Wine Tasting at the Bookstore

Friday, April 4, 2008 6-9 p.m. - Wine Tasting at the Bookstore

Join us and our friends Vino 100 us for a Wine Tasting.

Our musicians this week include the jazz stylings Ken McDermott and Ronnie Defilippo.

Vino 100’s motto is “100 great wines for $25 or less.” They use two barometers - Flavor (which runs from Fruity to Dry) and Body (which runs from Light to Full) – to make wine buying easier for the customer. We will have wines, along with munchies, available for tasting.

"If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start with Your Legs"

This book (yes, that's the title) is winner of the Oddest Book Title competition run by Bookseller magazine. Results were achieved by online voting.

Lauretta

Calling all kids who read!

The folks at the Children's Book Council are looking for kids to vote on the finalists for the Children's Choice Book Awards. This is your chance to make your voice count! Click on
this website to vote.

The nominees are listed here.
Lauretta

The Hugo Award Nominees and Amusements

I was checking out the just-posted Hugo Nominees for 2007 - to make sure I ordered the paperback ones - and I find something completely amusing. You know how Amazon tracks these "statistically improbable phrases?"

Well, Charles Stross' Atrocity Archives generated the following-
basilisk gun, concrete cows, field ops, software audit, ...
at which point I spray my screen with coffee. Software audit? Since when does a software audit rank right up there in esoterica with basilisk guns? :) I guess I'm too much of a geek (reformed geek, now that I'm a bookseller).

Man, those Code Reviews I used to try not to sleep through must be more of a black art than I thought!! :)
Lauretta

Paul Coehlo movie in the works

from Variety
Gellar in talks for 'Veronika'. Actress in negotiations to star in indie drama. Sarah Michelle Gellar is in final negotiations to star in the indie drama "Veronika Decides to Die (ISBN 0061124265 $13.95)." Story centers on a severely depressed woman who rediscovers her will to live after learning that she has only days left due to the irreparable damage done to her heart as a result of her recent suicide attempt. Larry Gross and Roberta Hanley adapted the screenplay from Paulo Coelho's novel.

Lauretta

New Memoir - A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants

We just received A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants by Jaed Coffin. This memoir follows Jaed as he leaves Middlebury College in order to become a Buddhist monk in his mother's native Thailand. This is not just a travelogue, this is also a growing-up story, and an enlightenment story.

Lauretta

Rest in Peace - Arthur C. Clarke

I just got word that Arthur C. Clarke just passed away in his home in Sri Lanka. He was 90 years old. Of his many wonderful novels, the one that sticks in my memory is The Fountains of Paradise. This book balanced the preservation of a pristine environment where butterflies played against the construction of a space elevator.

We will miss your vision, Arthur,
Lauretta

PS What was your favorite Arthur C. Clarke book?

Events this weekend - The Knot Fairy and Celtic Music

This Saturday will be a lot of fun -

First, the Knot Fairy loves to tangle children's hair while they sleep! Come to the shop in pajamas and your bed-head hair to hear the story read by author Bobbie Hinman and enjoy a snack. 11-1!

6-9pm Steve Haug will be playing Celtic music at the bookstore and tea & cookies will be available.

Horton HEARD!

Taken from Shelf Awareness, today's issue:

"Huntsville, Ala., has won the Horton Hears a You--Hometown Challenge (Shelf Awareness, Feb.22, 2008) and will host a special VIP screening of Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! today.

The Huntsville Times reported that the city emerged victorious "thanks to a very loud crowd that gathered Saturday night outside a Huntsville Havoc-Columbus Cottonmouths hockey game . . . Mayor Loretta Spencer, 300 Marines and soldiers, and a crowd of children and adults wearing 'Horton ears' banded together outside the Von Braun Center to yell 'We are here!'" Everyone who participated received a free pass to attend today's screening.

Huntsville's decibel level topped entries from a number of U.S. cities, including Blue Springs, Mo.; Fresno, Calif.; West Orange, N.J.; and New York City."

Lauretta, thanks to John Mutter and the staff of Shelf Awareness - you can look them up here.

New book resource for parents

The Horn Book - a magazine and website for Children's & Teens' books - now has a monthly newsletter at http://www.hbook.com/newsletter/

Lauretta

The Deportees and Other Stories Roddy Doyle

Roddy Doyle is fun - smart and fun. These short stories are from the New Ireland, modern, affluent and attractive to immigrants. What could happen when the Irish meet the rest of the world?
Jimmy Rabbitte from the Commitments is back again, still with his dream of managing a successful rock band. Except this time he finds immigrant musicians, names them The Deportees and gives them Woody Guthrie as their muse.
Roddy Doyle has such a quick, perceptive eye, he can make us feel the immigrants' struggles in an alien culture. A child's first day at school with the school bully. An adult's interaction with an IRA hardman. These stories will surprise you. There is always a laugh around the corner.
P.S. Do you know how to test for Irishness? How do you feel about Riverdance, Danny Boy and Robbie Keane's goal against Germany in the 2002 World Cup. I'll leave it up to you then. Grand.




Another Thing To Fall Laura Lippman

Tess is the unwilling babysitter for a starlet signed on for a TV drama set in Baltimore. Within the superheated, insanely manipulative world of Hollywood everyone scrambles for the glittering prizes. Enough to murder? Laura Lippman's experience with TV production in Baltimore through her husband David Simon really comes to the fore. And again her use of local color is so spot on, so evocative it is a pleasure for a fellow Baltimorian to read. It's a good yarn.

Anne

The Final Solution by Michael Chabon

A really intriguing book just came in - The Final Solution by Michael Chabon. An elderly man, rumored to be a once-famous detective (perhaps Sherlock Holmes?), comes upon a 9 year old mute boy and his pet African gray parrot. It turns out the kid escaped Nazi Germany, and his parrot keeps spouting strings of German numbers. Are they a code? Are they Swiss bank accounts? The old man is curious - and so are we.

Lauretta

Wine Tasting, Art Reception & Music this Friday

Friday, March 7th 6-9pm at Constellation Books:

Wine Tasting!
Music - Frank Sinatra!
Our first Art Reception!

Local Artist Monica Tojek has hung some lovely paintings, plus Ken McDermott and Ronnie Defillipo will be performing Sinatra tunes. Add all of that to Vino 100's tasty wine and our
tea/coffee and you have a wonderful evening!