Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon away from life as a San Francisco web-design drone and into the aisles of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. But after a few days on the job, Clay discovers that the store is more curious than either its name or its gnomic owner might suggest. The customers are few, and they never seem to buy anything—instead, they “check out” large, obscure volumes from strange corners of the store. Suspicious, Clay engineers an analysis of the clientele’s behavior, seeking help from his variously talented friends. But when they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, they discover the bookstore’s secrets extend far beyond its walls. Rendered with irresistible brio and dazzling intelligence, Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is exactly what it sounds like: an establishment you have to enter and will never want to leave.


This is one of those books that people, such as myself, who have worked in a Bookstore are meant to love. This book was AIMED right at me and it didn't miss it's mark.

Within the first 10 pages of this book I determined I would LOVE to work in this bookstore. The low key, kushy bookstoreness that I loved about working at Coles and McNally is multiplied by about 100 in this store. Kushiest. Job. Ever. I may not be allowed to browse through and read several of the books in stock, but nothing was ever said about bringing my own books. Hurrah for loopholes!!

Shortly after I determined that I would LOVE to have Clay's job, I found out that one of his roommates works at ILM (Industrial Light & Magic, a company started by THE George Lucas, and is the forerunner in all movie visual effects. I am sure almost any movie you can think of that has decent visual effects used ILM) and went from wanting his job to wanting his life. It would be SO COOL to know someone that works at ILM. That's basically like working for Star Wars...

I loved the diversity in the characters in this novel. Although there were tonnes of secondary characters in this book, it wasn't tough to keep them straight because they all had very different names and had very different personalities, just like customers in a bookstore. ;)

One of the strange things I found about this book, which may be entirely my fault, is that although all of the action happens in this book in the second half, I found I enjoyed the first half better. In the first half, almost everything happens in the bookstore. After that Clay kinda hops around the Western United States... so no more bookstore. The bookstore is always relevant to the story, but I think one of the reasons that I struggled with finishing this book (took about 3 weeks when it should have taken me 1), is that I wanted to be in the bookstore. I wanted to LIVE in the bookstore frankly. So it was a little disappointing when it was no longer the primary location of the plot. 

Good book, earns my recommendation, but it needed more bookstore time. 

... Extra little bonus feature here. I loved this quote by Clay in the book...

"When you read a book, the story definitely happens inside your head. When you listen [to an Audio book], it seems to happen in a little could all around it, like a fuzzy knit cap [touque] pulled down over your eyes" 

I am not much of an audio book person. Heck, I've actually never listened to an audio book. But I really like this quote. For those that have listened to audio books, do you agree? I am interested in everyone's perspective! 

Dissolving resolve...

I've been kinda laming out on my blog lately. Really, it's partially because nothing has really been super interesting or different lately, and I haven't been reading as much as I would like to be lately. Shame on me. Shame! But I have been preoccupied.

I started into a new business venture with Steeped Tea which is taking up a lot of my time. (Don't worry, this isn't a sales pitch, just an explanation of what I have been up to lately)

For anyone who isn't familiar with Steeped Tea, it's a Canadian home based business out of Hamilton that does home based Tea Parties. Think Arbonne/Tupperware type home party thing, but with Tea and tea products.

I have had one bad experience when I tried to do a home based business type thing with a skincare-type company (although they would hate it if they knew I called it that). Their expectations of their consultants were way too high and there was a minimum amount of product you HAD to buy and then try to sell after the fact. They make it sound like people will be coming up to YOU to ask for the stuff, but that really just wasn't the case. I ended up with 10 times the product I needed and no one to sell it to. So I cut my ties and swore I would never do it again.

Then I got invited to a ParTEA by a friend of mine from work that decided to sell it. Now, I have always loved my tea, so this sounded like a good time and I had no intention of selling it myself, but I did have a list of product the length of my arm that I wanted to try. I stuck with 8 teas (plus a freebie) at that party and was proud of my self control.

I really became interested in the company and ended up watching their Dragon's Den episode, like, 5 times just because I loved these people so much. I decided to host a party through my friend from work and we picked a date and I sent out invites. Shortly after, they had a special advertised on their site about a discounted rate for becoming a consultant. Now, by saying it was a discounted rate, I mean that they sell you a crap tonne of product, including teas and hardware, plus a bunch of the sales supplies and it's up to you to sell stuff, book parties, etc. etc. but they GIVE you all of this stuff to do it with. Seriously, when I got my Enrollment package, I felt like I had ripped someone off. I got THAT much stuff. I figured that the teapot and the iced tea jug were about the same price as I paid for the whole package, which included infusers, about 20 teas, food product, and a bunch of other little things I don't care to list. AND the greatest part, I didn't have to sell anything if I didn't want to. There would be no punishment if I just said "SUCKERS!" and took the stuff and used it myself.

But I didn't want to do that. But at the same time, I don't really want to SELL it either... not like the way the skincare company did. I want to sell it like I sold books, where people approach you, tell you what they like, and it's your job to help them find something. My whole sales pitch is "NO PRESSURE!" because I really want you to WANT the product, not buy it because I said it's good, or I like it or whatever. I really do want to offer my customers an opportunity, not a sales pitch. I would like to do parties, not only to make a little commission but to offer this awesome product to people. I will not lie, the hardware stuff can be a bit expensive (the iced tea infuser jug I got with my kit is worth $40, I bought 4 similar style ones I like better from Costco for $25 total), but if people want to learn why loose leaf tea is superior to tea bags, I am your girl. If you just want to come to a party and try 47 different types of tea and then buy one (or maybe even none!), that's OK! I am supportive of that! At least you have tried it and figured it wasn't for you....

Anywhoo... I have rambled on about this FAR longer than I intended. I just get excited, and it's still pretty new, so I love talking about it.

But back to why I am busy and not reading or blogging. It seems that during the times I would normally be reading books, I am now studying information guides and googling things about stuff I want to learn about teas and this company. I know more about Rooibos teas than I ever thought possible. Basically, I don't want to just sell this stuff, I want to be an expert on it. I want to be able to ask any question that is thrown at me. So I end up reading product updates and listening in on conference calls rather than reading my books.

I have had a book on the go for 3 weeks now that I really should have finished after a week. Then I decided that I was gunna crack down and finish it and I bought the next book I was planning on reading, but I still haven't finished that first book yet... and now another one that I have been on the wait list for months at the library waiting to come in is now available and I only have it for two weeks, so that has bumped the newly purchased book to 3rd... but I STILL need to finish this book... so... I'm working on it. I'm getting to the point in Steeped Tea that I've got the gist of everything, now I just need to get more experience. So I completed my Training Party, booked another couple, and just need to do it. So I think I will get back to having more time than I have lately, but still not as much as I did before the Steeped Tea thing started.

So in conclusion, sorry for the impromptu hiatus. I am still around. I will be around. I'm just busy.

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My Delinquent Reader

I had to make one of the toughest decisions of my life the other day, and it took a couple of days of failing miserably trying everything else before I bit the bullet and made the tough call that has made me feel guilty ever since...

I took the books out of Rosalie's room.

*cries*

I have always been an advocate of reading. I believe the accessibility to books is a key part of harvesting lifelong readers at a young age. I have always dreamed of having kids that become readers like me, but I was worried that for whatever reason, they wouldn't take to it. Every child is different, so in theory, it might be that they just don't end up with a preference for it. But I was relieved when Rosalie started getting excited for books, and no story before bedtime was a threat that would get her butt in gear (not a harsh threat, but a "if you don't get your pjs on, there won't be time for a story", which is a completely empty threat, there is always time for a story...). At the beginning of the month, I started catching her asleep in bed with a book clutched in her arm, like most kids do with stuffed animals. I was happy! It was cute!... but be careful what you wish for.

Rosalie and her books have gotten completely out of hand at night. She went from grabbing one and apparently reading it until she fell asleep, to pulling out a dozen books and covering her bed with them. Most nights, I lie down next to her bed until she falls asleep or until I get too uncomfortable to stay on the floor any longer (that is becoming more frequent and happening after shorter periods of time the larger I get), and on the nights I leave before she falls asleep, I would check on her every few minutes and tell her to lie down and go to sleep, but if I got distracted doing something else, or had an "at the end of this chapter" moment, I would always find her out of bed with books covering her bed. Sometimes even after the few minute checks she would already be back out of bed grabbing books. I tried sitting outside of her room, but the discomfort thing always eventually wins. I asked Roland to check on her, but he is worse than I am for getting distracted by other things.

So one night, after she had been in bed for over 2 hours and had yet to fall asleep, and I had taken her books and put them back numerous times, I finally put them in boxes and hauled them to just outside her room. And less than 5 minutes later she was asleep. Out cold. I put them back in her room the next morning, hoping it was an isolated incident that would not continue, but it did. After 3 or 4 nights of pulling the books out of her room, they are now indefinitely outside her room... and I have guilt over this. I, myself, like to read before bed, but I am denying her that opportunity.

So at this point I guess we just have to wait until she can understand that there is a time and a place for reading, and while you are supposed to be sleeping is not one of them. So, she should get that by the time she's, what?, 16? 17 years old? :/ ;)

Lost Without a Book

Yesterday I had my 32 week doctor's appointment. I always make a point of bringing a book with me to the doctor's office if I don't need to take Rosalie with me because doctor's appointment are, of course, always late getting you in. Before I left the house I ran upstairs to get my ereader off of my nightstand, and then I dropped off Rosalie and went to my appointment. I generally get there a little early, so I was about 10 minutes early. After checking in with reception, I sat down and went to pull my ereader out of my purse.... nada. I could feel my wallet and a crap tonne of (probably expired) coupons at the bottom of my purse, but not my ereader. I figured I must have grabbed it from my nightstand only to leave it on the stairs while putting on Rosalie's shoes or something. I was annoyed with myself, but just cracked out my iPhone to check facebook and putz around... 8% battery,.. and we all know that if you are actually actively using your phone, 8% lasts about 3 minutes. So I put it away. In any other situation I would have just used that 8% to just entertain myself until my phone died, but I track my weight and baby's heartrate on it, so I didn't want my phone to die until after I got those numbers entered into it.

So I sat, glancing at the clock every few seconds. I still had 5 minutes until my appointment time. I started to get annoyed about 1 minute after my appointment time when other people were going in ahead of me (not even necessarily for the same doctor). When I forget my book, my appointment better damn well be on time!!

I couldn't believe that I had forgotten my book on the stairs. How stupid is that. So I decided to root through my purse to see I had missed it somehow. I pulled out my wallet, the million coupons (still didn't check to see if they were expired), and my small work dayplanner (forgot I had put that in there), to find my ereader nestled at the bottom of my purse. SUCCESS! I can read! Ahh what a relief!

So I sat back and read until I was called in. And after I had found my book, I could have cared less if they took an hour to get me into that appointment. Take your time! I have my book! Don't worry about me. Of course, after all of the searching I didn't even finish a chapter before I saw my doctor...

But it just goes to show you, if you have a book you will never be bored waiting for an appointment! It can change the experience from an agonizingly dull wait to a great time to get some reading in. Good times! True advantage of being a reader!

2nd Blog Anniversary!!!

Gotta squeak this in before midnight! Today has been a crazy day.

2 years since I started this blog! It seems crazy!

Although I haven't crunched any numbers yet, I'm approaching on 200 posts, so I'll probably do more of a breakdown when I get there. I think I have upped my readership (So a big "thank you!" to all of you reading this!), and I am steadily upping my reading stats, although they might all come crashing down around me in August.

As always, feel free to comment on anything you think could be improved about the blog. I will seriously consider anything to make your blog reading experience better.

Also if you have any book requests you would like me to read and review, I am always open to suggestions! I have just recently bumped up one of my books on my unofficial "To Read" list as a priority since another person brought it to my attention (Thanks Dani!)

Thanks for everything followers! You've made blogging for two years seem easy and fly by!!

Micro 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome

I got the phone call about our complete amniocentesis today, and my baby has officially been diagnosed with a deletion on his/her 22nd chromosome.

I had already done a bunch of research on this one because it is common for babies with this deletion to have the cleft palate and heart defect, so when I searched chromosomal issues with these two symptoms, this one came up periodically. So I was prepared, but this wasn't what I wanted to hear. I wanted to hear that these two being together was just bad luck. That the heart defect was genetic and the cleft palate just happens sometimes. But those were not the cards we were dealt.

Some other common problems we may encounter are that baby may be more prone to infections and have immune system difficulties and may develop autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, kidney problems, low levels of calcium (which may result in seizures), hearing loss. Baby may also have developmental delays including delayed growth, speech development, and learning disabilities. Later in life babies with this syndrome are more likely to develop mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and it is quite common for them to have ADHD or be on the Autism Spectrum, there are also a plethora of other problems that may occur, but those are just the ones that jumped out at me.

One of the things that my OB/GYN stated is that all of these things are on a spectrum. Not all babies have all of these problems. And the "micro" part of the diagnosis is a good thing, it means the deletion is small, so in theory, this baby will not have as many difficulties as a baby with a "macro" diagnosis would.

Of all the possibilies of troubles that this baby could have, the one that worries me the most is the possibility of my baby developing Schizophrenia. That is one of the scariest possibilites for me. I have seen too many people in jail with schizophrenia, and after my neighbour's suicide last October, which I came to conclude was partially due to schizophrenia... it's too much to just shrug that one off, and that is one we probably won't know about until adolescence, which is also scary.

The next one that concerns me the most, but not nearly as much as the schizophrenia, is the calcium deficiencies that may lead to seizures. I have never seen anyone have a seizure and I know that for the most part all you can do is just let them pass. To be so out of control when things like that happen, scares me.

Almost everything else, I can deal with without losing too much sleep, I think. We already know about 2 physical issues that will require surgery, if there are kidney problems that may be another surgery, I am sure there are also medications for a lot of the physical things. As for the learning disabilities, I am not even remotely concerned. Life might be a bit tougher, but that's ok. We will deal just fine. The other mental illnesses... well... lots of people are walking around with depression and we don't even know it. We have the advantage of knowing that my baby may be prone to it, and thus can act accordingly if it shows up. I think that the advantage of depression over schizophrenia is that people that are depressed generally are not paranoid about being on medication. They want to feel better and they will let someone know if the meds aren't working anymore. People that are schizophrenic tend to want to go off medication because they don't think it's working or think that it's a control mechanism and not in their best interests.

Right now, all we need to worry about is getting this baby to term, but it seems like after this diagnosis we will have even more specialist appointments. There will be a lot more we need to be concerned about, but we will know more when we talk to the geneticist on Wednesday. Hopefully we will learn what more we can to expect, and maybe this doctor will be able to eliminate some of the possible problems due to the "micro" diagnosis, or narrow it down to a more specific syndrome due to the location of the deletion. But we will just have to wait and see....

~*~

I found this page very helpful in understanding this syndrome: http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/22q112-deletion-syndrome

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Down's Syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split-second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and never to reveal the secret. But Caroline, the nurse, cannot leave the infant. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself. So begins this story that unfolds over a quarter of a century - in which these two families, ignorant of each other, are yet bound by the fateful decision made that long-ago winter night. Norah Henry, who knows only that her daughter died at birth, remains inconsolable; her grief weighs heavily on their marriage. And Paul, their son, raises himself as best he can, in a house grown cold with mourning. Meanwhile, Phoebe, the lost daughter, grows from a sunny child to a vibrant young woman whose mother loves her as fiercely as if she were her own.


Of the many reasons I liked this book, the most prevalent one is how the author treated Phoebe as a person with special needs, not someone who was meant to be pitied or trivialized. It makes me wonder if Kim Edwards is a parent or sibling of someone with Downs Syndrome. Far too often people with special needs are seen AS their special needs, not a person living their lives just like anyone else. Families of these people are far better at seeing past it (or to a point, not seeing it at all anymore), but strangers are often quick to judge and quick to be uncomfortable.  As was typical of the time of this novel, it is not a slight to consider taking children with Downs Syndrome to an institution, but it was very forward thinking of Caroline, perhaps ahead of it's time for the novel, for her to recognize that an institution was not the best place for Phoebe. I believe that many people at the time would have believed that a specialized care for someone with a disorder is in their best interests. 

I never felt sorry for Phoebe at all during this book... ok, well, that's a lie, I felt sorry for her the night of her birth when her father said to take her away (I can't even imagine!), and when Phoebe had to go to the hospital and the nurse asked Caroline if she "really" wanted her to call a doctor (some people are so heartless), but otherwise, never. Phoebe has a great life full of people that love her and worked hard to get her the support that she needed. She gets such happiness out of everything, that she is clearly the least pitiable person in the book, and I love that it was written that way. Of the other 4 main characters I felt sorry for them periodically over the course of the book, even if I didn't like them. Phoebe was always a breath of fresh air. 

Another important point that I loved of this story was that how secrets can effect people without even them realizing there is a secret to begin with. In this case, I like to believe that had Norah and Paul's intuition not been telling them that Phoebe had not actually died in birth they would have not had the bitter resentment that they had throughout their lives. They would have been happier people had there been no secret to keep. It had nothing to do with how David conveyed the lie or how well he told the lie, it was more the fact that there was a lie hanging between him and his family that created such strife. I like to think of myself as a very honest, candid person, but there are the occasional secrets one must keep for a period of time for one reason or another, sometimes they are not your own to tell, or sometimes timing of  a reveal plays a part, in any case, I always have the feeling that people know that something is off when I do need to keep secrets, and I feel that the people in this story felt the same. So if this book had a moral, I would say it is that "Honesty is the best policy". No one should carry around lies for their whole life, and it's not fair to keep them from people that they effect.

If there was a flaw in this book, I would say that Father's aren't given enough credit. David's displaced and somewhat cruel choice to abandon his daughter for the sake of saving his wife from the emotional upheaval her disability is something I think that was treaded on a little too lightly. Almost like saying "any father could have chosen to do the same thing", when really, I don't think many fathers would. I think at the time it would have been encouraged by other doctors, pediatricians perhaps, to institutionalize these children, but I don't think any parent would casually make that decision within hours of their baby being born. Also, I think that Phoebe's stepfather, Al, is really overlooked. Yes he loves Phoebe and brings her gifts and stuff, but I think step-parents have a way greater effect on their step-kids than this book gives credit for. I feel that Al and Phoebe's relationship should have been flushed out more, rather that just sticking to Al's relationship with Caroline. 

All and all this is a really great read. Perhaps generally more geared toward a female audience, especially with the portrayal of fathers, but still a really good book. Another recommend from me!