Book By Its Cover

After perusing the shelves of many libraries and bookstores for over 30 years, I'm here to tell you, that yes, one can indeed judge a book by it's cover. And I don't just mean obvious covers, like those with spaceships or damsels in ripped bodices on their fronts. (Also be wary of books with full-color photos of the author on the entire back cover, especially if said author is named "Judith" or "Danielle.")

The cover up there is one of the loveliest I've seen in a long time. How did the author, Lauren Groff, score that one? I've known a few writers in my day, and have learned that beginning, first-time authors usually get precious little say over how their covers end up looking. Of course, Ms. Groff also scored a blurb from Stephen King. So...I'm thinking she may have a connection or two.

Regardless, I enjoyed The Monsters of Templeton muchly. It had historical bits, magical realism, and a very engaging narrator in Ms. Willie Upton. It took a while to truly get its hooks in me, but I'm thinking that's mostly my fault, as I'm been so distracted these days by the kitchen remodel, and my nightly mouse-surfing, and also the sheer chaos of my desk area, which is reaching tipping-point level these days. But once I got about a 1/3 into it, I was quite interested and had a lot of fun flipping back and forth to the various family trees printed throughout, trying to keep track of all those people as Willie tries to uncover the mystery of who her real father is. Another "Starred Review" in Publisher's Weekly. So you see? I know what I'm talking about when it comes to that cover-judging business.

Speaking of the kitchen remodel: it's looking sweet, to steal the lingo of all the 30-and 40-something husbands I know (including mine). Goodness....can't wait to share some pics of that here. In the meantime, there's still my Ikea blog, which I've updated more often that I have this one. It's looking good, but whew...5 weeks without a real sink and garbage disposal and dishwasher: Ugh. I'm over that.

Finally, in a bit of internet synchronicity, here's a painting revealed this week by the lovely and ever-more famous Emily of the Black Apple Etsy store and blog. For there is a very similar white (and gentle) sea monster in "Monsters," (even thought "Glimmy," as it's called, for it's home of Lake Glimmerglass, dies in the very first sentence of the novel). I thought I'd be clever and leave a comment on Emily's post about the similarity, but somebody else, who'd also read the novel, beat me to it. Such is the Internet...such is the world: If you think it, chances are somebody has beaten you to it, first.