Archives - Weekly Update

I spent last weekend in Chicago at the American Library Association Convention. I love Chicago even with over 100 degree temperatures, which was what I found there all weekend. This was my first time at this conference and I enjoyed it immensely. The librarians I met were enthusiastic about their readers and I felt I was talking to kindred spirits when we met in the aisles and on the busses. While some were aware of our websites, many were not. May I ask you to print a copy of this newsletter and share it with your local librarians?

School finally ended at our house today. I have to say I am ready to lobby for a MUCH shorter school year. It seems like most of June is just a waste at school. My vote: Assign five extra books for required reading and wrap things up the first week in June and then reconvene right after Labor Day! My younger son won a prize for "Introducing His Teacher to the Most New Books and Authors." Needless to say, this award made me smile!

We talk about food in our office --- a lot. Joan, Sunil and I love to cook and we frequently exchange recipes and ideas for meals. Often our microwave is heating up great leftovers. We have had debates about great chili recipes, grilling, baking and just about everything else to do with culinary arts. Sunil is a trained chef so the bar is pretty high at Bookreporter.com. Thus when we got Wolfgang Puck's latest book, MAKES IT EASY, in the office this week there was a lot of discussion about it.

Last weekend I spent four days walking the show floor at Book Expo America. By Sunday night I was hoarse and tired. I had scrawled pages and pages of notes about books that I am looking forward to sharing with you. When I got home I crawled out to my lawn chair and started reading MAYBE A MIRACLE by Brian Strause, which will be out in October. My eyes were closing, but I kept fighting a nap since I was enjoying this book so much.

I enjoyed watching Empire Falls on HBO last weekend. I got a note from one of our readers, Barbara from Oregon, who really summed it up. Here is what she had to say: "Having read EMPIRE FALLS hot off the press in hardback, I was elated to know that it was taken to screen for HBO. And the casting!!!!!  It was perfect. I am grateful to Paul Newman for going to Richard Russo and encouraging taking it to screen and being a part of it. All of the actors were great, the shooting location was PERFECT, and everything about it not only was superb...it followed the book 100% thanks to Russo doing the screen adaptation. All in all it was wonderful and I can hardly wait until the DVD comes out." One more comment --- did anyone else think that Paul Newman and Ed Harris were perfectly cast as father/son? There were some shots where they really looked related!