Kitty Meow a/k/a Bookstore Kitty

Whew, what a week!  For my Facebook followers ( the place I got to for most of my updates because sometimes just a sentence will do) the disappearance of Kitty Meow a/k/a Bookstore Kitty was very stressful.  KM loves to visit the alley next door to have her wild cat moments and was doing the same when I accidently locked her out.  When I came in the next morning, I realized my mistake and it's been a hard, sad week.  But she's returned!  A kind neighbor saw my flyer and brought her back this morning a little lighter and crazy eyed but safe and sound and curled up with a good book.

What's new today?

It's all about the children's books. Two different ex-teacher brought in piles of barely touched Scholastic books. I'm stoked about the new Magic School Bus stack, new David Shannons, and nice selection of Thanksgiving/Christmas books. I also picked up a big stack of Magic Tree House, Horrible Harry and Harry Potter!

New and Notable Today

May and June are really busy times with everyone moving around so there is a stack of new books most every day. For just today a huge lot of French children's books. These are all in really great shape and are pre-k age. I'm also loving the antiquarian set of "A Thousand and One Nights" in slipcase. I'll have to get pictures posted of that one!

UPDATE: Yeah, that set didn't last long enought for me to get photos up. :)

Antiquarian books I can't read

This set arrived today and I wish I could read French. Le sigh.

Online store

Even with all the local love, sometimes it's hard to find a home for some books. So I put them on ebay. Did you know I had an ebay store? Click on this link to check out some of my online books!

Happy Reading!

New and Notable Today

Whew, what a busy day for bringing in books ~ everyone must have the "Spring Cleaning" need, which works out great for us!

Today's notable books:

1. The complete collection of Marilyn Ross' "Dark Shadows", all 32 volumes. Haven't decided on a price yet as there don't appear to be any complete collections on the market. Having fun doing the research . . .

2. A wonderful collection of Dover and Usborn activity books just in time for the Spring/Easter Break and the just-around-the-corner summer. Think stickers, mazes, road trip games, cut-and-assemble models, and the ever-popular (not really) "Kings & Queens of England to Color." Frankly shouldn't it be titled "Kings & Queens of England to Colour?"

Happy reading!
Elizabeth

*UPDATE: That was quick. The Dark Shadows set is gone.

New Orleans Street: A Walker's Guide to Neighborhood Architecture

Hoping everyone can join us on Saturday, March 19th at 1:00 for the signing of Stephanie Bruno's popular book, "New Orleans Streets: A Walker's Guide to Neighborhood Architecture."

Despite a customer's misstatement, Ms. Bruno's book is titled as above. It is not called "The Streetwalker's Guide." :)

What I read in January

The dark nights and slower weekends following the mad holiday season made for a great month of reading! Finished all these books in January:

The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip by George Saunders (Illustrated by Lane Smith). This is sort of a children's book, sort of an adult book. The story is simple: Gappers, little orange balls with dozens of eyes torment the goats of the three townspeople of Frip. A change and adapt or perish sort of tale. While the story was cute, the illustrations were wonderful.

Solar - Ian McEwan. Typical McEwan: anti heroic protagonist, flat ending. Last year, this book riled up the critics last year like few others. Is it supporting or disproving global climate change? Are we supposed to like or hate the main character? Did his penis freeze and fall off?! Seriously?! Frankly, as an avid reader of McEwan's works, I'm more interested in whether or not he hates women. Or if he just hates everyone. I'd stop reading him if it wasn't so hard to stay away from his powerful prose and compelling stories. But if McEwan keeps killing it with the bad endings, he going off my favorite author's list. Except for Atonement. That will always be on the top of the "Bests" list.

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. Only picked this up (okay, it was brought to me) by someone who was crazy about the book. Not a bad read, just juvenile and at times, terribly tedious. King writing as Bachman and Golding did the same idea much better. Nothing new here.

The Girl of His Dreams - Donna Leon. This was the BCB book club selection for January. Excellent international fiction, mystery story. Not exactly difficult reading but strong, funny characters and such a lovely Venice setting.

Nada by Carmen LaForte. Ever read a classic (in this case Modern Library Edition) and thought, why oh why is this a classic? What a dud. One of the most vapid and poorly written books I've read in ages. Somehow Laforte managed to make one the time after the Spanish Civil War so damn dull. Reading this was like peaking into a young girl's diary. A stupid, boring, girl's diary filled with such insightful comments such as "I had a feeling." Really? Do tell. Or, please don't. And Llosa gave the introduction to the book but "I had a feeling" he didn't actually read this book because Llosa states that Laforte hardly brings up the Spanish Civil War when actually there is a strong story line wherein one of the characters turns in another during the war and the conflict that now stands between the. So, yeah, did you read the book Llosa?

While Standing on One Foot (Puzzle Stories and Wisdom Tales from the Jewish Tradition) by Nina Jaffe and Steve Zeitlin. A brief introduction into some of the historical and contemporary Jewish thinkers set in a "What Would You Do" format. Definitely a book for someone unfamiliar with Jewish fables and stories.

The Torturer's Apprentice (Stories) by John Biguenet. Big mistake setting down to read these short stories at work. I could barely contain myself after "Fatherhood" and "Rose." Weepy booksellers freak people out. These short stories were just so beautiful and poignant they left me wanting more. That's usually my quibble with short stories. If it's good, just write a novel. Thankfully Biguent has (Oyster) and it's fabulous.

The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever. Finally some funny New Englanders! Not that they are humorous, oh, that wouldn't do at all, but funny in a lovingly, quirky way. One of the best lines comes when a young man has gone off to seek his fortune in New York and while watching the hustle and bustle of the city reflects: "with some skepticism, even with compassion, for although you have come here to make your fortune you think of the city as a last resort of those people who lack the fortitude and character necessary to endure the monotony of places like St. Botolphs.” He's right. I do lack the fortitude and character necessary to live in a small town ~ that's why I live in New Orleans!

The favorite for this month was The Wapshot Chronicle very closely followed by Biguenet stories. Looking forward to next month's reading, though Mardi Gras is sure to cut into the reading time.

Happy reading y'all!

Elizabeth

Author signing and discussion

Please join us on Thursday, January 13th at 6:00 here at the shop to read, discuss and celebrate Tara Jill Ciccarone's newest work "From Beyond The Pale - the lost child's guide to wayward lands."

Moving books around.

This week went somewhat like this: Five new bookcases?! Where to start?

So, let's move, the Art books to the back next to the Photography. However, that means we have to move Reference/Dictionaries/Reading over one case. Umm, now we have to move Travel/Travelogues over a case. Whew, but now we have another whole bookcase for Cookbooks!

Um, but then, there is bit of extra space in Cookbooks, so maybe we need to move Regional/New Orleans cookbooks with all the others. That looks great! Except, now the New Orleans/Regional section looks terrible so let's reorganize that.

Okay, I'm exhausted but we are done right? Um, no, I found two huge stacks of Memoir/Biographies so let's move the one bookcase full to the back and expand it into two sections. However, before we do that, let's make one small reinforcement to the bookcase. Aww, $%@#, we broke the bookcase. Pull all the books off, fix the bookcase and then put the books back on. Wait, who moved them out of order? Shouldn't take long to fix (6 hours).

But WAIT, because we haven't been tormented enough, let's expand all the books in the back room so they have more space. Yeah, sounds great . . . but it's going to have to wait until next week.

Thanksgiving Special

Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!

Opening regular business hours on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and offering a great post-Thanksgiving Special Sale:

15% off all our Putumayo World Music, including the super popular New Orleans Playground and New Orleans Christmas AND Basin Street Records including Kermit Ruffins fabulous "Happy Talk." This weekend only so get 'em while the getting is good!

What a Festival!

Thanks so much to everyone who showed up to make this year's New Orleans Po-Boy Preservation Festival our best one yet! I'm still cleaning up shreaded lettuce and there are napkins glued to my outside wall but I couldn't be more pleased. The merchants and residents of Oak Street fought so hard to keep this Festival on Oak where it was created and nurtured. There are clearly still issues with crowds and lines, especially the bottleneck created on the 3rd block due to the huge demand for Jacques-Imo's po-boys. But again, to each and every one of you who came to see all that Oak Street had to offer, THANK YOU!

Busy weekend for the bookstore

Happy to be having our first table event at this year's Healing Arts Festival this Saturday, November 13th, from 12-8 at Michauls Restaurant at 840 St. Charles Avenue. From the website:

At The Healing Arts Festival the public will not only have the chance to talk to opinion leaders, philosophers, therapists, artists, product suppliers in health, beauty, and fitness, but also to attend a wide range of fascinating and inspiring workshops and demonstrations taking place throughout the events on healing on all aspects, Art, environmental issues, philosophy and spirituality for adults and children. Our aim is to inspire the city, creating a community dedicated to sustainable, joyful,sharing, caring and creative living.

Then we roll right into our beloved New Orleans Po-boy Preservation Festival starting at 11 on Sunday, November 14th. Check out the food and drink map to see that this year's organizers finally figured out that Oak Street would be much easier to navigate if the food lines were on the side streets. People, this is THE place to be on Sunday. See ya there and don't drop too much shredded lettuce on my floor!

Healing Arts International Festival

Will be there with a table full of great books!


http://www.healingartsinternational.com/festivals/

Support for Lusher libraries

Lusher Parents check your Lusher Letter ~ You can now bring in your outgrown children's books (or your own gently read books) for credit that can be turned over Lusher libraries - Willow, Fortier and JCC campuses. The librarians are looking forward to shopping (Lusher Middle already has several new books on their shelves). A perfect way to help support your school library!

1st Annual Pelican Block Party

Come join us this Saturday, October 23 on Oak Street for the Humane Society of Louisiana's Inauguaral Oak Street Pelican Block Party from noon to 5 p.m.

Celebrating All Things Pelican!

This event will be a celebration of the wonders of our coastal wildlife, especially the brown pelican, our state bird, area businesses will be decorating their stores with pelican-themed ornaments. Participating businesses will also donate 10% of all proceeds on this day to the Humane Society of Louisiana. You can purchase a pelican t-shirt, visit our mega-grooming salon, or enter our raffle drawing for fabulous prizes. Oak Street businesses participating include:

Curry Corner, Skip and Whistle, Oak Cafe, Zotz’s Cafe, Blue Cyprus Books, Salon Alphonse, Lil Dave’s Alterations, Carollton Jewelry and Beatrice Shops, Oak, Jacques-Imo’s, Body Bistro Spa & Salon and Glue. You can buy specialty drinks and food at Oak, Oak Cafe, Zotz’s Cafe and Jacques Imo’s.

Only On Oak!

UPDATE: I posted this before I saw the news that the Humane Society of Louisiana had endorsed David Vitter for Senate. Apparently this is the National group and not our local Louisiana group and they have been scrambling for damage control on this one. So, despite the National groups stance, don't let that keep you from supporting our hardworking local organization.

Blue Cypress Books Book Club

Just a reminder the Blue Cypress Books Book Club is meeting this Sunday at 4 to read and discuss Chuck Palahniuk's "Survivor." There is still time to read and join us!

Come Get Your Craft On

We are very happy to host this great crafting class:

Beginner Embroidery Class

Saturday October 9th 2-4

Learn all the basics of embroidery! Start with easy decorative stitches, discuss supplies, other resources, how to make and use hot iron on transfers, project ideas, etc.

We will also have time in the second part of the class to do some hands on practice stitching together. Practice supplies will be provided to use in class.

Class is $12. Registration is limited to only 8 people!

If you would like to register or have further questions, please contact Laura Jane Yarbrough at candlesboat@ymail.com.

New New Orleans books.

It's possible went a little crazy on the book buying spree but I picked up FOUR BOXES of new New Orleans and regional books. Oh, boy. I'm sure I needed to have every book that Johnette Downing wrote, right? And maybe I didn't need both the gold version of River Road Recipes in addition to the white "original" RRR. But I definitely did need the copy of Art Blakley Cookin' and Jammin' by Sandy Warren as there is an author signing event at the Maple Leaf Bar next Sunday, the 10th from 3-5. There is something so endlessly fascinating about New Orleans and I'm glad to lose myself in the writings of people who clearly love this town.

The Awakening - Kate Chopin

So glad to have another satisfying book club today. The general consensus was Kate Chopin's book remains the go-to novel on woman's search for self hood, self-discovery and identity. Chopin is almost relentless in her study on the revolt against gender conformity and against the standardized social norms of her times. Personally, I simply enjoyed how Chopin is able to bring each and every one of her characters, main and secondary, to life in just a few sentences. Brilliant. The best part of book club was when a fellow member set the stage for "What If." What if Edna had spoken to the Doctor and he'd advised she take an European sabbatical? What if Robert hadn't denied Edna? What if Robert hadn't come back from Mexico? I was a disappointed to find my edition did not have Chopin's collection of vignettes including, At Fault, as her shorts add to a greater understanding of her body of work.