read: the handmade marketplace: how to sell your crafts locally, globally and online

The Handmade Marketplace: How To Sell Your Crafts Locally, Globally, And Online by Kari Chapin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

if you (like me) have ever considered getting serious about selling your garments or projects/crafts, this is the book for you....

it's written for crafters by crafters - easy to follow, understand, relate to and best of all very very encouraging...

the author and her panel of crafters cover everything from very basic business tips, marketing and branding including using social/online as well as print media, and selling - either online, in a store or a craft fair or all of the above...

i especially appreciate all of the tips and recalled experiences from the various crafters and creators... it's reassuring to know that these very successful people were once in your (my) unsure shoes. it's very thought provoking too - re: online sales and craft fairs... i really didn't put much deep thought into anything outside of pricing and selling (which scares me to death). the book made me consider a reasonable return policy as well as the methods of payment i should accept.

admittedly, i skipped the portion about podcasting because i doubt i'd ever use that as a marketing tool... additionally, i was a little lost during the press kit portion of the book as well... again, another tool i don't think i would use...

i absolutely LOVED this book and am so thankful to the author, kari chapin, for writing it!! since reading the book, i feel more confident about trying to sell my own garments online and at craft fairs...

thanks so much for coming by and reading...  :)

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p.s.  our youngest cat, rascal says this book just put him to sleep....  (owner note:  everything puts rascal to sleep except between the hours of 3am - 6am)

read it: the girl who fell beneath fairyland and led the revels there

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

i'm surprised at how lukewarm i am about this sequel to "the girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making" - especially since i really enjoyed the first book...

i didn't hate it. i was glad to see some familiar characters again...

however, it was odd... i wasn't nearly as compelled to read this book as i was the first... it felt like i was involved in a poorly planned scavenger hunt...

poor september seemingly goes from unresolved quest to unresolved quest with new character after new character... and is constantly unsure of herself... which seemed very out of character for her, considering the triumphant & bittersweet end of the first book...

and speaking of completely out of character - what's up with maud? clearly, she was much more interesting when she mirrored the marquess - i would have preferred her like that the entire time....

and this book was much darker than the first... and generally i like dark, one of my favorite books is gaiman's bittersweet and somberly humorous, graveyard book. but this journey was dark and sad and seemingly without redemption.... which is fine, i guess.... i was just baffled that we'd traveled this arduous journey with september for so long on a very sad road and then *poof* everything's hunky dory.... ???

i just think if you're gonna go the "empire strikes back" route... just go all the way with it... not sure why the story turned so fast at the end....

i did enjoy reading about the landscape and history of fairyland below... it is just as interesting if not more so than fairyland itself... the author is a master of describing that world and immersing/captivating the reader.

fwiw, i'm still looking forward to the next fairyland book. i hope it's better than both of it's predecessors. :)

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read: the girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

i'm pleasantly surprised at how much i enjoyed this book.  in many ways it reminds me of alice in wonderland, but i find september a much more likeable, relatable and stronger heroine than alice.

i was waiting to lose interest but the pace of the imaginative storytelling and the gradual unveiling of the extraordinary realms of fairyland kept me going.

my only complaint - i would've liked to see and learn more of september's companions, a-l and saturday. (i hope that isn't a spoiler)

i'm especially looking forward to introducing my daughter to this book who has a love for winged beasts, fairies and adventure.  slightly worried she might want to make the trek to fairyland through a wardrobe though...  ;)

originally, i picked up the book because i saw its sequel on the shelf at my local library. although that looked tempting, i decided to read in sequence.  hopefully, the sequel doesn't disappoint because the first in the series certainly did not.


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read: the oracles: my filipino grandparents in america

The Oracles: My Filipino Grandparents in America by Pati Navalta Poblete
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

although i enjoyed the book and related to the story (being a fil-am who also lived in a multi-generational home), i didn't love it. and i really wanted to love it...

but i've read other coming of age books with a similar immigrant theme, and i didn't find this one very original. there wasn't enough there - language, characters, dialogue, the pacing - to compel me to read or feel empathy for the narrator or her grandparents. sadly, i almost felt the urge to read it just to get it over with... :(

i'm always glad to read & support the works of fil-am authors. although this wasn't a hit for me, i think this would make a good intro into the genre for my daughter when she's a little older.

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read: stories: all new tales

Stories: All-New Tales by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

All in all, I thought this was a solid anthology of short scifi/fantasy stories. I was really looking for something to read that didn't require too much thought or commitment, but was still entertaining and compelling. This definitely fit the bill. I didn't LOVE every story, but there were definitely stories that I enjoyed and others that are sure to haunt me. Also, I always like being introduced to authors I haven't read yet.

My favorite stories:

The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains by Neil Gaiman - It's Gaiman. That is all.

The Stars are Falling by Joe R Lansdale - Loved the dark atmosphere of this story.

Weights and Measures by Jodi Picoult - I'm not a fan of Picoult's work, but I loved this story.

Catch and Release by Lawrence Block - By far the most unnerving story in the collection for me..... *shivers*

Samantha's Diary by Dianna Wynne Jones - Considering what time of year it is, this story was timely, funny and slightly frightening.

I highly recommend this book if you enjoy scifi/fantasy and are inbetween novels. :)





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"i was alone, this bird had flown..."

just recently, i read haruki murakami's norwegian wood... i thoroughly enjoyed it and hope to own a copy someday... another book i really hated to put down and dreaded the story coming to an end...

i just read that it's been banned in a new jersey school district. i guess i understand why it would be banned in a middle school... there's language and a lot of sexual situations and frankly the young women in the novel have questionable logic - to put it nicely... but i really think a high school senior could read this... i think it would be life affirming for someone moving onto a new chapter in life... the characters make for lively traveling companions...

nowegian wood has also been turned into a film... can't wait to see it:



despite all that, i did feel a lot of sympathy towards the characters, especially the main character, toru.... death figures prominently into the lives of all the characters pretty much... and this passage towards the end of the book resonated with me:

"...i felt guilty that i hadn't thought of kizuki right away, as if i had somehow abandoned him. back in my room, though, i came to think of it this way: two and a half years have gone by since it happpened, and kizuki is still seventeen years old. not that this means my memory of him has faded. the things that his death gave rise to are still there, bright and clear, inside me, some of them even clearer than when they were new. what i want to say is this: i'm going to turn twenty soon. Part of what kizuki and i shared when we were sixteen and seventeen has already vanished and no amount of crying is going to bring that back. i can't explain it any better than this but i think that you can probably understand what i felt and what i am trying to say in fact you are probably the only one in the world who can understand."

of course, my thoughts return to my best friend, andra brubaker, who passed away on this day in 1993.

and like toru's memories of kizuki, andra will always be 21 years old and waving to me from the back of a bus taking her home...

i'm not sure i'll write a post about andra next sept 10 because i think i'm emotionally too tired to remember this day... i was so easily irritable yesterday... and i couldn't help thinking about today and what happened so many years ago that it felt too immediate... and that chasm of loss opened up instantly...

i think i'd much rather remember her on her birthday and write about her on THAT day... we'll see next year i guess...

a few years ago, i got to see "wicked" here in chicago... i enjoyed reading the book and i'm fairly sure andra would have too.... when the actresses began to sing "for good", i couldn't help but think of her - she was a radiant glinda to my disfigured elphaba.... and like 90% of the audience, i bawled... the lyrics still break my heart...



"...i do believe i have been changed for the better, because i knew you, i have been changed for good..."

i miss you so very much, andra...

read it: The Girl with Glass Feet

i happened to see this cover of "the girl with glass feet" by ali shaw at the library and both the cover and the title had me hooked... i just had to read it... here's the author describing it and reading an excerpt:



first off, the language and tempo of the book is lovely, dreamy and hypnotic and details the eccentricity, atmosphere and corporeal qualities of the island and it's people... i really felt transported into the shadowy, chilly world of st. hauda's land... the entire time i read the book, i felt as if i was watching a brother quay film:





if the book ever gets made into a film, i hope they consult with the brothers quay... :)

however, halfway thru book, i got *stuck* (much like the quay film, institute benjamenta), it almost felt as if every character in the book started going thru some major angst... and the book felt TOO heavy... i'm glad to know what motives the characters had, the emotional baggage they were carrying around, but maybe not at the same time... and then, the ending finally came (you see it coming anyway...) but it almost came too fast... it felt completely rushed and i felt cheated out...

btw - asian character alert! although the character, henry fuwa, japanese scientist, kinda treads in familiar stereotype territory - recluse, wise, asexual, bumbling, etc...

it's definitely worth the read, at the very least for the albino flora/fauna and the quirky moth bulls alone... :)

thanks for coming by and reading. hope you're week is starting off well!

paloma's summer reading @chipublib

paloma finished reading her 10th chapter book for the chicago public library summer reading program, "book beats"! i'm SO proud! i can't believe this is her fourth year participating in the program. she reads voraciously throughout the year. i can't keep up with what she reads... kinda makes me nervous... but what i like about the summer reading program is that she actually has to give an oral book report/review on each book she's read. she's really very good at it too.

she started in 2007 back at the beverly branch... we read 25 picture books together. :) in 2009, she participated in the program by herself - reading 10 chapter books. :)

i spent most of my elementary school days in the chicago public libraries. it feels very rewarding that not only is she an avid reader, she spends a fair amount of time at some of the same branches i spent hours in as a child/teen.

this year is also porkchop's first year in the program. we have nine books left, until he's reached his 25! his book reports are also impressive - he remembers such minute details... :)

ennyhoo... here's her list of books if you're curious (i linked to some reviews i found)... :)

1) ninjas, pirahnas & galileo by greg leitch smith

2) odysseus in the serpent maze by jane yolen

3) shredderman 1 : secret identity by wendelin van draanen

4) shredderman 2: attack of the tagger by wendelin van draanen

5) sugar plum ballerinas #3: perfectly prima by whoopi goldberg

6) the sea dog by jenny dale

7) chocolate fever by r.k. smith

8) the unseen by z.k. snyder

9) wizard at work by v. velde

10) the higher power of lucky by susan patron

thanks for coming by and reading!

oh yeah, what are you reading right now? i just picked up the girl with glass feet by ali shaw today at the library. and i'm finishing up city of fallen angels by cassandra clare.

happy thursday!!