Living Large In Our Little House

As you may recall, I made one New Year’s res­o­lu­tion when the cal­en­dar rolled over to 2010: I wanted to read 26 books this year, which aver­ages out to one every other week.

I’ve reminded myself again why I do not make New Year’s res­o­lu­tions. I stopped at five books when the weather warmed up. I only read what I had to read for work.

I was excited to jump back into my read­ing a few weeks ago with my book club’s pick of “The Senator’s Wife,” by Sue Miller. I’m not nor­mally a “Peyton Place” type reader, but I had skipped the two pre­vi­ous book club reads and instead went just for the con­ver­sa­tion and food.

This was a bad choice to get me back into read­ing. Continue Reading »

Congratulations, Roxanne! You’re the win­ner of Kathy Gruver’s, The Alternative Medicine Cabinet! Please email me at fivecoat@​ozarkmountains.​com by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 27 with your snail mail address to claim your prize! Thanks to every­one who entered the draw­ing. If you didn’t win, you can still get this book from Kathy’s web­site, it’s a good one to have on your shelf! 

Speaking of books, I’ve really fallen behind on my goal to read 26 books this year. I have a list of them to read for book club, as well as a stack of finds from the used book­store and another stack of books a friend here has given me.

I stalled at six books com­pleted. I know I will get more read just for book club, but I’m find­ing it harder to sit down with a book now that the weather has turned warmer.

Continue Reading »

When I return to my home city, the first place I usu­ally hit, even before see­ing fam­ily and friends, is a book­store. I think prob­a­bly the two things I miss most about being in a city, is being a part of a writ­ing com­mu­nity and the won­der of book­stores. Kansas City has a very large writ­ing com­mu­nity that seems to bond well.

There was always some­thing going on there, from activ­i­ties with the Kansas City Press Club and the Kansas City Writer’s Group to book launches, sign­ings and read­ings at The Writer’s Place. There was also always some writer to get together with over lunch or din­ner for a lit­tle one-on-one cama­raderie and to bounce ideas off.

As for book­stores, I love them all, the big ones with cof­fee shops (and free wi-fi) and the small independents.

Continue Reading »