Sunday, June 24, 2007

More Authors Coming This Fall

One of the best parts of my job is that I never know what the next phone call is going to bring. This week, I had a call from Kate Blum, a publicist that had sent author Elizabeth Berg to DM a couple of years ago. She was now calling about Lorna Landvik, a Minnesota writer, who is interested in coming to Des Moines. So we have her scheduled for October 24 at 6:30 PM at the Central Library. I called my freind Jean LemMon to tell her and she was thrilled as she had recommended this author to our AViD committee a couple of years ago! All of her books are set in Minnesota. So I have just started reading Tall Pine Polka and it is a fun read. I guess Landvik has been described as Minnesota's answer to Fannie Flagg and I would say that so far, her writing style is similar to Fried Green Tomatoes. Landvik's best known book is Patty Jane's House of Curl.

Last week, a fellow named Jim called me to see about a visit by Jon Gordon who has a new book out called, The Energy Bus. I understand that Gordon has appeared on the Today Show and the forward to his book was written by Ken Blanchard (One Minute Manager), so I read his book and now we have him scheduled to come to Des Moines too! He will be here on July 27 over the lunch hour.

The Energy Bus is a wonderful book on the power of positive thinking--about a poor guy who has a flat tire and is forced to ride a bus to work. His driver is Joy and she, along with the other zany folks riding the bus, helps him learn how to change his life by changing the way that he thinks about it. Simple advice that does seem to work.

Before I read The Energy Bus, I had just finished reading The Secret by Rhonda Byrnes. I had seen an article about it and decided to check it out as it was featured on Oprah and has been having great success. It is also about positive thinking and the energy that it creates! A good read even though it is somewhat simplistic and a tad hard for me to buy into the notion 100%.

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