James J. Patterson Shares a New Essay on Episode 7 of LFTRR
Hobnob with your favorite fellow wizard on episode 7 of Live from the Reading Room
The latest episode of James J. Patterson's LFTRR revisits one of our favorite recurring characters, the trickster deity Hermes.
"Hermes is a crazy cat," says Patterson, "He steals what's been stolen only to put it back; he lies to you only to get you back on track."
The essay, "Hermes at the Kakistocracy Hotel," will appear in Patterson's upcoming collection, Junk Shop Window.
Check out episodes of Live from the Reading Room every Monday at 4PM EDT over on JJP's Facebook page.
And don't forget, EVERY. SINGLE. BOOK. in the ASP catalog is half-price through the month of may!
ASP Author’s Gift Guide for Book Lovers (PART 2)
Gift guide part 2 features Mysteries, Travel Writing, and Books about Northern California.
ASP Authors’ Gift Guide for Book Lovers
Well, it’s that time of year again, when holiday gift lists are popping up all over. Here at ASP HQ, we’re particularly interested, of course, in gifts for book-lovers, and we’ve noticed a curious fact: No matter how diverse the sources of these lists, a few titles pop up again and again. Usually these are recently published, widely reviewed best-sellers. While there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, gift-givers might find themselves putting one more copy of the current hot mystery, or history, or memoir under a book-loving friend’s tree.
Featured Poetry: “Burial at Shanidar” by Elizabeth Hazen
This is no modern tradition, says Elizabeth Hazen. It is not only now that humans ornament their dead with flowers. “See,” she says in her rumination on tradition and humanity, Burial at Shanidar, “Even from a distance we dream of gardens where there should be stone.” And on Christmas especially, it is so wonderful to curl up with a book of poetry, even to read out-loud to one’s family, and bask in the ways we make words, just like the long winter days of dark, meaningful with light and tradition.