It's Not About You

As some of you know, I'm on the nominating committee for Reading Across Rhode Island (RARI). This year I was so please when the committee chose Rhode Island native, Craig Mullaney's amazing memoir The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education. When I saw this book on the list of nominated books my immediate reaction was that I had no interest in reading a "war book" and would wait to see if was eliminated in early discussions before committing to reading it. During our first session, another member of the group stated that she had the read book (even though she was sure she wouldn't be interested) and that it was fabulous. That got me curious. I decided to read it before our next meeting. And it made a very positive impression on me. At our next meeting there were several of us who had read the book and we all gushed about what a wonderful choice it would be for RARI. The rest is history.

This past weekend was the official celebration for The Unforgiving Minute. I had the great fortune of being invited to attend a reception for Mullaney on Friday night at his alma mater, Bishop Hendricken High School (a Catholic HS for boys). It was an extremely informal affair and I had a chance to talk briefly with him and have him sign my book. I told him how much I enjoyed his book and that I was strong supporter of it as our RARI selection. He was very gracious and humble. Then on Saturday I attended RARI's culminating event, the May Breakfast, in which Mullaney appeared and gave a talk to 425 enthusiastic readers. I attended the event with 10 members from my two book clubs. Part of the May Breakfast is also a food drive for a local pantry and participants are encouraged to bring canned goods and use them to create a centerpiece for their table. This year one of the women from my library book club, Donna, created a centerpiece that was reminiscent of one of the photographs from the book. She finished setting it up before the breakfast officially began and it immediately caught Mullaney's eye. He came right over to our table and spent the next 20 minutes talking to Donna, her husband Joe and the other members of our group. He even graciously agreed to pose for photos. It was very exciting. In the four years that I have been attending these events, no author has ever come into the crowd to visit with participants! We were all thrilled.

He then went on to give a very moving talk about the lessons he learned during his years at West Point, Ranger School, and at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He also explained to us how those lessons prepared him to lead a platoon in Afghanistan. He spoke emotionally about the deep toll the loss of one of his men had on him and stated that writing the book was really his letter to that young man's parents. This was the first time I have been moved to tears at a RARI breakfast. He also spoke eloquently of personal responsibility, responsibility for others and responsibility to our communities. He summed up this sense of responsibility when he remembered the words of one of the men who trained him at Ranger School - "It's not about you". Mullaney related to us how the full force of those words hit him when he was told of the final words uttered by the soldier in his platoon as he lay dying. Private O'Neill asked, "How are the other guys?" It's not about you. Quite a powerful message.

My Life: Work, Kids and Books

It's been a while since I posted and life has been busy. Here's the Cliff's Notes version of what's been going on in my life.

First, I'm no longer working two part-time jobs! Quitting my second library job was a difficult decision, but it was a good one. Juggling two part time jobs was just too stressful. And the compensation was just not enough to justify how stressed and overwhelmed I felt. Once I quit, I never gave it a second thought. It was definitely the right decision. I learned a very valuable lesson from this 6 month experience. I really don't want to work full-time or even more hours than I currently work. The job I have, while not perfect, is actually a good fit. And I've said this before but I'll say it again, one part time, low paying job is a hobby, two is a career. And that just sucks all the fun out of it.



Having more free time has come in handy in the last couple weeks as I've been busy getting Katie ready to start her Freshman year in college. It's been a bit bumpy at times, but we've gotten all the shopping done and Katie seems ready (resigned?) to go to college at the end of August. She seems a little less anxious now than she did earlier in the summer. She received her room and roommate assignment in July and was not thrilled to learn that she was placed in a "built up triple" (basically three students are put into a room meant for two. That means only 2 closets for three girls!). She has contacted both of her roommates on Facebook and one seems very friendly and the other is either not or very socially awkward. Time will tell. So far I'm not freaking out too much about taking her to college and driving off without her. I think I'm mostly concerned about how she is going to do - considering her level of nervousness. Again, time will tell.






Another reason why it's handy that I'm not working two jobs is that Madeleine had her tonsils out on Tuesday and I've been extremely busy taking care of her. We both knew that the recovery from this surgery was tough, but I'm not sure she realized how bad she would feel. And I definitely didn't realize how much care she would need. The poor thing is still in pain pretty much all the time (even with strong pain medication). She needs to take the medication every four hours around the clock, which means I'm up twice during the night. Plus bringing her ice packs, and drinks and trying to get her to eat during the day. It's tiring and heartbreaking. I wish there was more I could do for her. Hopefully, she'll turn a corner tomorrow. Everyone tells us Day 3 is the turning point. Fingers crossed.






In addition to all that, I'm also now reading up a storm for Reading Across Rhode Island. We had one meeting at the end of July and whittled the original list of 49 titles down to 11. We are meeting again at the end of August and I'd like to have read as many of those as possible. I have 3 more to go. One of which is 700 pages. Not sure I'm going to make it. Especially since I need to read two book club books before that meeting as well. Maybe I can squeeze one more in. A short one! Unfortunately, the list this year is not all that exciting. Nothing has grabbed my attention yet. I am happy to report that the book I nominated, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford is still in the running, but it doesn't look good. Of the committee members who have read it so far, the decision is about 50/50. But so far, no one book has really risen to the top. There are a couple I like, but I have yet to read a "WOW" book. I'll keep you posted about our decision and the titles involved as soon as I am able. And, of course, I'll let you know about any must reads I discover.

And my most exciting news is that last Saturday I attended a book signing by the best selling author and Rhode Island resident Ann Hood. She was promoting her latest book, The Red Thread, which is a really good book that I haven't had time to review. Ann was surprisingly down to earth and looked like any other suburban mom. She mentioned in passing that she had attended the book club meeting of one of the women in the audience to discuss this book. I attended this event with my friend and fellow book club member, Colleen. Colleen suggested we ask Ann if she would be willing to talk to our book club. What a great idea! Not one to be shy or retiring, I walked up to Ann during the book signing and asked her if she'd be willing to do it. She didn't even hesitate to say "yes." Really? I couldn't believe it. She will be at our November meeting. Now I have to think of some really good questions to ask so as not to embarrass myself. The pressure is on. Truthfully, I think it will be awesome. Ann is so easy to talk to and open. I jotted a few notes after her talk and I think the conversation will be quite natural. Again, I'll keep you posted.

Sorry I've been MIA lately. I think about blogging all the time, but finding the energy and time seems to be a problem lately. Hopefully, I get my groove back soon. I do still read all of your blogs, even if I don't comment every time. Again, lack of energy and time.

Reading Across Rhode Island Book Nominations

On Wednesday I attended a meeting of the Reading Across Rhode Island (RARI) nominating committee. This was the second meeting held by the committee to determine what book will be chosen as the RARI book for 2010 (I missed the first meeting because I was on vacation). At this meeting we decided which of the 29 books still up for consideration would be "short listed" for the RARI nomination. So far I have read 5 of the 7 books that made the cut and I think that any of them would make a fine RARI choice. (Of course, I do have my favorites!) I thought it might be nice to share the short list with all of you and you can decide for yourselves what you think of the possible choices. I'd love to hear your thoughts. It might be fun to see if the majority of bookworms agree with the choice that the committee makes. (And I can make sure to let the committee know what all of you think!)

The nominees for the 2010 RARI book are:

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lhari
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

In case you are wondering, the two books that I have yet to read are: Skeletons at the Feast and The Heretic's Daughter. And I'll be sure to give you my honest opinion of all these books AFTER the committee makes it final selection. But in the meantime, I'd love to hear what you think of these titles. Have you read any of them? Did you love them? Hate them? And most importantly, which one do you think would make the best choice as the 2010 Reading Across Rhode Island book? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Image from the Reading Across Rhode Island website

Reading Across Rhode Island May Breakfast

On Saturday I attended the May Breakfast sponsored by Reading Across Rhode Island (RARI) to celebrate the 2009 RARI book, Five Skies. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about you can read all about RARI here and you can read my review of Five Skies here.) This year, since I was fortunate enough to attend the breakfast with 7 other women from my two book clubs, we had a table to ourselves - which was terrific. Ron Carlson, the author of Five Skies, was there and he gave an amazing talk to the crowd of over 400 people. Carlson is a professor of creative writing at UC - Irvine and he is a talented and engaging speaker. He is very funny and he had no trouble keeping the audience's attention. (It didn't hurt that he is very easy on the eyes and the audience was predominately female). Oh, and to top it all off, I won two tickets to Trinity Repertory Company in the raffle! But, I digress...

Carlson spoke about the craft of writing, how he gets story ideas and his work as a teacher. But, the thing I found to be the most interesting is that he started his talk by saying that groups like Reading Across Rhode Island and events like the May breakfast, in which groups of people get together to talk about books (what he referred to has "literary meetings"), are the foundation of a civilized society. Wow! That is quite a statement. He talked about how some stories transcend the book in which they are written and actually cross over into our very lives. We can all recall books like this. Books that we can't stop thinking about when we are finished reading them. Books that we can recall exactly where we were when we were reading them. Books we can't wait to pass on to other bookworms. Books that become a part of our very history. And, of course, all books are not created equal. Not all books are worth sitting around discussing. Not all stories transcend the book itself. But when you find one, it is a real gift. A gift that should be shared and treasured. After all, according to Mr. Carlson, doing so is the very foundation of civilization. Mr. Carlson, I couldn't agree more.


Image from Google Images

Reading Across Rhode Island

Those of you who read my book reviews may have noticed that I have mentioned Reading Across Rhode Island (RARI) a couple of times. (The quickly becoming famous) Anita asked me in a comment a couple of days ago if I would explain what RARI is. I realized after reading her comment that those of you who don't live in RI (and possibly some of you who do) may not know what the heck I'm talking about. Reading Across Rhode Island is a project of Rhode Island Center for the Book (at the Providence Public Library), whose goal is to promote literacy for all Rhode Islanders. The idea of the RARI organization is to choose one book a year, promote it through all the state public and school libraries and encourage everyone in RI to read that book. Hence the slogan - one book, one state, literally. Each year the book is announced to the public in January. In addition, an official launch conference is held in which the author comes and gives a talk and participants can participate in workshops relating to promoting the book, book clubs, topics covered in the book, etc. The launch conference is open to the public, but typically it is attended mainly by librarians and teachers. As a matter of fact, you have this year's conference to blame for this very blog. One of the workshops I attended was titled - Blogging: what it is and should I do it? I attended that particular workshop because my boss had asked me to write a book review blog for the library. Pam's Perspective was my "training blog" so that I could get my feet wet before publishing a "professional" blog. Ha! Anyway, I'm rambling again.

Back to RARI...

This year marks the 7th year for RARI and the book chosen was Five Skies by Ron Carlson. You can read my review of Five Skies here. And it's the first year that my teeny, tiny library has presented any programs promoting this event. That would be the book club discussion that I ran last week. And next weekend, I will be attending the culminating event for this year's book - the May breakfast held at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet, a large banquet facility in Cranston, RI. This event drew 800 (I think) people last year and it was the first year I attended. At the May breakfast, the author again comes to RI and does a reading, gives a talk and takes questions. Last year I attended this event with Sandy and Colleen (two women from my personal book club, Chapter Chat. Hi ladies!). This year I will be attending with 7 other women - 3 from Chapter Chat (including Sandy and Colleen) and 4 from my library book club - Books on Main. It's sure to be a great event! From the launch conference I already know that Ron Carlson is an engaging speaker. Plus he's very easy on the eyes. Oops, I'm digressing again.

For all you bookworms out there, here is a list of the 6 other RARI books:

2003 – Wish You Well, by David Baldacci

2004 – Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd

2005 – Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini

2006 – Shadow Divers, by Robert Kurson

2007 - The Memory of Running, by East Providence native, Ron McLarty

2008 - Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen

In case you are wondering, I have read all of these books with the exception of Shadow Divers. If you haven't read Kite Runner or Water for Elephants, I highly recommend them! I'll be sure to let you all know how the May breakfast goes next Saturday. I'm sure you will be hearing more about RARI in the coming months as I am actually serving on the nominating committee for the 2010 book selection! So, many of the books that I will reviewing between now and August will be RARI 2010 nominees. This is my first year to serve on this committee and I'm not sure yet if these nominees are top secret, but if I get the OK, I will be sure to let you know which books are up for consideration. And, if you know of a great book, you can nominate it on the RARI website linked above. How cool would that be - to know that YOU are the one who recommended the book that the whole (itty bitty) state of RI was going to read? Awesome, right? So go ahead, nominate a book or two or three. I know you want to....