control the world through computer viruses, and on, and on, and on. Truly the excitement never stops – I only require of Tim that after every couple of Alex Riders, it’s my pick for one. Happily, the publishers are slowly putting the collection out in graphic novel form, for the reluctantly reading ‘tween boy in your life.
If your ‘tween is not an Astoria Middle School student, they won’t be at AMS for the “Everyone Reads” program there that started with James Howe’s absolutely wonderful The Misfits last year. However, they can certainly read the books! Next year the program will include a book for each grade, adding My Mother the Cheerleader, and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. The thread that connects these novels is the different ways people are bullied or oppressed and the gamut of worlds both large and small affected by it – from a middle school to the south of Ruby Bridges to the Holocaust. Kudos to AMS for tackling these subjects.

Summer newsletter

2009-05-27T16:53:00.000-07:00

Lucy's summer newsletter really is coming, someday.... Really....
For now, it's Crazy May in the school sense meaning, in our family of two students in two schools, one school board member, and one guidance counselor at two high schools, every night has something in May. That's why it's called Crazy May.
We are all looking forward to summer.

Diane Hammond event cancelled

2009-03-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

It's a little hectic here, and I need to tell you that the reading and signing with Diane Hammond, originally scheduled for Sunday April 5th, is cancelled. She will read at Godfather's Books down the street, instead, as well as events in Ocean Park and Seaside.

My husband's 100-year-old, 100% Boston Irish grandfather, died in his sleep at his house on St. Patrick's Day morning. Our family will be traveling to Boston for his memorial the first weekend of April.
For now, we leave for Costa Rica tonight, a long-dreamed and long-planned adventure. Lucy's will be in good hands while I'm gone.
Thanks for your support of little, human-sized businesses!

A Lovely Afternoon

2009-02-13T12:39:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we had a lovely afternoon with author Molly Gloss, her second visit to Lucy's. She is such a wonderful reader, speaker, and I could listen to her answer questions for a long, long time. See the sidebar for upcoming author visits.

a little history...

2009-02-10T13:36:00.001-08:00

Lucy’s Books is a locally owned and operated independent bookstore in downtown Astoria Oregon. Owner Laura Snyder opened the store (with the help of her infant son Tim, daughter Ani, and husband Jon and his parents), in August of 1998, a bad time, some say, to open a small, independent bookstore. Bucking the national trend toward big box business, Lower Columbia residents from both sides of the river have spoken here with their voices and dollars of their commitment to vibrant communities.

Lucy’s Books is committed to the idea of community, through advocacy and events, through bringing people together toward a common purpose. From northwest fiction writers like Tom Spanbauer, to renowned naturalists like Robert Michael Pyle and Californian Freeman House, to acclaimed children’s author Petra Mathers to sex advice columnist Dan Savage, a rich variety of northwest talent has graced our space.

Lucy’s offers 20% off to the public school districts of the region. Lucy’s Books will offer you 20% off any book you buy to donate to our public schools. Lucy’s supports our local children’s museum, our local community radio station, and our Women’s Resource Center through an ongoing library development program. Lucy’s supports our local camps (VOCA) for girls and boys who have survived sexual abuse.

Lucy’s small space holds a rich, lovingly and carefully chosen variety of high caliber fiction, memoir, northwest regional lore, poetry, parenting, health, spirituality, nature and travel, and of course children’s titles. As well, you’ll find the perfect journals, calendars, and cards. Special orders are welcome, and almost any title in or out of print is accessible to you through Lucy’s Books.

Enjoy this web site, let me know what you think, and know that there is no substitute for the experience of holding a book, and having a kindred literary spirit with whom to talk about it. Shopping on line for books, while not as good as the real thing, can still support the independent spirit of local bookstores. Many independent stores have web sites; go there before the book/drug/electronics/toy store next time! You’ll be pleased by what you find.

The view out my door...

2009-01-29T12:53:00.001-08:00

Timlandia

2009-01-29T12:27:00.000-08:00

My son made a nice display while playing hooky on Inauguration Day (see photos). It's very very Tim, and totally different from the stuff I usually put out. I think he even did the work for free!!!

Almost time to get working on the newsletter... I am compiling a huge list of books that are great for young teenagers, mostly adult books that are a great crossover. Ani has read Peace Like a River, for instance, and loved it. Then, I am going to put a call out for the young teen crossover family movie list. This is the hardest age to find movies to watch as a family! I'm game for suggestions.

Oh Happy Day!

2009-01-20T11:19:00.000-08:00

Happy Inauguration Day! I feel so positive.
The poem was incredible. It will be published in February in an $8 edition. I am hoping for a larger collection of Elizabeth Alexander's poetry including that beautiful poem.
Amazing...
I hope for a better future for all of our children in schools operating without enough resources to do their best. And I hope for a better future for everyone in which our health, our education, our elder years, our working years, are addressed with dignity and care.
I think that's not an unreasonable hope, though I think it will take quite some time at the beginning of this paradigm shift.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-09T13:17:00.001-08:00

Happy new year from Lucy's Books! One of my resolutions, to deal with technology, gave me the impetus to join the universe and upload a bunch of pictures of the shop, inside and out, for the curious and far away.
We have really nice t-shirts for sale - the green are "girl" cut and the others unisex. $15 buys you lots of fashion here.

The Stephenie Meyer store... a fixture now.

Various lovingly tended piles of books...

And journals too...
Now to my next resolution - to read Midnight's Children, which has for some odd reason caused a block for me for years. Cheers, til next time.
Laura

Lucy's Review ~ Holiday 2008 Edition

2008-12-03T13:35:00.000-08:00

A New Time…
I am 45 years old and I feel a particular pride in my country I haven’t felt before. We are not sheep after all, I thought as I wept and laughed with joy on election night, and at odd moments for many days after. Fear has finally taken a back seat to hope, as corny as that sounds. For the last eight years – the bulk of my children’s time here on earth so far – many of us have existed in a perpetual state of angst, anxiety, sorrow, and frankly, embarrassment. As Garrison Keillor simply put it during McCain campaign criticism of Obama’s oratorical abilities, just what is wrong with having a president who is a wonderful speaker? Isn’t that actually part of his or her job? To be eloquent, clear, intelligent; to move gracefully among both world leaders and we ‘people on the street’? To inspire with words and with calm, measured thoughtfulness? As far as I can tell, there’s nothing wrong with that. My job, of course, is to turn the conversation somehow to books, so here goes! Happy, happy holidays and happy beginnings of a new time.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Books of the Year 2008
Over time I’ve grown attached to my Book of the Year tradition. It started, I think, with the need to acknowledge Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains with more than the standard blurb. I’ve chosen these books for a variety of reasons, and this year I’ve picked two: an author and a book of poetry for wildly different reasons, both compelling to me.
Brie and I both had trouble finding books to read after being blown away by Tana French’s novels In the Woods and The Likeness. Both novels are, on the surface, Irish detective novels. I don’t think either of us read them for deep thinking on world issues, as we sometimes do, though in great fiction we sometimes do find deep personal truths. I’m calling Tana French the Author of the Year for sheer readability. When I finished The Likeness I had a let down like I never had before, realizing there was not a third one to follow (at this time anyway). French made me appreciate genres that I never had – her novels could be called mysteries, or psychological thrillers – but what is so fantastic in them are the characters. She digs so deeply into the humanity, flaws, strength, and hearts of her characters in a smart, hip, and sometimes seemingly lighthearted way, that the lack of resolution to life’s problems at the end are the perfect ending.
I’m also giving a reverent nod this year to Brian Turner’s poetry collection Here, Bullet. This one I did sit down with to do some deep thinking on world issues. Turner served for a year in Iraq as well as in Bosnia-Herzegovina and writes poetry from his soldier’s perspective as witness and participant. I haven’t read, listened to, or seen anything that brought the immediate experience of war, especially this war, to bear so brutally, personally, and eloquently as this slim volume. I am waiting, not so patiently, for any new work from this amazing poet.

A Gift to Myself…
I had the immense good fortune of heading to Portland last night to hear Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union) give a talk, from the bima of the amazingly beautiful Temple Beth Israel. Throughout the talk I let Chabon’s gigantic, eloquent, perfectly chosen and inflected vocabulary wash over me, my only regret the knowledge that I would not remember every word. A talk is ethereal; when it’s over, it’s gone, but one of his themes rang true, and that was that life is happening now – the only thing is this moment. So… I tried to be really there. He somehow made seemingly disparate topics – the heartbreak he finds himself feeling for Barack Obama’s daughters, the brutality of circumcision, drawing superheroes with his young children, fatherhood, daughters, sons – flow as a singular and powerful affirmation of the imperfect, beautiful moments that are life. I’m giving myself the gift of reading and re-reading his work this year. If you’ve never read a Michael Chabon novel or short story, give yourself this amazing gift.
_________________________________________________________________

Molly Gloss
Reading and Talk
Saturday
February 7th
4:00 at Lucy’s
Join us for a lovely afternoon with renowned author Molly Gloss, whose latest novel The Heart of Horses is newly in paperback. Gloss is the author of the novels The Dazzle of Day, The Jump-Off Creek, and Wild Life. She is a fourth-generation Oregonian, living in Portland.

Winter 2008 by Brie
Fall projects and an overwhelming love and longing for more Tana French books have limited my novel reading this season. For this review I’m recommending books that can double as gifts and are great tools for a responsible and sustainable future.
The Better World Shopping Guide by Ellis Jones fits nicely into a pocket and goes a long way in helping every dollar count. Well researched, this tiny guide ranks companies and products by the criteria’s of social justice, animal protection, human rights and ecological sustainability.
Dare to Repair: A Do-It-Herself Guide to Fixing (Almost) Anything in the Home, by Julie Sussman and Stephanie Glakas-Tenet, is fantastic for self-reliant women! From basic home maintenance to planning fire escapes, this guide lists and illustrates all items needed for projects with clear instructions.
For those who are serious about implementing sustainable practices in their home (or apartment), The Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutson is a thorough resource. Sections on permaculture, foraging, urban livestock, energy production, transportation, and future resources contain well organized information. Learn how to do many no-nonsense projects that incorporate vintage home economics and sustainable technology ideas into your home.
Annie Berthold Bond’s book Better Basics For The Home boasts a variety of non-toxic, tried and tested recipes for every imaginable household and personal hygiene product. Complete with a glossary, buyer’s guides, wise tips and easily acquired ingredients, these solutions are safe, simple and low cost.
For the more visual book lover, One People: Lonely Planet General Pictorial Series, is a gorgeous collection of international photographs and text that illustrate both similarities and differences among the earth’s residents. Common wisdom or someone famous said we cannot understand the future without knowing our past. A People’s History of the United States: The Wall Charts is the timeline companion to Howard Zinn’s well-loved history book. Two bright wall charts visually enhance important events and people that have shaped our country.
I did manage to read an interesting novel by Sarah Hall (The Electric Michelangelo) titled Daughters of the North. Reminiscent of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, this dystopian story revolves around a group of women illegally living on a farm named Carhullen. Global warming has compromised England with mass floods, the government has ‘provided’ work, living quarters, food rations, fertility control, and other scary ‘services’ for all citizens. A woman known only as Sister escapes to Carhullen and learns to be rebel fighter in a future where seeking freedom equals terrorism. This is a disturbing but very thought provoking novel.

Living in a New Time by Laura
Well, you know it’s the dawning of a new era if I am writing about garden books. If you know me, you know I am the anti-gardener, always a nervous bout of intimidation away from actually putting the seed in the ground and seeing what happens, or pulling on a ‘weed’ that I find out later was a rare and lovingly tended experiment of my husband’s. It’s that kind of thing that prevents me from getting my hands dirty. So, the caveat is, unsurprisingly, that I have read none of these. The good news is that they come highly recommended by customers, and gardeners of all types, and along the lines of Brie’s theme, they’ll make great gifts for a sustainable future.
Even I know that the time may come when circumstances may actually force me to become competent at growing myself and my loved ones something to eat. As much as I’d prefer to trade books for veggies from a garden-loving friend, the first book I’ll pick up will be Steve Solomon’s Gardening When it Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times. Beginning with the wise premise that “we are soon going to base our civilization on something other than oil” and drawing on his decades-long experience of growing the majority of his own food in northwest, or northwest-like climates, Solomon humbly guides gardeners of any level of expertise (or not) in the ways of being “vegetableatarians.”
Certified permaculture designer Heather Flores is a Eugene, Oregon performance artist as well as author. Food Not Lawns is her effort to promote her vision that replacing lawns with food gardens leads to stronger, healthier neighborhoods. The tips she offers are wonderful for the layperson (me). At the same time she puts gardening in the larger context of a sustainable community as the book progresses from garden basics to chapters on “Beyond the Garden” and “Into the Community.”
Two books have been repeatedly recommended to me when I’ve revealed that I am completely clueless about how to even contemplate growing a little food at home. Both Square Foot Gardening and Lasagna Gardening offer step-by-step, fail-safe (really? really?) instructions on literally building from below ground up a square or whole yard in which to grow an abundance of food with a minimum of maintenance.
Permaculture is the “verbal marriage” between permanent and agriculture. Toby Hemenway’s Gaia’s Garden is the best overview of Bill Mollison’s permaculture ideas, scaling the concept for the home gardener. He advocates for the ecological garden – low maintenance, non-invasive, bio-diverse, with a large edible output. Sounds good to me. I just have to face the fear!
Don’t forget to read Thomas Friedman’s newest book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, which details the perilous state of the larger world, and why “green revolutions,” both large and small, are our opportunity as well as our challenge.

New in Hardcover by Laura
Rejoice, Kate Atkinson fans! The third Jackson Brodie novel is here. When Will There Be Good News? hits the mark again. Atkinson shares with Tana French the subtle gift of writing a detective novel on the the surface, hiding layers of powerful portrayals of what Tom Spanbauer simply called “the human being story,” the story of how peoples’ hearts break and heal, and how everyday disappointment coexists with moments of pure grace.
In Wally Lamb’s new novel The Hour I First Believed , he explores his usual themes of the aftermaths of violence, the distressed and displaced, this time under the umbrella of an up close and personal fictionalized account of the Columbine tragedy and its aftermath.
Beloved western icon Ivan Doig has a new novel out. The Eleventh Man bears witness as the starting football lineup (11 men) of a fictional Montana university all enlist during World War II and are scattered around the world in different branches of the military. Doig is sure to please fans with his take on themes of war and service.
I’m excited about Terry Tempest Williams’ new book, Finding Beauty in a Broken World, in which she weaves interconnecting essays and thoughts around the indiscriminate killing of endangered species, genocide, the art of mosaic, and the devastating death of her brother. As always, she eloquently shares her love of nature, and makes a passionate plea for respect for life in all forms.
I love reading about bold, passionate educators, and Geoffrey Canada fits the bill. In Whatever It Takes, journalist Paul Tough gifts us with a great profile of Canada, founder and director of the Harlem Children’s Zone. The organization is a profound and audacious attempt to improve the lives of children and their families in Harlem by providing services from birth forward, including unapologetically demanding schools.
Two favorite poets, Mary Oliver and Wendell Berry, have published new volumes. Berry’s The Mad Farmer Poems is a lovely gift book, a beautiful collaboration between Berry’s poetry and Abigail Rorer’s engravings. As Berry succinctly puts it in his note, “in a society gone insane with industrial greed and insecurity, a man exuberantly sane will appear to be ‘mad.’” Oliver, in The Truro Bear and Other Adventures, considers “beasts of all kinds” in essay and poetry. One reviewer said it better than I can, that Oliver “teaches us the profound act of paying attention.”
I’m going all over the map here, genre and subject-wise, but I am a quirky hard cover book buyer. I don’t ever know what will sell in hard cover – I buy what piques my own, or my coworkers’, or friends,’ or customers’ interests. In other words, it all comes back to chit-chat I guess. My other unflagging source of new books, I have to say, is NPR’s Fresh Air program. It was there I heard oil industry policy wonk Antonia Juhasz being interviewed by the great Terry Gross. She sounded brilliant and knowledgeable, and her title says it all: The Tyranny of Oil: The World’s Most Powerful Industry – and What We Must Do to Stop It.
If Calvin Trillin only rings a bell to you as that guy who’s always looking for good barbeque, I urge you to explore his side career as a political poet. He is absolutely hilarious and cutting, while managing to keep it sweet and sportsmanlike. Deciding the Next Decider is the stocking stuffer for the political blog addict in your life…
I love Art Spiegelman (Maus)! He opens this retrospective in book form with the heading Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*. Breakdowns includes a graphic timeline of the artist’s evolution, a facsimile of the long sought-after collection of his 1970’s comics, and ends with Spiegelman’s own words on the obsessions that have brought his work into being over a span of close to 40 years. Disclaimer: the content is very adult.
I have no clue how I’ll have time to read all these books, but here’s yet another for the short list: Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success. I would like to see past his crazy mad scientist hair to the inside his brain. I love his unique way of studying people, getting to the big picture by picking apart the smallest minutiae of how people think and act. By asking a simple question – “what makes high achievers different?” – Gladwell coaxes out the patterns, trends, and habits that simultaneously render us humans as modern innovations of our times and the cosmic twins of the oldest of ancient tribes.
I studied Toni Morrison for my honors thesis in college, and I’ve never read her words without feeling both awed and humbled, in the presence of profound greatness. Her first new novel in five years, A Mercy is a 17th century look at Morrison’s predominant themes: acts of cruelty that are actually mercy, and her constant effort to peel away and expose all the excruciating layers of pain wrought by slavery.
The premise of Wesley the Owl hit a sentimental spot with me. My daughter spent her young elementary years obsessed with barn owls, thanks partly to her birding gene, and partly to Kathryn Lasky’s wonderful Guardians of Ga’hoole series. I will never forget her careful attention to hand painting her homemade wings for Halloween, Sibley guide in front of her. Wildlife biologist Stacey O’Brien’s memoir chronicles her twenty-year relationship with the injured barn owl she rescued at four days old through lenses both personal and scientific.

The Tinkerer by Laura
That would be my son. His reading disability prevents him from reading novels by himself, but he is apt to disappear into his room with project or prank books. Its title seems silly, but the Klutz Encyclopedia of Immaturity is actually a wonderful cornucopia of old style activities, from how to pretend to walk into a wall, to a lesson on using Shakespearean insults. I have caught Tim with our adult friends (right, Tom?), fully engaged in goofing around with this book, which is exactly what it is for. Tim adores these humorous and weird things to do. It’s worthy!
Like many tinkerers, Tim is fascinated with Leonardo da Vinci. There are a gazillion kids’ books about the Great One, but we like Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions You Can Build Yourself. It mixes biographical tidbits with a lot of projects, the beauty in them that they mostly require equipment and supplies that are already lying around the house. You know what I mean: how so many 10-year-old boy projects require so much minutiae purchased at Radio Shack and the hardware store. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but what a relief to just need a paper towel roll and a flattened cereal box! Oh the joy!
46 Science Fair Projects for the Evil Genius is a thorough, straightforward compendium of a lot of different scientific experiments to do for fun or for school (perhaps those two things cross paths, perhaps not!). Either way, a good reference to have on hand.

The Pragmatist
Since my daughter was about six, she’s matter-of-factly answered the question of what she’ll be when she grows up with the two words every Jewish mother wants to hear (ha ha!): “a doctor.” She has shifted specialties from emergency medicine to orthopedics over time, but her answer has remained consistent and steadfast. Thus, I think David Macaulay’s new book The Way We Work will be the coffee table book for our house this year. Macaulay spent many years studying anatomy and drawing the beautiful pictures comprise this fantastic tome. Every family will love the page headed “Journey’s End,” his awesome explanation of the final act of the digestive process. Illustration is a great medium for looking at the eyeball outside the brain. People of all ages will be able to have all questions anatomical answered in a straightforward, fun, colorful way.
I am hoping that Ani’s late night reading of Chris Van Tilburg’s memoir Mountain Rescue Doctor is not an indication of a new specialty shift to high angle rescue emergency medicine, or whatever you’d call what he does. Not exactly the career path to keep me sleeping at night. I read it too, and while not the most eloquent piece of writing I’ve read of late, Van Tilburg lives in Hood River and works all over the gorge and Mount Hood areas, and he gives a great sense of the endurance and cool head needed to do some of the crazy rescues he and his cohorts do.

Welcome to Lucy's Books

2008-11-21T11:55:00.000-08:00

Lucy's BOOKS
348 12th Street
Astoria OR 97103
503-325-4210

laura@lucysbooks.net

We will begin posting to our new website soon. Feel free to leave a comment.