The Misguided Meal-in-a-Box Phenomenon

Wow what a story, excellent …

Longreads

Andy Samberg and Colonel Sanders aren’t the only people to put memorable things in boxes. Corby Kummer wrote about his trials and issues with the booming meal kit delivery industry in The New Republic last October, weighing the benefits of convenience and culinary experimentation with the reality of waste:

I won’t be marketing my services as an investment adviser, at least not soon. Friends and relatives are ordering these boxes—functional adults who know how to cook and have at least a passing familiarity with grocery stores and farmers’ markets. More startlingly, one friend is putting money into “meal-kit” companies, as he informed me is the term of art. It seemed clear I couldn’t keep dismissing Blue Apron, with its three million meals a month and almost $200 million in venture capital raised so far. Or its rival Plated, co-founded by two fresh-out-of-Harvard-Business-School entrepreneurs, Nick Taranto and Josh Hix, whose office I recently visited. On one…

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Michael Simms: A Note from the Editor on the Vagaries of Publishing Poetry on the Internet

excellent write up about the challenges faces by a website / blog

Vox Populi

Once again, a poet has emailed me, peeved that a poem of hers that appeared in Vox Populi is not anything like the version she sent me. The line-endings and stanza-breaks are scrambled. Her careful crafting of white-space has disappeared. Her neologisms have been auto-corrected to gibberish. The indentations are…  Well, I’m embarrassed. She’s embarrassed. Readers are shunning the page.

For the umpteenth time, I manually correct the html of a poem and remind the poet that a website is not like a typewriter where you can control exactly the way things appear. A website often sees non-standard formatting as errors to be fixed. And even if the formatting holds on the website, each server and social network may make arbitrary changes. Poems transmitted by email are often a mess. And even if these systems don’t screw up the poem, individual laptops, desktops, and handheld devices make adjustments to layout…

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Up-close and Afar – Romania

Window into a different world, a story told in pictures.

Early American Bibles: The First 200 Years of Bible Publishing in the U. S

Welcome to our Book Corner, the blog where we highlight new or different books that we think would make perfect picks for you. If you’re looking to read more about books, or join a particular book discussion, we host a wide variety of books right here at Bookworm. Join us! We love to talk about books and we love to hear your opinion.

FEATURED BOOK OF BOOKWORM

Things You Didn’t know about the Pilgrims posted by bookforces.

We typically think of the Pilgrims as British outcasts who set sail to America and settled in Massachusetts. But historical facts are a little more complex than that; the original Pilgrims were fellows of the fundamental Puritan group of the Church of England named the English Separatist Church, which unlawfully split away from the main Church in 1607. The group initially settled in the Netherlands, where the laws were more tolerant towards religion. Continue reading: The Pilgrims, Early America by Ives Alphege

The history of bible publishing in the US at its best.

Earthpages.org

English: WPA poster-Ephrata : Visit the ancient cloisters of the early German pietists in Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Author: Ron Davis

The Bible, New Testament, and various books of the Bible were translated into fifteen languages in America by the time of the Civil War. In the first 200 years of Bible publication in America the Bible or New Testament was printed in Algonquin, German, English, Greek, Latin, French, Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Cherokee, and Hawaian, it that chronological order. Scripture portions were translated into three additional Native American languages: the Gospel and the Epistles of John into the Delaware language in 1818; the book of Genesis in 1835 and the Gospels in 1850 into Chippewa; the books of Acts, Romans and Galatians in 1835, and the book of Isaiah in 1839, into Mohawk. Portions of Scripture into Cherokee were begun in 1831, and the New Testament was printed in 1857. The New Testament with Hawaian and English text in parallel columns was also published…

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Book Club Corner – February

BookPeople

Welcome to our Book Club Corner, where each month we highlight books new to paperback we think would make perfect picks for your next book club discussion. If you’re looking to join a book club, we host a wide variety of free, bookseller-run book clubs right here at BookPeople. Join us! We love to talk books.

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FEATURED BOOKS OF THE MONTH

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 Five Days At Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospitalby Sheri Fink

Sheri Fink’s journalistic account of the events inside a New Orleans hospital while waiting for evacuation during Hurricane Katrina feels more pertinent than ever. Now that it’s just over ten years since the disaster, maybe enough time has passed that these stories won’t feel quite as raw as when Fink initially published the 2009 New York Times article that eventually led to this book. It was an article outlining the tough choices these…

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The Siren by Kiera Cass

Wow watch the video

bookforces book selling and publishing

The official trailer for the THE SIREN is here! In this standalone fantasy romance from Kiera Cass, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Selection series, Kahlen is a Siren, bound to serve the Ocean for 100 years. But when falling in love with the boy of her dreams puts them both in danger, will she risk everything to follow her heart?

Download “Into the Waves,” the original Siren Song with lyrics written by Kiera Cass.

#1 New York Times bestselling author of the Selection series, comes a captivating stand-alone fantasy romance.

Kahlen is a Siren, bound to serve the Ocean by luring humans to watery graves with her voice, which is deadly to any human who hears it. Akinli is human—a kind, handsome boy who’s everything Kahlen ever dreamed of. Falling in love puts them both in danger . . . but Kahlen…

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Steph Recommends: Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick

Exciting good review

The Book Wars

Hardcover, 224 pages
Published July 16th 2009 by Orion
Source: Library

Of the four of us, Steph and I have the most disparate reading tastes. She prefers no-frills realistic stories while I like frills and a fantastic genre (unless it’s Manga, then I prefer realistic stuff) above all else. Still, I have read Sedgwick’s White Crow and enjoyed it a lot so when she suggested I read Revolver I pounced on the chance to read more of his work.

It is a rather timely novel, I must say, considering the Great-Gun-Debate our neighbours across the border are (and if they aren’t, they should be) indulging in. Here’s a synopsis:

“They say that dead men tell no tales, but they’re wrong. Even the dead tell stories.”

It’s 1910. In a cabin north of the Arctic Circle, in a place murderously cold and desolate, Sig Andersson is alone. Except for the corpse…

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Ten Books that Imagine the Unimaginable: Genocide by Sarah J. Donovan, PhD

Very good overview

Nerdy Book Club

Education reform wants competition and global participation, but reform does not seem interested in intervening in the dark side of such progress. As a modern nation, we celebrate development, yet we tend to overlook the lives lost and voices pushed to the margins of society in the process. Literature is one way we can bear witness to distant suffering and contemplate future action.

Teachers have been reading books about the Holocaust with students for years in part because many states made Holocaust education mandatory in the hopes of raising a generation who might live the promise of “never again.” However, again and again we hear stories of genocide and see images of distant suffering.

Teen readers want to uncover the stories behind the images, stories missing from textbooks and the classroom current events magazines. They want the opportunity to ask why “again and again” and to imagine what needs to…

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INTO THE HURRICANE Best Action Adventure Book for Teens

It’s almost a cliche at this point to say that a teen book isn’t just for teens anymore. Parents treasure this book just as their teens that love reading it.

INTO THE HURRICANE

Jack Hall proceeds, in the action-packed new adventure book, to the popular teen action author.

Jack Hall’s new series is vivid. There is nothing more exciting than reading the action-packed page turner. Be prepared to stay up all night reading.

Into The Hurricane is an adventure story, that takes the reader on an intense journey from the boys home in Texas to Norfolk, Virginia through to the ship’s dramatic moments going into the hurricane. The book combines a unique adventure onboard an ocean freighter with the treacherous betrayal of the Captain.

Butch Carson and his friend Bill Cody spending the most exciting, distinctive, and around-the-clock adventurous time of their summer vacation on a freighter traveling the Atlantic. They experienced the force of a hurricane that they are going into like few others ever have.

Captain Dexter was thrilled when the weather forecast came in about the storm. He placed such great importance on staying out into the Atlantic for his personal gain, that he made a reckless decision, he ordered to change course south, further out into the Atlantic and directly into the hurricane.

Their journey is truly a unique adventure. Both young teens have the rare privilege to discover a conspiracy to sell the shipping line, that they are sailing on. The two boys are hired as part of the crew and Butch realizes, that Captain Dexter is part of a conspiracy to force the owner into selling to his archrival. Butch and Bill have to find a way to warn the owner, Mr. Bendel, not to sell the shipping line. The insidious plot makes an exciting story of adventure.

Butch Carson Adventure series by Jack Hall

There is nothing more exciting than reading a Butch Carson Adventure, that is an action packed page turner. The book series which are full of suspense and adventure takes the reader directly into the story told.

The Butch Carson Adventure series is a collection of journeys where Butch Carson, an American teenager who discovers plots and conspiracies, is accompanied by his best friend, Bill Cody. Each book will inspire an interest and open up to learn something about the world around us. In addition to the story told, each book is notable for its selection of remarkable facts.

Butch Carson is an everyday teenager, a student-athlete from Texas Riviera High School, that is an exceptionally popular teen. Jack Hall is the master of the action-packed adventure story.

Buy INTO THE HURRICANE from Amazon, ISBN No 978-0996998512

My time in Edinburgh

A year of reading the world

I’ll admit it: I was nervous. Although my quest to read the world has taken me on many adventures and seen me speaking to a wide variety of audiences – from 20 Women’s Institute members in a school hall in Lee to 300 Procter & Gamble employees in Geneva – I had never faced a challenge quite like this. As I walked into the authors’ yurt, backstage at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, I couldn’t help being aware that I was here to take part in one of the most renowned literary events in the world.

Now, I’ve been in a yurt or two before (I once gave a talk in one in Canterbury), but I have never seen one to compare to this. Sprawling over an area about twice the size of my flat, it was made up of a series of conjoined octagons, which created pleasing little alcoves…

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Blog Tour: The Wild Swans by Jackie Morris

Excellent!

The Book Wars

Hardcover, 176 pages
Published October 1st 2015 by Frances Lincoln Children’s Bks
Source: Publisher

If you’re not familiar with “The Wild Swans” by Hans Christen Anderson then let me present it to you in my own irreverent words.

In the Hans Christen Anderson story, there are twelve royal siblings, 11 boys and 1 girl, who lose their mother to some illness. Their father, the king, marries another woman who is, as women are wont to be in old fairytales, evil. She turns the brothers into wild swans leaving the sister unharmed…well, I guess not really, she took away the sister’s male protectors, leaving her vulnerable. The sister is tasked with finding a way to break the curse on her brothers and the faerie queen (I think) tells her to spin nettles into thread and then weave it into 11 shirts for the brothers. I don’t know the process but you get the…

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The Rose Society by Marie Lu: A Review

The Book Wars

Adelina Amouteru’s heart has suffered at the hands of both family and friends, turning her down the bitter path of revenge. Now known and feared as the White Wolf, she and her sister flee Kenettra to find other Young Elites in the hopes of building her own army of allies. Her goal: to strike down the Inquisition Axis, the white-cloaked soldiers who nearly killed her.

But Adelina is no heroine. Her powers, fed only by fear and hate, have started to grow beyond her control. She does not trust her newfound Elite friends. Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, wants her dead. And her former friends, Raffaele and the Dagger Society, want to stop her thirst for vengeance. Adelina struggles to cling to the good within her. But how can someone be good, when her very existence depends on darkness? — [X]

First things first: I’m taking a bit of…

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The Stand Up Sit Down Book Club Drops In To See What Kind Of Situation THE TODD GLASS SITUATION Is In.

BookPeople

Todd Glass‘s situation is unique. After a killer set at the Largo at the Coronet, he retreated backstage to receive some well-deserved accolades from his peers. Two seconds later, he was face down in the filthy carpet of the comedy club, apparently in the throes of a serious heart attack. When Sarah Silverman came to his aid, he asked her to call his girlfriend and tell her what was happening – the unspoken understanding between the two of them being that Todd’s girlfriend was a man, and that Todd would be taking that secret to his grave if need be.

Convalescing at home, Todd had to confront a hard question. Why was a successful comedian in his forties living in the most liberal city in America still in the closet? The Todd Glass Situation: A Bunch of Lies About My Personal Life and a Bunch of True Stories About…

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New Books! 11/3/15

BookPeople

Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving (speaking & signing in our store 11/12! Tickets available online.)

Juan Diego a fourteen-year-old boy, who was born and grew up in Mexico has a thirteen-year-old sister. Her name is Lupe, and she thinks she sees what’s coming specifically, her own future and her brother’s. Consider what a terrible burden it is, if you believe you know the future, especially your own future, or, even worse, the future of someone you love. What might a thirteen-year-old girl be driven to do, if she thought she could change the future? Juan Diego grew up in Mexico, but as an older man traveling in the Philippines, but what travels with him are his dreams and memories; he is most alive in his childhood and early adolescence in Mexico. Avenue of Mysteries is the story of what happens to Juan Diego in the Philippines, where…

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What Ruby Gave Me by Nora Raleigh Baskin

Nerdy Book Club

Yesterday morning I went to the Westport Health department to have my Tine test checked.  I am happy to report I do not have TB, in part — though not entirely! — because I can now begin volunteering at the Bedford Hills Women’s Correctional facility.  That is what Ruby[On the Outside] has done for me:  Changed my life. Added to my life. Taken me deeper into myself. And (yes, thank goodness) out of myself.

I have always wanted to volunteer and give back. I’ve done small things here and there; some things fit, others didn’t. Nothing on a regular basis. First my kids were young and needed my time. Then they were older and needed more of my time. I was working. I was writing.

And now, it is just time.  Ruby has taken me full circle.

Four years ago I knew next to nothing about mass incarceration in…

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