Tinkers

While I was down in the Village my husband and I happened upon McNally Jackson Bookstore. What a wonderful independent bookstore! When you walk in you feel like you are home. My favorite feature were the staff picks displayed around the 2 levels of the store. This is where I picked up Jessica's pick "Tinkers".

What initially drew me to the book was it's simple book cover with a recommendation from Marilynne Robinson, award winning author of "Gilead" and "Home". I have enjoyed Ms. Robinson's poignant stories about the everyman. Her recommendation for Paul Harding's book "Tinkers" peaked my interest. If his writing proved to be even half as enjoyable as Ms. Robinson's I knew I would be in for a treat.

I was not disappointed. The story centers around 3 generations of a New England family's men and their struggles with mental health, disease, family, and their inter-relationship to each other. Mr. Harding's writing is absolutely beautiful and creates poetic motion where life can sometimes seem still to the unobservant eye. Each man's life was interconnected with his son's through the things he tinkered with.

I actually would like to sit down and reread this book to immerse myself in Mr. Harding's artistic nuances. (I rarely want to do this with a book I have just finished.) I guess the only word of warning I might have for this book is that it is not written like anything I have read before. Which in my opinion is not a bad thing but it may catch the unsuspecting reader off guard. If you get a chance I highly recommend "Tinkers" by Paul Harding!

BEA

First off, I have to say thanks to Amanda from The Life and Times of a "New" New Yorker for encouraging me to attend BEA (the Book Expo of America) this past Saturday with her. I'm not sure I would have had the courage to attend by myself. This event was eye opening to say the least! There were so many interesting people, booksellers, publishers, book bloggers, authors, etc. in the book industry there.

During registration I was handed a BEA program book which, no kidding, was the size of the yearly installment of the Entertainment Coupon books. A little overwhelmed, Amanda and I decided to plunge into the heart of the Expo's booth extravaganza. Timidly we wandered the halls taking in the global book contigency; publishing heavy weights; academic presses; independent publishers; non-profit book foundations; author signings; etc.

Around 1pm my stomach started to rumble and we made a mad dash to the Javitz Conference Center's food center. It was a nice break before the 2pm Blogger Workshop downstairs. It was great to hear from more experienced book bloggers about how book blogs can help the industry with reviews of books or bookstores, how they came to book blogging, and various tips on communicating within the book blogging community. If you are interested in hearing the panelists discussion check Book Club Girl's site out tonight at 6pm. Each of the panelists are listed below and have their own (more in depth) insights on BEA:

The Book Blogger Panelists

Stephanie Coleman-Chan from Stephanie's Written Word.

Candace Levy from Beth Fish Reads.

Natasha Maw from Maw Books Blog.

Julie Peterson from Booking Mama.

Dawn Rennert from She is Too Fond of Books.

Amy Riley from My Friend Amy.

Following the workshop Amanda made the rounds to familiar book bloggers in the audience. It was really exciting to meet these people in person. (A special thank-you to Stephanie from Stephanie's Written Word from both Amanda and I!) Then we headed back to the booth mayhem. Not quite so whelmed this time we had the opportunity to chat with some great people in the book industry. I made sure to say hello to the National Book Foundation whom I saw at the Brooklyn Book festival back in the fall, MIT Press my husband's favorite publisher, and AEG my Dad's book publisher. 5pm came too quickly but I was really glad that Amanda and I were able to take in what we could on a Saturday in New York!

New York Reading Hotspots

The National Book Foundation sponsored by Bloomberg has released a wonderful free pamphlet called Reading Hot Spots in New York City. I received this pamphlet at the 2008 Brooklyn Book Festival in Brooklyn Heights. The National Book Foundation will be at the upcoming Book Expo America in New York City from May 29-May 31. If you can't make it to the Book Expo or to the 2009 Brooklyn Book Festival you can e-mail Rebecca Keith and request a copy of the Reading Hot Spot Map.

With that said I wanted to play the game what New York Reading HotSpots have I been to? The list below will only cite the NYC Reading Hotspots that I have been to. If you would like to play along you can copy my list and ammend it based on the National Book Foundation's Reading Hot Spot Pamphlet to the literary hotspots you have been to. Let the fun begin!

Brooklyn

• Barnes and Nobles - 106 Court St. Brooklyn, NY 11201


• Book Court - 163 Court St. Brooklyn, NY 11201


• Central Library - Grand Army Plaza Brooklyn, NY 11238


• Crown Heights Library Branch - 560 New York Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11225


• Eastern Parkway Library Branch - 1044 Eastern Parkway Brooklyn, NY 11213


• Heights Books - 109 Montague St. Brooklyn, NY 11201 (closed)


• Waldenbooks - Kings Plaza Mall 5100 Kings Plaza Brooklyn, NY 11234

Manhattan

• Barnes and Nobles - 4 Astor Place New York, NY 10003


• Barnes and Nobles - 555 Fifth Ave. New York, NY 10020


• Barnes and Nobles - Citicorp Center 160 E. 54th St. New York, NY 10022


• Barnes and Nobles - Lincoln Center 1972 Broadway New York, NY 10023


• Biographay Bookshop - 400 Bleeker St. New York, NY 10014


• Borders - 10 Columbus Circle New York, NY 10019


• Borders - 461 Park Ave New York, NY 10022


• Columbus Library Branch - 742 Tenth Ave. New York, NY 10019


• Donnell Library Branch - 20 West 53rd St. New York, NY 10019 (closed)


• Drama Bookshop - 250 W. 40th St. New York, NY 10018


• Housing Works Used Book Cafe - 126 Crosby St. New York, NY 10012


• Humanities and Social Sciences Library - Fifth Ave. and 42nd St. New York, NY 10018


• Joseph Patelson Music House - 160 West 56 St New York, NY 10019 (closed)


• Juilliard Book Store - Juilliard Lincoln Center Plaza New York, NY 10023


• Lincoln Center Libary of Performing Arts - Lincoln Center New York, NY 10023


• Metropolitan Opera Book Store - Lincoln Center New York, NY 10023


• Mid-Manhattan Library - 455 Fifth Ave. New York, NY. 10016


• Oscar Wilde Bookstore - 15 Christopher St. New York, NY 10014


• Pauline Books and Media - 150 East 52 St. New York, NY 10022


• Strand Bookstore - 828 Broadway New York, NY 100038


• Strand Bookstore Annex - 95 Fulton St. New York, New York 10038 (closed)


• Terrance Cardinal Cooke Branch Library - 560 Lexington Ave. New York, NY 10022

MIT Press Bookstore

For the first time in my relationship with my husband, I was the one being dragged to the bookstore. My husband is studying Music Technology at the graduate level with an emphasis on microtonal music and mathematics. As you can imagine this is a highly specialized field with only a few people exploring its realms.

In his studies he noticed that most of the research books he was using had one common denominator, their publisher, the MIT press. As luck would have it we were in Boston for Memorial Day weekend and the main thing my husband was interested in seeing was the MIT Press bookstore (http://web.mit.edu/bookstore/www/index.html). Surprisingly it was open on Saturday from 10am-6pm regardless of the holidays.

I really wasn't sure what i would be able to find anything personally interesting in the depths of this specialized bookstore. I was pleasantly surprised and found books on theology (the essential reinhold niebuhr) , religion & economics, writing during the information age, and universal education and its effects. Chris of course found all of the specialized books he was looking for inclduing: "Microsound" by Curtis Roads, and "Musimathics Vol 1 & 2" by Gareth Loy.

It's pretty amazing to pick up a book from the publisher's store that you might not be able to find anywhere else. It is an easy walk from the Kendel T-Stop in Cambridge. The staff was unassuming and quite knowledgable. (We managed to sneak in a conversation about where printed media... books, music, etc. are headed.) So if you are in Boston I highly recommend taking an hour or two out of your trip to visit the MIT Press bookstore. In the mean time check out their website and browse their recent books: http://mitpress.mit.edu/main/home/default.asp.