Memoir Monday and Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

An illuminating debut memoir of a woman in science; a moving portrait of a longtime friendship; and a stunningly fresh look at plants that will forever change how you see the natural world

Acclaimed scientist Hope Jahren has built three laboratories in which she’s studied trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Her first book is a revelatory treatise on plant life—but it is also so much more. 

Lab Girl is a book about work, love, and the mountains that can be moved when those two things come together. It is told through Jahren’s remarkable stories: about her childhood in rural Minnesota with an uncompromising mother and a father who encouraged hours of play in his classroom’s labs; about how she found a sanctuary in science, and learned to perform lab work done “with both the heart and the hands”; and about the inevitable disappointments, but also the triumphs and exhilarating discoveries, of scientific work.

Yet at the core of this book is the story of a relationship Jahren forged with a brilliant, wounded man named Bill, who becomes her lab partner and best friend. Their sometimes rogue adventures in science take them from the Midwest across the United States and back again, over the Atlantic to the ever-light skies of the North Pole and to tropical Hawaii, where she and her lab currently make their home. 

Jahren’s probing look at plants, her astonishing tenacity of spirit, and her acute insights on nature enliven every page of this extraordinary book. Lab Girl opens your eyes to the beautiful, sophisticated mechanisms within every leaf, blade of grass, and flower petal. Here is an eloquent demonstration of what can happen when you find the stamina, passion, and sense of sacrifice needed to make a life out of what you truly love, as you discover along the way the person you were meant to be.

Everywhere I turn I see a blurb for this book! And so I searched for an excerpt to get a feel for the writing. I found an excerpt on WSJ.com, and loved it...


"A seed knows how to wait. Most seeds wait for several years before starting to grow; a cherry seed can wait for a hundred years with no problem... Each beginning is the end of a waiting. We are each given exactly one chance to be. Each of us is both impossible and inevitable. Every replete tree was first a seed that waited." excerpts from Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

Now this is on my wish list. Published by Knopf, you can find Lab Girl by Hope Jahren at your local bookstore, this tuesday, April 5th. What could have been a dry, asleep at the wheel look at all things plant, looks to be an entertaining and interesting story.

The Sunday Salon and Poems, Poets and National Poetry Month...

 Welcome to The Sunday Salon and The Sunday Post! It's that day of the week bloggers from all over the internet get together virtually in a large gathering place called The Sunday Salon and talk books!  And at The Sunday Post, which is a weekly meme hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, in which more bloggers share their bookish news!

There is a fresh layer of snow this morning in Connecticut. Why it should surprise me to have snow in April, I don't know except for the fact that it was almost 80 degrees the other day. And there is more snow coming! And high winds! And so... let's get comfy inside, grab a cup of joe and let's talk books! In particular, let's talk about poetry books. April is National Poetry Month and we are enjoying poetry here, at Chick with Books, all month! Poetry is something I enjoy, and have continued to expand my enjoyment of. There have been wonderful poets through out the ages; poets such as Yeats or Browning (both Elizabeth and Robert), Lord Byron (She Walks in Beauty), Millay, but there are some wonderful contemporary poets to appreiate too... Jane Hirshfield, Mary Oliver, Billy Collins to name just a few. But people have always had that love hate relationship with poetry. Why read poetry? How to read poetry? When to read poetry?... Read poetry to the person you love. Enjoy the stillness around you as you read a poem. Enjoy the words, the irony, the humor, the feelings a poem shares with you. Just do it... Here are some ways to do it...

She Walks in Beauty by Caroline Kennedy... In She Walks in Beauty, Caroline Kennedy has once again marshaled the gifts of our greatest poets to pay a very personal tribute to the human experience, this time to the complex and fascinating subject of womanhood. Inspired by her own reflections on more than fifty years of life as a young girl, a woman, a wife, and a mother, She Walks in Beauty draws on poetry's eloquent wisdom to ponder the many joys and challenges of being a woman. Kennedy has divided the collection into sections that signify to her the most notable milestones, passages, and universal experiences in a woman's life, and she begins each of these sections with an introduction in which she explores and celebrates the most important elements of life's journey. The collection includes works by Elizabeth Bishop, Sharon Olds, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Mary Oliver, Pablo Neruda, W. H. Auden, Adrienne Rich, Sandra Cisneros, Anne Sexton, W. S. Merwin, Dorothy Parker, Queen Elizabeth I, Lucille Clifton, Naomi Shahib Nye, and W. B. Yeats. Whether it's falling in love, breaking up, friendship, marriage, motherhood, or growing old, She Walks in Beauty is a priceless resource for anyone, male or female, who wants a deeper understanding and appreciation of what it means to be a woman.

This is a wonderful collection of poetry that reflects growing up female. If you are looking for a gift for a sister, mother, daughter or girlfriend, this would make a wonderful one. I have this book and enjoy opening it and randomly reading poems. But there are other ways to enjoy these poems - you can inscribe these poems in cards, books, letters to the women in your lives as special moments happen.. a bride to be, a first child, being a mother. Just a thought.

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The Kingdom of Ordinary Time by Marie Howe... Hurrying through errands, attending a dying mother, helping her own child down the playground slide, the speaker in these poems wonders: what is the difference between the self and the soul? The secular and the sacred? Where is the kingdom of heaven? And how does one live in Ordinary Time—during those periods that are not apparently miraculous?

Marie Howe's poetry is thought provoking and accessible. Straight forward and funny. As soon as I read this book of her poetry, she became one of my favorite poets. They are simple and yet beautiful.

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The Captain's Verses by Pablo Neruda... First published anonymously in 1952, some years before Neruda married Matilde Urrutia - the one with "the fire / of an unchained meteor" - to whom he had addressed these poems of love, ecstasy, devotion, and fury. The bilingual edition is seen by many as the most intimate and passionate volume of Neruda's love poetry, capturing all the erotic energy of a new love. 

This is such beautiful poetry. Pablo Neruda wrote these poems to his lover Matilde before they were married and they are filled with such passion and tenderness. All of the copies of this book I've seen are bilingual, with the poem in Spanish on one page and the English translation on the facing page. As a crazy spanish student in the 70's, I loved reading these in Spanish, but even if you can't read Spanish, they sound so beautiful in Spanish that you should make sure you buy a bilingual version and try your hand at some Spanish.

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Good Poems by Garrison Keillor (editor)...  Every day people tune in to The Writer's Almanac on public radio and hear Garrison Keillor read them a poem. And here, for the first time, is an anthology of poems from the show, chosen by Keillor for their wit, their frankness, their passion, their "utter clarity in the face of everything else a person has to deal with at 7 a.m." 

If you are familiar with Garrison Keillor, than you know these are great poems. If you are not familiar with him, you need to watch a few episodes of A Prarie Home Companion! These are not actually his poems, but poems he had picked out for all the wonder and imagination that makes a great poem. I have always enjoyed opening this collection of poems and reading them. They are about lifes moments.

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Hope Is The Thing With Feathers 

'Hope' is the thing with feathers—

That perches in the soul—

And sings the tune without the words—

And never stops—at all—

And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—

And sore must be the storm—

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm—

I've heard it in the chillest land—

And on the strangest Sea—

Yet, never, in Extremity,

It asked a crumb—of Me.

                                            ...by Emily Dickinson 

                                                                 

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Weekly Wrap up... 

*Friday was the start of April, and National Poetry Month. Learn about what it's all about by following THIS LINK.

*Friday we also posted our first poem to start the month off right. Follow THIS LINK to read Matthew Yeager's Poem to First Love.

*Saturday we posted Billy Collins reading one of my favorite poems. Follow THIS LINK to hear his poem (via video) "To my favourite 17 year old High-school girl" (It's always nice to hear the actual poet read his/her work).

Question... Do you read poetry?

I hope I've inspired you to read some poetry! You can find poetry in many places online too... The Poetry Foundation, Poem Hunter, Poems.com, Poets. org. You can also sign up to receive a poem a day in your inbox through Poets.org. Read some poetry, write some poetry!, and come back throughout the month to discover more poems, poets and all things poetry! 

Happy Reading.. Suzanne

P.S. Have a favorite poem or poet? Share it here! I'd love to hear!

"To my favourite 17 year old High-school girl" - Billy Collins

                          

National Poetry Month and Matthew Yeager

Poem to First Love 

To have been told “I love you” by you could well be, for me,

the highlight of my life, the best feeling, the best peak

on my feeling graph, in the way that the Chrysler building

might not be the tallest building in the NY sky but is

the best, the most exquisitely spired, or the way that

Hank Aaron’s career home-run total is not the highest

but the best, the one that signifies the purest greatness. 

So improbable!  To have met you at all and then

to have been told in your soft young voice so soon

after meeting you: “I love you.”  And I felt the mystery

of being that you, of being a you and being

loved, and what I was, instantly, was someone

who could be told “I love you” by someone like you. 

I was, in that moment, new; you were 19; I was 22;

you were impulsive; I was there in front of you, with a future that hadn’t yet been burned for fuel; I had energy;

you had beauty; and your eyes were a pale blue,

and they backed what you said with all they hadn’t seen,

and they were the least ambitious eyes I’d known,

the least calculating, and when you spoke and when

they shone, perhaps you saw the feeling you caused.

Perhaps you saw too that the feeling would stay.

                                                                                  ....Matthew Yeager
Author of "Like That" (Forklift Books, 2016).    
Lives in New York City
Poems to First Love originally published by American Academy of Poets.

April is National Poetry Month!

Mark your calendars! April is National Poetry Month and it starts TOMORROW!

"National Poetry Month is the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K-12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary events curators, publishers, bloggers, and, of course, poets marking poetry’s important place in our culture and our lives."

This is the 20th anniversary of the celebration of National Poetry Month! Founded in April of 1996 by the Academy of American Poets, their goals are to...

• highlight the extraordinary legacy and ongoing achievement of American poets,
• encourage the reading of poems,
• assist teachers in bringing poetry into their classrooms,
• increase the attention paid to poetry by national and local media,
• encourage increased publication and distribution of poetry books, and 
• encourage support for poets and poetry.

                   How can you participate? 

• Read a poem to someone!
• Read a book of poetry!
• Attend poetry readings during the month! 
• Sign up for Poem a Day, and receive a poem a day in your email!  
• Find poems at Poems.org and The Poetry Foundation.

AND, come by here all month long to learn about poets, poetry, listen to some poems and read some great poems too! 

Happy Poetry Month!

The Sunday Salon and Creative Journaling with your Bible

Happy Easter! And Welcome to The Sunday Salon and The Sunday Post! It's that day of the week bloggers from all over the internet get together virtually in a large gathering place called The Sunday Salon and talk books!  And at The Sunday Post, which is a weekly meme hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, in which more bloggers share their bookish news!!

It is a beautiful Sunday in Connecticut! Perfect for collecting Easter eggs in the yard! Spring has finally come to stay ( I think), and with the warmer weather it just seems to scream reading. But because this is Easter, I thought I would highlight something that seems special to me... The Inspire Bible. I have heard so much about creative journaling, and the coloring book craze looks like it's going to be staying for a while, so what do you get when you combine coloring and the Bible? The Inspire Bible. When I saw this Bible I just thought I would share it Easter Sunday.

I haven't really done anything with creative journaling. Or with coloring books for that matter. My mother did give me one of the beautiful coloring books by Johanna Basford, and I have enjoyed relaxing and doing some creative coloring. But when I saw the Inspire Bible, I just thought it was so special. Of course, I also thought that it was a little disrepectful to draw in your Bible. But people do underline passages, right?

Here's the description...

Inspire Bible NLT: The Bible for Creative Journaling by Tyndale... Inspire is a new single-column, wide-margin New Living Translation Bible that will be a cherished resource for creative art journaling. It is the first Bible of its kind—with over 400 beautiful line-art illustrations spread throughout the Bible. Full-page and partial-page Scripture art is attractively displayed throughout the Bible, and the illustrations can be colored in to make each Bible unique, colorful, and customizable. Every page of Scripture has two-inch-wide margins, with either Scripture line-art or ruled space for writing notes and reflections, or to draw and create. The generous font ensures optimal readability, and quality cream Bible paper is great for creative art journaling. Inspire is the only single-column, wide-margin Bible available in the popular New Living Translation, and it is designed uniquely to appeal to art-journaling and adult coloring book enthusiasts. Deluxe LeatherLike editions of Inspire Bible feature a lovely, silky LeatherLike material, a matching ribbon marker, and pretty page-edge designs.

Barnes & Noble had this Bible, with the beautiful design on the cover, for a special price pre-order price of $24.95, which was 50% off the original published price and I ordered one. (It seems now that Amazon has this beautiful Bible for $24.95 now, but there is a wait). This Bible is beautiful! The cover is beautiful, the pages are that wonderful paper thin quality, and the artwork inside is inspiring. There are two inch wide margins on the outside of the verses for your own artwork and notes, but there are also beautiful illustrations that are pages for you to color yourself. As well as illustrated Scriptures.

Here are some samples I found of how people are decorating their Inspire Bibles...

 
Lauren at The Thinking Closet has a wonderful post on how she started her journaling Bible, with tips and supplies needed. And here is a thoughtful post by Kirsten at Sweet Tea & Saving Grace about what Bible Journaling is and how to get started.  You can find inspiration on Pinterest too! Here is a link for the Pinterest board of Illustrated Faith. But whatever your method, test out your supplies before doing something major! These pages are thin and you don't want to ruin your pages with bleeding thru, etc. Do a small sample of color somewhere or read up on what other people have done.

Well, what do you think about the Inspire Bible? And here's what I'd like to know...

Question... Would you color in YOUR Bible?

Have a wonderful Easter! And happy reading... Suzanne

First Lines Friday...

"Today I wondered What is the worth of a day? Once, a day was long. It was bright and then it wasn't, meals happened, and school happened, and sports practice, maybe, happened, and two days from this day there would be a test, or an English paper would be due, or there would be a party for which I'd been waiting, it would seem, for years."
                                                                     ... The Folded Clock by Heidi Julavits

...Would you keep reading?

Farlaine the Goblin #4... A Review

Continuing with the wonderful storytelling of the first 3 issues, Farlaine the Goblin #4 , a kid friendly graphic novel, is another hit! This time Farlaine, accompanied by his friends Ehr and Tink, discover The Twistlands, which is just as dangerous as you would expect! The Twistlands are filled with all sorts of twisters (imagine a jellyfish twister!). After being caught in a twister, Ehr becomes separated from Farlaine and Tink and must be rescued. With the help of some new characters and a little bit of ingenuity and dexterity, we are lead through another wonderful adventure in another amazing imaginary land.. or is it imaginary? I can't say I've been as far as The Twistlands to know! Another 5 stars from this chick with books! Now waiting for the next book to come out!

P.S. If you want a copy of this, and any of the other previously published Farlaine the Goblin books, you can order directly from Farlaine.com. Why would you do that? To have the author personally sign it of course! AND if you ask for "signature with a doodle" when you order, the artist will add a little artwork on the inside... (to the right of Farlaine hugging his tree, below, is all doodle! And I love it!)

In My Mailbox...

In My Mailbox... I've received some great books last week! And I decided I would join in on the fun sharing them with you and the other bloggers participating in Mailbox Monday!

Mailbox Monday is a weekly event for bloggers to share what books arrived in their mailboxes. Mailbox Monday was originally created by Marcia of To Be Continued and is now hosted by Vicki, Serena and Leslie at Mailbox Monday's own blog.

Spring has sprung and so has the new season of fantastic books! This week I was pleasantly surprised to find 2 great books in the mail and an eBook too hot to send through the normal channels! Here they are...

As Time Goes By by Mary Higgins Clark... In this exciting thriller from Mary Higgins Clark, the #1 New York Times bestselling “Queen of Suspense,” a news reporter tries to find her birth mother just as she is assigned to cover the high-profile trial of a woman accused of murdering her wealthy husband.

Television journalist Delaney Wright is on the brink of stardom after she begins covering a sensational murder trial for the six p.m. news. She should be thrilled, yet her growing desire to locate her birth mother consumes her thoughts. When Delaney’s friends Alvirah Meehan and her husband Willy offer to look into the mystery surrounding her birth, they uncover a shocking secret they do not want to reveal. On trial for murder is Betsy Grant, widow of a wealthy doctor who has been an Alzheimer’s victim for eight years. When her once-upon-a-time celebrity lawyer urges her to accept a plea bargain, Betsy refuses: she will go to trial to prove her innocence. Betsy’s stepson, Alan Grant, bides his time nervously as the trial begins. His substantial inheritance hangs in the balance—his only means of making good on payments he owes his ex-wife, his children, and increasingly angry creditors. As the trial unfolds, and the damning evidence against Betsy piles up, Delaney is convinced that Betsy is not guilty and frantically tries to prove her innocence.

I have always loved Mary Higgins Clark! Her books are always good and this sounds like it will be too! Thank you to Simon & Schuster for sending this along to me for review!

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night night, sleep tight by Hallie Ephron... A riveting tale of domestic noir, infused with old Hollywood folklore and glamour, set in a town rife with egotism and backstabbing and where fame and infamy are often interchangeable.

Los Angeles 1986: When Deirdre Unger arrived in Beverly Hills to help her bitter, disappointed father sell his dilapidated house, she discovers his lifeless body floating face down in the swimming pool. At first, Deirdre assumes her father’s death was a tragic accident. But the longer she stays in town, the more she suspects that it is merely the third act in a story that has long been in the making. The sudden re-surfacing of Deirdre’s childhood best friend Joelen Nichol—daughter of the legendary star Elenor “Bunny” Nichol—seems like more than a coincidence. Back in 1958, Joelen confessed to killing her movie star mother’s boyfriend. Deirdre happened to be at the Nichols house the night of the murder—which was also the night she suffered a personal tragedy of her own. Could all of these events be connected?

This book has been nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award this year, which honors the best women's suspense novel of the year. I'm excited to be reading it! And it sound great! Thank you to William Morrow/Harper Collins for sending this book along!

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Guilty Pleasure by Lora Leigh... Marty Mathews had always known about the secret, forbidden pleasures that the women she had grown up with enjoyed. Women whose husbands or lovers were members of the exclusive "Club," where they took a selected "third" into their beds. And there is one man—a dangerous, forbidden man—who is part of this world and who has haunted Marty's dreams for years. But she had been the FBI agent assigned to shadow him, making him completely off limits. . .That is until Khalid is cleared and Marty is released from her assignment. Now, all bets are off. . .
The beautiful, fierce Marty Mathews is the one woman Khalid hungers for like no other and is the one woman he dare not let himself have. His past dogs his every step and danger lurks around every corner. If he wants to keep her safe, he must stay away from her. But the power of their desire is something they cannot deny—and once Marty is his, Khalid will do whatever it takes to keep her in his bed and in his arms.

Okay, this is definitely a "Guilty Pleasure" read! Lora Leigh is the queen of sexy erotica (heck she's the king too) and I look forward to reading her newest book! I want to thank St. Martin's Press for sending along an eGalley of this. (probably too hot for the mail!)

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So, that's what was in my mailbox, how about you!? What do you think about these books? You can check out what everyone else received in their mailbox, by going to Mailbox Monday! Enjoy!