What I'm Reading This Week- Jan. 30, 2011- Hello Gorgeous!
Quote de jour
"A sick man that gets talking about himself, a woman that gets talking about her baby, and an author that begins reading out of his own book, never know when to stop."
~Oliver Wendell Holmes
Barbra Streisand can chalk up another achievement as best-selling author and photographer with My Passion For Design, no mean feat for a $60.00 coffee table book about her building her new dream house. Is it a self-indulgent fantasy? You bet. I'd call it more of an obsession than a passion but it's, gor-geous. She out does Martha Stewart with OCD attention to detail. Here's the fold-out page of the whole schmear. Well, the barn part which she doesn't actually live in. There are two other homes in the compound all decorated within an inch of their lives. Fascinatingly perverse given the economic climate we live in.
Now, let's do a 180 to something more meaningful like Soul Pancake by Rainn Wilson and friends based on the thought provoking website SoulPancake.com Every page addresses a different question with the most creative use of graphics I've seen in ages (sample below). Yeah, I'm a fan and have joined the legions there.
A publicist sent me a review copy of a new novel The Bird House by Kelly Simmons bykellysimmons.com.
I felt immediately attracted to the paperback cover (the cheap paper not so much). She does what you want every writer to do: suck you into another world. In this case, a Main Line family with secrets unraveled by a grandmother with dementia and her granddaughter. I decided to stop reading and finish it on the plane to Florida next week or on the beach when I could take the time and savor every word.
There won't be blog post next Sunday but you can bet I'll be reading. <3 you for reading!
"A sick man that gets talking about himself, a woman that gets talking about her baby, and an author that begins reading out of his own book, never know when to stop."
~Oliver Wendell Holmes
Barbra Streisand can chalk up another achievement as best-selling author and photographer with My Passion For Design, no mean feat for a $60.00 coffee table book about her building her new dream house. Is it a self-indulgent fantasy? You bet. I'd call it more of an obsession than a passion but it's, gor-geous. She out does Martha Stewart with OCD attention to detail. Here's the fold-out page of the whole schmear. Well, the barn part which she doesn't actually live in. There are two other homes in the compound all decorated within an inch of their lives. Fascinatingly perverse given the economic climate we live in.
Now, let's do a 180 to something more meaningful like Soul Pancake by Rainn Wilson and friends based on the thought provoking website SoulPancake.com Every page addresses a different question with the most creative use of graphics I've seen in ages (sample below). Yeah, I'm a fan and have joined the legions there.
A publicist sent me a review copy of a new novel The Bird House by Kelly Simmons bykellysimmons.com.
I felt immediately attracted to the paperback cover (the cheap paper not so much). She does what you want every writer to do: suck you into another world. In this case, a Main Line family with secrets unraveled by a grandmother with dementia and her granddaughter. I decided to stop reading and finish it on the plane to Florida next week or on the beach when I could take the time and savor every word.There won't be blog post next Sunday but you can bet I'll be reading. <3 you for reading!
Posted by Layla Morgan Wilde at 1/30/2011 12:01 PM 
Categories: Design, Baby Boomers, Media, What I'm Reading This Week, Humor
Tags: soul pancake the bird house novel kelly simmons Barbra Streisand book my passion for design rainn wilson
Categories: Design, Baby Boomers, Media, What I'm Reading This Week, Humor
Tags: soul pancake the bird house novel kelly simmons Barbra Streisand book my passion for design rainn wilson
ah! Florida! I will be thinking of you next week. Maybe I'll put one of my characters in Florida so I can feel the warmth, virtually. But I bet the snow gods will repay you in spades upon your return.
I must get that novel! I am reading Lisa See right now between MS revisions.
Seriously thinking about moving to a beach.
Enjoy!
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I'm not off until the end of the week and yeah, can't trick those snow gods for long. Which Lisa See and do you recommend it?
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Shanghai Girls. My husband discovered this author recently and I told him I had read selections of her previous novel in Borders a couple of years ago.
Yes, recommend very highly. Also love Amy Tan and Sara Gruen.
Have not read much into Shanghai girls yet, but I sample pages when taking a break from revising my MS.
Love reading real literature. Can't have a steady diet of commercial fiction, without literature, though Nora Robert's earlier work in the 80s, which is being republished now, has many breathtaking moments. She transcends.
Enjoy your warm sun! Bottle some for me, kay?
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Will do and thanks, maybe I'll pick up Shanghai Girls for the trip.
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This time you have stirred my interest in all of the books you reviewed. Hope the weather here warms up even more. Right now on the Space Coast we are wearing light jackets morning and evening and enjoying the bright sun at noon. Hope you enjoy it too.
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Pat, I hope so.
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I enjoyed the photographs of your books
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Most publishers spend good money on an eye-catching cover for that reason.
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