Odds and Book Ends features activities and events in the area related to libraries, books and authors. Submit your events at www.News-Herald.com/Calendar, and check back to The Book Club every week for upcoming events and activities at your local library.


April 2011 will mark the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. To commemorate this event in America’s past, local historian Harold George will present “Life of a Civil War Soldier 1861-1865,” at the next meeting of the Willoughby Historical Society at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 1 at the Willoughby Public Library, 30 Public Square. He will discuss what a soldier’s life was like, including the techniques used for recruiting volunteers into the Union Army, the uniforms and the everyday personal equipment of the typical soldier and camp life. Weaponry and care of the wounded and those killed also will be discussed.
This event is free and open to the public.


The program "Fun With Retro Toys" will be at 7 p.m. Dec. 2 at the Perry Public Library, 3753 Main St. Jason Williams opened his Madison store, Spaceman Floyd’s Cosmic Toys, in mid-August. The store specializes in vintage toys and comic books from the 1960s on. Having worked at Big Fun on Coventry in Cleveland Heights for more than nine years, Williams is conversant in collectibles, gags, novelties and retro toys. This free event is open to all, but registration is strongly suggested. Call 440-259-3300 or visit perrypubliclibrary.org.


The Friends of the Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library will hold a large book/AV sale at the Willowick Library, 263 E. 305th St. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 3, Dec. 4 and Dec. 6, and 1 to 5 p.m. Dec. 5. The Friends will raffle baskets filled with books and gifts. Tickets for the raffle are 50 cents each and go on sale Dec. 3. Call 440-943-4151 for more information.


Friends of Morley Library will host a one-day book sale from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 4. Free gift wrapping will be offered. The library is at 184 Phelps St. in Painesville.


Mentor Library's Monday Night Book Discussion takes place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. the first Monday of each month from October through June, with the next meeting being Dec. 6. For this month's selection, contact librarian Barb Hauer at 440-255-8811, ext. 210. The library provides books, and refreshments are courtesy of the Friends of the Library.


The Lake County Council on Aging and the Ohio Senior Health Insurance Information Program will offer several presentations throughout Lake County on the topic of “Understanding Medicare and Reviewing Your Options for Open Enrollment.”
Presentations will be

• 10 a.m. Nov. 30 at the Wickliffe Public Library
• 2 p.m. Dec. 1 at the Mentor Public Library
• 1 p.m. Dec. 2 at the Willoughby/Browning Center

Call the individual locations to register for this free presentation.


“The Art of Morton Smith,” a solo exhibit of realist paintings by the Beachwood artist, is at the Clara Fritzsche Library, Notre Dame College, 4545 College Road, South Euclid, through Dec. 17. Details: 216-373-5267.


--Cheryl Sadler
CSadler@News-Herald.com

Author Kelly Jones was back on her home turf for the Thanksgiving weekend.
The Mentor native who now calls Texas home spent a few hours Saturday afternoon at Borders in Mentor doing one of her favorite things: connecting with her readers.
"The responsibility is so huge for a children's author," she said.
She compared it to asking parents, "Would you please leave me alone with your child?"
And the trained ophthalmology surgical nurse has spent the last 11 years earning the trust of families.
Her Adventure Tree series is geared toward readers up to about age 8, and her Nora books target a bit older reader, up to about age 13 or so.
But for Jones, there's aways got to be a message.
"My goal to is serve these kids," she said.
Nora, the title character of "Notorious Nora," is a bit like Jones herself. 
Jones began writing when, as a mom, she thought "wouldn't it be nice if books were encouraging" to youngsters.
It took a lot of hard work and perseverance - common themes in Jones' work - to turn that thought into a reality.
Nora is about "acceptance and perseverance," she said. "It's about believing in yourself and in what's right."
These days she spends two days a week working in an eye doctor's office, and the rest of the time working on her writing. She's a frequent speaker in schools and with Newspaper in Education groups.
It's all part of her overall plan.
"I try to keep my life in balance," she said.

Click here to listen to Jones talk about her work. Learn more about Jones and her works at www.theadventuretree.com.
- Tricia Ambrose

 Mentor native Kelly Jones will be at Borders Books & Music in Mentor from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Stop by to learn more about her Adventure Tree series and "Notorious Nora."
Jones' books are geared toward middle readers.

“I wanted to write books that every child could identify with, no matter what nationality, religion or economic background. My hopes for my books are to encourage kids to be kind to one another without being too ‘preachy,’” she says.

According to her release: The Adventure Tree series is about two siblings that encounter a very special tree that thrusts them into exciting adventures that resonate with everyday issues such as, being kind and not judgmental, to being proud of who you are and your talents.

Notorious Nora, a young adult novel, tells the story of a pre-teen girl, who with her friends solve the mystery of the stolen championship trophy. While an entertaining who-dun-it, Notorious Nora also promotes values we all wish to engender in our children: loyalty, honesty and perseverance.

Sure sounds like the kinds of things we all want to instill in our children.
And what a great way to support a local author.

- Tricia Ambrose

Odds and Book Ends features activities and events in the area related to libraries, books and authors. Submit your events at www.News-Herald.com/Calendar, and check back to The Book Club every week for upcoming events and activities at your local library.


The "Book and Brush Club" will meet at 7 p.m. Nov. 24 at Mentor Public Library, 8215 Mentor Ave., to discuss "The Raphael Affair" by Ian Pears. For more information on how to explore the fine arts through literature, contact librarian Barb Hauer at 440-255-8811, ext. 210.


A book sale will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 27 at Burton Public Library, 14588 W. Park St. Books, magazines, vintage materials, maps, records, CDs, tapes, videos and puzzles are available. Enter the sale through the white door located at the back of the building.


Join Mentor Library librarian Steve Haas at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 29, at Panera Bread, 9587 Mentor Ave., Mentor, for the "Twenty Something Readers." This month's selection will be "Under and Alone" by William Queen. Light refreshments will be provided. Stop by the library to get a copy of the book. For more information, call Steve Haas at 440-255-8811.


The Mentor-on-the-Lake and the Headlands branches of the Mentor Public Library will be drop-off points for holiday greetings to the troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Letters and packs of chewing gum will be collected at both branches from Nov. 2 through Nov. 30. The items will be sent and shared by the troops for the holiday season. For details call either branch, at 440-257-2512 or 440-257-2000.


Join in a lively discussion of bestsellers, classics and more with Monday Night Book Discussion at Mentor Public Library's Main Branch. This group meets the first Monday of each month from October through June from 6:30 to 8 p.m. For the month's selection, contact Barb Hauer at 440-255-8811, ext. 210. The library provides books, and refreshments are courtesy of the Friends of the Library. 


“The Art of Morton Smith,” a solo exhibit of realist paintings by the Beachwood artist, is at the Clara Fritzsche Library, Notre Dame College, 4545 College Road, South Euclid, through Dec. 17. Details: 216-373-5267.


--Cheryl Sadler
CSadler@News-Herald.com

This is my final day at The News-Herald and, consequently, this is my last post for the Book Blog. (I could make some jokes about going to South Beach, but Decision parodies have not been funny since Steve Carell took his talents to Outback Steak House.)

The blog is bigger than one person and it will thrive without me. (It will, at very least, be more coherent.)

But I did want to have a final game with my friends and coworkers before I leave. Each person has picked one literary quote they would like as their epitaph. (See, it’s a theme... death... departure... Steve Carell.)

Now, for what everyone wanted on their tombstones:

Jacob Lammers
The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away. I wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart.
-William Golding

Cassandra Shofar
She was a genius of sadness, immersing herself in it, separating its numerous strands, appreciating its subtle nuances. She was a prism through which sadness could be divided into its infinite spectrum.
-Jonathan Safran Foer

Michael Butz
We accept the love we think we deserve.
-Stephen Chbosky

Cheryl Sadler
Accept what people offer. Drink their milkshakes. Take their love.
-Wally Lamb
(How could I not pair those two quotes?)

Tracey Read
Please accept my resignation. I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.
-Groucho Marx

John Bertosa
I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
-J.R. Tolkien

Dave Jones
Mind, mind, mind:
Itself a capable vibration
Thrumming from here to there
In the cloven brainflesh
Contained in its helmet of bone—
Like an electronic boxful
Of channels and filaments
Bundled inside its case,
A little musical robot--
-Robert Pinsky “Last Robot Song

Jason Lea
Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it.
-Jules Renard

Danielle Capriato
After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.
-J.K. Rowling

Sandy Klepach
It is Sandy, he said. For there she was.
-Virginia Woolf, just a tad adjusted

Jamie Ward
An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.
-Ernest Hemingway

-Jason Lea, JasonMarkLea@yahoo.com

P.S. Thank you for reading. Writers do not matter without readers, but readers will always matter.

TODAYShow.com contributor Laura T. Coffey posted a blog entry about the subversiveness of children's books. She picked nine books that she said encourages children to "stick it to the man," including "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak, "Curious George" by H.A. Rey and "The Lorax" and "Yertle the Turtle" by Dr Seuss.

Do you agree with her assessment? What books got you thinking for yourself when you were a kid?


-- Cheryl Sadler
CSadler@News-Herald.com

ITunes offers a podcast called "iTunes: Meet the Author", which unfortunately is infrequently updated. I've subscribed to the feed for a while but had forgotten about it because it had been so long since a new item downloaded into my iTunes.

The episode released last week was evidence that iTunes should do more of these (though Apple's hands have been full with other important things).

Associated Press

Guest moderator Whoopi Goldberg interviewed actor Portia de Rossi about her memoir, "Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain", which was published by Atria and released Nov. 2. Last week, the book was third on Publisher's Weekly's hard-cover nonfiction best-sellers list, 13th on USA TODAY's best-sellers list, fourth on the Wall Street Journal's nonfiction best-sellers. After hearing de Rossi talk with Goldberg for an hour, it's not surprising to see the book's success.

In the podcast, de Rossi opens up about the difficulty she had with divorcing her husband (who left her for her sister-in-law), coming to terms with her sexuality, and learning to love her body in the Hollywood world of size zeros. She tells Goldberg that at one point she weighed 82 pounds, and she spent almost all of her time working out to keep control of her weight. De Rossi has an amazing, inspirational story, and she should be viewed as a role model to individuals hoping to succeed in Hollywood, as well as those struggling through their own identity issues.


I generally like reading memoirs by people I admire or respect, so I am looking forward to picking up de Rossi's.


-- Cheryl Sadler
CSadler@News-Herald.com

The New York Times announced last week that it will rank the best selling e-books on a separate list, beginning in early 2011.

“To give the fullest and most accurate possible snapshot of what books are being read at a given moment you have to include as many different formats as possible, and e-books have really grown, there’s no question about it,” said Sam Tanenhaus, editor of the Book Review. The new listings, he added, give readers “the fullest picture we can give them about how a book is doing week to week.”

This announcement makes so much sense that it's almost strange it took so long for the Times to begin doing this.

E-books and digital media certainly are the way of the future, but I don't think they're going to push aside traditional print media anytime soon. Books, at least, will continue to be printed on paper for a long, long time. But the popularity of e-readers will increase, and the industry should definitely take into account the titles that are purchased through download versus through traditional means. I'm looking forward to seeing the difference in where titles rank on the best seller and e-best seller lists.


-- Cheryl Sadler
CSadler@News-Herald.com

Three quick points for your Tuesday:

1. The Reviewerspeak Awards have returned!

Let it not be said that Michelle Kerns’s nitpickery has not produced tangible good. She seems to have squashed New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani’s predilection for the word “limn.”

Also, Kerns explains her hiatus:

“Hell, I was sick unto death of the whole thing ... And I realized that reading all of those reviews each month prevented me from occasionally doing some really quality things with my time. Like eating. And sleeping.”

2. A Canadian man has been arrested for reading while driving.

The article doesn’t address the important question. What was he reading?

3. HTMLGiant proclaims Margaret Atwood a Twitter Champion. (What does that make Colson Whitehead, a Twitter Grandmaster?)

-Jason Lea, JLea@News-Herald.com

Odds and Book Ends features activities and events in the area related to libraries, books and authors. Submit your events at www.News-Herald.com/Calendar, and check back to The Book Club every week for upcoming events and activities at your local library.


Perry Public Library is having its annual fall children's used book sale Nov. 15 through Nov. 20. The sale will feature children's books, teen books, videos, music CDs, magazines and games, all at bargain prices. The sale is sponsored by the Friends of Perry Public Library, and all proceeds benefit the library's children's department programs.


Join a discussion on organ donation from 7 to 8 p.m. Nov. 15 at the Euclid Public Library, 631 East 222nd St., Euclid. The event is free and open to all. For information, call Beth Gerland at 440-796-0884 or e-mail bethgerland@yahoo.com


Relax in the morning with a continental breakfast and a mix of short stories, poetry and essays. Join Librarian Sarah O. at the Mentor Public Library Lake Branch at 9:45 a.m. Nov. 16 for "Books with Breakfast." No registration is required for this free program.


The Lake County Council on Aging and the Ohio Senior Health Insurance Information Program will offer several presentations throughout Lake County on the topic of “Understanding Medicare and Reviewing Your Options for Open Enrollment.”
Presentations will be

• 11 a.m. Nov. 15 at the Painesville Senior Center
• 4 p.m. Nov. 15 at the Madison Public Library
• 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Nov. 17 at the Council on Aging
• 10 a.m. Nov. 18 at the Fairport Senior Center
• 10 a.m. Nov. 30 at the Wickliffe Public Library
• 2 p.m. Dec. 1 at the Mentor Public Library
• 1 p.m. Dec. 2 at the Willoughby/Browning Center

Call the individual locations to register for this free presentation.


The Mentor-on-the-Lake and the Headlands branches of the Mentor Public Library will be drop-off points for holiday greetings to the troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Letters and packs of chewing gum will be collected at both branches from Nov. 2 through Nov. 30. The items will be sent and shared by the troops for the holiday season. For details call either branch, at 440-257-2512 or 440-257-2000.


“The Art of Morton Smith,” a solo exhibit of realist paintings by the Beachwood artist, is at the Clara Fritzsche Library, Notre Dame College, 4545 College Road, South Euclid, through Dec. 17. Details: 216-373-5267.


The "Book and Brush Club" will meet at 7 p.m. Nov. 24 at Mentor Public Library, 8215 Mentor Ave., to discuss "The Raphael Affair" by Ian Pears. For more information on how to explore the fine arts through literature, contact librarian Barb Hauer at 440-255-8811, ext. 210.


Join Mentor Library librarian Steve Haas at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 29, at Panera Bread, 9587 Mentor Ave., Mentor, for the "Twenty Something Readers." This month's selection will be "Under and Alone" by William Queen. Light refreshments will be provided. Stop by the library to get a copy of the book. For more information, call Steve Haas at 440-255-8811.


--Cheryl Sadler
CSadler@News-Herald.com

The older I get the more aware I become of just how fragile life is and how blessed I have been in mine.
My choice of reading materials usually confirms this belief.
Marianne Leone's memoir of her son's all-too-brief life "Knowing Jesse" is much more than a mother's tale of a personal tragedy.
It is a powerful depiction of the ties that bind, of the human spirit's ability to overcome adversity and of the power that one voice can have.
Leone's name may be familiar to fans of "The Sopranos." She played Christopher's mother on the HBO series and has been in a number of films.
In "Knowing Jesse" she allows us to meet the son who died suddenly at 17 after a lifetime of struggles with seizures, the inability to speak or move and severe cerebral palsy. We meet him moments after his premature birth and are with the family as they cope with a maze of medical bureaucracy and other unimaginable challenges.
His death was determined to be "sudden unexplained death in epilepsy," but Leone finds that so baffling she suggests "fickle finger of fate."
Much of Jesse's life could be ascribed to that. That fickle finger of fate that has one child born free of complications and another battling for years. How lucky I have been in this regard.
I cannot imagine the struggles of parenting a child facing the kind of issues Jesse faced. The struggles of raising healthy children have me confused enough.
But what is clear from Leone's memoir is that this child enriched her life in ways she hadn't dreamed, that this child evoked a depth of love that she was unaware existed, that this child made his mark on the world and made his parents prouder that they imagined they could be. In that sense her parenting experience is the universal one.

I've got some sad news for area book lovers. Joseph-Beth Booksellers at Legacy Village has announced that it will be closing. “We have definitely had our struggles in the Cleveland market,” said Neil Van Uum the owner of
The Joseph-Beth Group in a statement. “Having grown up in Cleveland I still feel as if this is my home. It breaks my heart to have to close the Legacy Village store. We love our presence at the Cleveland Clinic
and I hope to regroup and possibly establish a position in the bookselling marketplace again in Cleveland someday,” he added.

The last author signing event appears to be the Adam Richman event at 7 p.m. Nov. 16.

- Tricia Ambrose

1. Want to know what Marilyn Monroe read? How about George W. Bush?

Fragments assembles a bunch of hand-written Monroe miscellanea and offers some interesting peeks into the woman’s life. For example, it lists the books on her shelf:

The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett
Paris Blues by Harold Flender
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Fall by Albert Camus
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Once There Was a War by John Steinbeck

Wait a minute. She looked like that, and she read Steinbeck? Other women never stood a chance.

Meanwhile, Carolyn Kellogg at The L.A. Times was good enough to list all of the books that Bush the Younger mentions in his autobiography, Decision Points.

In addition to The Bible and 14 Lincoln biographies, Bush says that he also had an aide read him Brave New World when he was thinking about stem cell research.

Yes, that’s right, he had it read to him.

2. Amazon is increasing the percentage of royalties that periodicals get when their e-quivalents are sold at the Kindle Store.

It’s not an insubstantial change either. Most periodicals will see their cut leap from about 30 percent to 70 percent of the sale value.

Amazon is doing this in hopes that newspapers and magazines will add their product to the Kindle Store.

And, in turn, people who buy e-readers other than Kindle will still use the store to buy periodicals.

3. Speaking of Amazon, they just removed a book entitled The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure from its Kindle Store.

And, yes, that book's subject matter is exactly what it sounds like.

The Guardian tells the entire story:

The blurb for Greaves’s book argued – through a blizzard of spelling errors – that it was the author’s “attempt to make pedophile situations safer for those juveniles that find themselves involved in them, by establishing certain rules for these adults to follow” and “appealing to the better nature of pedosexuals, with hope that their doing so will result in less hatred and perhaps lighter sentences should they ever be caught”...

In a statement, Amazon said it “believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable”, adding: “Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts, however, we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions.” However, the offending Greaves ebook has now been taken down from the site.

5. Speaking of pedophiles, Dan Friedman raises an excellent point about Edward Cullen.

My years as a crime reporter cause me to chart the streets of Northeast Ohio in an unusual manner.

I don’t remember streets by their name, houses by address or businesses by their trade. Instead, I remember them by calamity.

A car ride with me (or a coroner, police officer or fireman— frankly anyone who works in the morbidity and mortality trade) often becomes a clip show of the macabre.

“Oh, that’s where the guy shot his wife and, then, himself.”

“When the train derailed, this whole neighborhood was evacuated for two days.”

“…is where they found his body, slumped in a car. They’re still looking for the killer.”

Reading The Last Days of Cleveland is akin to taking a similar ride with author John Stark Bellamy II, except the car is a time machine that covers Cleveland’s entire history and Bellamy is a better tour guide than me.

Bellamy’s a veteran of the gruesome. Last Days is his sixth volume of crime and disaster in Cleveland. Having already written about torso slayers and Standard Oil explosions, Bellamy is free to explore stories that even dedicated amateur historians may not know.

Bellamy, a librarian by day, scours old newspapers for stories and weaves them into tales of suicidal children, cop killers, infanticide and stick-up kids. His stories stretch from Ashtabula to Newburgh Heights, Bedford to Wickliffe. They involve 19-year-old prostitutes and the premier families of industrial Cleveland. He tells a story of an apocalyptic cult that I had never heard of, even though I grew up less than a mile from where it happened.

Bellamy does not merely recount twice-told stories. He writes like newspapermen used to write before journalists were trained to write formulaic, AP-style abominations. He writes as if his supper depended on the evening’s headline. He is not afraid to sprinkle words like “mephitic” or “conflagration” into a short biography of legendary firefighter George Wallace.

He tells the story of an Ashtabula family in which one sibling (Jeannette McAdams) gradually murdered all of her siblings and mother. He writes:

It is at precisely this juncture of the narrative that the intelligent reader will stop and say to herself: “How much of this story could possibly be true? Is it probably—or even possible—that no one, whether in the McAdams family or outside it, tumbled to the suspicious pattern and circumstances of the family deaths?” Well—the facts are these. There was a McAdams family and they all died at the times stated … and you can still find all of the McAdams graves standing in the Edgewood Cemetery. But as for the rest of the story … well, here it is, and you can believe it or not…

If Bellamy has a flaw, it emerges when he indulges in stories of history for history’s sake. It’s not that his eulogy for S.J. Kelly (in the chapter “Cleveland’s Greatest Historian) is poorly written; but it’s not what the reader came to see. After more than 200 pages of all sorts of horrors, you’re subjected to an enthusiastic, but distracting, pontification about a Plain Dealer columnist. There’s also an amusing but unnecessary coda in which Bellamy talks about how he and a neighborhood boy played with explosives. (It reads like a sample chapter for Bellamy’s upcoming autobiography Wasted on the Young and seems out of place with these other stories.)

Forgive me for sounding morbid, but readers don’t pick books that are sub-titled “more true tales of crime and disaster from Cleveland’s past” for harmless reminiscences.

But when Bellamy sticks to the subject, he is unimpeachable. And it’s not just his knowledge. More than anything it his enthusiasm and affection for his subjects (and their city) that makes Bellamy so compelling.

-Jason Lea, JLea@News-Herald.com

Odds and Book Ends features activities and events in the area related to libraries, books and authors. Submit your events at www.News-Herald.com/Calendar, and check back to The Book Club every week for upcoming events and activities at your local library.


The Mentor Multiple Sclerosis Support Group will meet at 10:30 a.m. at Border's Books, Music, Movies and Cafe, 9565 Mentor Ave., Mentor. The group is open to anyone who either has or is affected by multiple sclerosis. Details: kathysoke@aol.com.


Join Linda Bliss, R.N., of Kemper House, as she returns to Mentor Public Library to discuss managing conflicts in families dealing with Alzheimer’s disease. This free event will be at at 1 p.m. Nov. 9 in the lower level Garfield Room of the Main Branch, 8215 Mentor Ave. Call 440-255-8811 to register, or contact Grace Sims for more details at grace.sims@mentorpl.org.


Monique Noonan and Hillary Cavotta with Quilts & Sew Forth of Mentor will be at Perry Public Library from 7 to 8:45 p.m. Nov. 9 teaching participants to assemble Christmas angels from a kit. Participants must pay a $10 kit fee at the time of workshop. No experience is necessary, and all fabric and embellishment materials are provided. Please bring your own hand sewing kit. In addition, you can enjoy a quilt trunk show. Details: http://perrypubliclibrary.org, or Susan Traub at straub@perry.lib.oh.us, 440-259-3300.


The Fall Book Sale sponsored by the West Geauga Friends of the Library begins Nov. 10 with the Members’ Preview from 4 to 6 p.m., followed by the open public sale from 6:30 to 8:30. Hours are 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Nov. 11, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Nov. 12, and 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Nov. 13, which is $3 Bag Day. A variety of books and media will be available. Books are priced at 25 cents for adult and children’s pocket-sized paperbacks, 50 cents for children’s hard backed books, and $1 for adult hardbacks and oversized paperbacks. Special books, such as collector books, first editions and recent best sellers are priced individually. Funds raised from the book sale benefit the on-going adult and children’s’ programs at the Geauga West Library. Geauga West Library is located at 13455 Chillicothe Road. (More details on books available found here.)


Lake Health is hosting a book launch and signing for music therapists Susan E. Mandel, Ph.D., MT-BC, and Suzanne Hanser, Ed.D., MT-BC, authors of the new book “Manage Your Stress and Pain Through Music” from 6 to 8 p.m. Nov. 16 at TriPoint Medical Center’s Physician Pavilion, 7590 Auburn Road, Concord Township. “Manage Your Stress and Pain Through Music” is designed to help you heal your body, mind and spirit using the profound power found only in music. The book will help you learn to use music to manage your stress and reduce your physical suffering, whether it is because of the everyday stresses of life or emotional and physical trauma. As part of the book launch event, Mandel and Hanser will present a music therapy demonstration and share music therapy strategies learned from many years of research, clinical practice and personal experience. The event also will feature world-renowned composer Daniel Kobialka, who will perform musical selections from the CD that accompanies the book. Mandel and Hanser will autograph copies of their book, which will be available for purchase at the event. Light refreshments and hors d’oeuvres will be served. The event is free but space is limited. Call Lake Health’s Best of Health line at 440-953-6000 or 800-454-9800 to register by Nov. 11.


The Friends of Geneva Library will host a used book sale from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 12 and Nov. 13 in the meeting room at the Geneva Public Library, 860 Sherman St. Money raised through the sale will be used to benefit the Geneva Library. A selection of good condition hard cover and paperback books will be available, as well as DVDs, VHS tapes, magazines and more. Hardcover book pricing starts at 30 cents and paperbacks at 20 cents. Also available for $2 will be the new Geneva Library book bags. For details, call the library at 440-466-4521.


Meet actors from the Willoughby Fine Arts Association's production of "Annie" at the Eastlake Library. At 4 p.m. Nov. 13, cast members will present a half-hour preview and then answer questions. Audience members will have a chance to win four seats for the show. For information about the event or to register, call the library at 440-942-7880, ext. 105. The Fine Arts Association play, part of the Family Theatre Series, runs from Nov. 26 to Dec. 19.


The next featured speaker in the Distinguished Speaker Series sponsored by the Geauga County Library Foundation will be Cleveland television personality “Big Chuck” Schodowski. The event will take place at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 13 at Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin Education Center, 13000 Auburn Road in Munson Township. Schodowski will reminisce about his 47 years on Cleveland TV and his characters “Ben Crazy,” “Certain Ethnic Guy” and others. He also will sign and sell his book “Big Chuck! My Favorite Stories from 47 years on Cleveland TV.”


The "Book Club for Men" will meet at the Mentor Public Library Main Branch at 7 p.m. Nov. 15 to discuss "Not a Good Day to Die" by Sean Naylor. Stop by the library to get a copy of the book, or call librarian Steve Haas at 440-255-8811.


The Lake County Council on Aging and the Ohio Senior Health Insurance Information Program will offer several presentations throughout Lake County on the topic of “Understanding Medicare and Reviewing Your Options for Open Enrollment.”
Presentations will be

• noon Nov. 9 at the Mentor Senior Center
• noon Nov. 12 at the Eastlake Senior Center
• 11 a.m. Nov. 15 at the Painesville Senior Center
• 4 p.m. Nov. 15 at the Madison Public Library
• 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Nov. 17 at the Council on Aging
• 10 a.m. Nov. 18 at the Fairport Senior Center
• 10 a.m. Nov. 30 at the Wickliffe Public Library
• 2 p.m. Dec. 1 at the Mentor Public Library
• 1 p.m. Dec. 2 at the Willoughby/Browning Center

Call the individual locations to register for this free presentation.


The Mentor-on-the-Lake and the Headlands branches of the Mentor Public Library will be drop-off points for holiday greetings to the troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Letters and packs of chewing gum will be collected at both branches through Nov. 30. The items will be sent and shared by the troops for the holiday season. For details call either branch, at 440-257-2512 or 440-257-2000.


“The Art of Morton Smith,” a solo exhibit of realist paintings by the Beachwood artist, is at the Clara Fritzsche Library, Notre Dame College, 4545 College Road, South Euclid, through Dec. 17. Details: 216-373-5267.



--Cheryl Sadler
CSadler@News-Herald.com

My admiration for Stewart O'Nan continues to grow.

Our relationship got off to a rocky start, but I can't tell you how glad I am to have kept at it.

My most recent encounter  was with "A Prayer for the Dying." Again O'Nan tackles some heady issues. The story itself enthralls and gets you thinking; his usage of language is masterful.
At the center of Dying is Jacob Hansen, smalltown Wisconsin sheriff just after the Civil War. A plague is descending on the town; what should be done?
Hansen grapples with the decision to cordon off the town (but should he get his wife out first?) Hansen, who doubles as the undertaker, is advised to not drain the deceased of blood (but can he send his friends and neighbors on without doing his best by them?)
And what about the religious group on the edge of town, have they been right all along?
"Sin is in the heart. Now you would flee what you must do, when for so long you've lorded it over others. Your goodness, your generosity. You fear that, in this, all your protestations of faith will come to nothing."

Any other O'Nan fans out there? Which of his works should I pick up next?

A shout out to my co-worker Janet Podolak who loaned me "March" by Geraldine Brooks. This story of the father absent in Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women" was recently discussed by her book club. As a huge fan of Little Women, I'm anxious to delve into this story and see how my view stacks up to that of her fellow clubbers.

- Tricia Ambrose

Laura Miller of Salon wrote a criticism National Novel Writing Month.

(Intrusive exposition: National Novel Writing Month is when tens of thousands of would-be authors plow through thousands of words a day in an attempt to create the first draft of a novel.)

Miller wrote that writers should not be celebrated with events such as NaNoWriMo. After all, we will always have too many writers. What we lack, however, are readers.

Miller writes:

So I’m not worried about all the books that won’t get written if a hundred thousand people with a nagging but unfulfilled ambition to Be a Writer lack the necessary motivation to get the job done. I see no reason to cheer them on. Writers are, in fact, hellishly persistent; they will go on writing despite overwhelming evidence of public indifference and (in many cases) of their own lack of ability or anything especially interesting to say. Writers have a reputation for being tormented by their lot, probably because they’re always moaning so loudly about how hard it is, but it’s the readers who are fragile, a truly endangered species. They don’t make a big stink about how underappreciated they are; like Tinkerbell or any other disbelieved-in fairy, they just fade away.

Rather than squandering our applause on writers -- who, let’s face, will keep on pounding the keyboards whether we support them or not -- why not direct more attention, more pep talks, more nonprofit booster groups, more benefit galas and more huzzahs to readers? Why not celebrate them more heartily? They are the bedrock on which any literary culture must be built. After all, there’s not much glory in finally writing that novel if it turns out there’s no one left to read it.

To be clear, Miller does not disparage all authors or even all unpublished authors. She insults authors who
a. Do not revise their material after writing their rushed first draft.
b. Do not read, just write.
c. Lack anything useful to say.

These are not new criticisms. Stephen King once said, “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have to write,” and Hemingway (anecdotally) claimed, “The first draft of everything is pretty much (expletive deleted.)”

Overall, I agree with Miller, but her detractors also make some worthwhile points.

Serai1 replies:

While you’re at it, why don’t you write a column on what a huge waste of time it is to collect stamps? Or crochet doilies? Or bone up on football stats? How about making birdhouses; THERE’S a(n expletive deleted) waste of time for you. And let’s not forget scrapbooking. Damn, think of the millions of man hours (or woman hours) wasted on pasting ribbons and gewgaws and pictures in cutesy books. It’s disgusting!

Why is it that the ONLY hobby that invariably attracts snotty people with their sneering and condescension is writing? No other hobby gets this kind of acid (expletive deleted) attitude dumped on it.

Metasailor says:

It’s easy to sit on the sidelines and say, “The world has too many bad novels.” So? What’s far sadder is, there are too few people trying new things that really stretch their minds.

Softdog notes Miller’s hypocrisy, as she is a writer:

Yes, the reading public has lost their sense of propriety. Instead of, say, buying your book and dutifully consuming it and respecting your wit, they spend some of their time writing for themselves. For an entire month!

How self-centered. Unlike you, who is getting paid to write about yourself and your opinions. You aren’t a narcissist at all, because people are supposed to read you.

There’s more bile in the comments — some thoughtful, some not.

So, as to avoid overloading on vitriol, here’s a funny video of books falling down.



-Jason Lea, JLea@News-Herald.com

Sometimes it's shocking what you'll find at the library.

Librarians should regularly weed books from the collection -- removing titles that are outdated, irrelevant or in poor condition. However, sometimes books get passed over, or shelves of the library are missed in the weeding process.

Enter Awful Library Books, a collection of outdated, odd and strangely illustrated books still sitting on public library shelves. Bloggers Mary and Holly often post the cover and some inside pages, along with commentary from themselves or the person who submitted the book.

Just how awful are these books? A sampling from recent posts:

-- Cheryl Sadler
CSadler@News-Herald.com

1. Gabriel García Márquez might be the best living author (if such a thing can be quantified.)

He’s certainly my favorite and he is “busy completing” a new novel.

We know nothing except its named En Agosto Nos Vemos. (In August, We Will Meet.)

Márquez’s last novel was Memories of my Melancholy Whores, which slipped too deeply into the same territory as Philip Roth’s The Humbling. That is, to say, it doubled as a masturbatory fantasy for old men.

But Marquez has banked infinite goodwill. He wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude. He wrote Love in the Time of Cholera. I will read whatever novel he writes.

I will not, however, be buying his newest book, I Didn’t Come to Give a Speech. It compiles 22 of his speeches, including ones from his high school commencement and Nobel win. As much as I enjoy his rhetoric, I prefer to have it attached to his stories.

2. One more reason to follow Margaret Atwood on Twitter: She might draw you as a superhero.

3. John Warner is an author who doubles as the Biblioracle.

You tell him the last five books you read, and he suggests a new one. To his credit, his suggestions draw from all aspects of literature, often surprise but always make sense.

(My wife’s AP English teacher was John Warner. He seems like the kind of guy who would double as a Biblioracle. I wonder...)

4. Roland Barthes v. Bart Simpson.

-Jason Lea, JLea@News-Herald.com

Tricia last month mentioned Apolo Anton Ohno's upcoming appearance at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Legacy Village, during which he will sign copies of his new book, "Zero Regrets." Monday's Sidetracks section included a nice feature on Ohno, who seems like an incredibly likable guy.

Anyone planning a trip to Lyndhurst on Sunday to meet him?


-- Cheryl Sadler
CSadler@News-Herald.com