Bookbites
Book e nds on Ma in
Local Author Jay Gilbertson Reading +
Lunch and SalonVisit
Jay
Gilbertson,
local author, organic
farmer,
pumpkinseed oil
manufacturer and erstwhile hairdresser at Leissa’s has a new
book perfect for winter
vacation reading. It’s Full
Moon over Madeleine Island.
The setting is Madeleine
Island. See Jay’s interview
in the Feb. 14 Volume One.
First, listen to Jay read and
talk about his book. Get
10% off the price of the
book. Leissa is bringing
pumpkin cake.
Next enjoy Ted’s
Lunch
Special, a
onetopping
pizza and pop for $6.95.
Finally, visit Leissa’s Hair
Studio and Day Spa for
15% off all Aveda products.
April National
Poetry Month
Contest
To recognize National
Poetry Month, we’re holding a Contest. Please send
us a poem. Winners will be
published in the April
newsletter, the poems will
be posted in the store as
well as mentioned on Facebook.
Rules
Subject: April or Spring
Jay will be at the bookstore
to read some choice passages and autograph books
on Thursday, March 7,
11:00-12:00.
Length: Under 20 lines.
Haiku, limericks, serious
poems, all are welcome.
Child entrants: Please add
age or school grade.
Famous Menomonie
Neil Gaiman’s commercial for
Blackberry features some
iconic images from Menomonie as well as some wonderful
quotes about writing. Click on
the link below to see and hear
them.
Moving Projects are documenting Alicia Keys, Robert
Rodriguez and Neil Gaiman
as they each take on their
own special projects using
Blackberry 10 with help from
fans across the globe.
March 2013
Inside This Issue
Big Breasts &
Wide Hips rev.
W. Laine
2
Above All
Things rev.
2
March Holidays 2
& Books
Paper vs e3
books by Rachel
Policano
Main Street
Awards
3
Those Winter
Mornings
4
Hemingway’s
Cuba
4
The BIG READ
The Great Gatsby is this
year’s Big Read Book. The
library has a series of
events planned starting
with the kickoff on April
4th, 6 P.M at the Mabel
http://www.youtube.com/watc Read more about the project Tainter. On Tuesday
at http://crackberry.com/
April 9, 10:30 A.M.
h?v=97sxgROe_fY
blackberry-keep-movingDan Riordan will lead a
Gaiman's first episode for the projects-neil-gaiman-episode-1 discussion of the book
BlackBerry Keep Moving Pro- Menomonie isn’t actually
at our bookstore. It’s
jects has hit the air. The Keep mentioned, but we can recog- sure to be a lively discussion. Please join in!
nize our landmarks.
So we beat on, boats
against the current,
borne back ceaselessly
into the past.
F. Scott
Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby
Big Breasts and Wide Hips, William Laine, senior reviewer
I did read Big Breasts & Wide Hips
by Mo Yan, but I hesitate to encourage
any but the most earnest readers to
undertake the long, grim family saga
from the Japanese invasion in 1917, to
the civil war, to the famine of 1960, to
Mao’s Cultural Revolution with its
gangs of Red Guards portrayed as bullies, and concluding with the rise of
capitalism.
China proves that capitalism thrives in
a dictatorship. Chinese peasants had
miserable lives. Shangguan Lu, the
mother of the Shangguan family of 8
daughters and son Jintong, stands out
for her forgiveness, compassion and
struggle to care for her family after her
husband is killed.
When she did not
have a child during
the first three years
of her marriage, she
was rebuked and
beaten by her
mother-in-law and
husband. Her own mother had her
examined by a doctor, and they concluded that her husband was sterile.
To avoid further beatings, she lay with
another man to have a baby by him.
She had a girl, but her in-laws wanted a
boy. She had 7 girls (by 7 different
men), for which she was reviled and
Above All Things
endurance, but to what
avail? To risk life, making
Tanis Rideout’s novel about George
wives widows, children
Mallory and the 1924 attempt to scale
fatherless in pursuit of
Mt.Everest is a fantastic story. The novthe“Why? Because it’s
elist has based the book on the private
there” explanation displays
letters between Mallory and his wife
a good deal of hubris. And
Ruth and weaves their personal story
yet it is a remarkable story.
with that of the other climbers and
How it is the climbers
their previous attempt to scale Everest
don’t all freeze to death is a mystery.
in 1922.
One wishes they or the author paid
Getting to the top of the world’s tallest more attention to the many bearers and
peak is a remarkable feat of skill and
why these men make essentially the
March Holidays
They say that everyone’s Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, but what’s Irish beyond the
stereotypes? A good introduction can be
found in 101 Things You Didn’t Know about
Irish History. To start, it seems humans
have been on the Emerald
Isle for only about 9,000 years, venturing there as the last Ice Age receded.
Celts, the arrival of Christianity, colonization, emigration, beer and potatoes
and much more gets attention in this
history. It’s a nice little handbook.
beaten, before she gave birth to twins, a
girl and a son, the milksop (addicted to
breast milk) Jinong, by a Christian pastor. She converted to Christianity.
Shangguan Jinong is a most pathetic
protagonist! Jintong is sentenced to 15
years in prison for "rape & murder" for
granting the dying (by suicide) wish of a
woman who had begged him to relieve
her of her virginity. The novel concludes at about 1991.
How does modern China interpret this story
about the excesses and cruelties of past political eras? The author Mo Yan has been
criticized as being too cozy with the current
regime. There’s an enormous subtext in the
novel and just about everything Chinese.
same trek carrying enormous loads but
without any special climbing gear, such
as it was in 1924, that the Englishmen
use.
In any case, Above All Things is a really
good novel, good for a book club, arm
chair travelers and adventure seekers.
There is a footnote to the tragic ending.
Go online to read about the discovery of
Mallory’s body in 1991 and the controversy about whether he might have actually
made it to the top.
International Women’s Day, March 8 has been observed since the
early 1900's. It’s birth was in the socialist movement, probably a
reason that it’s largely ignored in the U.S.
In China, for example, it gets a certain
amount of official attention, for example
with banquets in the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square.
Ides of March March 15: “et tu Brute?”
Julius Caesar was assassinated on this day in
44 B.C., stabbed 23 times by Brutus and Cassius. Shakespeare and so many of our English
teachers have made us eternally aware of this
historical tale of political intrigue.
Page 2
Paper vs e-books by Rachel Policano, UW-Stout Journalism Student
One would probably assume, because
I’ve grown up surrounded by technology, that I own a tablet or e-reader and
that all of my books are e-books. But
that is far from the truth. Reading is
one of the few things I still enjoy in its
traditional form of a physical paper
book and it is one of my favorite hobbies. Not to mention that I own over
500 printed books at home.
As a student, I am already constantly
looking at a screen to complete assignments. Now, on top of this constant
computer use, UW-Stout is turning to
e-books in place of textbooks. It seems
as though we can never get away from
the illumination of a screen, whether it
be a computer screen, an e-reader or
tablet, a cell phone, or even a television. We are all constantly “plugged in”
to something.
So what are the differences between
the two?
Pros and Cons of Printed books:
PROS
Easily obtainable
Display lighting so you can read
whenever and wherever
CONS
They don’t need power to function Useless without an e-reader
Eye strain and more time in front
Can be read anywhere, generally
of a “computer,” as well as
portable
sunlight problems
CONS
Requires power/batteries
Can be bulky and heavy, especially
Devices susceptible to damage
if carrying more than one
(scratches, spilling things on
You need a light source to read
them, dropping them, etc).
them
Deciding which format to buy, as
Pros and Cons of E-books:
well as the price of an e-reader
PROS
Possible “connection” problems
when downloading books, and
Easily readable with zoom funcother technological mistakes
tions and letter resizing
Portable and you can carry multi- E-books and their e-readers may seem
to have the advantage with certain asple books at once
pects, but others will defend the simEnvironmentally friendly
plicity of the printed book. What it
comes down to is personal choice and,
Main Street Annual Awards Meeting
In February every year Main Street Inc.
honors those who have made a special
contribution to the vitality of downtown in the past year, along with some
“lifetime achievement awards.”
Holiday Window Display: Triangle Art
& Antiques
Spirit of Giving Award: Wisconsin Indus- Preserve our Heritage Award: John
trial Sand Co
Russell
Spirit of Excellence Award: John Anshus
pictured with daughter Lisa Anshus
Frank
WinterDaze Parade Awards: ConAgra
Foods, Xcel Energy, Miss Durand Royalty
Friend of Main Street Award: Sandy
Ott pictured with Joanie Dulin, Main
Street Executive Director
Downtown Revitalization Award: Dan
Olson (pictured in his downtown office)
Retiring Board Members:
Jody Hagaman 2010-2012
Wendy Sanders 2007-2012
Sandy Ott 2006-2012
Page 3
Bookends on Main
214 East Main St.
Menomonie, WI 54751
Phone: 715-233-6252
Fax: 715-233-6252
Email: [email protected]
www.bookendsonmain.com
Those Winter Mornings by Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
An Indie Bookstore
New & Used Books, Toys, Gifts,
Greeting Cards, Journals, Guitars,
Guitar Strings, Book Lights
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
Who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
Hemingway’s Cuba
Hemingway’s
Finca Vigia
near Havana
has been
beautifully
restored and exudes a wonderful ambience of comfort and peace. It is there
he lived with his third wife Martha
Gellhorn and later with his fourth
wife, Mary, until they left after the
“triumph of the revolution.” His boat
the Pilar is in dry dock and in great
repair. The pool is freshly painted but
unfortunately
without water.
Still, the Cuban
guide can talk
about Ava Gardner swimming
nude
there. Because of the sense of
time stood still one gets in
Cuba, it is easy to image those celebrities from the 1950s visiting “Papa”
in Havana. In keeping with that,
Hemingway’s favorite bars are wellkept tourist attractions.
La Bodeguita del
Medio,
for example,
has an
artful display of images and quotes
by Hemingway. Masses
of tourists
line up to
drink mojitos in tribute
to him — and
their own thirst, of
course.
Watch the youtube video of the famous bar and see for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
We87Px0OSIg
Cuban students, like
Americans all read The
Old Man and the Sea
which Hemingway
wrote at the Finca. The
used book market is
huge and Hemingway’s
books are there in
Spanish and English beside the famous Latin American writers, numerous books about Che Guevara,
history and literature interesting to
Cubans and readers everywhere.
For a version of “life is tough” in
Castro’s Cuba, Isadora Tattlin’s
Cuba Diaries An American
Housewife in Havana has an
less nostalgic view of Cuba
than the typical tourist might
experience.