Tampa Book Buzz

get stuffed on january 14

Reward yourself for keeping your diet and exercise new year’s resolutions for two weeks by stopping by the John F. Germany Public Library on January 14 at 11 a.m. Author and chef K. MacInnes, author of Get Stuffed, will “entice you with his delectable hors d’oeuvres and show you how easy they are to make.” Book sale and signing will follow the program.

online book club review:cold mountain by charles frazier

Reading Charles Frazier’s book Cold Mountain made me glad I had seen the movie first. Otherwise I wouldn’t have have truly appreciated the love story between the main characters Ada and Inman or fully understood the less-than-happily-ever-after ending.

Inman is a Confederate soldier who gets severely injured in Petersburg and becomes disheartened and disillusioned with the war, himself, and life in general. He clings to the memory of Ada, the woman he left behind at home in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Their developing romance was new and incomplete, but it gives Inman something to live for and a reason to walk away from the war towards home. Cold Mountain is Inman’s Odyssey-like journey home.

Back home, Ada and others are suffering from shortages — of food, of money, of men to plow the fields, and of hope. She, too, relies on her memories of better times with Inman to sustain her and give her the strength to survive.

Frazier’s descriptions allow the reader to see the beauty of North Carolina and to hear and smell the brutality of war. The phrase “…a late summer so hot and wet that the air both day and night felt like breathing through a dishrag…” brought back many memories for this south Georgia girl. You have to read Cold Mountain at a slower pace than usual, which mimics Inman’s slow journey on foot through the summer heat and dust.

However, the slow pacing and detailed descriptions stripped the ending of its emotional impact. The movie version touched me, while the book merely entertained me.

What did you think?

local authors finally gettin’ some attention

While I was off eating, drinking and making merry over the holidays, the ever-wonderful Sticks of Fire was keeping up with the local book news. Thank goodness for that. Otherwise, I would have missed Kevin Walker’s article in the Tampa Tribune, in which he says he’s going to review books by local authors a few times each year. ‘Bout time!

There are many, many authors in the Tampa Bay area. Plus there are lots of book clubs, signings, lectures, and discussion groups (both online and in person) in the area. If you love books and reading, then the Bay area is the place to be.

my christmas loot

I’ve always heard that the holiday season can be an odd mix of happiness and sadness, of joy and nostalgia. I finally understood that this year.

This was the first Christmas without my dad, who died in May. But it was also the first Christmas with my precious niece Morgan, who was born in October.

My usual sibling rivalry and jealousy (my sister went to culinary arts school and I can barely boil water) was set aside when we left her house with our bellies stuffed with delicious food and our bags full of homemade fudge, truffles, and other wonders.

My excitement over my interview in my college alumni newsletter (which I’ll post the link to as soon as it’s up, don’t worry) was muted by the fact that my mother cared more about the above-mentioned precious niece Morgan burping or smiling or…pretty much anything. Any future accomplishments of mine will always pale in comparision to the fact that my sister popped out a kid. Oh wait, there’s that sibling rivalry again.

After a month of receiving Christmas cards in the mail — a welcome break from the usual round of bills and junk mail — on December 22 I received a summons for jury duty for January. Merry Christmas to me.

But as far as presents go, it was all happiness and joy. In addition to the ton of non-book related gifts (like the Hello Kitty toaster!), I got a biography of Cary Grant, a book about Harrison Ford’s movies, a book about the top 100 greatest TV stars, and The 100 Greatest American Films:A Quiz Book by Andrew J. Rausch. The quiz book is very interesting and fairly difficult, plus a fun way to annoy your in-laws.

I love Christmas loot!

light posting over the holidays

I’ll be traveling a bit over the next week and won’t always have easy computer access. (Note to Santa: please bring me a laptop with a wireless card this year. Pretty please.) So the posts will be lighter than usual for the next week or so.

With that, I wish you a …please choose the appropriate greeting based on your religion, beliefs, political affiliation, and/or ability to be offended:

Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukkah
Happy Kwanzaa
Happy Holiday
Pleasant Winter Solstice
Happy December 25th
Happy Regular Day With No Religious or Commercial Significance

Now go read a book!

holiday gift ideas

There’s still time to get holiday gifts for the book lovers in your life:

*books from the Turner Classic Movies online store

*the book lover’s bracelet from the Wireless catalog

*a gift card from Inkwood Books or Haslam’s Book Store or MicklerSmith Florida BookTraders

*one of the books recommended by Margo Hammond of the St. Pete Times

*”When in doubt, read” t-shirt or sweatshirt from the Wireless catalog

* the Complete Far Side collection by Gary Larson or the Complete Calvin and Hobbes

*the Harry Potter scarf and hat set and The Science of Harry Potter book from Signals

*a membership to the Florida Bibliophile Society

*The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes 150th Anniversary:The Complete Short Stories and Novels

*a greeting card that is also a bookmark

*Edward Gorey book lovers’ t-shirts and sweatshirts from Signals

*bookbags, bookmarks, reading pillows, book covers and more from the Book Venue Gift Store
*”Books. The Original Laptop.” t-shirts and sweatshirts from Signals

*one of the books on About.com’s list of Top 2005 Holiday Gift Books

*Women Writers umbrella and tote from Signals

*Books, books, books — from “America’s Jewish Bookstore” or a cookbook or some nonfiction books or comic books or something from the New York Times’ 2005 holiday gift guide.

Happy shopping!

local author s. l. juers

Local author S. L. Juers — who I met briefly at the St. Pete Times Festival of Reading in October — has a new book out titled Eternally Yours. This book is a different take on vampire fiction, recounting one man’s sad and lonely life as an immortal, culminating in a suicide letter anonymously signed “Eternally Yours.”

Juers is working on getting a website, and when he does, I’ll include his link in the “local authors” section. In the meantime, you can learn more about the book and read a preview at the www.authorhouse.com link for Eternally Yours.

writers in paradise has extended application deadline

The 2nd Annual Writers in Paradise has extended its application deadline to December 27. Writers in Paradise is “an intensive, eight-day experience of intimate workshop classes, panel discussions, readings, book signings, receptions and dinners designed for those who are passionate about writing.”

Best-selling authors Stephen King, Dennis Lehane and Mark Bowden will be there, along with many other guest speakers.

Writers in Paradise will be January 21-29, 2006 at Eckerd College in St. Pete. Visit their website for more information.

tampa area romance authors book signing january 7

The group Tampa Area Romance Authors (TARA) will have a book signing from 2 to 4 p.m. January 7 at the Carrollwood Barnes & Noble. It’s not listed on their website yet and the person at B&N I spoke with said she didn’t know when it would be posted. It’s not listed on the TARA website and my e-mail to the contact listed on their website bounced back. Hmmm.

The book signing is happening, even though I don’t have anything yet to link to. Both Kimberly Llewellyn and Kelley St. John told me they would be there. I won’t post the author attendee list I have because it’s not confirmed (besides Llewellyn and St. John). The TARA website is http://tara.writerspace.com if you want to learn more about this group.

book signing at micklersmith florida booktraders tomorrow

Author Col. Joe Reich will be at MicklerSmith Florida BookTraders on December 19 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. to discuss his book The Treasure of Tampa Bay, meet local readers and sign copies of his book.

T. Allan Smith, MicklerSmith proprietor, gave me the following description:

The Treasure of Tampa Bay covers 400 years of Tampa Bay history. It is fiction based on history. The book begins in 1528 with the tale of Juan Ortiz, a Spanish soldier who was inadvertently left when the explorer Panfilo de Narvaez departed. Col. Reich starts with a fictional marriage of Ortiz to a native princess. Then he covers the history of the region following the descendants of Ortiz right up to the era of space exploration.

Col. Reich is retired from the U.S. Air Force. He was stationed at MacDill for about a year in an intelligence-gathering capacity. He became fascinated with Florida history, and specifically Tampa Bay history, when he helped his son with a school project. The Treasure of Tampa Bay is the result of his decision to write a book based on the research he did. He is now settled in Louisiana and is ROTC director at a private school.

MicklerSmith Florida BookTraders, located at 718 Second Street N. in St. Pete, is a new and used bookstore specializing in books about Florida and by Florida authors. The store has works by well-known Florida authors, as well as a growing collection of hard-to-find and out-of-print Florida books, some quite rare.

For more information, call MicklerSmith Florida BookTraders at 727-894-1565.

(cross-posted at Sticks of Fire)