Yearly Archives: 2010

Review: The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai by Ruiyan Xu

The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai by Ruiyan Xu is all about isolation and communication. Li Jing is a Chinese businessman with a beautiful wife and son, a successful investment company, family and friends.  But in one tragic instant, he finds himself cut off from everything.  A gas leak, an explosion, and a flying sheet of glass change his… Read more

Wondrous Words Wednesday

It’s Wednesday, and I have some new words for you!  These are from my current book, Under the Poppy by Kathe Koja.  It’s about the goings-on at a brothel in Brussels in the 1870s, so you can imagine it has some interesting and obscure words. 1. Chary – characterized by great caution and wariness “…but he is chary of much… Read more

Bookshelf Porn

A friend of mine posted a link to a site that has had me drooling…the Bookshelf Porn archive!   Now, I have often complained about my lack of bookshelves.  I don’t know anyone who loves books who thinks they have enough room for them all.  But these folks?  They have got this under control.  Amazing bookshelves, awesome reading rooms, like… Read more

Book Fair!

Yesterday, I walked through a fabulous book fair!  Rows after row of little tents full of a wide assortment of books, all sorted by subject.  Books!  And more books!  On a lovely, if slightly rainy, Saturday afternoon.  So why the sad face? I’m in Amsterdam.  They were all in Dutch. Read more

Are E-Readers the end of books? NO!

Tired of hearing how eBooks are going to destroy the publishing industry?  So am I.  It’s a ridiculous idea to me – why would buying something that you use to read books be a bad thing?  I think it opens huge opportunities for interactive books (kids would love this), textbooks, plus quick and easy access.  So I was pleased to… Read more

Wondrous Words Wednesday!

It’s Wednesday and I have some words! One of the problems with biographies and comedy books is that they don’t have a lot of new vocabulary for me.  I have a list that I still need to post from The World Without Us, but I don’t have the book with me here in Amsterdam, so that list will have to… Read more

Teaser Tuesday!

It’s been a while since I had something I wanted to share on a Tuesday!  It’s funny, I complain about how hard it is to keep up with the blog when I’m traveling, but when I take a little time off, my schedule really falls apart and it gets even harder.  Anyway, today’s Teaser is from a book I finished… Read more