Archives - Weekly Update

I love fireworks. There is something so special about watching the colors explode overhead. I also relish documentary shows about how fireworks displays are created. The choreography that goes into them amazes me. However, I loathe the crowds and traffic going to and from the fireworks displays in our area. My favorite Fourth of July celebrations were the years that friends hosted their own displays at their homes --- very very cool. Will not happen at our house as there are too many trees around!

Summer is officially here. And a special summer treat around our house is cooking --- and eating --- lobster. That's why we are happy to share a review of a new book, THE SECRET LIFE OF LOBSTERS with you this week, as well as an interview with its author, Trevor Corson. Click on the link above to read both. Trevor knows all things lobster. His website TrevorCorson.com has a wealth of information about these crustaceans, along with info about how to order them online (for all you landlocked folks) and a place for you to submit your own lobster stories. Pass the nutcrackers and a bib, please!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads among our readers. May Sunday find you swinging in a hammock with a book in hand, enjoying a day on the links or spending time any other way that pleases you. My typical Father's Day finds me in front of a grill cooking up steaks. This year we are going for a surf and turf motif with some lobster as well. My inspiration is a book called THE SECRET LIFE OF LOBSTERS by Trevor Corson, which we will tell you more about next week.

As soon as a major world event happens our first thought is --- are there books about it to share with readers? The death last Sunday of Ronald Reagan immediately had me making notes on books for our Reagan books roundup. To read it, please click on the cover of REAGAN: A Life in Letters.

I am tapping out this newsletter a couple of days early this week as by the time it arrives I will be in Chicago at the annual Book Expo America Conference. Nine years ago I attended this event for the first time when we were planning Bookreporter.com. I spent the first hour telling publishers and authors about a great new site we were launching on the Internet about books with a goal to connect readers and authors. (Keep in mind that this was about six months after Amazon first launched.) The more I outlined our plans, the more that people looked at me like I needed to be hauled away in a straitjacket for having a really looney idea. Books were sold in stores. Authors appeared and read in stores. What was I talking about? I called my business partner, told him I was going to collect as many catalogs (these showcase the books for the upcoming season) as I could and then I was going to the movies since it was clear that no one was going to take us seriously till we were live.