Genre Fiction

Yesterday I took the whole day off to gallivant around New York City and be a tourist. The first destination on my list was the New York Public Library. Ever since I saw its huge marble stairs and gorgeous interior architecture on the Sex and the City movie I have been wanting to see it in person. I’m not a huge SATC fan, but I am a huge fan of libraries - and this one was over the top.

I visited the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Ave. and 42nd Street, a research-only location meaning that you cannot check out books. You request the books that you need and a librarian brings them to you in a study room for you to use.

I cannot begin to tell you how phenomenal this building was. It was so much more than just a library. There are a number of special exhibits, an art room with several paintings, a children’s section that is home to the original Winnie the Pooh, one of the first Gutenberg Bibles, and so much more. But even if the building were empty, the architecture alone would make it worth while: the ceilings are the most elaborate ceilings that I have ever seen.

I took the tour, led by a volunteer, that lasted just over an hour and I definitely recommend doing the same if you are in the area. Read about the rest of my day in NYC on my other blog, Living Without Meat.

Check out all of my NYC pictures by clicking on the one in this post.

If you have a minute, head to the NYPL Web site to learn the letter writing campaign and how you can help them maintain enough funding to stay open six days a week.

I spent my entire day today at the American Vegan Society’s Garden Party. There was veg food, live music, new friends - and a few old ones too, speakers, coupons, and the part that took up the most of my time: a book room.

The Vegan Society’s book room is just a rinky dink, narrow building with two rooms lined with tall metal shelves, each filled with vegan health, nutrition, animal rights, poem, and recipe books, and much more too. But it was heaven to me! With a copy of the New York Times’ best-selling book When Elephants Weep by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson already on route to me from Paperback Swap I passed that one by. But I still had another three dozen books that I wanted to buy! Making a decision was hard, but I narrowed it down to three (plus a dozen old Vegetarian Times and Natural Health magazines and a few other free pamphlets):

* Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People by Jennifer Cornbleet, a beginner raw foods prep book that gives a lot of very basic ideas and concepts as well as some more creative creations using the basics.

* The Tofu Cookbook by Leah Leneman, a collection of over 150 meals, desserts, drinks, and more that you can make using the soy veg staple.

* Quantum Wellness: A Practical and Spiritual Guide to Health and Happiness by Kathy Freston, the highly talked and raved about health guide that was featured on both Oprah Winfrey’s and Ellen DeGeneres’ daytime talk show.

What i have been reading you ask? Here’s what’s been getting action on my book shelves lately …

This week I finished up reading Rosy Thornton’s newest novel, Crossed Wires - and I enjoyed it! It’s a great story about people in similar life situations finding comfort in each other and, even though it is ultimately a romance of sorts, it is very realistic. The story is about a slow building relationship between two single parents. It’s not hot and heavy, down in the sheets. You get to know the children too and, as I imagine it is for single parents, just as much about the kids as it is about the adults.

Next, I’ve picked up Lisa See’s Peony in Love and am trying to finish it before she comes to town next week.

When books that I really really want are first released in hardback only, I force myself to wait it out, usually impatiently, until it either goes on sale, releases in paperback, or becomes available on Paperback Swap. Sometimes I check nonstop for a deal on the book, and other times I forget about it until one day I am pleasantly surprised by a sale. This weekend, I was overjoyed when not just one but two of the books on my long list of “patiently waiting for” ones came to me cheaply!

On Saturday morning I headed out to check out a nearby Seventh-day Adventist church. With no car, I am a slave to public transportation and thus ended up in the area 45 minutes before the service started. As luck would have it, a Borders was just across the street. Continuing on my lucky streak, I popped in and found a hardback copy of Augusten Burroughs’ (easily one of my fave authors) latest book, A Wolf at the Table, for a mere $7.99. I was sad for him that his book had so many copies that didn’t sell at full price, but still quite excited to find it.

Later that evening, I got a notice from my Paperback Swap account that another user posted Jennifer Weiner’s Certain Girls and that I was next in line to receive it - for the cost of just one credit, which I earned by mailing out one of my old books to someone else.

It was a very good -very book surprise filled - weekend. Now, if I can just get my hands on a copy of Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs …

People feel free to repeatedly sing “Mustang Sally” to me (even though most of them don’t know more than five words). They make jokes about Sally Jessy Raphael and about Dick and Jane. But why has nobody ever mentioned that there is a classic fiction novel called The Adventures of Sally? The very first few words of this P.G. Wodehouse novel have me hooked just by the title of chapter one: “Sally Gives a Party.”

What’s more - Sally, a young American girl whose life is turned upside-down when she inherits a wealth of money, is a repeating character for the comical author. Sally’s debacles first appeared as serial stories in Collier’s Weekly and Grand magazines. He again created a character named Sally for Doctor Sally; this time she is a golf expert.

I must get my hands on a copy of Wodehouse’s Sally stories!

Now that I am enjoying Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth, after finishing George Orwell’s Animal Farm, I am already thinking about what classic I will read next. The only other ones that I have on my bookshelf are plays, and that’s not what I am in the mood for. So it’s off to find out what must-read classics I will most likely enjoy.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is a top recommendation for women who enjoy romance novels. I can certainly get into a good mushy read, but I don’t know that romance is one of my top genres.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin has strong potential as both a novel about a woman’s role in society and one by someone considered to be one of, if not the, first female novelist. Plus there are plenty of related films to watch after reading.

Amazon suggests 1984 by George Orwell and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury as similar reads to Animal Farm. For The Good Earth, it’s Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe … which scares me because I hated this book with a passion when I was forced to read it in high school.

One that I know little to nothing about, but have always been slightly interested in - such as Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller have a good shot at getting picked.

I’m at a loss because there are so many choices and so many declared as ones that you have to read before you die. Luckily, I have a couple hundred pages left before I have to buckle down and decide.

I just stumbled upon Spread the Word: Books to Talk About, and, despite the fact that I cannot figure out who runs the site or what their goal in doing do is, I love it. There is talk of book tokens, book awards, and book holidays, none of which are fully explained. But there are also results from one of the best public polls ever … or at least one that’s pretty entertaining.

The unknown people behind this site asked an unknown group of people what their guilty pleasure or secret is when it comes to books and reading. The results showed that: 96% of people stay up late to finish a book. 65% have lied about reading a book that they haven’t.
41% have turned to the last page to find out what happens before finishing a book.

Of those who admitted to lying about having read a book or not, these are the more popular books to lie about:

1. 1984 by George Orwell (42% of the 65% that are liars)
2. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (31%)
3. Ulysses by James Joyce (25%)
4. The Bible (24%)
5. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (16%)
6. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (15%)
7. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (14%)
8. In Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust (9%)
9. Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama (6%)
10. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (6%)

I don’t know about you, and I try not to judge, but the last time I lied about reading a book was Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, and that was in 11th grade. (I also played hooky the day we had to watch the movie version, Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.)

Do adults really lie about reading books?

I am a huge supporter of readers treating their books with respect, especially if they plan on selling it to a used book store when they’re done reading it. People should never bend the cover all the way back, fold the corner of a page down, write in the pages, set the book down upside down and open, or use a large object as a page holder.

Treat a book spine as well as you would treat your own. Use a slim bookmark to keep track of your place in the story. And why not show a little more love at the same time by making your book a Valentine’s Day bookmark.

The picture shown here is an origami style heart that doubles as a page holder. Bloomize: a journal of blooming ideas for home + living made this folded paper craft and created an easy to follow, 16-step how-to guide, complete with pictures of each step.

Bookmarks also make a fun, easy to make Valentine’s card or gift for a book lover. Make this heart, or make a collage on a piece of paper and use laminating paper to seal your picture. Punch a hole in the top and tie on a ribbon or some yarn for a fun tassel.

To get more great paper folding craft ideas check out Folding Trees, the self=proclaimed best place online for tutorials and paper crafts. The blog gathers the best of the best from around the Web, and they even have a books and journals category that includes this and other bookmarks, fun little notebooks, page tabs, book covers, tablets made out of recycled items such as paint samples, and much more.

The Reader is everywhere! This 1995 award-winning novel by German law professor and judge Bernhard Schlink was the first German book ever to hit the New York Times Best-Selling list, and was an Oprah’s Book Club selection. But in the past few months its popularity has skyrocketed even more.

* It’s a major motion picture, in theaters now, starring Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, and David Kross.

* The lady sitting across from me at the train station last Saturday was reading it while I waited to catch the train to my sister’s house.

* I remembered that I own a copy of The Reader! Sometime in the past I grabbed a copy at my favorite used bookstore and haven’t looked at since.

* It’s topping the New York Times Best-Selling Fiction lists again.

It’s Friday at (almost) 5 o’clock … what better time than now for a couple of gratuitous, cute, cat with books pictures from the Internet’s famous LOL Cats at I Can Has Cheezburger? Because despite their poor grammar skills, these “kittehs” are entertaining.

Now I am sure that there was an intriguing lady bug or other creepy crawler inching his way across the statue’s book, but this kitty really looks like he is about to turn the page for the little girl. Cats are always so helpful when their owners are trying to read, aren’t they? Although my 17 pound babies make better paperweights than page turners …

Ah, here we go. This photo is a much better - albeit a miniature version - depiction of what the cats “help” with around my library.

Dear Santa:

With a low salary, in a bad economy, I’ve been unable to buy new books much this year. If you still have room in your bag for me these titles are all on my “buy when I have lots of spare cash” list. They’ve all gotten good reviews, and the authors are all ones whose work I’ve loved over the years.

* The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

* Knit Two or Comfort Foods by Kate Jacobs

* Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner

* The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold

* Belong to Me by Marisa De Los Santos

* Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger

* A Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs

For the kids in my life, dear Santa, can you please bring some good children’s books, too? How about some of these:

* Fancy Nancy by Jane O’Connor - every little girl needs a copy of the original book from this collection.

* Christina Katerina and the Box by Patricia Lee Gauch - I’ve looked everywhere, Santa, but stores don’t stock this classic any more. Maybe you could help?

* Doris TheSaurus by Maria L. Corkern - you can see how cute it looks here, plus I think every kid should love synonyms and this book will help. Can you add my mom to the list for this one too, please? Because her name is Doris.

And, although I prefer fiction, some nonfiction books have been catching my eye lately, too.

* Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

* In Defense of Food or The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

* Thanking the Monkey by Karen Dawn

Thanks,

Sally

P.S. I’ve been really good this year; I promise.

Tonight I’m going to go back in time. The ’50s have always fascinated me. I like the idea of wholesome courtship. I love the dresses from the time. The cars, music, and hang outs seem so fun. And I am old-fashioned in my desires to be a housewife that takes care of the kids, cooks, knits, and makes the family’s clothes.

But I know nothing about the books that were popular in the decade. Here are the top ten best-selling books from the year 1958, the year my mother was born:

1. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
2. Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver
3. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
4. Around the World with Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis
5. From the Terrace by John O’Hara
6. Eloise at Christmastime by Kay Thompson
7. Ice Palace by Edna Ferber
8. The Winthrop Woman by Anya Seton
9. The Enemy Camp by Jerome Weidman
10. Victorine by Frances Parkinson Keyes

Cader Books provides a year by year run down of best-selling fiction and non-fiction books. Visit Cader to check out the rest of the top books from the ’50s and other decades.

For the love of all good books, please, I beg you, don’t fold down the corner of a book to mark your current page! Especially if the book is shared, a library’s copy, or one you intend to trade in at a used bookstore, but even if it is solely you who will ever read the book: treat it with respect.

For those who are not a fan of conventional bookmarks, try folding your own corner marker that gives the illusion of a folded corner without the wear and tear.

The photograph here is from Folding Trees, a Web site all about origami and paper folding techniques. Click on the picture to get directions for folding your own origami book corner marker. Please, the pages in your books are begging you.

It’s only recently that I discover my interest in historic fiction. Before this, I’m sure that I could have told you that such a sub-genre even existed, which has got me wondering what other classifications exist within the realm of fiction.

First, you can specify the length of a work of fiction:

* Flash Fiction: Fewer than 2,000 words (or 1,000 depending on whose definition you use); about five pages.
* Short Story: Between 2,000 and 7,500 words; about five to 25 pages.
* Novelette: Between 7,500 and 17,500 words; about 25-60 pages.
* Novella: Between 17,500 and 50,000 words; about 60-170 pages.
* Novel: 50,000 words or more; about 170 or more pages.
* Epic: 200,000 words or more; about 680 or more pages.

From there, fiction can include fairy tales, poems, movies, comics, and more. Here are a few of the more popular sub-genres of fiction, most of which should be self-explanatory:

* Crime / Detective
* Erotic
* Fantasy
* Gothic (a combination of romance and horror)
* Historical
* Horror
* Medical
* Mystery
* Philosophical
* Political
* Romance
* Satire
* Sci-Fi
* Thriller
* Tragedy

…and the list goes on, with many of these sub-genres having sub-genres of their own.

I would say that, aside from historical fiction, I like my books with a hint of multiple genres. I enjoy a psychological thriller, but prefer the tension to be counterbalanced with a smudge of romance. While I enjoy a romance, I need at least a little tragedy to ward off super sappiness. Although I usually do not like any science fiction, when it is nicely blended with romance, action, and a hint of tragedy - as with Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife - I am thoroughly content as a reader.

My 9 to 5 hustle is spent making and editing crossword, word search, and cryptogram puzzles. It’s can be fun because I get to spend my time researching and learning about any topics that I chose (with in reason, of course … I don’t think my boss or readers would appreciate a puzzle theme about bondage).

Here’s a Word-Find puzzle to print out and enjoy solving about one of my favorite authors, Jodi Picoult. Click on the picture of it here to get a full-size view.

I also have one copy of the book in which this puzzle is featured to give away. The issue is the November Quality Find the Word, published by Kappa Publishing. In addition to containing this puzzle (and its answer), you’ll find themed puzzles about George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Robert Frost’s poems, book reviews in general, A Beautiful Mindby Sylvia Nasar, and lots of other non-reading related topics such as cooking, fashion, geography, and more.

Want me to send you the copy? Leave me a comment and at the end of the week I will send it out to one lucky person.