A Bee in My Bonnet

Day 204, and today several people came into the bookstore looking for very specific things, for a reason:

1) another woman found Graham Greene's The Quiet American for a local book group, an excellent new paperback edition, the sort I covet, for the light but sturdy feel and lovely graphic.   Happy to covet my neighbor's book, and let her have it.

2) a fellow had read the Chicago Tribune article on 5 great Midwestern novels and came in looking for them, along with anything by Jonathan Franzen.  I found a couple editions ofWinesburg, Ohio for him right away, after thinking I might not because my friend Kim had just found a $1 copy on the half-price cart.  He chose the attractive Modern Library hardback, small, but with the heft of true literature.  He found another book, too, but I can't remember what, so it was probably one of the ones with Sinclair in it, which puts up a mental block that then sets me off on that memory of always getting Main Street and The Jungleconfused because their authors are Sinclair Lewis and Upton Sinclair, complicated by the fact that I am old enough to remember Sinclair gas stations and the big green dinosaur on trips to Ohio to see the grandparents, and once you get lost in dinosaur land, the Midwest is gone forever.

He did not find Franzen's Freedom, announced in the feature article to which the 5 midwesterns was attached, because it is brand new, as of today, nor The Corrections, which we have had several copies of in the past.  (But after he left, I found the sudden arrival of a Franzen hardback on a little pile on the floor.  It wasThe Discomfort Zone, a memoir, and I've put it on the new arrivals shelf by the door for when this fellow comes back.  On his bicycle.  With his helmet.)

And a family came in to cool off before the official start of the hot and humid farmers' market, Tuesdays on the street in front of the store, and walked out with

1) Barbara Kingsolver, both The Poisonwood Bible and The Prodigal Summer, and

2) our fabulous first edition, first printing of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, by David Foster Wallace, and so were treated to the story about Babbitt's Books being Wallace's favorite bookstore.

And tonight, I cannot get the spacing to work right on this post....a bit of a bee in my bonnet.

And that's my own morning glory with a bee down its throat in a photo taken by my son before he went back to college again.

Prodigal Summer

Day 84 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project. Karen is reading Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver, after reading The Poisonwood Bible with her book group. I hope she will comment here on what her book group thought of Poisonwood Bible, as they were also looking into another book mysteriously similar in construction, as I recall!

Karen is my neighbor, so I know we are both experiencing the spring-as-herald-of-summer- coming-on in its full Midwestern lushness. The grass is tall, violets are spreading, dandelions are rampant. Karen and I both like dandelions; they are pretty, and you can eat them. Our other neighbors are not so fond of dandelions, so it's best to dig them out or mow before they get to the wish-puff seed stage.

Of course, most of the other neighbors use pesticides and lawn services. We do not. Rabbits love it here. (And I expect a return of praying mantis, Karen!) The lawn service guy for the neighbor on the north now scoots some of his little pesticide balls into our side yard, but it's OK, and he hasn't killed any lily-of-the-valley, oh so sweetly blooming right now, along with the mountain bluets.

Blue hosta and two-toned hosta are thriving, their leaves jubilant, raucous. Clematis is opening on the fence, while the bleeding heart is dripping to earth. On Mother's Day weekend I'll choose a few more blooming plants for the garden beds--from a Kiwanis fundraiser garden event that will send kids to camp--and then just try to keep up with the weeding and gentle maintenance of perennials. Next, if they are as astonishingly accommodating-to-the-printed-human-calendar as last year, day lilies will start opening, right on time, starting June 21, the first day of summer.

Wasn't there going to be some talk of a book? Yes! Prodigal Summer is set in Appalachia, with plants and bugs and coyotes. I fondly recall a big fallen hollow tree. The neighbor/pesticide issue weaves into the plot. Here's a book you can judge by its cover (pictured above) and its beautful endpapers, illustrated with moths, including the lovely green Luna.

Barbara Kingsolver

Day 12 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project, and I am back, via fabulous Amtrak, from birthday reading event in Chicago area.

In a comment here, Etta said she is reading The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver, and I hope she will come back and tell us why, and more about her experience of the book.

Kingsolver is our topic today (and I have linked to the Amazon Barbara Kingsolver page, so you can see the whole book array!) partly because she was in demand today at the bookstore! People come in intermittently reading Kingsolver for book groups, and so we run out of Poisonwood Bible, but today we happened to have two copies, one hardback and one paperback, which made this woman very happy. Poisonwood Bible is a favorite of my pastor, and several friends recommended it, so I read and enjoyed it, too.

Also Prodigal Summer, which I loved, green dustjacket to moth-illustrated endpapers, and all. (Turns out I have a first edition of this, too. Who knew I was sort of a "collector"?) I've got to say I loved learning about moths in this book. I'm interested in how I do love this book as object, with its illustrations, as well as reading experience, which helps me understand why some people prefer the hardback first edition to the easy, light paperback reading copy.

But usually, I don't care what edition or condition a book is in. I just love the reading. I'd love to here more about this aspect of reading, too. There's a fellow I know who is waiting to read Flannery O'Connor till a nice hardback comes in to the store. "Nobody will give up their Flannery O'Connor," I keep telling him, but there are plenty of paperbacks if he just wants to read the stories.... He doesn't!