Bowker Reads

New Year’s Resolutions

Mark Ahmad — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:21:28 +0000

The start of a new year means people are assessing where their life is and how to change it for the better. The same resolutions seem to be mentioned every year, from weight loss to being more social, with most people failing to accomplish them. Specific goals that are attainable have the highest rate of being accomplished. For example, commit to losing a pound a week instead of just saying I want to lose weight. I’ve learned over the years that I never do well on my resolutions so I decided to simply hope for a more peaceful and pleasant world for 2012, which we all can agree is a good thing for us all. There aren’t many things in this world celebrated by everyone, but the change of the year is one of the few on this planet we call Earth. From us all at Bowker Reads, we wish everyone happiness, health, and contentment in the upcoming year.

<2012 baby>

Christmas Nostalgia

Lynda Keller — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:25:54 +0000

The holidays are a time when I get extremely sentimental and nostalgic. My favorite childhood memories are of Christmas and the holiday season. My favorite part is getting ready for Christmas, the decorating, the baking, the Christmas songs. We start decorating the house the day after Thanksgiving and don’t stop until the week before Christmas. Each ornament on the tree has a story as does each Santa in our vast collection of Santas.

Christmas is a time of tradition for me and now that my daughter is two I want to continue my family’s traditions. One of those traditions is going to the library to check out Christmas books. I remember being excited as a kid going to the library to pick out books for my winter break from school. I admit, I read books during my time off from school while my friends were out sledding and ice skating. I have taken my daughter to the library before but there is something different about the library during December. Maybe its the Christmas tree in the lobby or the small one in the Children’s section. But I think its also the books, the ones that come out once a year. The ones about Santa and Rudolph and Frosty. My daughter loves books as much as I do.

After the library visit my mom surprised me by bringing a box over full of my childhood books. I didn’t realize she had saved them. It was wonderful watching my daughter read the same books I had read thirty years ago. It was great holding them in my hand remembering how much fun I had with them and knowing that now they can be a part of my daughter’s life. Our bedtime tradition is now reading Twas the Night Before Christmas. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday enjoying family traditions and making new ones. Looking forward to one of My New Year’s Resolutions of actually getting through my reading list.

In the Pit with Piper: Roddy Gets Rowdy

Mark Ahmad — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:53:48 +0000

I’ve been a wrestling fan since I was a kid watching and reading anything that had to do with wrestling. The first wrestler to catch my eyes was Rowdy Roddy Piper; had the look and the talk to back up his great wrestling style. The best thing about autobiographies is the behind the scene things that a common fan doesn’t get to know and there are plenty in this book including three decades of wrestling facts and events. He covers his early start working for practically nothing and being homeless to becoming one of the highest paid wrestlers in the world and appearing in numerous movies. This book is great for the old time wrestling fans that loved to know the background of a match they saw on television and the real life drama behind the curtains of the wrestling world.

The Partnership of books and the media

Lynda Keller — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:51:20 +0000

It is part of human nature to be influenced by external propaganda and other people’s opinions. This is especially true with advertising, via television, radio, or internet. How many times have you seen a commercial for a typical candy bar and then an hour later have a craving for it? Well this goes for books too. I remember even as a child being persuaded to read certain books after watching the popular television show “Reading Rainbow”. Which, btw, I wish was still around for my daughter. Then there was the campaign for getting people to read by showing posters of celebrities reading.

It amazes me to see how popular book advertising has become over the years. In the past we were limited to books only being mentioned in the New York Times Book section with its ever popular bestseller lists, as well as other newspapers like the Wall Street Journal or Chicago Tribune. Now with 21st century technology the topic of books is appearing everywhere. There are numerous websites (GoodReads and LibraryThing) for avid book readers like myself to discuss books with other book lovers and to see what books authors have written or what number you are missing in a particular series. Besides these informative websites you of course have all of the individual books blogs people are creating, this one being a good example

Magazines are even going the route of advertising books. Oprah Winfrey’s magazine includes book reviews. More Magazine recently included an interview of Kathryn Stockett, the author of “The Help”. The one that surprised me the most though, is my subscription to Country Living which is a home decorating magazine. Amidst the article about a neglected schoolhouse renovated into a Catskills cottage and how to make spooky Halloween decorations for your living room was an article about the Nancy Drew mysteries. Yes, the teenage girl sleuth from my childhood. The article gave a synopsis of all 56 novels and the history of how Nancy Drew was created. By the end of the article i didn’t care about how to upholster my living room chair or how to carve a pumpkin the right way I just wanted to go to my local library and take out a few Nancy Drew novels. Check out this link to view the vintage Nancy Drew books.

Simpsons Comics Madness

Mark Ahmad — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:33:29 +0000

The longest running television show in the history of America television is the subject of this hilarious comic book. The stories are a bit far fetched even for The Simpson’s and yet I couldn’t stop going to the next adventure in the comic. I guess I’m one of those people that doesn’t care what it’s about as long as The Simpson’s are involved. Even the dog of the family gets a story based around him, so the stories are really reaching and the jokes can be corny. If you want to mix things up and read your Simpson’s adventures instead of watching them, give the book a try. I attached a video for everyone’s enjoyment and have a great Springfield day.

The Healthy Home: Simple Truths to Protect Your Family From Hidden Household Dangers

Rosemary Walker — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:11:15 +0000

I picked up this book from the library because I saw him on TV. His comments on the show were enough to make me want to read more.
“How Toxic is Your Home?” is the name of the quiz that begins each chapter. By taking the quiz, you get some idea of how healthy you and your environment are in each category. There are six sections; Bedroom, Bathroom, Kitchen, Living Ares, Garage and Yard. At the end of each chapter he highlights a “Simple Solution.”This is one thing you can do to make a difference in your life.
In a section called, Our Plastic Kitchen, he lists commonly used plastics
that release toxins when, “heated, washed with harsh detergents in
dishwashers, scratched or cracked, and have prolonged contact with fatty
foods and oils.” Three from the list, that I use in my kitchen, are
styrofoam cups, reuseable water bottles and plastic wrap. The cups would
be easy to replace with a travel cup. Instead of using plastic water
bottles, I have stainless steel bottles and recently purchased a BPA free
plastic bottle. I’ll be keeping the plastic wrap for now. But I will stop
using it to cover plates in the microwave.
It will be difficult to give up some of the products that have made my
life easier. But, if it makes me a little healthier, it’s worth it.

The Paris Wife

Lynda Keller — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:36:03 +0000

I am always intrigued by fiction with a biographical twist. This book was from the point of view of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley. Through her eyes you saw the couple from the time they fell in love, through their divorce, until his suicide. You saw firsthand the passionate love they shared in the beginning and the hardship Hadley endured as their marriage crumbled around her. Paula’s vivid descriptions of the various settings made me feel like I was right there seeing everything the Hemingways did. Her secondary characters were just as fun and real as her main characters. We are introduced to Eliza Pound, Scott Fitzgerald, and other famous writers.It was fascinating to read how Hadley and Ernest communicated with each other and interacted with one another. You got to know their pet names and favorite hobbies. As with every relationship there are arguments and struggles. Paula didn’t avoid these for her readers. She never promised us a happy ever after. Slowly Ernest began to lose interest in his marriage, began to overlook Hadley, and became consumed with his writing. Hadley gave everything she could to her marriage and their son. But it wasn’t enough for Ernest. After six years of marriage, he left her for another woman, a close friend of Hadley’s no less. I felt her pain, anger, confusion, betrayal, and loss. Paula’s characters’ emotions were so real. Hemingway married three more times after Hadley. She got to see Hemingway from the beginning, through his determination to be a good writer, through his dreams and impulsive behavior. No one can replace her as being the ‘first wife”, the woman Hemingway had loved in Paris.

The Kitchen House

Suzanne Franks — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 20:46:56 +0000

The Kitchen House is an intricate tale of the south. It takes us back to when servants were the property of their masters and could not speak up for themselves or their family members. Many of the intimate secrets of this family are shared with us as the book unfolds. The master, in this case a Captain, comes back from his travels with a seven-year-old orphaned Irish girl, Lavinia, and tells his kitchen staff to train her as their own and keep her with them. Understandably, the staff feels uncomfortable about having her live with them since this breaks the boundaries of what has become acceptable between black and white.
Lavinia grows up to become one of the “Kitchen House” family members and she witnesses first-hand the cruelty of white landowners and their staff against the slaves. In the end, Lavinia becomes a member of the “Big House” landowner’s family because she is white. The consequence is that she must renounce her black “Kitchen House” family. This is an incestuous and unethical living situation. Lavinia is a pawn who cannot save the lives of those she loves, much as she tries to.
The author paints a very visual portrait of the kitchen house and the big house. The characters are alive and we understand why the slaves are so well bonded and loving toward each other, while the big house family is not. This is an interesting and emotional story line that grabs you from the first page and explores the meaning of family and loyalty regardless of race.

The Warren Buffetts Next Door

Ralph Coviello — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:14:43 +0000

Can it be possible that average Joes, non-professional investors, could outperform the legendary investing genius of Warren Buffett for nearly a decade? While the implication of the title “The Warren Buffetts Next Door” is somewhat misleading, especially in conjunction with the white picket fence of the idealized American house depicted on the cover, its subtitle “The World’s Greatest Investors You’ve Never Heard of and What You Can Learn from Them” seems a more accurate reflection of this survey of successful investors profiled by Matthew Schifrin. For his day job the author Schifrin is a reporter for Forbes Magazine and he has recruited his boss Steve Forbes, the former Presidential candidate to pen the Foreword to this book which profiles ten successful investors, all men, with brief overviews of their lives and how they came to their particular investing philosophies and methods. To identify his candidates Schifrin has used online sites, such as Marketocracy and ValueForum, where each man profiled has maintained a theoretical fund and has a track record going back several years, usually participating in and winning stock picking contests on those sites and others. The book is an entertaining as well as an informative read because Schifrin has found some unique and interesting characters. One such character is Chris Rees, an English man who traveled the world working odd jobs for decades before settling down both as an investor and a family man in the Dominican Republic. Another character is Jack Weyland who developed his investing approach during his down time as a truck driver. An interesting aspect is that some have translated their success with the theoretical funds into the real world, others have chosen not to. There are a variety of investing philosophies on display from deep value analytical stock picking focused on buying and holding around ten stocks to active trading in and out of thousands of positions. The common factor, across the varied philosophies and approaches on display for these so called “amateurs” or “hobbyists”, is that all of them devote considerable hours every day to their investments. This time can involve active trading in the case of Justin Uyehara or flying around the world by Andrew Swann to visit the actual gold mines being operated by the companies he invests in. So as long as you take the title “The Warren Buffetts Next Door” with a grain of salt you will find this book more than delivers on the promise of its subtitle “The World’s Greatest Investors You’ve Never Heard of and What You Can Learn from Them” and you will have an enjoyable and informative read.

Ill Met in the Arena

Ralph Coviello — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:17:10 +0000

From bluerise to whiteset Dave Duncan spins an intriguing tale of adventure across the continent of Aureity at the center of a world that blends elements of fantasy and science fiction into a unique speculative reality. As a reader I was seeking a title that would fulfill a number of requirements; a fantasy or science fiction title along the lines of those I enjoyed in my teenage years, I wanted a quick read that would last more than a day, but less than a month, that meant no Tolkienesque epics and one more along the lines of Edgar Rice Burroughs pulp and I found just what I wanted in Dave Duncan’s “Ill Met in the Arena”. While it involves elements of fantasy, romance, intrigue, and even mystery, at its core Duncan’s tale is a relatively straight forward quest for revenge although he tells it in a far from straight forward manner. The story revolves around a nameless warrior in a society where your name is everything; therefore our hero adopts the name Quirt of Mundil while his true name is eventually revealed as Mudar of Quoin. The setting is the continent of Aureity on a world that revolves around twin suns, one blue and one white, for which author Duncan has created a unique calendar based on Pentads which equal approximately 5 earth years. The people of Aureity have developed a matriarchal feudalistic society in which caste, rank and breeding are paramount. This is because the ruling families have developed psychic abilities that magnify the mental acuity of women and the strength of men. The quality of the candidates for marriage is based on their family history, but also on their ability to perform in the arena with the goal of developing men and women of ever increasing psychic abilities. Mudar’s plan requires him to return to the arena where he hopes to confront the youth his lady love Tendence is being forced to marry for political reasons. The youth is Humate an arrogant and powerful newcomer to the arena and over the course of the story as confrontations take place and secrets are revealed he moves from being a definite enemy to a potential ally in Mudar’s quest. Aside from some occasionally stilted dialog my only real complaint is Duncan’s decision to tell his tale in a series of Tarantinoesque flashbacks and third person narratives. While I never found this structure confusing I am not sure that it was necessary or helpful to the telling of this otherwise imaginative and engaging tale of revenge. Author Dave Duncan is noted for several fantasy series including “The King’s Blades” and although “Ill Met in the Arena” has been written as a standalone story with a definitive and satisfactory conclusion I would not be surprised to see him revisit the richly imagined world of Aureity.