After Hours – Page 57 – She was easy to look at and easy to be with most of the time, but she was in no sense of the word an easy person. -Harper Lee

Posted on May 9, 2006July 22, 2006 by Miss Brook$

addendum to “blurbing”

In the previous post, I forgot to add that book Forewords are treated much the same way as blurbs. Very often the Foreword is written by the author and the guest “writer” simply puts their stamp of approval on it.

Nice work if you can get it.

PS: And with the controversy over Kaavya Viswanathan, it’s becoming obvious one no longer even needs to actually write their own book. Image is far more important.

PPS: And don’t forget J. T. LeRoy, who proved that the idea of a biography (along with the image of the author), is far more important than reality.

Posted on May 2, 2006August 3, 2006 by Miss Brook$

blurbing

Most authors like to have â€œblurbsâ€ on their book covers. This is where other authors or people prominent in the subject field endorse the book. Although I donâ€™t know that a blurb has ever influenced my decision to buy a book, it certainly makes me look favorably on the author if So-and-so said that they enjoyed reading it. And thatâ€™s the whole point of getting blurbs.

Posted on April 27, 2006August 3, 2006 by Miss Brook$

free the twins!

Someone sent me a link to this site, which has a most interesting premise. Called Bra Free, it pretty much gets to the point.

The good doctor, Elizabeth Vaughn, is not an ob-gyn. Sheâ€™s actually internal medicine and has lots of experience in emergency care. So the fact that she encourages her patients to go bra free is even more interesting. (Her reasons are mostly medical, but Iâ€™m focusing on the cosmetic aspect, of course.)

Posted on April 22, 2006August 3, 2006 by Miss Brook$

night

My lover has an inexplicable, abiding interest in the Holocaust and what the Nazis did. His explanation is that heâ€™s attempting to understand what and how it happened. I see it as little more than car-accident-watching.

Heâ€™s reading a new, well-researched book about Auschwitz. While weâ€™re discussing it, I recommend my copy of Night to him. He doesnâ€™t start on it, so I decided to reread it. Itâ€™s been many years since the first and only time I read it and I wanted to be sure of my reasons for encouraging him to read it.

Posted on April 7, 2006August 3, 2006 by Miss Brook$

“nonprofits” in the US

I will rarely, if ever again, discuss my nonprofit on this blog. Iâ€™ve been offering updates about it on my site and will continue to do updates there. It is a childrenâ€™s charity and for that reason I do not want it plastered all over this blog or permanently floating all over the Internet (since my site does change and Iâ€™ve disallowed archiving, Iâ€™m hoping what I write there will not remain).