Post St. Patrick’s Day and Easter Greetings! I hope your holidays were full of family, fun and books!
We have lined up several events over the year to meet you and show you many new books. If we are in your area, we hope you will be able to come see us. Look for us at:
1) Librarians Conference – April 9-11, Century 21, Wichita
2) Kansas Sampler – May 3-4, City Park, Concordia
3) Kansas State Fair – September 5-14, Sunflower South
4) River City Reading Festival – September 27, Public Library, Lawrence
ANNOUNCING!!!!
The next Kansas Reads selection has been made and it is (drum roll, please): NANCY PICKARD’s “VIRGIN OF SMALL PLAINS”! She will be signing her book(s) at a special event during the Librarian’s Conference and we, along with another bookseller, will be there with a selection of her other titles as well. If you are lucky enough to be a librarian, come and meet Nancy Pickard and have her sign a book for you. She is a very interesting lady and an excellent author! We, again, are proud of our Kansas-connected authors.
I have read Nancy’s books for a number of years and enjoyed them immensely, but I didn’t realize she was from Kansas. Then I saw a magazine article about her that stated she lived in Prairie Village and was so excited I called Suzi immediately to inform her that we needed to stock up on her titles! If you like really good mysteries, you will like this really good mystery author! Here’s a list of titles we will be offering:
The Jennie Cain Series: The Marie Lightfoot Series:
Generous Death The Whole Truth
Say No to Murder Ring of Truth
No Body The Truth Hurts
Marriage Is Murder
Dead Crazy And, of course:
Bum Steer (set in Kansas) The Virgin of Small Plains
I.O.U.
But I Wouldn't Want to Die There And maybe:
Confession A Scent of Rain and Lightening
Twilight (new in 2008)
Also for those of you who are attending the upcoming conference, at the “Dessert With Kansas Authors” event (Wednesday, April 9, at 7:00 p.m.) the following authors will be present to talk about and sign their books. Come prepared to enjoy getting to know some of Kansas’ finest!
Alice Bertels – John Steuart Curry: The Road Home
Roy Bird – many titles including: Civil War and the Indian Wars
Bev Buller – From Emporia
Patricia Davids – The Color of Courage and Military Daddy
Mike Everhart – Oceans of Kansas
Steve Hind – The Loose Change of Wonder
Jim Hoy – many titles including: Flint Hills Cowboys: Tales of the Tallgrass Prairie
Denise Low – Prairie Alchemist
Dandi Mackall – many titles for children, teens and adults including: Silent Dreams, Are We There Yet?, Dandelion
Rhymes, Rudy Rides the Rails, Crazy in Love, Larger Than Life Lara, Eva Underground, Jazz Off
Key
Lowell May & Mark Schock – Prisoner’s of War in Kansas 1943-1946
Max McCoy – many titles including: Hellfire Canyon, I, Quantrill
Nancy Pickard – many titles including: Virgin of Small Plains
Jim Potter – Cop in the Classroom
Michael Pritchett – The Melancholy Fate of Capt. Lewis
Tim Raglin – Uncle Mugsy and the Terrible Twins of Christmas, The Curse of Catunkhamun, The Wolf Who Cried
Boy, Bill in a China Shop, The Thirteen Days of Halloween, The Birthday ABC and Go Track a Yak
Dian Curtis Regan – many titles including: Princess Nevermore, Cam’s Quest
Rudy Taylor – Light on Main Street: Storytelling by a Country Newspaper Editor
Eileen Umbehr – Small Town Showdown
But, if you aren’t a librarian, you can still encounter a really good new book! We recommend “Storm Chaser” by Jim Reed. He is a world famous photographer and, of all things, a storm chaser who actually lives in Wichita. (We don’t think we can claim to be the storm center of the world, but sometimes it seems like it!) To view some of what is in the book go to:
http://www.stormchaserbook.com/
or Reed’s website at
http://www.jimreedphoto.com/
We will also have a copy of it at each festival for you to peruse – and purchase. Also, check out our web site for ways to order it. (www.bookkansas.com)
Next a review, From Kansas ~ NOW ~ written by Suzi
Laura Moriarity ~ from Barnes & Noble Meet the Writer ~ "Named one of the writers to watch in Book magazine's special "Newcomers" issue, Laura Moriarty quickly became known as a literary superstar with her debut novel The Center of Everything
drawing acclaim."
A Little Bit About Laura, from Laura's website...
She earned a degree is social work before returning for her M.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Kansas. She was the recipient of the George Bennett Fellowship for Creative Writing at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. She currently lives with her daughter in Lawrence, Kansas, and is at work on her next novel.
AND NOW! Her newest novel, The Rest of Her Life ~ a story that intertwines the lives of several women in a close-knit community and the dynamics of their relationships: mother to daughter, friend to friend, teacher to student and parent to teacher in the past and in the present. And what about their future? The opening scene involves an auto accident where a young girl is killed ~ one death but many victims ~ and the narrator struggles to figure how this will affect “The Rest of Her Life.”
On a scale of 1-5 Book Worms (5 being the highest rating) I give this one 4.5 Book Worms!
From Kansas ~ THEN ~ from Webster's Dictionary of American Writers
Vernon Louis Parrington (b. August 3, 1871, Aurora, Illinois - d. June 16, 1929, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, England) ~ Writer and teacher noted for his far-reaching appraisal of American literary history.
Parrington was educated at the College of Emporia (yes, Emporia, KS about the same time that other writer Wm Allen White was there) and Harvard University, and later taught principally at the University of Washington (1908-1929). His major work on American literary history was published in Main Currents in American Thought, and won a Pulitzer Prize. The incomplete third volume was published posthumously in 1930. The work, now regarded as a classic, represents an interpretation of the development of American thought through its literature, in terms of the concept of democratic idealism. He also wrote The Connecticut Wits (1926) and Sinclair Lewis, Our Own Diogenes (1927).
And Finally:
"Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write." ~~John Adams
We like this quote and decided to use it since the new audio-book with HBO movie tie-in about Adams (by David McCullough) just came out . . . wish one of them was a Kansan! Maybe John Adams would have been if he’d been born when there was a Kansas . . . hmmmm?
Good times and good reading!
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