I've been given a few awards lately and just wanted to say thanks and pay it forward. The first is the Arte Y Pico award, which apparently translates as something like: "Wow. The Best Art. Over the top" (quote from the Arte Y Pico blog). Hava at Nonfiction Lover bestowed this award upon me, so thank you, Hava!

And now for the E for Excellent and Brillante Weblog Awards, given to me by Amy at The Sleepy Reader a couple of weeks ago. And also, Dad2Three bestowed the Brillante Award to me at my SmallWorld at Home blog, so I'm thinking I can double up some here on the acceptance speech, right?

And finally, thanks to A Second Cup for a fabulous one, the Kick-A Blogger Award. A Second Cup is a blog I've encountered by way of entrecard, which is a blog-visiting site to which I've become addicted and can't seem to leave, even though I have no idea why I spend 20 minutes each day doing it. But I have found some awesome blogs in the entrecard community, so I guess that's my reason!

So, I know I'm supposed to pay these forward, but honestly I am befuddled by the enormity of searching for the required 22 or so bloggers to present with these various awards. Can I just say thanks for now? Will I be struck my lightning or have something terrible happen to me if I don't play by the rules? I am, truly, honored. I love bloggers!

Book Review: The River King

When writing my book reviews, I often like to look at the review quotes sprinkled on the front and back covers of books. (This is especially helpful if it's been a few days before finishing and reviewing, and I've forgotten all I had to say about the book when I first finished!) In this particular case, I like what The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has to say about Alice Hoffman's The River King: "Graceful, beguiling, and quirky." Exactly.

The book starts and stops at the beginning (or perhaps that was me reading at bedtime and then falling asleep) but once the characters are straightened out, the story picks up and quickly becomes "beguiling." The setting is Haddan: the town itself and the exclusive prep school at the edge of town. This dynamic presents one major conflict. And then there are a variety of relationship conflicts: the unpopular student, the scholarship girl vs. the rich kids, the local law enforcement vs. the school administration, a local man vs. a teacher. All of these are satisfying and "beguiling" stories in and of themselves, but they all revolve around a body found in the river.

And with a body come ghosts—ghosts of the past and perhaps a real ghost, as well. After reading this book, I realized something about myself that surprised me a little: I love a bit of a ghost-story element. Perhaps that stems from my childhood habit of memorizing ghost stories to tell in the evenings to the neighborhood kids or from my teen years of reading great chunks of horror novels. Other books that have this same element of ghost are Beth Gutcheon's More Than You Know, Lisa See's Peony in Love, and Diana Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale. All of these books have another common feature: all their authors are "graceful" writers. If you read my reviews regularly, you know that I love an author who takes joy in the craft of writing lyrically. And Hoffman does this well.

Book Review: Miracle at Speedy Motors

I can't help but love the No. 1 Ladies' Detective series by Alexander McCall-Smith. Years ago a friend recommended the books and I was only slightly interested, but I picked one up at the library anyway. I fell instantly in love, just as she predicted. There is just something about Precious Ramotswe, chief detective. She is comforting, sensible, witty, smart, and profound.

The stories themselves all center at a primary level on Mma Ramotswe as she seeks to solve small cases at her detective agency, but the real focus of each novel is the larger theme of life in Botswana, the loss of traditions, and human relationships.

All the regular characters are back in this ninth novel in the series. As always, McCall-Smith takes his time telling the story, in no rush to push his characters through their lives. If you haven't yet read this series and need something gentle but not fluffy, I highly recommend starting with Book 1 and reading your way through.

The Sunday Salon: Reading Bliss

I'm in the midst of a long vacation: reading bliss. I finished two books on the car trip from Tennessee to upstate New York and I've finished another while lounging on the dock. I've started my fourth vacation book this morning. What I haven't done yet is review any of them, so coming up, reviews of: The Miracle at Speedy Motors (Alexander McCall-Smith), The River King (Alice Hoffman), On Chesil Beach and Atonement (Ian McEwan). I've just started The Secret Between Us, and I can tell this one is going to be hard to put down. And I've still got another week of vacation!

Books Read in July
The Sky Isn't Visible From Here (Felicia Sullivan)
More Than You Know (Beth Gutcheon)
Blue Ridge (TR Pearson)
Briar Rose (Jane Yolen)
Unaccustomed Earth (Jhumpa Lahiri)

Discarded in July (and thus, the worst book of the month):
The Ten-Year Nap (Meg Wolitzer)

Best Book of the Month:
Unaccustomed Earth, but closely followed by The Sky Isn't Visible From Here

Sunday Scribblings: Do I Have To?

Do I have to decide what to keep and what to throw away? Must I alone pick through bits of family history and determine what gets passed down, what is thrown away, and what is cast aside, bound for a thrift-store's dusty shelves to sit amidst a jumble of other forlorn, forgotten objects?

Why do I choose to keep the tiny china dog, the size of a marble, and relegate the Pennsylvania Dutch trivet to the Salvation Army pile? It could be useful on my own table, that bit of ceramic tile. Or what if it's not some cheesy trinket sold in a souvenir shop; what if it's actually something precious, a bit of German art sent in gratitude to my father and mother? Who am I to determine its worth?

Here are two diaries, mine: age 10 and age 12. How life picked up in those two years! From jumping rope to getting a birthday kiss on the cheek. These notebooks are easy to keep. But who am I to decide if this letter to my grandmother, 1981, should be kept or discarded? If I keep it now, am I just relegating this job to my own daughter in some far, far future?

Box after box in my mother's attic, I choose between an object's life, death, or uncertainty. One plastic pig, a puppet, a postcard. A silk scarf, a box of picture hangers, a pair of skis. The weight of four generations rests upon me: treasure or trash? Do I have to choose?

(Need a writing prompt? This week's is "Do I Have To?" Check out Sunday Scribblings.)

Answers to Weekly Geeks

A Favorite Author: Harper Lee

Author of the book I'm currently reading, who is also the author of the book I just finished: Ian McEwan

Some authors I've met: Debra Marquart (major professor in graduate school), Jane Smiley (took a fiction writering class with her and chauffeured her to the university when her leg was broken), Li Young Lee (the best poet I've ever heard read).

Video: Li Young Lee, "Echo and Shadow"

Weekly Geeks: Author Photos

So this week's challenge at Weekly Geeks is to post author photos. This is very interesting to me because I like to know what authors look like. I often flip from book to inside flap or back cover to see the author while I'm reading.

As explained by Dewey at Weekly Geeks:

Using the meme-like list below, post photos of authors in response. Please feel free to skip any you don’t like. You’re also free (encouraged!) to add your own, but if you do that, please be sure to indicate which are yours, so that people can credit you if they use yours.

But don’t put words/names with your photos. Ask your readers to guess your answers! If you have a book to give away, you may want to offer a prize, maybe draw a name from those readers who guess correctly.

1. Photos of your favorite author(s).
2. Photo(s) of the author(s) of the book(s) you’re currently reading.
3. Photo(s) of any author(s) you’ve met in person (even very briefly).
4. A youtube of (an) author(s) you’ve heard speak.
5. Any photo(s) you may have of yourself with an author.
6. A photo of the author of the book you’ve most recently finished.
7. Photos of the hottest author(s)!

After reading a few others posts, I have to say that I don't enjoy not knowing who these authors are. I want to really cheat and post the names with the pictures, but instead I have a separate post here that gives the answers.

A Favorite Author

Author of the book I'm reading currently and of the book I finished yesterday

A few authors I've met

A reading by an author I've heard speak

Who are these people? Answers here.