Monthly Archives: January 2013

What I Hear at the Library

It’s about 3:00 on Wednesday and I’m at the Sebastopol Library. This library was recently renovated and I love it, but I’m old enough to remember when libraries were quiet. This one is not quiet. There is a lot to … Continue reading

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City of Dark Magic, by Magnus Flyte

I generally don’t read romantic comedies. I don’t watch romantic comedy movies either. It’s a matter of personal taste, and I’m not saying my taste is good (after all, I will watch any SyFy Original Monster-of-the-Moment movie; I’ll read any … Continue reading

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The Art of Shelving

A few months ago I read a book called Hound, a gentle mystery with a book scout (“book hound”)  main character. The narrator tells us that he started in the book trade by working at a used bookstore. He says … Continue reading

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What Retirement’s Like, Part Three

Retirement means you can get up at 7:30 in the morning, get dressed, have coffee and toast, and go the Wednesday morning farmers’ market any week you want. Since I didn’t make it to the local market here on Sunday, … Continue reading

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The Oxford Murders; Pleasant but not Compelling

I picked up The Oxford Murders, by Guillermo Martinez, at Mockingbird Books. It was an impulse buy, one of the days I was working there. I swear some days I buy more than I shelve. Anyway, I liked the title; … Continue reading

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The Birds of Crane Creek Park

First I heard the woodpeckers. As I said in a previous post, Crane Creek Park was very quiet, and the steady rapid-fire knocking of the birds as they drilled holes carried to me from the clump of trees by the … Continue reading

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Crane Creek Regional Park; Almost Alone in the Green

I had no idea that the land for Crane Creek Regional Park had been donated to the county back in 1975. I guess we overlook the things that are right at our feet. Anyway, a cold, cloudy Wednesday was my … Continue reading

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Possession, by AS Byatt

I had forgotten what a rich, immersive, layered, ornamented book A.S. Byatt’s Possession is. When I was reading it, it seemed… well, not small, but perhaps intimate. This is because so much of it takes place in the intimate confines … Continue reading

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The Road not Taken; Mina Laury by Charlotte Bronte

The Imaginary Country Mina Laury is one of Charlotte Bronte’s Tales of Angria. Angria is the imaginary land she and her siblings created and wrote about as children and young adults, into their twenties. These “tales” are not all highly … Continue reading

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