I don’t normally read books like The Middle Place. Memoirs are something I don’t just shy away from, but run screaming in the other direction. What sold me on The Middle Place was the video I’ve posted below. Kelly Corrigan does a reading of an essay she did about women and friendships, and when tears were rolling down my cheeks by the end of the video, I knew I would read her book.

The middle place, according to the author, is “that sliver of time when parenthood and childhood overlap.” “And that’s what this whole thing is about. Calling home. Instinctively. Even when all the paperwork — a marriage license, a notarized deed, two birth certificates, and seven years of tax returns — clearly indicates you’re an adult, but all the same, there you are, clutching the phone and thanking God that you’re still somebody’s daughter.”

The Middle Place is about Kelly Corrigan growing up with the coolest dad ever (nicknamed Greenie, for reasons that are explained in the book and are laugh out loud funny), and finding out in her mid-30s that she has breast cancer. Seven months into her chemotherapy treatments, her family finds out that her dad has bladder cancer. The chapters alternate between stories Kelly has about growing up and her documenting her time with cancer.

Here’s the problem with memoirs: I can’t tell you anymore of the story! Or I will have retold the memoir, only less funny. So I’ll stop talking about the story and talk about other stuff.

Like Kelly’s honesty! Okay, maybe it’s because I haven’t had cancer, but I really focused on Kelly’s relationship with her husband and her dad, as opposed to her cancer and chemotherapy (though that was very touching, it just wasn’t the part that resonated with me). And there’s times that I would blush, thinking, “OMG, Kelly, NO! Don’t say that! You’re putting yourself in a very bad light! Which is to say, you’re coming across as human.” Like the time she got in a fight with her husband about how he would call his parents once a week on Saturdays. She comes off as rather bitchy, but the lovely part is she doesn’t defend herself, she doesn’t try to make it right. It’s just there, out on display.

So the whole reason I wanted to read this book RIGHT NOW was because the author was making an appearance at a local bookstore, and I totally wanted to see her, hoping she’d read the Transcending thing that is in the video above. (She didn’t.) When I got there, the place was absolutely buzzing. More so than bookstores do for other authors, and I think it was the memoir thing, because people felt a connection to her. Kelly was FABULOUS! She has a really cute voice and she’s really cute herself with this spikey haircut and glasses that have a dark frame (just like mine!). She read two chapters from her book, and her tone and inflection really added to the story. The audience was in love, as was I. After a Q&A, people went up to have their book signed, but I didn’t have a book because I’d checked mine out from the library, and as good as the memoir was, I knew I wouldn’t want to re-read it. So I waited around until the crowd dispersed and went up to say hi while she was signing books for the store. Here’s how it went:

Me: Hi!

Kelly Corrigan (KC): Hi!

Me: I don’t have a book for you to sign.

*crickets*

KC: (says nothing, just looks at me)

Me: (thinking to myself, GAH! WHY DID I SAY THAT! DO OVER! DO OVER!) Uh, *nervous laugh* I think I need to start over.

Author and bookstore workers are just staring at me.

Me: Umm, I just wanted to say that I don’t normally read memoirs…BUT I READ YOURS! because of that essay you wrote that’s now a video?

KC: Transcending?

Me: Yeah, that one. And I loved it and decided to read your book after watching that.

KC: (Smiles but says nothing).

Me: And I have a blog! And I’ll be posting about your appearance here! Here’s my card…

KC: Great! You can just set it down there.

Me: Okay, there ya go. Well, that’s all. I just wanted to tell you I really liked your book.

KC : Thank you.

Me: (I walk away, kicking myself and telling myself that those were the LAMEST THINGS I’VE EVER SAID)

Seriously. HOW LAME AM I?! I was really stoked to talk to her, but when I got up there, I just drew a blank. I’d normally email the author and gush some more and let her know my post is up, but I think I’ll be quiet and just try to forget that ever happened. And hope that she forgets me. And also hope that she forgot about me before she was able to relive my lameness with her husband and friends.

Is there medication for people like me? Because there should be.

Rating: 88 out of 100

Author’s website | Powell’s | Amazon

Other reviews:

The Written Word

Book Addiction

A Patchwork of Books

First, I should apologize for the delay in picking a winner. Because of the options I gave people to enter the giveaway, it meant I needed to enter everything in a spreadsheet. Around the time the contest ended, I moved my blog to self-hosted, which, as many of you know, has been a headache (though well worth it!). So I apologize, but I got this done as quick as I could.

Without further ado, I’ve got two winners for you! Drumroll please…..

Florinda from The 3 R’s: Reading, ‘Riting, and Randomness

Kate Burke from i like the way you burke it

Congratulations you two! I’ll be emailing you for your addresses. Be sure to let me know what you think!

I knew I was cutting it close this morning and not giving myself quite enough time to get to the bus. Maybe I could have saved 30 seconds if I’d worn regular shoes and not my wedge sandals. But it’s sunny! And warm! And I wanted to be cute for the first time in months by wearing cute shoes!

I think my first warning should have been when Dave asked if I was taking the bus today, and I said, “I’m going to try.” Some days you shouldn’t even try; you should just grab a book, crawl back into bed, and call it a day.

I leave the house in a rush to try to make it to the closest bus stop. The good thing is that if I leave too late and the bus has already come by, there’s another stop a little farther that the bus reaches about 10 minutes later. So while I was rushing to the bus, I knew if I’d already missed the bus I’d just start walking to the other bus stop.

As I reached the street that I cross to get to the bus stop, I see the bus lumbering towards me. I quickly hit the crosswalk flasher button, knowing the bus will stop, giving me enough time to cross the street and run to the bus stop. As I get to the other side of the street, the bus driver honks his horn and waves for me to get on right there. Awesome! I don’t have to run! I hurry to get on the bus, but as I step up, my sandal catches on the step into the bus and I face plant right in front of the driver.

Only two people were on the bus, so I jumped up, “I’m okay! I’m okay!” and rush to a seat, all the while the bus driver saying, “Oh! Are you okay? Are you sure?”

Ten minutes later, as the bus is waiting at a light to turn left where it will stop at the bus stop that I use if I miss the earlier stop, someone taps me on the shoulder and says the driver wants to talk to me. The bus is unusually quiet, but I go up and he explains I’ll need to fill out a form, as will the two witnesses. I repeat that I’m really okay, that my knee’s not even scraped, but “it’s procedure”. I blush, because that’s what I do, go back to my seat, and fill out the form.

After I catch the second bus that takes me to work, I’m sitting there reading, and a man behind me with two silver teeth in amongst his real teeth says to me, “Lady, your hair smells good!” Normally this would be creepy, but after the morning I’ve already had, I’m strangely flattered.

An article from the New York Times entitled Fiction Reading Increases for Adults really got me thinking. In particular, it was this paragraph:

Instead he attributed the increase in literary reading to community-based programs like the “Big Read,” Oprah Winfrey’s book club, the huge popularity of book series like “Harry Potter” and Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight,” as well as the individual efforts of teachers, librarians, parents and civic leaders to create “a buzz around literature that’s getting people to read more in whatever medium.”

“The individual efforts.” Yes, librarians, and I would even say booksellers, are able to reach more people than I am. I’m not a parent, so I can’t influence my own children. I can, however, buy books for my niece and nephew and my friend’s daughter. This will be especially influential as they get older and I can pick out books that almost everyone remembers reading when they were young: Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and the Boxcar Children are just a few that come to mind.

Who else can I influence, though? Certainly a well thought out gift in the form of a book to a non- or semi-reader would be a step in the right direction. You never know when a love of reading will spark. On the other hand, one of my hesitations in buying books as gifts is I hate to see a book languish at someone’s house, unopened, unread, and unloved.

I like to think that being in a book group helps inspire more reading. We talk about books other than the ones we pick to discuss, and I hope that members will seek out books that are especially loved and praised by various members. Anyone who expresses any kind of interest in reading is always welcome at my book group.

When I’m reading a fantastic book (such as The Help or The Hunger Games), I talk about that book to whoever will listen, readers and non-readers alike. Maybe, just maybe, my enthusiasm will rub off.

My blog could be considered a way to reach people, but it’s not the same as doing it in person. Besides, I’d bet that most people who read my blog enjoy reading anyway, if not to the same degree that I do.

All of this talk about how to influence people to read more makes me wish I worked in my local bookstore.

Speaking of local bookstores…guess what program my local bookstore has? Okay, well, it’s not my closest local bookstore, because I’m rather disappointed in my closest local bookstore after seeing what this other local bookstore does, but I still consider it a local bookstore since it’s only 40 minutes away. Local in California is relative.

ANYWAY, blabber mouth that I am, this local bookstore, Book Passage, has a program called the Aunt Lydia Book Club. Here’s how they describe it:

It began when a favorite customer gave her favorite aunt a special gift—one book, every month, for a year.

Rather than picking, packing,and shipping the books herself, she arranged for us to do it. We picked books she would like and sent them to her. That inspired our Aunt Lydia Personal Book Club.
1. We send a certificate telling the recipients about the books they’ll be receiving.
2. We’ll discuss with you what books the recipient likes. Then we watch for just the right new books.
4. We’ll charge you for the books when they are shipped.
5. All books will be shipped with complementary gift wrap and a gift card.
6. All books are fully returnable (but most “Aunt Lydias” are usually very satisfied with their gifts).

Here’s How it Works:

You can personalize your Aunt Lydia gift to fit the gift recipient. People who love to travel can be given the gift of a new work of travel literature every month or two months. Fiction lovers can be sent fiction, mystery lovers the latest thrillers, and history buffs the finest of new historical writing.

HOW COOL IS THAT?

Unfortunately, I can’t afford to do this for anyone right now, but I’m totally keeping this in mind for the future. A handpicked book sent as a gift once a month?! Talk about thoughtful.

So friends! What kinds of individual efforts do you do to encourage reading? Do you read to your kids? Buy books as gifts even if you know the book may languish on a shelf? Got any good ideas for me?

Every week I try to do an interesting round up of links I’ve found in the blogosphere, but switching my blog to self-hosting was more traumatizing than I thought it would be, so I let some things slide. But never fear! I’m back for another link round-up, even if it is rather late (it’s supposed to appear on Saturday).

Random Fun Stuff:

I found this t-shirt that I thought was so awesomely geekly, that the picture’s going to go in my sidebar for a while. Unfortunately, since I’m poor, I won’t be buying the t-shirt, but I’ll get plenty of joy out of looking at that picture.

Bookish People:

Swapna Krishna has already read 100 books. I think she’s hiding a superpower. That’s 100 books in less than 100 days. She’s read more than Jessica at this point, who read 409 books last year. A little friendly competition, ladies?

Bookish Stuff That Isn’t Reviews:

Holly from Book Binge did a fantastic post about what makes an author website great. AUTHORS, GO READ THIS POST RIGHT NOW. Thank you.

Biblibio had an interesting post about why we review books.

Lori from she treads softly featured Michelle Kerns, Book Examiner for examiner.com, who wrote an article entitled: The Top 20 Most Annoying Book Reviewer Cliches and How to Use Them All in One Meaningless Review. I’m now a fan of Michelle Kerns, too.

Apparently, March 20th was the 40th birthday of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Jen’s even doing her nursery in that theme. How cute is that?

Chris from Stuff as Dreams Are Made On has moved to a new domain…make sure you change your feed!

Amy found a local bookstore called The One Dollar Bookstore. I think I need to move to where she lives. Er, no, wait, that would mean hauling all the books I already have. Nevermind.

Marta is giving away two freshwater pearl bracelets to encourage people to participate in  Cheerios raising awareness for heart disease: “Now through January 31, 2010, for every code entered at www.cheerioshelpinghearts.com Cheerios will donate $1, up to $200,000, to raise awareness for heart disease and provide free cholesterol screenings for women in need, through its partnership with WomenHeart. Codes will be featured inside specially marked boxes of Cheerios cereal.”

Carrie talks about http://booksandmovies.today.com/2009/03/20/audiobooks/. I’ve heard audiobooks are great when you’re knitting/crocheting…hmm…

Eva from A Striped Armchair has reached 100,000 visitors! Yay!

Book Reviews

Beth reviewed Zig-Zagging…but that’s not why this review is cool. It’s cool because she got a personalized, autograph cartoon of Ziggy. I’m so stinkin’ jealous!

Wendy reviewed Everyone is Beautiful. If you like chick-lit, it sounds like you’ll like this book!

Best Line in a Book Review:

“I’m pretty sure this is the first book I have ever read that has made me want to punch a character who is deceased.” From Alyce at At Home With Books while reviewing The Only True Genius in the Family, which sounds fantastic.