BOOK REVIEW: "The Lace Reader" by Brunonia Barry

The Lace Reader

Synopsis:

In Barry's captivating debut, Towner Whitney, a young woman descended from a long line of mind readers and fortune tellers, has returned to her hometown of Salem, Massachusetts, for rest and relaxation. Any tranquility in her life is short-lived, however, when her aunt drowns under mysterious circumstances.

Take a trip to the the still point at the center of the lace. Take a trip with Sophya (or Towner) Whitney as she travels back home to Salem, Massachusetts and her troubled family when her Great Aunt Eva disappears. It’s a trip in time and space and thought. For the women of the Whitney family are all . . . different, perhaps disturbed, perhaps strangely psychic. Watch as you slowly understand what happened years ago, and see the picture emerge.

This is a tale of the victory of the human spirit over adversity, of coping with difficult and horrifying realities. Ultimately it is a tale of love, the love one family shares. It is filled with wonderful and strange characters --- witches, abused women, the Red Hat ladies, a has-been policeman, the Whitney family, born-again Christians, wild dogs, and Towner. It weaves back and forth through time and memory forming an intricate lace pattern of its own. We are drawn into that pattern and read it more with each page.

The author, Brunonia Barry, lives in Salem, and the love she has for her hometown shines through. Both the Salem of today and yesterday and its troubled history are drawn with an amazing sense of time and place. This story could not have been as real set in any other place. The language and voice border on poetic, while the story is stark and frequently frightening as the pattern slowly emerges and you find yourself bemused and wanting to know more. I read it slowly because I really wanted to devour it, but sensed that it was deeper than a fast read should be. It was worth savoring. I spent a time living with the characters and am still haunted by the beauty I found in the pages of this book.

A GREAT read.

--Mary Cremen
imagineatrium.com



Find more great fiction recommendations from independent bookstores at Indiebound.org!

Experience the mystery of The Lace Reader online here.

How to Die Happy (and Probably Instantly)...

....Just prepare this burger and you're on the road to glory.

I heard Paula Deen on the Food Network today utter the phrase "That's music to a cracker's ears!" when sinking her teeth into a succulent piece of amazingly prepared mouthwatering meat, which made me do a double take since I wasn't totally paying attention to the television. Later I decided to Google Paula cuz she was on my mind and what on earth do I come across but her "Lady's Brunch Burger," a monstrously solid concoction of hamburger, two strips of bacon, a fried EGG, and (cover your eyes kids)...two WHOLE glazed donuts!

Yes, yes, OMG. But hey y'all, any good southerner surely wouldn't bat an eyelash at this. And those in the know have probably already seen this wonder in it's previous life as the Luther Burger (the Luther, however, never dared to garnish itself with TWO whole glazed doughnuts, or an EGG, good Lord). To people who have daintier palates and who had mental heart attacks at Imagine Atrium when we started selling Mo's Bacon Bar, the Lady's Brunch Burger is a true misnomer and may be liable to cause convulsions or throwing up inside the mouth.

Paula Deen is so darn cute and arguably the most entertaining and likable TV chef on the air today, so I forgive her for trying to kill us with her food, the majority of which I'm sure tastes delectable. Although she is known for casually dropping two and three whole sticks of butter into cheese and dessert sauces at one time, not all of her recipes are completely death inducing.

In fact, her new cookbook is for kids. Paula Deen's My First Cookbook is aimed at teaching kids how to whip up tasty dishes that mom and dad will absolutely love. And it's guaranteed not to contain any Lady's Brunch Burgers.

"For KIDS?" you say. I know, I know. You don't want your children's culinary habits being influenced by someone who puts hamburgers on glazed doughnuts. But kids are smart. They are well aware that glazed doughnut burgers are only for old ladies on Sunday afternoons. Kids also like to have FUN, and if there's one thing we can all learn from Paula it's that we really should enjoy life, love people, and have as much fun as possible...and that includes laughing and playing around in the kitchen while cooking mom or dad something weird, interesting, and tasty.

Pick up a Paula Deen cookbook today and smile. Live a little before you die. She'll help you get there faster, but you'll be grinning, belly laughing, and licking your lips all the way.


-Garrad Bradley
imagineatrium.com



-Pre-order Paula Deen's My First Cookbook at a 20% discount from Imagine Atrium.

-Or check out her best dishes for every holiday on the calendar in "Paula Deen Celebrates" - 40% off for our blog readers for a very limited time only!


***See Paula with Michelle Obama at pauladeen.com!***

-Find your local, independent bookstore and local, independent cafes at Indiebound.org

BOOK REVIEW: "The Homeowner's Handbook to Energy Efficiency" by John Krigger and Chris Dorsi

With energy issues at the forefront of our minds and of the media lately, The Homeowner’s Handbook to Energy Efficiency couldn’t have come at a better time. No matter where you live – in a brownstone or single-family, apartment building or condo unit – The Handbook offers all readers practical suggestions on ways to save a few dollars while doing their part for the environment. Well-research and thorough, this book easily moves into the ranks as one of the “go-to” books for reference and information on home energy efficiency.

One of the books strengths is its thoroughness. There are full chapters dedicated to lighting and heating, doors and windows, insulation, landscaping, and much, much more. The Handbook offers practical suggestions on ways to improve your home's efficiency. Some of the many projects that are specifically mentioned in the book include:

• Details on how to better insulate your home - or what to look for when you hire someone to insulate your home
• How to figure out and, as needed, adjust your hot water heater to maximize its efficiency
• The best way to landscape your home in order to create a cooler home in the summer and a warmer home in the winter
• Simple ways to maximize the use of low-energy lighting both inside and outside your home

Another great thing about the book is that it is well-organized. Its chapters flow in a logical fashion from one from the other, discussing each part of your home. A detailed table of contents helps readers find their topic of interest quickly and easily, and enable this book to be easily used as a reference manual.

A recent homeowner myself I can appreciate that this book addresses all scales – no project is too big or too small. Renters certainly have different concerns than homeowners, and this book will help you, no matter what your position. Whether you are interested in upgrading an existing item or system in your home that is already in use or replacing it completely, The Handbook is a valuable tool. For example, the authors walk you through options for making your doors and windows more energy efficient through weather-stripping and other techniques, but also offer great information should you be looking to replace your doors and windows completely.

Homeowners and renters alike benefit by having this book on their shelf. I highly recommend it as a great reference tool to help make you green… and help save you green!

---Kris Ohleth
imagineatrium.com


For a multimedia tour inside The Handbook, click here.
Click here to listen to the authors discuss the book.

STOP! LOOK! LISTEN! You don't have to buy this book from a huge corporation or mega retail chain. Support and sustain your LOCAL economy buy purchasing this (or any other) book right in your own community. That way, dollars stay in your community. Find your local, independent bookstore at Indiebound.org

Picture of the Week

How to Solve Marriage Problems: Cat Edition

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Call Jennifer....come see both & decide which you'd like.

Worried your man's cheating? You might wanna check his genes!

Scientists in Sweden have recently completed a study that links a gene, apparently one that 40% of all men have, to a man's ability (or inability) to be interested in monogamy and have a successful, long-term relationship. The presence of this cheating gene, called an "allele," also seems to predict the likelihood of a man getting married or simply living unmarried with a woman, as well as how happy or unhappy the woman is in her relationship with the man.

The allele regulates the activity of a hormone in the brain called vassopressin. In earlier studies, other scientists studying voles found that certain species of male voles were monogamous and mated with the same female for life, while others were dirty rats...or let's just say more promiscuous. The scientists found that by experimenting with vassopressin and receptors in the brains of voles, they could change the males of the promiscuous species to faithful husbands (and vice versa).

Ethics aside, maybe one day you too can know at the start of a relationship whether your guy's gonna be good to you by making him take a simple test to check for a promiscuity gene. Then you can decide if he's worth the inevitable drama to follow. If you find the gene, and are hell-bent on garnering his affection, it may just be a simple matter of cutting his head open and rearranging things a little until he's perfect!

Ladies, don't act like you weren't fantasizing about this already.

Read the full story from The Washington Post.

Blast from the Past

For those of us who didn't have the luxury of playing Space Invaders as impressionable young children, either because we couldn't afford Ataris or because we were just twinkles in someone's eye (or floating around somewhere in the ether) in the 1980s, this game seems like a creepy retro psychedelic nightmare drug come to life. It starts off innocently enough, with you as the sickly green, crude machine tank looking thing shooting at bizarre beings resembling mushrooms monsters, squids, and flashdancing waterbugs from outer space.

The game quickly descends into delightful terror, however, once you get past the second or third level when suddenly the music turns outrageously devlish, your heart starts to race, and you swear that someone or some thing is staring at you from the corner of the room you're in while you sweat uncontrollably and attempt to keep your eyes from bulging out of your head during your tumble into madness.

Thanks to somebody somewhere in Germany, newbies and hardcore Space Invaders addicts alike can stay up till all hours of every night of the week and play this game until their fingers fall off.

Wherever you are, whatever you do, if you have any concern and care for your sanity, you must not click here.

BOOK REVIEW: "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson announces in his acknowledgments in the beginning of Anathem that his latest novel is "a fictional framework for exploring ideas that have sprung from the minds of great thinkers of Earth's past and present." He then goes on to list some of these great thinkers for us, as if we were students in a college freshman philosophy class, hinting at the somewhat pompous tone of his book. Young students make up a majority of the characters in Anathem, endlessly expounding on scientific and philosophical points, all with words and terms that Stephenson made up (and that require a glossary) to emphasize the fact that the book is set on an alien planet. Anathem seems to attempt to do what other writers, most notably Umberto Eco, have already accomplished with far more success. Eco is a masterful storyteller and a true academic, and his books are elegant and mysterious stories packed with history, science and philosophy, told without condescension and without seeming as though he was the one to discover it all.

Stephenson does do an impressive job of creating an interesting alien world and culture. He's imagined a rich world that is compelling and fascinating. The mysteries of the plot take too long to play out, though, and not even the central characters ever become little more than mouthpieces for the pseudo-philosophical discussion that ultimately overwhelms the book. There are brief flashes of excitement, in the few places where real action related to the plot takes place, including an evocative and vertiginous spacewalk passage. But at over 900 pages, Anathem is a shockingly overindulgent book. If Stephenson had edited himself and whittled his story down to under 300 or so pages, he may have had a thrilling and interesting novel.

--Matthew Podsiad
imagineatrium.com


Anathem is available now.

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