{"id":976,"date":"2009-02-22T15:00:13","date_gmt":"2009-02-22T20:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/?p=976"},"modified":"2010-06-13T00:47:54","modified_gmt":"2010-06-13T04:47:54","slug":"literacy-and-longing-in-la-by-jennifer-kaufman-and-karen-mack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/?p=976","title":{"rendered":"Literacy and Longing in L.A. by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack"},"content":{"rendered":"

The local branch of my library displays books along the wall with the covers out to entice readers.\u00c2\u00a0 Their new tactic is to have tables near the reserved items area with multiple copies of books.\u00c2\u00a0 It really feels like a bookstore when I browse the tables and this is where I found Literacy and Longing in L.A.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here is part of the jacket flap:<\/p>\n

Dora, named after Eudora Welty, is an indiscriminate book junkie whose life has fallen apart – her career, her marriage, and finally her self-esteem.\u00c2\u00a0 All she has left is her love of literature, and the book benders she relied on as a child.\u00c2\u00a0 Ever since her larger-than-life father wandered away and her book-loving, alcoholic mother was left with two young daughters, Dora and her sister, Virginia, have clung to each other, enduring a childhood filled with literary pilgrimages instead of summer vacations.\u00c2\u00a0 Somewhere along the way Virginia made the leap into the real world.\u00c2\u00a0 But Dora isn’t quite there yet.\u00c2\u00a0 Now she’s coping with a painful separation from her husband, scraping the bottom of a dwindling inheritance, and attracted to a seductive bookseller who seems to embody all that literature has to offer – intelligent ideas, romance, and an escape from her problems.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is one difficult setup for an avid reader to walk away from.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s easy to identify with Dora’s book reading binges even if\u00c2\u00a0her reasons are different from my own.\u00c2\u00a0 My binges are because I have a large block of time while Dora’s binges are retreats from outside problems.<\/p>\n

This is chick lit with a literary twist.\u00c2\u00a0 Over a hundred authors, editors and books are mentioned in a natural way.\u00c2\u00a0 Dora puts thought into choosing books that will match the mood of her book binges and often rereads books already in her collection.\u00c2\u00a0 The reader is let in on her thought process for picking the books.\u00c2\u00a0 Also, the reader gets to overhear conversations between the bookstore employees.<\/p>\n

Dora has a good heart with only the best intentions.\u00c2\u00a0 Nearly everyone I know has a really off year or two in their lives where nothing comes together the way they think it should.\u00c2\u00a0 Literacy and Longing in L.A.<\/em> is a good example for anyone going through one of those rough patches to realize things can be better than they were before – just keep one foot in front of the other.\u00c2\u00a0 It also is a good escape for anyone who wants a retreat for a few hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The local branch of my library displays books along the wall with the covers out to entice readers.\u00c2\u00a0 Their new tactic is to have tables near the reserved items area with multiple copies of books.\u00c2\u00a0 It really feels like a bookstore when I browse the tables and this is where I found Literacy and Longing… Continue reading Literacy and Longing in L.A. by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[24,118,117,116],"class_list":["post-976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-book","tag-jennifer-kaufman","tag-karen-mack","tag-literacy-and-longing-in-la","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=976"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2546,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions\/2546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}