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On The Bookcase | |||||
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New Website, Wonderful Panel, and Winners,
At the end of April, I was flattered and honored to speak on the panel at the New Jersey Library Association Conference. The subject was Talk It Up! The Care and Feeding of Reading Groups. The participants included author and retired librarian, Nancy Pearl, and other distinguished authors and librarians. The panel discussed successful reading group programs, guidelines, and why we love to talk about books. This event was motivating and inspiring, as we celebrated books and the joy of reading while looking at the Atlantic Ocean. Almost heaven for me! The 2005 Favorite Book of the Year was The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead). Alex Draper of West Chester, PA and her reading group, Blue Stocking Society with Runs, won the random drawing for the 2005 Favorite Book of the Year contest. The group will receive $75 to cater their next discussion and copies of The Tender Bar, compliments of Hyperion, for the entire group. Congratulations! Thanks to all who responded so enthusiastically to our recent survey. We appreciate all your comments and kudos very much. Due to the overwhelming response (over 40% response rate!), Reading Group Choices has decided to give away three $75 prizes! Carol Kennedy and her Maui Readers group, F. Bibel and the New Lots Library Reading Group, and Connie Marshall and her Dunning Park Reading Group are the winners in the random drawing of the survey participants. Bravo! National Poetry Month should be every month, not just April! My favorite poem is Sea Fever (http://www.publishingcentral.com/masefield/index.html) by John Masefield (1878-1967). I selected that poem to recite in my sixth grade class many, many years ago. Masefield’s poem sang to me, growing up around water and sailboats. I could understand it, tickling all my senses from the smell of the sea to the seagulls crying to the feel of the salt spray. I can still recite it. Read a poem today! What poem sings to you? I recently attended an Author Event to see Marti Liembach. Her novel, Daniel Isn’t Talking, is a portrait of a mother after the diagnosis of her son’s autism and the up and downs of emotions and treatments associated with autism. The book is powerful and funny and so is Ms. Liembach, her own son diagnosed with autism at the age of three. The discussion after the reading was passionate, knowledgeable, and touching -- many of the audience having autistic children or teaching autistic children. This is a great discussible read for reading groups and would make an excellent gift for Mother’s Day. Thank you for keeping the joy of reading alive! Barbara P.S. Some answers to the question of “What are your favorite last lines of a book?” GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens "He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the total abstinence principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us, every one! – Dorothy D. Parker THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” – Laura Vianna
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