Desperately Seeking Salem

In my previous life, I studied the book market — so it’s been thrilling and fascinating to watch JoAnne Kohler build an independent bookstore here in Salem from the ground up.

And at a time when indie bookstores are out like the gout!

She’s taken a downtown space and made it a cultural center of sorts for Salem progressives, and has ensured that we always have a physical space to turn to when we need a meticulously stocked, hand-curated selection of contemporary fiction.

Ms. Kohler knows her stuff. She used to work for Borders, and was recommending The Help long before the mainstream media caught on.

But she ran into a stumbling block when the name of her bookstore, Tea Party Bookshop, became synonymous with — wait for it! — the exact opposite ideology her store generally supports (it has a New Age section as well as a large selection of Green books).

Um… time to rebrand!

Ms. Kohler stuck it out and braved the readers looking for Glenn Beck tomes for a while, but has decided to rename her store Tigress Books: Wildly Independent! Her new logo is out and replaces the previous one, which featured a clipper ship intended to invoke the spirit of American independence (and buying locally).

So don’t throw out your tea, cuddle up with a tiger.

Or read some Anais Nin.

Roar!

The world is divided into two kinds of people: People who return their library books on time, and bad people like me, who keep them even after they are due and can’t be renewed. People willing to pay the 25 cent a day fine to keep a book longer.

This point was hammered home for me this morning when I turned to my regular reading of the New York Times’ Ethicist column by Randy Cohen, who tackles this exact topic.

And lo and behold!, look who’s asking questions of public library ethics — it’s none other than my good friend Rachel Bucci, Salem, Ore. resident and mom of one.

Here’s her question:

I borrowed “Juliet Naked,” the latest Nick Hornby novel, from my local library a few weeks ago. It is due today. Unfortunately I’m only about halfway through and can’t renew it, because it is on hold for another patron. I’m willing to pay the penalty, 25 cents a day, so I can keep reading. May I do that, or must I return it knowing that someone else is waiting for it? RACHEL BUCCI, SALEM, ORE.

And here is Mr. Cohen’s answer.

The Ethicist generally runs a few months after the issues are resolved, and that happened with Ms. Bucci as well. By the time she got her name in the New York Times — go Rachel! Every writer’s dream! — she had already decided the right thing was to return the book on time and check it out later.

That’s news to me. I still have the library’s copies of Jo Frost’s Confident Baby Care and Harvey Karp’s Happiest Baby on the Block, which were due on Thursday.

Don’t worry, I plan to make good on this library transgression by participating in the library’s FOOD FOR FINES program.

Apparently, when I am good, I am very very good, and when I am bad, I am horrid.

Or at least unethical.

It took a little planning ahead — fast dinner, pumping milk, shoving baby Dash into his Daddy’s arms for the evening — but I made it to the John Irving talk yesterday at Willamette University.

And was I ever glad I made the effort. He was everything you could want in an author appearance: witty, charming, fabulously low-key, often brilliant, sometimes surprising, and always full of insight into his own work and the craft of novel writing.

He began by telling the story of his latest novel, one that he says has been in his mind for at least 20 years, Last Night in Twisted River. It’s his twelfth novel — a fugitive story about a son and his father, and like many of his books, things won’t end pretty here.

Some interesting tidbits from the evening:

• A famed fan of 19th century novelists, Irving detests Ernest Hemingway’s style and wasn’t afraid to say how much he also hates the contemporary writers who try to emulate the pared-down author.
• The inspiration for Irving’s books always begin at the end — with the very last sentence.
• He spends about a year plotting his novels. Then, when he knows the story through and through, he writes like a demon. Then he rewrites.
• Irving has little tolerance for writers who don’t love the re-write.
• Irving writes by hand. He is often shocked at how awful his kids’ handwriting is.
• He often inserts autobiographical elements into his books, but he would never want the past, nor the lives, that his characters have.
• He gives long, beautifully crafted answers to the questions his interviewers pose. because of that, he can probably only answer three questions in an hour. But man, does he pack in the content!

Time to revisit Owen Meany. Thanks, Willamette, for the talented Mr. Irving to town!

It’s not often that a local and nationally acclaimed literary writer takes a stage here in town, but that’s exactly what’s happening tonight at the Salem Public Library.

Gina Ochsner, mother of four, Keizer resident, and all-around writer on-the-rise will read there this evening at 7:00 p.m. from her debut novel The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight.

The book is one of those amazing debuts that suffers from a bit of a tough sell. I dare you to tell your friends about this book by plot alone and watch as their eyes glaze over (I’ve done this myself)). The novel tells the story of a handful of residents of a dilapidated apartment building in post-Communist Russia, some of whom work at a local museum, which houses only replicas of historical artifacts (The Russian Dreambook is big on the absurd).

That’s a pretty pathetic plot compression I’ve just offered, so I implore you to check out this great review of it from The Guardian, which goes into greater details about the book’s gloriously heartbreaking characters, who are really the stars in this dream book.

I’ve read this one and can’t sing its praises enough. It’s gorgeous, haunting, poetic, hilarious. And if I can get my husband to watch my little dude, I’ll be there watching Ochsner tonight.

One of the most prescient book covers I’ve seen recently graces the dust jacket of Jessica Maxwell‘s new spiritual memoir, Roll Around Heaven.

It features an achingly adorable winged swine swathed in the light of some divine clouds.

Well-timed nod to the swine flu?

Probably not — the pig refers to the author’s relationship with a Washington State pig farmer who became a religious guru to her as she embarked on her own spiritual journey about 20 years ago.

Maxwell is reading from her book tonight at the Tea Party Bookshop, the only bookstore in town that holds its own author readings.

Tea Party Joanne Kohler  has said:

“This is one of the few books I feel compelled to read again, and I am encouraging just about everyone who walks in to read it.  In fact, across the country, many people read a copy, then return for multiple copies to give as gifts.”

I found the book a little too inconsistent and out there for my tastes — you can read my review here.

But I might be alone in that regard, for here are some additional reviews, which glow so bright I might expect them to have been written by the author’s friends. Seriously, reading these is like watching a high school chemist burn a strip of magnesium.

I’m inclined to go down to Tea Party and check out the event tonight and meet Ms. Maxwell herself, who is pretty damn lovable in the early chapters of her book. We don’t have too many books coming out by Salem authors, and I firmly believe in the power of showing up.