You Can Still Nominate the Word of the Year 2010

For all you wordphiles (I know there's a real word for this), you still have 6 January 2011 to nominate your word for 2010 through American Dialect Society.  Meanwhile, listen to NPR's coverage: American Dialect Society Mulling Word Of The Year.

Meanwhile, please have a safe and fun-filled New Year's Eve. And, here's wishing everyone a great 2011!

Happy Kwanzaa

I never really understood Kwanzaa.  What is Kwanzaa?

One year for Books for Babes, we were requested to have some Kwanzaa books for sale to give to young black children who might be celebrating Kwanzaa.  I think we simply gave them to the social service agency since a) we couldn't figure out who was a young black child who celebrated Kwanzaa and b) our customers and these children's benefactors believed (probably rightfully so) that any young black child who celebrates Kwanzaa would have a live, loving person (like parent, pastor, childcare provider) who can explain it better and who would more appreciate a book he could read throughout the year, like those featuring Harry Potter or dinosaurs or flower fairies or pigs.


So, it was quite interesting to hear Keith Mayes about Kwanzaa (a seven-day observation that starts on Boxing Day -- 26 December) on NPR.  Those seven principles, like faith, unity, purpose, creativity, cooperative economics,..., are quite ideal and uplifting, and it's interesting that commentator Keith Mayes has mixed feelings about it becoming multicultural.  Are the black-power roots of Kwanzaa getting diluted by multiculturalism and widespread recognition, just like the Christian tradition of Christmas became buried and lost by commercialization, secularization and (horrors) paganization?

I only put that last part, because of how people think.  The early Christian calendar was somewhat shifted so that Christmas kinda like, but not really, coincided with the Winter Solstice so those pagans would "get it," and Christians had the day off to celebrate His birthday.  Blasphemous talk, maybe, but that's the prevailing theory since, gee, I don't know, 900 C.E.  I think Kwanzaa is still too serious to have strayed from its roots.  It's only 44 years old and some African-Americans haven't had the chance to feel the need to be less exclusive about it.  Don't worry, Professor Mayes, it's still considered a black celebration, although Americans (maybe including me) puzzle over whether it's racist to be saying, "Happy Kwanzaa" to every black person including Nigerians, South Africans and those from San Antonio, Texas, or continuing to figure out for whom Kwanzaa is important or even whether a non-African-American should even be acknowledging that Kwanzaa is a black celebration (for instance, unless we specifically know someone is Jewish or Muslim, didn't we automatically say "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas" during the days leading up to and including Christmas?

The point that Mayes and many should think about and that the SERIOUS CHRISTIANS should REALLY THINK ABOUT is that the further the concept of a celebration spreads, whether it be for Kwanzaa or Christmas, the stronger it becomes.  It is not dilution or loss.  It is adnascentia -- the laying down of many, many roots, so many that it becomes part of the American culture.  That is how we can all achieve equality, by striving towards unity and faith and peace on earth and goodwill towards men.

Not the Night Before Christmas, But the Day Before Christmas Eve

Anyone reading this blog (I know one can read a blog without "following" the author, so I enjoy being delusional, believing I have millions of readers with only three followers) will know that I have been highlighting all sorts of books in this holiday season.  It's my own holiday gift recommendation service.

Today, I want to highlight a number of versions of The Night Before Christmas which we have (while quantities last).  Jan Brett is a popular illustrator of children's stories with a very distinct style.  However, we can' leave a story alone, so just like every recording artist wants to record Christmas songs, so many illustrators want a chance to re-tell Clement C. Moore's poem through their drawings.  (With regards to the poem itself, authenticity boils down to whether Santa flies off saying the traditional "Happy Christmas to All," or American editors opt for the less confusing "Merry Christmas to All, And to All, a Good Night.")

For the younger celebrant, there is a board book with old-fashioned drawings by Christian Birmingham sure to appeal to the adult reader.  The .gif or .jpg image does not do justice to the small size of the sturdy volume.

Domtar, a paper producing company which is promoting its product  --  paper -- in a general sense, along with promoting the company itself in a website called www.paperbecause.com.  Those are the keys to marketing: promote the general category and then, propose that one's own brand is best in class.  I think I learned that before my Boston College graduate Marketing class, probably from reading books by J. Walter Thompson ad agency executives.  But, I digress...

Something you would never find in an electronic book is cut-outs and pop-ups, such as you would with this version of The Night Before Christmas by Niroot Puttapipat, which has both.  I believe Niroot Puttapipat would be what is called a "paper engineer," although "illustrator" would work nicely also.  There are cut-outs, but the illustrations are reminiscent of black paper constructions and the finale pop-up is a fragile culmination of the black paper cut-outs.

And then, there is the one with a CD by Peter, Paul & Mary -- Peter Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey and the late Mary Travers, that is.  This gorgeously but playfully illustrated book (by Eric Puybaret) is accompanied by a specially created three-track musical and narrative CD featuring Moore's tale set to music by Noel Paul Stookey, an reading by Mary Travers over a special score composed by Peter Yarrow with Peter and Paul joining Mary one last time in her final performance, plus the classic Peter, Paul & Mary holiday favorite, "A' Soalin."   This is a treasure to be obtained, held, shared and passed down through the generations.  Try getting this at the iTunes store.

Four More

Yes, four more shopping days until Christmas. Now is the time to come in and buy what we have on the shelf.

And, we do not slouch in this category.

We still have several bestsellers ready to jump into your hands as you race in today, tomorrow, Friday at 3:55pm (remember, we close at 4pm, but if you arrive before then, we will gladly help you get wrapped books under the tree, because that's the Books on First way).

A big local fav is the newest book from Sauk Valley News, featuring selections with its archived collection of photographs of Ronald Reagan and Dixon.

We also have from the author of Seabiscuit Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, And Redemption about Louis Zamperini, Olympic runner who gained fame at the Berlin Games and then, entered the Air Force to fight in the Pacific during WWII.  After his plane went down and he was one of two who survived on a small raft for weeks, he was captured and tortured by the enemy Japanese who discovered his background.  The subtitle says it all.  Hillenbrand's detailed research and vivid writing style make history come alive.  We have this $27.00 book discounted at 20%.

For some intellectual humor, there is David Sedaris's latest title, squirrel seeks chipmunk.  You can definitely hear his voice in these short vignettes, ostensibly about birds and animals in humanly familiar situations (a professional groomer baboon finding a way to connect fawningly with a cat client for the big tip, birds talking about their wintering in Guatemala, a mother stork flummoxed by her two-week old son asking where babies come from), but maybe -- just a tiny bit -- these stories are about human behaviour, also.  After all, where is the line between animal and humans and aren't humans animals, too?


For the serious novel-reader, Ireland-born (now a Canadian resident) Emma Donoghue's Room, is on the short list for the Booker prize.  We have this hardcover fiction discounted at 20% off the list price of $24.99.

We also have books for growing children of all ages, like Legendary Journeys: Trains.

Make Holiday Dinner? Yes, We Can

There is the old joke, "What does a(n) [ fill in the blank]-American Princess make for dinner?"  She makes a reservation.

But, we can fix that.  You know, my original concept for the bookstore was going to be one specializing in cookbooks only.  I even had a name:  Cooking the Books.  That from an accountant, imagine. 

So (deep breath),

from the specific like The All-American Christmas Cookbook: Family Favorites from Every State* or Betty Crocker Christmas Cookbook to the new and fashionable like Bobby Flay's Throwdown!: More than 100 Recipes from Food Network's Ultimate Cooking Challenge and An Obsession with Ham the Hindquarter: with More Than 100 Recipes from Around the World to the staid but safe for sharing Cook's Country Best Potluck Recipes, we have what you need to make a fantastic dinner or be the best contributor to the family's holiday table.

We even have something for those who decide we've had enough sugar for the season:  Tom Valenti's  You Don't Have to Be Diabetic to Love This Cookbook: From Pasta to Pizza to Pumpkin Pie -- 250 Amazing Dishes for People with Diabetes and Their Families and Friends.



My mouth is beginning to water and my fingers itching to begin (by spending two hours and two hundred dollars at the grocery store getting ingredients), so you'd better hurry down and take a look at these and a host of other cookbooks before I hoard them all.

*I have one small gripe about All-American...: There are several recipes "representative" of the states from which the authors Georgia Orcutt and John Margolies claim they are from, like Postoles for Arizona or Corn Bread-Oyster Dressing from Louisiana or even Fabulous Fruitcake from Texas (who can deny that Corsicana, TX, has the world famous Collins Street Fruitcake Deluxe facility?), but for Midwestern Illinois, with a preface on how influential Italian immigrants have been, they present Seafood Lasagna (courtesy of "Italian cooking diva Deborah Mele." Traditional Lasagna for Christmas, maybe. but Seafood Lasagna? With sea scallops and salmon steak and shrimp? Maybe that's what makes it "All-American," because even in New York, they certainly had to be third- and fourth-generation Italian Americans who may possibly afford seafood in their Christmas lasagna. Most that I know are still working with ground beef and sausage, if not simply ricotta cheese to fill the layers.

While Waiting for the Next John Burdett

There are plenty of writers giving us the "real" Bangkok, especially the prostitutes and the bars of Soi Cowboy, the "corrupt" police (or, it's just a different way of moving matters forward), the slums, the bugs, the CIA covert operations, the mysticism, the farang -- foreigners, trying to escape something in the past, present and/or future.  Fans of John Burdett's Sonchai Jitpleecheep should check out Christopher G Moore's Colonel Prachai "Pratt" Chongwatana, farang debarred attorney & detective Vincent Calvino's best friend.  Moore's style is entirely different from Burdett, definitely less mystical and Thai-POV philosophical.  The writing is definitely from a farang-POV, and really, how often does Vincent have to tell us, "But this is Bangkok?"  However, it is a satisfying read to broaden the Thai-American experience (although Burdett is Canadian). Asia Hand is not the first in the series, but I am not one of those who needs to start from the very beginning, and Moore at least works at making each title a stand-alone book.  Yes, he does mention what has happened in the past, but Moore is one of the few serial writers who hasn't annoyed me with a blatant recap of the previous four of five titles in every ninth paragraph. And speaking of "corrupt" police, Moore lays out in patient detail (maybe too much for some readers) just how police have to negotiate the treacherous politics (an American word, for lack of knowledge of the proper Thai terminology) and relations within their own departments as well as of greater Bangkok and Thailand.  Then, succinctly, as Kiko, Vincent's Japanese girlfriend comes to bail him out of jail, but cannot read the Thai form in order to complete it.  The desk sergeant offers to complete it for her.  She offers him 500 baht for his assistance with the implication that for this consideration, he will make sure to fill in the blanks as favorably as possible.  He tells her he can only accept 20 baht.  You see, corruption is in the eye of the beholder.

Moving On from The Lady Matador's Hotel

National Book Award finalist Garcia delivers a powerful and gorgeous novel about the intertwining lives of the denizens of a luxurious hotel in an unnamed Central American capital in the midst of political turmoil.  This is an IndieBound as well as a Carolyn pick.

Kirkus Reviews (07/01/2010):
Six characters in an unnamed tropical city consider matters of life and death, sex and politics, in a brief, intense, imperfectly resolved chronicle of overlapping destinies.

Skilled, sensuous and wry, García displays economy and impressionistic deftness via her diverse cast centered in the Hotel Miraflor, located in a volcanic, Latin American "wedge of forgotten land between continents." Here, after a recent history of violent political turmoil, an election is looming in which the ex-dictator is standing for president, while bombs explode in rival hotels. Meanwhile, Korean textile manufacturer Won Kim dreams of suicide for himself and his pregnant teenage mistress; guerrilla-turned-waitress Aura plots revenge on Colonel Abel for the savage murder of her brother; and lawyer Gertrudis Stüber sells babies to rich white visitors such as poet Ricardo Moran. But most eyes are on the thrillingly beautiful yet unattainable Suki Palacios, here to compete in the first Battle of the Lady Matadors in the Americas. Observing these characters over six days, as they pursue their preoccupations with birth, blood, desire and duty, García simultaneously evokes a corrupt, vibrant culture via snippets of news and gossip. More successful as a sequence of character portraits than a full narrative, the book concludes with some positive choices and some open-ended possibilities, yet remains short of a larger sense of narrative unity.

Six brightly located characters in search of more than synchronicity.

From my Staff Pick review on www.booksonfirst.com:

The literary device used by Cristina García is not new, but highly effective -- intertwining stories of starkly different characters, cinematically envisioned, moving in and out of screens like a Juzo Itami or Pedro Almodóvar film.

I especially like the treatment of chapters, each representing a successive day in the week, beginning on Sunday, 2 November 2003. She begins with tantalizing phrases to introduce what is to come, to wit, Chapter One:

The lady matador puts on her suite of lights * The ex-guerilla serves pork chops * The lawyer delivers a baby girl * The Korean manufacturer visits his mistress * The poet buys a cheap wristwatch * In the gym with the colonel * The news

The news comes at the end of each chapter and consists of snippets

From Channel 9's Top of the News

From the Weather Channel

From La Boca Abierta, a feminist radio program

From El Pajarito, an astrology show

From La Estrella magazine

From Radio Cristiana

From The Lupe Galeano Show

among others.

And, within the chapter, sub-labels succinctly tell where the action is: The Lobby, The Honeymoon Suite, Roof, Elevator, as well as a few locations around the city, like at The Factory or Hospital. This spareness sets a black-box dramatic stage for a lush, Central American setting of the writer's and the reader's imagination, the excitingly intriguing behaviour of the lady matador, and the cold, calculating actions of the baby fixer which leads to her ultimate downfall. And, because García ultimately follows the tradition of Latin American surrealism, it is no surprise that her practical guerilla sees and speaks with her dead brother's ghost who is not a helpless wraith but can somehow send anonymous gifts through room service to El Colonel who believes them to come from La Matadora.

This is a book to be savoured and despite Kirkus Reviews's half-hearted criticism on lack of narrative unity, delivers a full-bodied story that reads like a heady wine.

The Mighty Brights are In! And We Welcome Our Last Live Act of 2010!

Folks,

We just know more than one of you has asked when they were coming.

You have been waiting for them and they’re in! 

Xtraflex2 booklights with flexible necks in great colors like pink, purple, blue and green as well as a Deluxe set with Adapter in Cool Black.

We have Pocketflex, a heavier duty compact light with a flexible gooseneck that goes where you go (not that an Xtraflex2 can’t, but choice is everything!).

They make great gifts for co-workers, reading friends or #1 (that be you).

And TONIGHT, come in for hot chocolate and a treat, be that a cookie or Copper Creek, a great fun band playing ol’ time favorites right here in the best pass-the-hat live music coffeehouse venue.

Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1, NOW IN

Yes, it’s in!  And as soon as they came into the warehouse, the warehouse was on backorder again.

So, we have some precious copies available now.  So, hurry in for yours to give to a history or American literature buff or send someone in to get it to give to you for Christmas!

Have you been waiting for a hard-to-find book you ordered?

Friends,

A used copy of The Poem of the Man-God, Volume One by Maria Valtorta on Thursday, 4 Nov.  Since it’s come in over a week ago, we have been discovering that we have no record of who ordered it.  And, the time for discreetly asking key customers who order a lot of hard-to-find books is over!  Let us advertise our shame and get this book into eager hands and before eager eyes and brain.

If you are that customer, please hurry in to claim the book before we are forced to send it back and apologize when you finally come in to say, “You know, I ordered a book a couple of months back and haven’t heard from you…”

Hope to see you soon,

Your airhead booksellers at

Books on First

Sauk Valley's Premier Bookstore/Coffeehouse

In the Heart of Downtown Dixon

202 W First Street

Dixon, IL  61021

815.285.BOOK (-2665)

815.285.2666 fax

chin@booksonfirst.com

Art at Rock River GAP

I had written previously about Mark Framke and artist Sydni Reubin and believe it or not the Rock River GAP.  That's a cool name, considering "GAP" is short for "Golf & Pool."  The name evokes good memories of my only other experience with the use of that word/acronym with water is passing the Delaware Water Gap in Pennsylvania each time we drove east/west between the Midwest and East Coast.  To

Now, I'd like to tell you about Art at Rock River GAP and about Sydni's show (with Bettendorf, IA, paper artist Dawn Wohlford-Metallo), now ongoing until May 2011. The promo for it showcases Larry's favorite, her painting of Mark Framke, executive chef at the Rock River.  So do not miss it live and in person, along with getting a good meal (although the menu is not quite where Mark wants to be yet, we highly recommend the house-made balsamic vinaigrette and potato chips -- not together, but that's just our taste).

December's Second Saturday and Adnascentia

This Saturday, Dec. 11 from 7-9 p.m., Todd Lorenc will be performing here with his new gig "Orange Doesn't Rhyme."  Todd was originally one-half of the duo Flying Fish.  Stop down and take a listen.

And, it'll be Second Saturday in Downtown Dixon, with lots of venues for visual and performing arts. More info is at the website at: http://www.second-saturdays.com/. Since most Second Saturday venues will finish by 8pm, remember that Books on First and Todd Lorenc will continue until 9pm, so come in for a cuppa, a sit-down and a great listen.

We still have a lot of names on our "Books for Babes" tree.  It means a lot to the kids to get a book or two at Christmas, so pick a name and make a child happy this year.

We have a great selection of gift ideas for that person on your list. Melissa & Doug toys are very popular for the young-uns on your list.  If we don't have it in stock... we can order, but hurry in, because who knows what that next popular item is!

At Books on First, games are not just for children.  Check out our wonderful puzzles from Pomegranate depicting artwork by Monet, Van Gogh, Charley Harper, Renoir and others.  When finished, they are suitable for gluing, shellacking and mounting (and giving!) if you are so inclined.  This would a different twist on giving a book that you have read and enjoyed so much.  And the whole family does not need to crowd into the kitchen (although it might take longer than baking a batch of cookies).  


If you want to skip the fun and go straight to some wonderful art at great prices from local artists, Second Saturday is key, so don't miss it.  Visiting Art at Books on First is another great place to view art by local artists as well as The Next Picture Show right down the street. 

I have not used the word I adopted in a long time,so I shall do so now.  

In this holiday season, get into the spirit of peace, love, joy, and service which can take you into the New Year and beyond, and may that spirit in you spread like adnascentia through each step you take and act you do and among all you touch, so that through each of us, we can live in and leave to future generations, a better world.

Snow Day

Let it snow... Let it snow... Let it snow...

Revel in it or refuse to give in, as in big wolf little wolf: The Little Leaf the Wouldn't Fall by Nadine Brun-Cosme with evocative dream-like illustrations by Olivier Tallec.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around the bookstore with many Christmas as well as gift titles to choose from. If we don't have the title you're looking for... we can order!

Have a cozy evening...

From your friends at:

-Books on First – Sauk Valley's Premier Bookstore/Coffeehouse
 202 West First Street
 Downtown Dixon, IL  61021
 815-285-BOOK (-2665)
 www.booksonfirst.com
 
Our Hours Are:
Mon-Thu 7am - 6pm
Fri            7am - 9pm
Sat          8am - 9pm
Sun        10am - 4pm