Book trailers

I got my haircut today. (My sister is an EXCELLENT hair cutter person.  Call her.)  And I was telling her all about the amazing Guys Read book trailer (see other blog or ...  no wait, click here).  And before I got home she called to tell me about Libba Bray's book trailer for Going Bovine, which came out in Sept. and is available at the Parkland Community Library and book stores everywhere.  So I watched it.  You can, too!  Click here.

I LOVE book trailers.  (Could someone young teach me to put little hearts in place of the word "love"?  Could someone young-ish teach me how to ramp up this blog?  I don't have the time to figure these things out by like going online and asking help pages because I am not young anymore.  Time is more precious to me, now -sniff.)

I have a friend, Kim Chatel, who actually MAKES book trailers (Warning - not all these trailers are suitable for children) for Guardian Angel Publishing.   Kim also writes books - not all of which are suitable for children, either.  But they are all GOOD.

Here are other book trailers I have found and loved:

Hand Wash Cold by Karen Maezen Miller  
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick

Alas, I wanted to add Jarrett Krosoczka's very funny Vimeo about how he developed the idea for his Lunch Lady series (also available at the Parkland Community Library and book stores, etc.)  But I was only able to find this snippet starring Tomie DePaola.  Well, there are other snippets, too.  Look in the sidebar to watch them.

Get to know your favorite authors.  Look for book trailers and then...bother your librarian to use his (or her) continually diminishing budget to buy the books you love!  If you are lucky she (or he) will already have those books on the shelves.  Or go to book stores - especially the small cozy ones like the Moravian Book Shop (which is not all that small really) and buy the books there.

Libraries RULE!!  Love your librarian!!   GO BOOKS! (and book trailers!)

Hand Wash Cold

The blurb on the back of Karen Maezen Miller's new book, Hand Wash Cold, compares it to Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.  Miller's book resembles Gilbert's book, the quote says,..."without all the running from."  The comparison works in drawing attention to Miller's thoughtful work.

I enjoyed Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir of a year searching for balance.   Now, I want to spend four months in Italy eating pasta and gelato.  Gilbert's narration is delightful.  Her ending made me smile!  I may want to pick this book up sometime in the future but I don't need to.

Miller's book, on the other hand, is more instruction book than memoir.  She uses her own life as illustration to her philosophy.  This is a book I paused over, flipped through several times before returning to the library.  Ever since, I have wanted to just check what she has to say about this or about that.  So tonight, I went online and soon I will own my own copy of Hand Wash Cold.

Hand Wash Cold is about embracing the life we have now because here is the only place and now is the only time that we truly have.  Miller is not preaching against "planning ahead" or "dreaming".  She simply explains how important it is to appreciate the things we normally rush through to get to...whatever it is we think we'd rather do, or wherever it is we think we'd rather be.  This is advice that I need, right now, when I am "planning ahead" for another summer of chaos.  I need to appreciate each task I complete.  I need to concentrate on each aspect of each task before it is completed.

Sigh. If only I had Hand Wash Cold right now!!! ;)

Afterthought:  Have you noticed a trend toward titles with three words in them?  Adriana Trigiani's Big Stone Gap, Will North's Water, Stone, Heart.   I zhould write a book entitled Paper, Rock, Scissors, about how chance enhances creativity.  Someone beat me to it with Rock, Paper, Scissors, a digital book about game theory.  I have no idea if the book is any good.  Oh well, there is nothing new under the sun, only different ways to say, sing, paint, play, sculpt, build or dance.

Advanced Reader Reviews!

She's SO Dead to Us by Kieran Scott comes out this month.  Ally Ryan's dad lost the family's money - and the money of several of his friends - in bad investments in Ally's freshman year and the Ryans fled in shame.  Now Ally and her mother are back, living in a condo on the other side of town.  Some hunk is living in Ally's old house.  And Ally's old friends do not greet her with open arms.  Nasty pranks, cruel asides and romantic maneuvering ensue in this book about the invisible caste lines that inhabit every high school.  The ending is a "What!!!???" moment so I certainly hope this is the start of a series!  Scott can't possibly expect her readers to be satisfied with THAT as a resolution.  It's a quick, fun read.  It did give me the uncomfortable feeling that those invisible caste lines exist - even after we're all "grown-up".

Cyn Balog's new book, Sleepless, is due out in July.  Eron is a Sleepbringer or Sandman and his 100 years of service are almost at an end. Soon he will be human again to complete the life he lost 100 years before. Julie is one of Eron's charges, a 16 year old girl with a tragic past who has just lost her boyfriend in a car accident.  Eron's emotional involvement with Julie is complicated when his replacement shows up - Julie's boyfriend, Griffin.  Balog takes a childhood myth and turns the Sandman into something sexy and frightening at the same time.  This book was a grabber from the start.

Advanced Reader's Copies

My collection of ARCs is reaching critical mass.  If I do not pass some of these books on, I will be crushed under a tower of Unread Book Anxiety.

So, I suggest beginning an ARC club.  Anyone interested?  The details are still fuzzy but the end result is to distribute these Advanced Readers Copies and to collect reviews.

The books are mostly fiction for adults and teens and some fiction for children. 

Let me know if you are interested.  BTW, I don't intend to mail books out.  It will have to be something done locally.  AND if you take a book you have to email me a review.  That's a must.

Let me know what you think.