What I’ve read and what I’m reading

/in , /by

A few blog posts back, I told y’all I was joining a book club put on by my local independent bookstore, Boswell Book Company. They run a handful of clubs, each focusing on a different genre. Tonight was their last one for my group, which focused on general book club fiction and held at a local pub/restaurant, as the bookseller who led it is moving away. A few of the participants are carrying on.

So how my experience? I really enjoyed it, actually. It encouraged me to read books I might not have otherwise and see how others view and rate books, the organizer typically asking people around the table to informally rate the book 1-5 stars. I’ve discovered a rate books higher than most, as I tend to rate it on whether it delivered on its promise, whereas most others tended to rate it on whether they enjoyed it.

What have I read lately?

THE GOLEM OF BROOKLYN by Adam Mansbach, which I enjoyed. It was funny, very New York, and brought up some serious questions about anti-Semitism and white supremacy.

THE HACIENDA by Isabel Cañas, which wasn’t as scary as I’d hoped, but I loved the setting of post-colonial Mexico. Her ability to “put us there” was top notch.

ASSISTANT TO THE VILLAIN by Hannah Nicole Maehrer, which was hysterical. I’m looking forward to its sequel, APPRENTICE TO THE VILLAIN.

The above three were part of the book club. Here are some personal reads:

THE RUNNER by Kristin Oakley, which I beta-read and is part of THE DEVIL PARTICLE series. Fascinating concept to this series, and well executed.

DEAR COMMITTEE MEMBERS by Julie Schumacher, book 1 of the trilogy of the same name, and which I’d read before. This book won a bunch of awards for humorous writing, and they were all well deserved. I’m looking forward to meeting Ms. Schumacher at the upcoming Washington Island Literary Festival in September.

I’m currently reading  STILL TRUE by Maggie Ginsberg, who’ll also be speaking at that festival and is a force within Wisconsin authorship. Her writing is lyrical and rich.

In between all those books, I’ve also been writing, submitting my work, and enjoying the start of summer.

Hope you’re enjoying it too! 🙂

The beauty of the wooden clog

/in , , /by

I spotted this gorgeous carved wood clog at Café Benelux in Milwaukee’s artsy Third Ward. It’s a nice restaurant and where my husband and I hosted the Faculty Dinner during our illustration workshop. <–If you don’t know about Fantasy Art Workshop’s Illustration Intensive, please do click on the link to learn more about it–or search my website for past posts about it. It’s our big event, our heartfelt endeavor, that we’re thrilled to present every year.–>

Back to the clog, isn’t it a beaut?

I think when I was younger, I may not have appreciated it as much as I do now. I had a couple of pairs of (regular, not wooden) clogs in my youth and wore them to the point of disintegration, haha. But, in my youth, I might have thought too literally about the utility and comfort of wooden clogs to see any artistry to them. I could be remembering myself wrong, as adults are sometimes apt to do  years removed from childhood, but I suspect not.

But now I see its beauty. Now I appreciate it. Now I marvel at it. Today, as I’ve just finished seeing scores of artists work on incredible pieces for a whole week, I’m pleased to see beautiful, artistic things displayed just for the sake of it. Truthfully, I don’t know if this piece was mass produced–but even if it was, it’s still nice to see pretty things around us. We need that.

There’s no grande message behind this post other than LOOK. Look at this gorgeous thing. It’s truly lovely.