Friday Five! - BookSparks

What’s on my iPod: “Friday I’m in Love” by The Cure
What I’m reading: Bonjour 40 by Karen A. Chase
The last person I followed on Twitter: @mrskutcher

1. Karen A. Chase on Barnes & Noble’s Unbashedly Bookish Blog

Karen A. Chase – author of Amazon bestseller BONJOUR 40 – went on Barnes & Noble‘s favorite community blog Unbashedly Bookish for a great Q&A! Here is just one of the questions the fantastique author answered:

3. How did you come up with the title of your book?

Before my trip to Paris for my 40^th, I was searching for a name for the blog. I was having dinner with my friend Kelly, and told her what I was doing. Later that night she emailed me and suggested calling the blog Bonjour 40! It was so fitting. It wasn’t just a blog about going to Paris; it was about embracing turning 40 in a fun way. When the blog developed into the book, it seemed natural to keep the name. The subtitle came from the whole experience. 40 years old. 40 days in Paris. With journal entries that could be read in about 40 seconds.

More on BONJOUR 40

If Karen A. Chase absolutely had to turn 40, she decided she could do it gracefully in Paris… for nearly 40 days. What began as a blog to communicate with friends and family, became a travel journal filled with over a months’ worth of daily humorous, insightful, and detailed glimpses into her Paris adventures, each of which could be read in about 40 seconds.Peppered with Chase’s own delightful photographs, she also weaves in longer stories that reflect upon her experiences with the French, food, travel,photography, writing and love in the City of Lights. A companion to the e-book,her Bonjour40 blog still contains images and some notes for readers who crave more from her Paris adventure.

2. Jon Reiner on Author Scoop

Author of THE MAN WHO COULDN’T EAT Jon Reiner stopped by Author Scoop for a “5 minutes alone” interview to discuss his widely popular memoir. Here is a highlight of the interview:

AuthorScoop: Tell us about your latest release.

Jon: It’s brilliant. Just look at the cover; can’t you tell? THE MAN WHO COULDN’T EAT is a first-person memoir about a year in my life and the lives of my family members (February 2009 — February 2010) beginning with a medical emergency that nearly killed me in an instant, and the existential crisis that followed, triggered by the months in which I was sentenced to “Nothing By Mouth” — no food, no drink — and concluding with a complicated return to eating. Is life worth living if something as essential and pleasurable as eating is taken away? Food lent itself literally and metaphorically as the creative structure on which to hang the story, and it was an exceptionally rich vein to mine. The story started as a feature piece I wrote for Esquire that — in the ultimate irony — won the 2010 James Beard Foundation Award. I’m the anti-food food writer. It’s a niche, and I’m the only member. We always have a quorum.

More about THE MAN WHO COULDN’T EAT

Imagine not being able to eat or drink a single thing. No lobster roll on the beach in Maine; no hot dog at the ballpark; no cool drink on a hot summer day; no birthday cake; nothing. In The Man Who Couldn’t Eat (S&S/Gallery Books: September 6, 2011), Jon Reiner – a James Beard Foundation Award-winning writer –chronicles his three-month struggle to live without food. Based on Reiner’s acclaimed 2009 Esquire magazine article by the same name, the book reinvents the foodoir, telling what happens when a man obsessed with food is denied the taste of it. A beautifully written chronicle of one man’s journey from plenty to deprivation and back again,The Man Who Couldn’t Eat will change the way you think about more than just your next meal.

3. POPULAZZI on A Night Owl Review

Elise Allen‘s widely popular young adult novel POPULAZZI – recently optioned for a movie – received a wonderful review on A Night Owl Review! The author will be taking to the streets of New York City to run in the famous marathon on Sunday- so good luck to her! Here is a highlight of the review:

When Cara Leonard’s parents moved in the summer of junior year, it meant a chance at a new school with new people who had no idea about her past place in the school hierarchy. Her best friend Claudia has come up with a sociological map for how Cara can make the most of her fresh start: climb the Ladder to the Populazzi, the highest social tier in the school, by dating boys at various steps in the social ladder. Claudia’s plan for Cara seem destined for success when Cara easily meets and connects with Archer, a boy down on the Ladder, but enough to make the first step into popularity. But Cara likes him more than she should for the Ladders plan to succeed.

More on POPULAZZI

WHAT WOULD YOU DO if you had the chance to erase your past and reinvent yourself as the person you’ve always wanted to be? Would you grab it? Would you stick with it, no matter what the consequences?

Cara Leonard always wished she could be one of those girls: confident, self-possessed, and never at a loss for the perfect thing to say. One of the Populazzi.

It always seemed impossible… but now could be her chance.

When Cara moves to a new school just before junior year, her best friend urges her to seize the opportunity and change her life… with the help of The Ladder. Its rungs are relationships, and if Cara transforms herself into the perfect girlfriend for guys higher and higher on the Popularity Tower, she can reach the ultimate goal: Supreme Populazzi, the most popular girl in school.

The Ladder seems like a lighthearted social experiment — a straight climb up — but it quickly becomes gnarled and twisted. And when everything goes wrong, only the most audacious act Cara can think of has a chance of setting things even a little bit right.

4. Auryn’s app VAN GOGH AND THE SUNFLOWERS on The iPhone Mom

Auryn‘s new app VAN GOGH AND THE SUNFLOWERS continues to gain national recognition by educators, technology enthusiasts and most importantly, moms! Here is a highlight of the review of the new innovative app by The iPhone Mom:

Where do I begin with Van Gogh and the Sunflowers? Saying that it is wonderful doesn’t seem enough and I’m not sure that I can adequately describe the magic of this app. This one is something special. Van Gogh and the Sunflowers is the adaptation of Laurence Anholt’s book of the same name. It tells the story of a boy named Camille who lives in a town filled with sunflowers. One day a painter comes to live in their town. That painter was Vincent Van Gogh and he was different, a man without many friends. Camille and his father, the postman, befriend Van Gogh and his family becomes the subject of several of his paintings. The story is actually based on facts as Van Gogh did become friends with Joseph Roulin, the town postman, and paint his family. The story doesn’t gloss over the way Van Gogh was treated during his time but it is handled appropriately. The townspeople never warm to him, the children throw rocks and he is forced to leave the village. This bothers Camille and the empathy you feel for Van Gogh is reflected in this boy’s actions. Van Gogh’s own personal troubles are not directly mentioned but in one of the final illustrations he is shown with a bandage over his ear, implying that it’s been cut off. The story is bittersweet as it ends with the message that Van Gogh’s time eventually did come and he is now known the world over, including for his paintings of sunflowers.

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