Her Nashville is the newest magazine on the scene in Tennessee, having been launched just a few days ago. I’m delighted to be writing column in the magazine about women who make a difference. People you may never have heard of, but whose stories will move you. Anne Knauff is featured in the first edition. Check it out. I adore this woman and my faith in humanity is reinforced when I think of her and the amazing life she leads.
I’m flattered that Debbie Alan, host of On The HomeStretch, has invited me to be a guest on her show tomorrow, July 3. I’m not sure what we’ll talk about, but she’s so much bubbly that even if I flub, it will be a fun segment! Against my better judgment (since I have no idea how this will all go), I’m inviting you to join us at 10:00 a.m. Central Daylight Time at On The HomeStretch. Just click on that link and then click on “live” on the top right corner of the webpage and you’ll hear us gabbing away!
I understand that Mary Beth Lagerborg, author of Dwelling: Living Fully from the Space You Call Home and sex therapist, Dr. David Yarian will be guests during that hour as well, so I know I’ll be learning something new!
Call in and say “hi!” — 877.474.3302
I finished The Road to Eden’s Ridge (Turner Publishing) Sunday night and I sure wish I hadn’t read it yet — wish I had it to look forward to. This is a novel with a heart. I tried, oh how I tried, not to cry. Every blurb I’d read about this book said you hold the book in one hand and a hankie in the other. I got to the last chapter dry-eyed, but then that fell apart. It’s not that it’s a sad book, really, it just evokes a lot of emotion at several levels.
M.L. Rose is the pseudonym for Myra McLarey and Linda Weeks, who wrote this terrific southern fiction.
This is what it’s about:
Less than an hour before her wedding, Lindsey Briggs calls off the ceremony, leaving her family home in Maine to pursue her dream of being a singer-songwriter in Nashville. There she meets country music legend Ben McBride. Through the chance meeting, she discovers the depth of Ben’s relationship with her family as well as secrets from her past. A remarkable family tale is revealed for Lindsey, who learns the importance of pursuing her heart and about the power and endurance of love.
From the farming country in Maine
To the Blue Bird Cafe in Nashville
Lindsey, Ben McBride, Grandma Sarah, Aunt Lilly and Michael James are wonderful folks in a story that spans a couple of generations. I wish I could have sat a spell with on them on the front porch.
Cheryl Rainfrield’s blog is always filled with interesting information, but today I found something that I just had to share with my readers too! Cheryl has found this wonderful place called the Little Factory that creates wonderful items based on “observations of every day life.” Below are examples of these Little Factory scarves that are created with letters or numbers. A real conversation piece and a great gift idea for someone who has everything or anyone who loves words (or numbers for that matter).
As we are delicately poised in the midst of debutante curtseying season, it’s only appropriate to let ya’ll in on the big secret that is starting to spill — Random House has a delicious new YA book that girls all the way into their 40s will enjoy — The Debs by well-known mystery writer Susan McBride. The publisher is calling the series “Gossip Girl with Mint Julips,” but Susan McBride is more partial to “YA with a Texas drawl.”
I think I’m going to have to go with just plain “page-turning fun with a heart.” For deb-wannabes, current debs or fading debs it will leave you as flushed and satisfied as finishing the last twirl on your dance card.
The best part? You can get through this social season and then look forward to the launch as you can pre-order The Debs by clicking on this link…but it won’t be in any cool, manicured hands until August 26…that’s when it debuts (pun intended).
Not Enough Books blog has a great review of the book.
YouTube of Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen
Love Dairy Queen Blizzards? How about 365 of ‘em?! Free!!! Yep…one a day for a year…or heck, all at once or something in between.
Just go to Susan Gregg Gilmore’s website…you know, the best-selling author of the hot summer read Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen and write your best DQ memory. You can be 5 years old, you can be 95-years-old. The story can involve a dip cone and a smile or the hottest boy that ever served up cold soft-serve in your town. Whatever it is WRITE IT DOWN AND SUBMIT IT by July 1!!!
Oh, and don’t you dare let the summer slip by without making the acquaintance of Catherine Grace, her fancy neighbor that styles her hair with lightening bugs for special effect in the evenings and the whole rest of Ringgold, GA — they’re all in Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen
One of my favorite journalists, Tim Russert, passed away today. I am very sad. This year’s election process, I believe, will be affected:
WASHINGTON - Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press,” died Friday after a sudden heart attack at the bureau, NBC News said Friday. He was 58.
Russert was recording voiceovers for Sunday’s “Meet the Press” program when he collapsed, the network said. He and his family had recently returned from Italy, where they celebrated the graduation of Russert’s son, Luke, from Boston College.
No further details were immediately available.
Russert was best known as host of “Meet the Press,” which he took over in December 1991. Now in its 60th year, “Meet the Press” is the longest-running program in the history of television.
But he was also a vice president of NBC News and head of its overall Washington operations, a nearly round-the-clock presence on NBC and MSNBC on election nights.
He was “one of the premier political journalists and analysts of his time,” Tom Brokaw, the former longtime anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” said in announcing Russert’s death. “This news division will not be the same without his strong, clear voice.”
In 2008, Time Magazine named Russert him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Timothy John Russert Jr. was born in Buffalo, N.Y., on May 7, 1950. He was a graduate of Canisius High School, John Carroll University and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He was a member of the bar in New York and the District of Columbia.
Senate staffer before entering journalism
After graduating from law school, Russert went into politics as a staff operative. In 1976, he worked on the Senate campaign of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., and in 1982, he worked on Mario Cuomo’s campaign for governor of New York.
Russert joined NBC News in 1984. In April 1985, he supervised the live broadcasts of NBC’s TODAY show from Rome, negotiating and arranging an appearance by Pope John Paul II, a first for American television. In 1986 and 1987, Russert led NBC News’ weeklong broadcasts from South America, Australia and China.
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Of his background as a Democratic political operative, Russert said, “My views are not important.”
“Lawrence Spivak, who founded ‘Meet the Press,’ told me before he died that the job of the host is to learn as much as you can about your guest’s positions and take the other side,” he said in a 2007 interview with Time magazine. “And to do that in a persistent and civil way. And that’s what I try to do every Sunday.”
Cuomo, Russert’s onetime boss, wrote of Russert: “Most candidates are not eager to present themselves for Tim’s incisive scrutiny, which is fed by his prodigious study and preparation. But they have little choice: appearing on ‘Meet the Press’ is today as vital to a serious candidate as being properly registered to vote.”
Russert wrote two books — “Big Russ and Me” in 2004 and “Wisdom of Our Fathers” in 2006 — both of which were New York Times best-sellers.
Emmy for Reagan funeral coverage
In 2005, Russert was awarded an Emmy for his role in the coverage of the funeral of President Ronald Reagan. His “Meet the Press” interviews with George W. Bush and Al Gore in 2000 won the Radio and Television Correspondents’ highest honor, the Joan S. Barone Award, and the Annenberg Center’s Walter Cronkite Award.
Russert’s March 2000 interview of Sen. John McCain shared the 2001 Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence in Television Journalism. He was also the recipient of the John Peter Zenger Award, the American Legion Journalism Award, the Veterans of Foreign Wars News Media Award, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society Journalism Award, the Allen H. Neuharth Award for Excellence in Journalism, the David Brinkley Award for Excellence in Communication and the Catholic Academy for Communication’s Gabriel Award. He was a member of the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame.
Russert was a trustee of the Freedom Forum’s Newseum and a member of the board of directors of the Greater Washington Boys and Girls Club, and America’s Promise — Alliance for Youth.
In 1995, the National Father’s Day Committee named him “Father of the Year,” Parents magazine honored him as “Dream Dad” in 1998, and in 2001 the National Fatherhood Initiative also recognized him as Father of the Year.
Irish America magazine named him one of the top 100 Irish Americans in the country, and he was selected as a Fellow of the Commission of European Communities.
Survivors include Russert’s wife, Maureen Orth, a writer for Vanity Fair magazine, whom he met at the 1976 Democratic National Convention; and their son, Luke.
Great news according to this Shelf Awareness piece today:
April Bookstore Sales: Who’s Doing So Well?
Although most booksellers and publishers say this has been a soft spring–”down a little is the new up,” as one bookseller put it to us at BEA–the U.S. Census Bureau says otherwise. Bookstore sales in April rose 8% to $1 billion, according to preliminary estimates from the Bureau. For the year to date, bookstore sales have risen 5.4% to $5.5 billion.
By comparison, total retail sales in April rose 3.7% to $375.5 billion. For the year to date, total retail sales were up 3.8% to $1.450.1 billion.
Also, general retail sales in May rose 1%, double expectations, according to Commerce Department data. Most economists attributed the unexpected gain to stimulus checks from the federal government and higher prices, particularly of gasoline. Sales were 2.5% lower than in May 2007. The New York Times noted that “on an annual basis, sales have fallen for the last six months when adjusted for inflation.”
Note: under Census Bureau definitions, bookstore sales are of new books and do not include “electronic home shopping, mail-order, or direct sale” or used book sales.
Virginia Boyd, author of One Fell Swoop, has a thoughtful, in-depth interview on The Book Report at Windows Bookshop. Virginia has a delightful sense of humor that comes through in this novel that explores many citizens of this little town dealing with a suicide/murder. She discusses what part of herself she puts in the book’s quirky, authentic characters.
Elisabeth Grant Gibson and Pat Grant are terrific interviewers and its a fun conversation to listen in:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/
DeLaune’ Michel, the author of The Safety of Secrets was also a terrific guest today. Her book has recently come out in paperback. The theme of the program today was “secrets of small towns.”
Why Mr. Right Can’t Find You by J. M. Kearns is the most entertaining “self-help” book I’ve ever read. Honest from a man’s perspective (that’s what male reviewers say anyway), single women can come away knowing that their Mr. Right is somewhere and trying to find them — they just have to notice and maybe provide a little encouragement. Funny and fun, I’ve given it to some single friends that haven’t been able to put it down. It’s not a wonder that Why Mr. RIght Can’t Find You is a best-seller in Canada and flying off the shelves in the UK. It’s been featured on Oprah and Friends and in Glamour Magazine. Publishers Weekly said this:
Practical, encouraging…regular guy Kearns is convinced that “the world is full of lonely winners,” but that the hunt for Mr. Right is often unsuccessful because women are taught, consciously and otherwise, not to make themselves available, and thus “don’t give themselves enough of a choice.” Kearns directs the lovelorn to embrace every opportunity to meet people, no matter how trivial the occasion, and not just when you’re “ready for a Vogue(Jan.) cover shot.” As women’s own barriers to meeting people are the first that must come down, Kearns gently undermines the conventions and insecurities that keep them from actively and effectively seeking a mate, including self-defeating myths (“Serious relationships never begin in bars”) and media-inspired body-image issues. Part one takes apart the myriad rituals of courtship, including chapters on “How Women Choose Men” and vice-versa, “The Perfect Place to Meet” and “Going Out Alone.” He then tackles the “True and False Signs of Compatibility” across a number of axes (sense of humor, sex, goals), and devotes part three to destigmatizing and demystifying the online dating scene with a detailed step-by-step primer. Personal anecdotes round out this thorough, thoughtful and entirely upbeat dating guide.
WARNING: You won’t want to put this book down and you’ll wish you had a stack to hand out to friends when you tell them about it.
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