Selden Richardson at the Library of Virginia

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June Books on Broad

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Jason Rosenhouse at the Library of Virginia

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I Love June Casagrande

I love June Casagrande.

I could have written that I love June Casagrande because she has such an irreverent sense of humor. I could have written that I love June Casagrande because she takes a subject as mind-numbingly boring as sentence structure and creates a light and entertaining read. But now that I’ve read It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences I feel as if the sentence “I love June Casagrande” is a better choice for an opening sentence.

If you are a regular in the Virginia Shop at the Library of Virginia you know that we shamelessly promote Casagrande’s earlier work Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies: A Guide to Language for Fun and Spite and display it as a regular feature on the sales desk. The title usually evokes a chuckle from people as they wait for their credit card to process through the insanely slow state-managed computer network. It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences is now featured prominently beside it. I will admit that I did not actually read Grammar Snobs but instead listened to it on CD while on a road trip. I have since reread some of the chapters, less intent on learning anything than getting a good laugh, and it never fails to generate a chuckle at the very least.

I still enjoyed the humor in It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences, but I also took away some great advice on building better sentences, tips that could prove useful to writers of all skill levels. I know just enough about grammar to know that I should feel a little self conscious about my writing. I dread the fact that as soon as I make something public I’ll immediately notice a typographical error or a really unfortunate word choice. In fact, I worry that June Casagrande herself might Google her own name, read my blog post, and decide one of my sentences is bad enough to use as an example of bad writing in her next book. I’m hoping that since The Virginia Shop probably sells more copies of her books than any other store in the country that she’ll take pity on me.

BOOK TALK: Brown’s Battlefield by Jill Titus

Jill Titus, Ph.D

The Library of Virginia will host a Book Talk on February 15, 2012 featuring Dr. Jill Titus’s Brown’s Battlefield, the story of the seismic changes brought by Brown v. the Board of Education andVirginia’s move to resist desegregation. In her book Titus illustrates the ways that ordinary people, black and white, battled, and continue to battle, over the role of public education in theUnited States.

If you’d like a taste of Titus’ writing, we discovered two short articles by her and have included the links below. She reflects upon life amid the turbulence of the Civil Rights movement and integration in the early 1960s.

The Cost of Resistance
Back-to-School Reflections

BOOK TALK INFO:
Date: Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Time: Noon–1:00 PM
Place: Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia
Jill Titus will speak, and a book signing follows the talk. Limited free parking is available under the Library with access on both 8^th and 9^th Streets.

CLICK HERE to get directions to this event.

A BOOK TALK for all you Jane Austen junkies out there: Second Impressions

Second Impressions, by Ava Farmer

If Jane Austen had lived longer than her all-too-brief one-and-fourty years, this might have been the sequel to Pride and Prejudice.  Written in the idiom of Austen’s time, Second Impressions is a story of the Darcy family, their friends, and relations.  It has been ten years’ time since that happiest of days when Mrs. Bennet got rid of her two most deserving daughters.  What does Elizabeth do all day at Pemberly? Has Lady Catherine been allowed to visit? Have Mr. and Mrs. Wickham become, as Jane Bennet predicted, steady and rational? What about England’s most eligible daughter, Georgiana Darcy? Even Anne de Bourgh has a life after P&P.

With the Great French War over and peace come, at least, what doesEnglandlook like in the late Regency? Is there a place for Austen’s heroes and heroines in anEnglandgreatly changed by industrializations, a new elite of fortunes made in trade, and reformist politics? It may be safely conjectured that Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are settled and happy, as are Jane and her Bingley, Austen left the protagonists finished and complete (or are they?), but there are other characters, other lives, and other loves to explore.

Ava Farmer is a fictious nom de plume of a real person who wishes to remain fictionalized.  The founder of a large technology company and a small grunge cosmetics company, Ava now spends her time contemplating cow and the scourge which is industrialized, chemical agriculture.  She is also the author of a now-obsolete dictionary of terms related to digital music, and the translator/editor of an old book on carriage driving.  None of the above qualifies her to write this novel, but she hopes you will buy it anyway.  All profits from Second Impressions go to The Chawton House Library, a non-profit resource for the study of English women’s writing to support students and research of women writers, pre-1830, writing in English, world-wide.

…and you have the chance to meet the author AND purchase the book! Make it a book club outing.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Time: 5:30 PM–7:30 PM
Place: The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia

Light refreshments (wine and cheese) will be served (5:30–6:15 PM), followed by an author talk (6:15–7:15 PM), and book signing (7:15–7:30 PM).

CLICK HERE to get directions to this event.

Novels by Adriana Trigiani, ready and waiting holiday reads!

The Virginia Shop stocks several titles by Adriana Trigiani who is a great friend to the Library of Virginia, hosting our annual Literary Awards celebration with humor, wit and unparalleled style.  We’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t love Adriana’s charming books.  Snag one for someone (anyone!) on your list this holiday. Or get one for yourself to enjoy by the fire this winter.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a little insight into the author:

Adriana Trigiani grew up in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, in the 1970s. She has honed her storytelling abilities over a decade of writing and producing some of television’s top-rated shows, including the groundbreaking Cosby Show. Trigiani is also an award-winning playwright and documentary filmmaker. She lives inNew York City with her husband.

Some fascinating, funny outtakes from a Barnes and Noble interview with Trigiani:

“I appeared on the game show Kiddie Kollege on WCYB-TV inBristol,Virginia, when I was in the third grade. I missed every question. It was humiliating.”

“I have held the following jobs: office temp, ticket seller in movie theatre, cook in restaurant, nanny, and phone installer at the Super Bowl inNew Orleans. In the writing world, I have been a playwright, television writer/producer, documentary writer/director, and now novelist.”

“I love rhinestones, faux jewelry. I bought a pair of pearl studded clip on earrings from a blanket on the street when I first moved toNew York for a dollar. They turned out to be a pair designed by Elsa Schiaparelli. Now, they are costume, but they are still Schiaps! Always shop in the street — treasures aplenty.”

“Dear readers, I like you. I am so grateful that you read and enjoy my books. I never forget that — or you — when I am working. I am also indebted to the booksellers who read the advanced reader’s editions and write to me and say, “I’m gonna hand-sell this one.” That always makes me jump for joy. I love the people at my publishing house. Smart. Funny, and I like it when they’re slightly nervous because that means they care. The people I have met since I started writing books have been amazing on every level — and why not? You’re readers. And for someone to take reading seriously means that you are seeking knowledge. Yes, reading is fun, but it is also an indication of a serious-minded person who values imagination and ideas and, dare I say it, art. I never thought in a million years when I was growing up in Big Stone Gap that I would be writing this to you today. Books have always been sacred to me — important, critical, fundamental — and a celebration of language and words. And authors! When I was little, I didn’t play Old Maid, I played authors. They had cards with the famous authors on them. Now, granted, they didn’t look like movie stars, but I loved what they wrote and had to say. I can boil this all down to one thing: I love to tell stories — and I love to hear them. I didn’t think there was a job in the world where I would get to do both, and now thank God, I’ve found it.”

Big Cherry Holler

Big Stone Gap

Brava, Valentine

Don’t Sing at the Table