Tampa Book Buzz

no laboring over labor day weekend

I’m jaunting to Paris over the holiday weekend….well, not really. I’m going to Miami…ok, that’s not true either. I’m going to my mother-in-law’s house for dinner and the rest of the weekend I’m gonna sit around in my pajamas and read and watch movies. Either way — Paris or jammies — I’m taking a break from responsibility, including blogging. Back on Tuesday. See you then.

september’s book club pick is….

…The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury.

Throughout the month, I’ll post tidbits about the book and/or the author, and then on the last day of the month I’ll let you know what I thought and hopefully you’ll do the same. To join the Tampa Book Buzz Online Book Club — to vote on the monthly book choice and to access the discussion board — is easy: email me at tampafilmfan (at) aol.com. Happy reading!

online book club review:the five people you meet in heaven by mitch albom

The Five People You Meet in Heaven is only 196 pages — brief pages — long and can be easily finished in one sitting. The message of Mitch Albom’s book stays with you a bit longer.

This book is about the life, death and afterlife of Eddie, an 83-year-old widowed war veteran, who has seen his life slide downhill from youthful dreams into a routine monotony of working as a maintenance man at an amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, he dies in an effort to save a young girl from a malfunctioning ride. He awakes in a version of Heaven he never expected; in this afterlife, Eddie meets five people whose lives have intertwined with his in profound and not always obvious ways.

To give details about the five people would give too much away, so I’ll only say that I enjoyed Five People That You Meet in Heaven on two levels. Eddie’s life story — full of coincidences, joy, sorrow, sadness and love — was entertaining in and of itself. The deeper story — about the meaning of life and the meaning of others in our life — was expected, but yet welcomed.

What did you think?

book news:mcree, jacobs, kelly, leto, llewellyn, london, rock, st. claire, boucher

*The Pinellas Public Library Cooperative has revamped its website. They now offer downloadable versions of their monthly newsletters, among other things.

*Local author David McRee (Florida Beaches) was recently mentioned in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Congratulations!

*There are several Tampa Area Romance Authors members who have books out this month:
WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME? by Ann Jacobs
HERE COMES TROUBLE by Leslie Kelly
THE DOMINO EFFECT by Julie Elizabeth Leto
TULLE LITTLE, TULLE LATE by Kimberly Llewellyn
IF YOU COULD READ MY MIND… by Jeanie London
THE KNIGHT’S COURTSHIP by Joanne Rock
THRILL ME TO DEATH by Roxanne St. Claire
(thanks go to local author Joy Smith for sending me this list)

*Local author Wendy Boucher earned mega-blogosphere points recently by having one of her posts mentioned on The Daily Kos. Way to go, Wendy!

florida author april star

Sebring, Florida author April Star wrote to say hello and to tell me about her new wanderlust mystery series. Her debut novel Tropical Warnings is due for release in November as a hardback first edition mystery from Five Star Publishing and Thorndike Press.

In Star’s mystery series, her RVers/amateur sleuths seem to find murder, mystery and mayhem at ever camping resort they pull into (remind me not to go RVing with Star!). Visit www.authoraprilstar.com to learn more about this Florida author and her books.

st. pete times festival of reading is october 28

Mark your calendars. Pack the sunscreen. Get out your sharpie markers and your bookbag. The St. Pete Times Festival of Reading is scheduled for October 28. Here’s the homepage. Here’s the most current list of featured authors. Here’s their bios. Here’s the most current list of booksellers and exhibitors. Here’s info on tranquilizers in case you need pharmaceutical help waiting for October 28 to get here.

worldcat.org library search website

The St. Petersburg College Library Blog has a great post about the WorldCat.org website, which sounds like an easy way to search library databases. Read the post here. I haven’t had a chance to do more than bookmark the website, but I’ll give it a try this weekend.

wordsmith from the tampa writers alliance

There was a large envelope in the mail this week. It wasn’t ticking…my address wasn’t written in block letters with no return address in the top lefthand corner..there was no visible white powder on it. Inhale deeply, squint eyes and rip it open….

My copy of Wordsmith 2005 had arrived!

Wordsmith 2005 contains winning entries in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, novel, poetry, scripts and the Dr. Ed Hirshburg Award for Excellence in Florida Writing, along with the best of the remaining submissions from the Tampa Writers Alliance 2004 Annual Writing Contest. This is Wordsmith’s 16th Edition. (from the back cover)

So far, I’ve only had a chance to thumb through it, but it’s going right to the top of my bedside table stack o’ books.

books i want to read

My reading list keeps getting longer. I’ve come across a lot of books recently that sound very interesting:

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl — People called this “a blockbuster debut” full of “literary and pop cultural references and illustrations by Pessel herself” that “demands attention.”

The Ruins by Scott Smith — Entertainment Weekly called it an “old-fashioned horror story” and Salon.com warns “don’t start this book if you are weak of stomach or nerves.” The Week highlighted The Ruins as Novel of the Week and Time included it on their list 6 Guilt-Free Pleasures to Read at the Beach.

I talked my local librarian into giving me an extra copy of a new-book catalog he had lying around (although he made me promise not to clog their online system by adding all of them to my library holds list). There are too many fascinating, intriguing titles to mention them all here, but here’s a few that piqued my interest:

Social Intelligence:The New Science of Human Relationships by Daniel Goleman (out September 26th)

The Birth House by Ami McKay (August)

Renfield:Slave of Dracula by Barbara Hambly (September)

Considering Doris Day by Tom Santopietro (September)

Brainiac:Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs by Ken Jennings (September)

Women of Valor:The Rochambelles on the WWII Front by Ellen Hampton (September)

Reading Like A Writer:A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose (September)

Dead Center:Behind the Scenes at the World’s Largest Medical Examiner’s Office by Shiya Ribowsky and Tom Shachtman (September)

So many books, so little time!

local author k.l. “kathy” nappier

I met local author K.L. “Kathy” Nappier a couple of weeks ago at a Tampa Writers Alliance meeting and have been reading about her online ever since. According to her bio on the Double Dragon Publishing website, Nappier’s been writing for 20 years and

Her supernatural thriller Full Wolf Moon placed in the Draco Awards’ Final Three in the Horror Division, placed in the Kay Snow Awards and was a finalist in the New Century Awards, along with another of her novels.

Her other works include Voyagers and a short story in Twisted Tails: An Anthology to Surprise and Delight. In October, Nappier will be a presenter and panelist in the Muse Online Writers Convention (participation is free, but requires registration).

Purchase Nappier’s e-book here, listen to her podcast interview, watch the webcast of her Dragon Page Radio interview here (NOTE: On this site, once you click on “Listen”, select show#224 from the menu and slide the audio bar to approximately the 7 minute mark to access the interview segment of the show.), or bookmark her Amazon.com blog.

Whichever you choose, definitely keep your eyes on this local author.