Nasty Women Getting Out the Vote! ...With Cake!

Come to the store on Election Day with your "I voted!" sticker, and we will have Election Cake for you!

Janet’s Five Picks In Honor of Hurricane Irene

At 10:45p.m, thanks to Mt. Airy Patch, I realized that there was a tornado watch in Chestnut Hill and vicinity between 10:30p.m. and 11:00p.m. I called to my daughter who attempted, unsuccessfully, to round up our dog and two cats, and we retired to the basement. Later, I was taught a lesson about the true diversity of our Mt. Airy village. Some of us slept in the basement. Some of us slept on our third floor surrounded by large trees lulled to sleep by the branches blowing against the windows. Some of us prepared for a disaster, collecting water, canned goods, batteries and all types of battery operated devices. Some of us went for two hour hikes in the woods, admiring the rising water and snapping limbs. The following five picks reflect diversity, having no relationship to one another other than I happened to read parts or all of them in the past month:

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman (Scribner, $27.00)
Available for sale this October, The Dovekeepers is a fictional account of the seven survivors of Massada, masterfully researched and exquisitely written.

What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen (Penguin, $19.99)
Another young adult lesson about locating one's true self amidst the chaos of changing family and home life.

Rumi: The Fire of Love by Nahal Tajadod (Duckworth, $16.00)
An account of Rumi's life, time and works.

The Magic School Bus Inside a Hurricane by Joanna Cole (Scholastic, $6.99)
A self explanatory choice.

Unlikely Friendships by Jennifer Holland (Workman, $13.95)
A second reminder (see my August list)... this book is now second on the Indie bestseller list.

September 2011, Janet Elfant

Maleka's Five Books with Absolutely Fascinating Female Characters

1) Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

2) The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

3) Sex Wars by Marge Piercy.

4) Eat the Document by Dana Spiotta.

5) Fruit of the Lemon by Andrea Levy.

-April 2010, Maleka Fruean

What's Mt. Airy reading?

A selection of books that our community was reading last year:

"I'm reading For Decades I was Silent: A Holocaust Survivor's Journey Back to Faith by Rabbi Baruch G. Goldstein. It's an amazing firsthand story about how a young man survived 2 1/2 years in Auschwitz, including the final Death Marches to lose his faith in the D.P. camps and eventually regain it and become a Rabbi and teacher. It's beautifully written and overwhelmingly positive and loving in outlook."
-Tamar Magdovitz


"I have just begun to read the biography of John Nash, the mathematician and Nobel Laureate featured in the movie A Beautiful Mind. I'm not far along in the book but several things predict it as a fascinating read. The author, journalist Sylvia Nasar, takes the time to describe a vivid picture of Nash's personality. She shares her interest but especially her compassion for her subject."
-Charissa


"I'm re-reading Love by Toni Morrison."
-Aisha


"To Love What Is: A Marriage Transformed by Alix Kates Shulman (author of Memoires of an Ex-Prom Queen) -- Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2008. In this memoir, Shulman writes about her experience of being in love with and married to Scott, both before and after a very tragic accident that led to his mental deterioration. It has touching details about how love and commitment extend into a very different and often difficult phase in her life. Shulman describes how she makes it her mission to optimize her husband's chances of a recovery at the expense of her own sense of self. She then describes the shift that takes place inside of her when, after over a year of 24/7 care, she realizes her husband has sustained permanent damage that has rendered him completely dependent on her. She concludes with a very touching chapter entitled "Amor Fati" -- how one learns to not just accept, but love one's fate. Great book!"
-Esther Wyss-Flamm


"Pity the Nation by Robert Fisk."
–Kayla Ankeny


"Right now I am reading The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark. It's a short book and a quick read- but I can't seem to get through it. It is supposed to be a suspenseful thriller and is described as a book 'to make the flesh creep' but I am nearly through the thing and it has not crept for me yet. I'll keep you posted."
-Jen Bendik


"I'm reading Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. It's a great book on getting in touch with your authentic voice and on writing down the juicy details. She also is a practicing Buddhist and encourages readers to concentrate and be fully in the moment.."
-Susan


"I am currently reading Annie Proulx's early book, Accordion Crimes. She is one of my favorite writers. Her amazing ability to describe the intricacies of the activities and emotions (loneliness, sacrifice and passion) of everyday lives of average Americans, while tracking the impact of a particular culture's impact on this country's evolution is profoundly moving."
-Susan Arthur Whitson



"I'm reading Steve Lopez' The Soloist. The book explores the effects of the intersection of race, class, and giftedness through the life of a black male classical music prodigy who ends up being homeless on the streets of Los Angeles. In the telling of Nathaniel Anthony Ayers' story, I appreciated Lopez' introspection about his role (as friend, advocate, columnist) in the "big picture.""
–Jennifer Beaumont



"Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert Ed by Margaret Cohen; a norton critical edition second edition, 2005: A middle class, French, 19th century lady trapped by birth in an undistinguised life. Style! Besides the translation of the text, there are letters by Flaubert about the writing enterprise - 5 pages a week. . .a transcription of his trial, commentary by several critics including Baudelaire and Henry James, and a Flaubert Chronology."
-Barbara Torode

Random Books I Want To Read

Greetings book lovers!

On a semi-regular basis I will post random selections of books I want to check out that are in stock at Big Blue Marble Bookstore. These could be classics, Indiebound bestsellers, African history, memoirs, pop culture, humor, kid chapter books, or anything that strikes my fancy. I have an infinite love of books and an infinite amount of curiosity. So these are books that I look at while drinking a cup of Rishi Masala Chai (available in our cafe... hee,hee), while I am dusting off the tops of shelves, while I am daydreaming in the middle of the sales floor about authors I want to come visit us, and while I am wiping smudges off our wooden floors. These are books that we receive weekly and books that have been sitting on our shelves for awhile. Join me, if you will, on a virtual tour of book love through our bookstore.

Love, Maleka, events coordinator at Big Blue Marble Bookstore



First Random Pick: The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, $15.95, in our History section.

Intriguing. I heard this book first mentioned in a reading by local author David Grazian for his book On the Make. It seems to be a classic book about urban planning and the history of cities. Plus the other day I had a personal revelation that I always want to live or at least be very close to a city. And Jane Jacobs was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania! So it reminds me of the TV show The Office and I love that show.