Po(sey) Sessions

I realize the irony in the matter, I own a bookstore but I rarely read books in paper. I love my paper books, but there are times they just don't fit into my life. As I get older the words get smaller and the pages get dimer and finding a comfortable position that doesn't cause me to fall asleep is a challenge. Some days I have accepted it. I am old. Scaleable font and backlit screens help me read in any position and not just when the lighting is right. To me, reading is reading. I want everyone to be doing more of it. Recently that especially includes myself. I find myself with the time to read, but not the desire to invest in the storylines I am currently presented with. I think it is both common and interesting that as one gets older there is less room for books that aren't exactly what we are looking for. I used to never give up on a book I was reading, and I am still not eager to admit that I will never pick up a book again. But I am working on guilt free reading a...

In my Food and Culture class we were challenged to find our food identity. For most students we had a deep desire to connect with our childhood. This video is a representation of my childhood food identity.

I am thinking about coming back to blogging. I flirt with the idea often, I even flirt with actions of blogging. Writing and posting a piece thinking it is the beginning of my triumphant return but my resolve fizzles quickly. For many years I was the same thing. A book lover, a mother, and a basic writer. I talked about my life and my limited number of passions. But in the past five years I have become many more things. I have become a business owner, a foodie, a student, and a better friend. The internet has the unique ability to create community. It was this feeling of community that I could never find in the town where I live, or even the town where I grew up. Family and community have always been a kind of mystery to me. Growing up I struggled with friendships. The solitude of my youth was echoed by my inability to effectively interact and communicate in a group setting. Owning my dream business let me realize the opportunity for community in my own town and beyond the scope...

My 11 year old daughter hates to read. This is a great pity and sadness to me. I know she is reluctant about reading and struggles with it some. I also feel a slight rebellion or defiance in her. She enjoys saying she doesn't like to read because I own a bookstore. She cherishes that irony. On one hand I appreciate her understanding of irony. On the other hand I always think that if I present her with the RIGHT book that I can change her into a reader! Recently she listened to the audiobook for The Inventor's Secret. It grabbed her RIGHT AWAY. Like I said, she is reluctant to read. I can get her to listen to audiobooks occasionally, but she usually tells me she is bored. I want her to read with her eyes, but I also like that she can enjoy stories outside of the struggles she might feel with reading. I know those struggles well. I am not now, nor have I ever been a particularly good reader. It is interesting how something that you aren't good at can become the thing you ar...

One of the reason I miss updating my blog is that I enjoy going back and seeing what I was reading and if I liked it. Some of the books I have blogged about I still haven't finished. Some I never will. Lately I have been working on really interesting mix of reading, especially driven by my personal research in dystopian literature and communal living. Today I finished Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock and it was basically amazing. It lost me in the last little bit, the moments just before the end. I am a little bummed out about this, but I think I will get over it soon and just go on loving the book. Hoping to try more books by this author soon. I "read" Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock via audiobook, and I just loved the narrator for it. I found out he is also the narrator for the audio of Perks of Being a Wallflower. Perks is one of those books I have been reading in a REALLY long time, this will be a good excuse to get back to it. I am extremely good at starting books. Prob...

Dystopia has been defined and redefined as every generation discovers and rediscovers the power it can have as a fiction, as an informative device, as a life changing event. There are many simple way to understand dystopia, but none of them help to understand the scope of dystopia. I pick up and put down dystopian research throughout my life.  When I was 16 I read 1984 and Thomas More's Utopia and these two books changed my life. They sparked in me interest and excitement. I have been chasing that desire ever since. I have also left and returned to blogging over the years. I have been stricken by the pressure to produce, but also by life getting in the way of things. The way that life gets in the way is essential to many dystopian narrative, especially the real life ones we see more and more often on the news. We used to fear Big Brother, and now we know he is there, yet somehow fall under the illusion that we are safe because we are too busy to deal with it. Dystopi...

It happened again. I am in the middle of yet another reading slump, this one came out of the middle of nowhere. I was reading a lot and enjoying the things I was working on and then BAM, no more interest in books anymore. It has been this way for about a month. One of the best and easiest ways for me to get out of slump is prepping for an author event. Whether the event is in the store or outside of it, I like to have a connection with authors I will meeting. This past week had a lot of author meeting in it. And these authors have written some pretty enticing titles. But no. No reading inspiration was found. I am still hopelessly slumped. I blame two people for this. Jessica Arnold and Joelle Charbonneau. Jessica Arnold ruins my life with a good book. Joelle's dystopian series ruined me for others. I like how a random internet search found them both pictured in a woody park, plotting against me. Not only do they give good plot, but they also ...