Tag: Kennebooks

Finding new treasures

by Karen, posted in author, books, local fun, writing

11/30/16: I decided to update this post. I made several trips to this shop after I gave them a free copy of One Brave Thing as well as newspaper articles about me publishing my book. On the third trip, I discovered that they didn’t know what they did with it!

I decided to trust the Universe and let this one go.

🙂

Recently, I wrote about attending an author talk given by Anita Shreve. I mentioned that I found out about it at the last-minute from my husband (an avid reader of newspapers). As happens so often in life, this even led me to another happy accident: I discovered a local bookstore that I had somehow missed.

I know, right? Unbelievable!

After Kennebooks (seriously, play the violins-I loved that store) closed, I thought that Kennebunk was now bereft of book stores.

Not true.

The Book Burrow sponsored Anita’s talk. That’s how I found out about it! It was like getting a free gift with purchase! I got to see Anita and I found a new local bookstore to love!

When I visited the The Book Burrow’s website, I was welcomed by a wonderful poem by Adelaide Love. Go to their website and check it out!

 

Fortunes Rocks

One note: I mentioned that I saw Anita Shreve speak years ago. I still have my book that she signed, my favorite book of hers: Fortune’s Rocks.  What’s wonderful about this is that she put the date when she signed it! Yay! So I’ve decided to do this when I sign my book as well.

See? This author talk is the gift that keeps on giving. 🙂

Susan Conley at Kennebooks

by Karen, posted in books, friends, good grief, health, local fun, no fear, relationships, writing

Susan Conley recently came to Kennebooks to read from her book, The Foremost Good Fortune. Susan is a Mainer, raised in Woolwich. In addition to being a great writer, she is also a great reader. Maybe this is because (as we learned in her talk) Susan is a poetry teacher, and when she reads passages from her book aloud, in her slow, sing-song-y sort of way of drawing out the syllables, the consonant sounds…it makes her book sound like poetry. Could this manner of speech perhaps be connected to her learning to speak Mandarin?

 I also learned that hula hooping and badminton are “huge” in China.  That she was involved in the founding of The Children’s Room.

“Memoir is all about honesty,” Susan says, and further states that “you feel it when it’s not (honest).”  This is why, after her writers group read her earlier drafts of this book they basically asked her, “Where are you in this?” and she ultimately rewrote so that she was now “showing up” on the page. “You’ve got to take us to those places,” her writing friend said, of “emotional complexity” that were lacking in the earlier work. Oh and of course, I learned the significance of the title of the book.

🙂

Susan started writing her book, was diagnosed with cancer, then started writing it all over again. A different book. This book. She says she told her story in the present tense in the book and thinks of it as a love letter to her sons, who she hopes will read it one day.

Finally, The best thing that I learned is that Susan has been cancer-free for three years.

Susan may be back at Kennebooks in March as part of the Maine Women Write Book Club. Consider joining! The first meeting is slated for mid-October at the time of this writing. Call (207-967-6136) or email Ann (ann@kennebooks.com) at Kennebooks for more information. Hope to see you there!

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How to grow a watermelon

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, gardening, local fun
intact watermelon

How do you grow a watermelon? Darned if I know. Here in Southern Maine in spring and summertime,  the growing (of anything, really) doesn’t (usually) come easy.

Someone must know how, because I see them all the time at my local farm store, Spillers. I see them at the Farmers Markets. I see them at the supermarket. My favorite gardening book, The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch, devotes pages 457-465 to the topic, therefore one must conclude that she must also believe that it’s possible to grow them here.

When my husband decided he wanted to grow watermelons, we picked up some seed packets. We hedged our bets by also planting some seedlings that we found already started at Agway. We tried for three years to grow watermelon to no avail…until this year.

This summer, I even saw them (briefly) in my back yard, on the vine that grew from the seeds that we lovingly sowed in very early spring.  .  . we had such high hopes! This would be the year! And a miracle happened…this was the year!  We had a few fruits on some of the vines. We even glimpsed one good-sized watermelon growing on one of said vines. We were so happy!

We were so naive!

We were happy for about three minutes, which must have been about how long it took before whichever critter from the wild also noticed it and took matters into its own hands–er, mouth. Our next trip out to the garden to lovingly gaze on our produce prodigy ended in tragedy as we noticed the large bite that was taken out of the side of it.

😦

One of the smaller ones remained, so despite its size, we brought it into the house. We weren’t willing to risk losing the last intact melon. With bated breath, I cut it open.

There was enough for my husband and I each to have a teaspoon of watermelon.

The fruits of three years labor. Reminds me of the $64 Tomato.

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P.S. Buy the books at your local bookstore, such as Longfellows or Kennebooks (in Maine), or Literary Bookpost (in North Carolina).

Amy Wood at Kennebooks

by Karen, posted in books, education, local fun, writing

Amy Wood spoke at Kennebooks on Saturday, February 19. Her talk was part discussion and part reading (from her new book Life Your Way), followed by a question and answer period and then book signing.

Despite it being the beginning of a school vacation week, the little upstairs room filled with people eager to hear Amy tell us how to live “life your way”.

She tells us right off the bat that “I do everything according to my intuition, ” which generated many questions from the audience about the definition of “intuition” and how it shows up in one’s every day life.  Amy considered each question  thoughtfully and answered thoroughly.

Amy generously mentions books by other authors related to intuition and recommends them for further reading on the topic. Here are a few:

  1. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
  2. Compass of the Soul (and others) by Lynn Robinson
  3. How Not to Marry the Wrong Guy by Anne Milford (coauthored with Jennifer Gauvain)

As Amy began reading aloud the chapter on “Optimism” from her book, my tween daughter grabbed my copy, found the right chapter, and began reading along, suggesting that this book can appeal to any age group. She focused on optimism because it can become a tool in your life, an “enviable skill” that can make your life easier, just as listening to your intuition, which (unlike Mapquest directions or ads from the high fructose corn syrup mongers) will never steer you wrong.

There is so much more information to sift through at any given time now that it can be helpful to just know when to stop. Joan Rivers? She is an excellent example of a person who does not know when (or how?) to stop. Seinfeld? He did.

The book is formatted so that it’s easy to read, a boon for busy, overscheduled people. Each chapter includes an “Apply the Wisdom” section at the end with a few bulleted strategies for using the points made in your everyday life right now (very user-friendly). You can start at the beginning, or let your intuition guide you to the best chapter(s) for you. 🙂 Read more about Amy’s book on my raisingmaine.com bookblog  here.

Kennebooks offered the audience the option of purchasing a bag lunch from Cheri’s in Kennebunk. For $10 you got a sandwich (choose one of three), chips, a cookie, and a bottled water. My daughter and I took advantage of this offer and split the meal. It was plenty for the two of us (we had some left over!) and it was excellent. We (my daughter and I) highly recommend that you take advantage of this offer if you ever get the chance.

Amy gives talks at different sites in Kennebunk and Portland. She will be at the Kennebunk Free Library for her workshop (which she gives quarterly) next on Tuesday, April 12 from 12:00P-1:00Pm. The presentation is enticingly titled: “Your Way and How to Find it”.  No commitment of time or money is involved. Just show up!

She will also be at the Portland Public Library on Wednesday, February 23 from 12:00PM to 1:00PM. Consider going to this (also free) event. You’ll be so glad that you did!

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Kate Braestrup’s new book

by Karen, posted in books, family

Kate Braestrup’s new book is Beginner’s Grace and is a book about prayer: learning about it, thinking about it, finding occasions to engage in it. Kate talks about occasions of prayer that are present in one’s everyday life, and offers some simple words that people can use if they don’t already have their own. She describes prayer as a “practice”, like yoga, or medicine.

For people who want to pray but aren’t sure how to begin, or can’t remember to pray, or don’t know what to say, she firsts suggests that you try linking praying to another activity that you are unlikely to forget to do on any given day: eating, toothbrushing. She also shares some small prayers that you can say if you don’t already have one in mind. My favorite is the all-purpose, universal, emergency prayer that Kate says everyone already knows:             “OhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGod!!!”

Other prayer-worthy occasions: bedtime, plane rides, loved ones leaving the house for the day (“threshold” prayers), illnesses and accidents. Kate also shares stories from her job as the chaplain to the Maine Game Warden Service, which are always interesting. What I love about Kate’s writing is that she delivers her message with such warmth and humor that you almost don’t realize that you are actually learning from her writing.

My only other comment is this: I listened to this book on audio CD, and was disappointed that it was not read by the author, as were Marriage and Other Acts of Charity, and Here if You Need Me. I think reading it was a “lesser” experience than it would have been if Kate’s voice had delivered her own words. (Oh, and that whole part about “feet?”  Whaaaa….?)

Fun with tweens on the weekend

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, books, family, friends, local fun, shopping, tweens

My tween daughter invited a friend to spend the day, and as the 7 hours loomed ominously unfilled ahead of us, I wondered:  What the heck should we do?  

First, I decided to do something for me: I had a 20% coupon to Kennebooks in Kennebunk so that was our first stop. A quick check of the local paper told me that they were having an Open House that started at 10:30am, so it was just me and my tween for this. When we arrived, there was a kids “author event” so we headed down for that, but it turned out to be for littler kids, so we did some browsing for an hour. I bought a book for a friend for Christmas.

Sigh. I love to be with the books. But I digress…

Next, we picked up the friend and headed for the library. They browsed the shelves, and checked out some books, and then harassed me until I gave up and said, “Okay, yes! I’m ready to leave too!”.  While we were there, we found a new cookbook called Betty Crocker’s Just the two of us, and they spied a recipe while flipping through it that they wanted to make. Since we had all of the ingredients already, I agreed.

Lunch was next, and I’m embarrassed to admit that I took the easy way out: McDonald’s was right nearby, and since it was almost 1pm and they were “starving”, we headed there next. In my defense, we haven’t eaten McD’s food in months, so here’s hoping that it didn’t do us too much damage. We drove through and brought it home to eat it (their choice).

Then we made the Double Chocolate Snack Cake.

Izzy and Ivy, the bakers

They did a great job! I helped a little but they were really in charge of the recipe (I was in charge of the oven) and it turned out really great. We ate most of it fairly quickly.

After that, they hula hooped and played on the swing in the yard, fed bread to the chickens, and played a few hands of cards: Uno, War.

Then, they actually read the books that they checked out of the library for a little while.
I had to run to Hannaford’s and they were thrilled to come with me. They got free cookies at the bakery, and free samples of cheese and turkey at the deli. They even watched the cart full of groceries after I realized that the most important thing that I went there to buy, I had forgotten, so I had to go back and get it and run through the cashier’s line again. (Hey, at least I remembered before I got back home; I figured that I was ahead of the game!)

When we got back, I made them spaghetti for supper, and after we finished eating they had another little bit of time to play.

They watched a little TV: one episode of iCarly, and one episode of Drake and Josh. Then they played some songs on the electric keyboard for a while.

When it was time for her friend to go home, they had even picked up after themselves!

It was a great day; I even was able to get my 2,000 words written in between everything else. Life is good!

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Val Walker at Kennebooks

by Karen, posted in books, education, family, friends, good grief

Val Walker came to Kennebooks to talk about her new book The Art of Comforting. This author’s talk started off feeling like a course in sociology, as

Val Walker

she described different models of counseling (companioning, relational….), but then it quickly became more personal, as she related some examples of comforting from occasions in her own life when she’d needed it.

She explored the question of what it means when someone says they are “there for you”, and what that shape that might take as a comforting act for another. Sometimes, just sitting with someone and letting them “feel their feelings” is all that is required.

Val thinks that to be an effective comforter, one must “let go of the outcome” (this phrase will be familiar to you yogis out there :)).  One will not always know if her comforting efforts have been helpful, and it is not necessary to know. The fact that effort was made is enough.

After the talk, Val offered to take questions from the audience, however it was a rainy night, and many of those present had traveled a fair distance to see her, and they were anxious to head home, so she graciously changed course and immediately proceeded to signing books.

As a side note, Kennebooks always puts put coffee (the coffee is good!) and cookies (the cookies are good too!) for all of their book signings, as well as water and tea. They are always enjoyable and who knows? You may even learn something new!

Tess Gerritsen at Kennebooks

by Karen, posted in books, local fun
Tess Gerritsen

Tess Gerritsen came to speak at Kennebooks last week. If you aren’t familiar with her work, you are missing out. She is a local author, from Cape Elizabeth. She currently writes predominantly murder mysteries, often with a medical theme (hey, she is a doctor, after all!). She started out her career by writing romances…she certainly has range. 🙂

Rather than reading from her newest novel Ice Cold, she decided to talk about how she writes, as well as answer audience questions.

She hears about a story, either from present news or from history, and if she is still thinking of it a couple of weeks later, then “I know what my next book is about!”.  One idea that fascinated her and later became a book was this: What must it be like to wake up in a body bag? After hearing about an instance of this actually happening, Ms. Gerritsen did some research and discovered a facility in which this was a common occurrence…and a book was born.

Ms. Gerritsen also had advice for other writers on getting their first book published.

  1. First: write your book (or in my case, finish writing it)! She writes her first draft longhand, the second draft is typed…then she will do 4-5 (or even up to 8) drafts total before it’s ready for submission.
  2. Make sure your book is the best that it can be and is in perfect condition before you submit the manuscript.
  3. Get a literary agent. She believes it is very important in today’s market to have a literary agent to represent you and to sell your book.

One thing she mentioned is that she doesn’t let anyone read her manuscript before sending it to her publisher (including her husband!).  Other writers, for example, Stephen King, say that they count on their spouses to be their first readers and sometimes will incorporate their suggestions into their writing.

She also talked about how she develops her characters, and how she often doesn’t know how the book is going to turn out, so she doesn’t ever edit her first draft. Writing it longhand helps her to resist this urge to edit (legal pads are not conducive to cutting and pasting!). In one book that she wrote, the main character was a man until midway through the book, when she realized that it wasn’t working and changed him into a woman, which solved all of the problems she had been having with it.

🙂

Bottom line: finish writing your book!!!

Kate Braestrup at Kennebooks

by Karen, posted in books
Kate Braestrup, signing her book "Here If You Need Me"

Kennebooks in Kennebunk hosted a book reading and signing Thursday evening with Kate Braestrup. She is a Chaplain for the Maine Warden Service by day…and author by night (well, this night, anyway).

The bookstore staffers let us know that Kate would be arriving late, but then they started bringing out the refreshments, so the crowd was appeased. First, pitchers of lemon water. Next, an urn of coffee. I got a styrofoam cup and filled it halfway; my expectations were very low, but I was yawning quite a bit (long day) and didn’t want Kate to think that it in any way reflected on her talk. Well, here’s a surprise: the coffee was great (since I’m a flavored coffee kind of gal, and this was straight up, that’s saying something). I quickly filled the cup up the rest of the way. Next came the treats: muffins and cookies. Someone said that this was the best offering of any book signing she’d ever attended. I second that.

Kate arrives and is fully present immediately. She first talks a little about who she is, and her job as a Chaplain. After that, she reads from her book “Marriage and other acts of Charity“. What is great about Kate is that she has excellent comic timing. If her day job (and/or her night job) doesn’t work out, she could always do stand up…she’s that funny.

Kate is also generous; she answers every question that  is asked of her with thought and feeling. Overall, Kate was warm, witty, and worth the wait. Her first book is “Here if You Need Me“. She has a third book coming out in the fall (probably November 2010) entitled “Beginner’s Grace“, and is at work on a fourth. I can’t wait.

Have any of you read Kate’s books?

(Okay, well, if you haven’t, you must).

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