Last Lecture

The Last Lecture

Based on the extraordinary final lecture by Carnegie Mellon University professor Pausch, given after he discovered he had pancreatic cancer, this moving book goes beyond the now-famous lecture to inspire readers to live each day with purpose and joy.

Children's Book Week

Children's Book Week is May 12-18. Teachers, librarians, booksellers and kids can vote for their favorite books of the year. Please give a nod to my favorite, Rick Riordan, author of Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.


Just click on the following link:
Children's Book Week

Tenderness of Wolves

One of my favorite books last year was Stef Penney's Tenderness of Wolves. The year is 1867 and the place is Dove River, an isolated settlement in the Northern Territory. A local woman, Mrs. Ross. stumble across a dead body..a crime scene. She also discovers her 17 year old son is missing and is quite possibly the number 1 suspect. She sets off into the wilderness with a half-breed Native American guide, who may or may not be involved in the murder. The secrets she discovers about her family and her community while along this treacherous journey to find her son keeps the reader turning the page. A very impressive debut! Has anyone else read this? It is now out in paperback.

Here's a video clip I found, an interview with the author:

Michael Palmer

Time: Friday, March 28, 2008 7:00 p.m.

Location: Jabberwocky Bookshop

Title of Event: Michael Palmer

Jabberwocky is pleased to welcome best-selling medical thriller author Michael Palmer as reads from and discusses his latest white-knuckle read, The First Patient.

Gabe Singleton and Andrew Stoddard were roommates at the Naval Academy in Annapolis years ago. Today, Gabe is a country doctor and his friend Andrew has gone from war hero to governor to President of the United States. One day, while the United States is embroiled in a bitter presidential election campaign, "Marine One" lands on Gabe's Wyoming ranch, and President Stoddard delivers a disturbing revelation and a startling request. His personal physician has suddenly and mysteriously disappeared, and he desperately needs Gabe to take the man's place. Despite serious misgivings, Gabe agrees to come to Washington. It is not until he is ensconced in the White House medical office that Gabe realizes there is strong evidence that the President is going insane. Facing a crisis of conscience--as President Stoddard's physician, he has the power to invoke the Twenty-fifth Amendment to transfer presidential power to the Vice President--Gabe uncovers increasing evidence that his friend's condition may not be due to natural causes. Who? Why? And how? The President's life is at stake. A small-town doctor suddenly finds himself in the most powerful position on earth, and the safety of the world is in jeopardy. Gabe Singleton must find the answers, and the clock is ticking. . . .

Michael Palmer, M.D., is the author of the forthcoming The First Patient (2008), The Fifth Vial, The Society, Fatal, The Patient, Miracle Cure, Critical Judgment, Silent Treatment, Natural Causes, Extreme Measures, Flashback, Side Effects, and The Sisterhood. His books have been translated into thirty-five languages. He trained in internal medicine at Boston City and Massachusetts General Hospitals, spent twenty years as a full-time practitioner of internal and emergency medicine, and is now an associate director of the Massachusetts Medical Society's physician health program.

Mondays

Monday nights are my favorite time at the bookstore. It's when the new books come out and I get to unpack them. Two of my favorite books from last year arrived tonight in paperback form, Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box and Peter Abrahams Nerve Damage. The two books are guaranteed to keep you up all night. The weather for Saturday? Rain. One these, or both, would be perfect for the weekend!

Here's an interview with Joe Hill....

The Somnambulist

I recently read and enjoyed a book called The Somnambulist by first time author Jonathan Barnes.

It was an enjoyable take on the post-Victorian penny dreadful, full of odd characters including a hunchbacked albino, an odd man who may or may not be from the future...or the past, two very old demented prepboy serial killers, a human fly, and the title character, an 8 foot tall, hairless, milk addict. Barnes has a way with words and his narrator is so delightful and twisted, I was stunned when his identity was revealed. Check on our website to read the first few chapters....you'll be hooked.

Joshua Kendall Event

This Friday, Jabberwocky Bookshop is pleased to welcome Joshua Kendall for a reading from his marvelous new biography, THE MAN WHO MADE LISTS: LOVE, DEATH, MADNESS, AND THE CREATION OF ROGET’S THESAURUS.

With unprecedented access to family papers and archives, Kendall has brought Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869) to vivid life on the page. He was a polymath, an eccentric, a synonym aficionado and a compulsive list-maker for whom organization was a means of keeping the mental illness that afflicted his family at bay. As colorful as he was complicated, Roget laid claim to more than his groundbreaking thesaurus. His other exploits and achievements include: narrowly avoiding jail in Napoleon’s France; testing the effects of laughing gas on himself for the research of famed physician Thomas Beddoes; and participating in the invention of the slide rule. Roget’s greatest claim to fame, of course, is his Thesaurus, which he first published in London in 1852, and which has sold nearly 40 million copies worldwide.

We hope to see you there!