 A love of reading starts early. Cultivate that love in your children by reading to them and by giving them lots of books. Here's where we can talk about books and authors and anything to do with one or the other of those subjects.   WARNING: NEVER NEVER take iron supplements or give them to your children unless you are fully informed and aware of the potential risks.  the Website of Lucille Dickinson Ainsworth with Essays about life from the Roaring Twenties to the New Millenium  Have you ever wondered how libraries decide which books to buy? Libraries make their decisions on book purchases based on the public's desires and demands. If you have books you'd like to see on your local library's shelves, don't hesitate to make a recommendation to the librarian. Give the librarian the title and the author's name and the ISBN (that number on the back or inside) and ask that they stock that author's books. Of course, my hardcover romance novels are just the kind of book your librarian can order. Ask your favorite library to purchase my books. The titles and ISBNs are featured prominently throughout this site. Thanks for your support! |
 Here you'll find book talk. What I'm reading, book reviews, what's out there looming on the horizon, or just articles I think might interest you. Stop by each month and get your book fix here. by Joan Reeves I'm a sucker for Cowboy Poetry. I guess because I grew up reading old Zane Grey western novels. By the time I was fourteen, I think I'd read about fifty of them. Some, like West of the Pecos and Riders of the Purple Sage, I remember distinctly, but most have kind of blurred together. If you don't know much about Cowboy Poetry, let me clue you in. There are about 200 gatherings in the U. S. each year, and they're well attended. Texas holds one each spring in Alpine. Cowboy Poetry includes traditional elements like rhyme, meter and narrative, that aren't seen much in modern poetry. Most of the long-time practitioners of the genre have actually worked as cowboys, or they have strong links to that culture, for instance, wives of ranchers. No rhinestone cowboy need apply. Yes, there are some poets who've never had to deal with throwing a saddle over Old Paint, but somewhere along the line they had ancestors who knew how to cinch a saddle and ride the line. Johnny Carson used to have cowboy poets on The Tonight Show. That's where I saw the first one. It was as if I were listening to one of the heroes from a Zane Grey novel lyrically tell about facing the bitter cold and loneliness often much a part of the job of being a cowboy. Cowboy Poetry has been around a long time and doesn't seem to be fading. If anything, it's gaining in popularity. Maybe in this frantic rat race we call life, listening to someone recite simple yet powerful words about living with honor and integrity has greater appeal now than ever. Forgotten (about an old abandoned horse that nobody wants to put down) by one of the greatest of the Cowboy Poets Bruce Kiskaddon: He stands still. He ain't none worried, fer he knows he[s played the game. He's got nothin' to back up from. He's been square and ain't ashamed. Fer no matter where they put him he was game to do his share. Well, I think more of the pony than of those that left him there. Just Google Cowboy Poetry or Kiskaddon's name, and you'll find plenty of sites such as Cowboy Poetry if you want to discover more about it. You may want to order a book from Amazon which has several from reasonably priced to expensive dealing with the subject. Happy trails, pardner! Reviewed by Joan Reeves Publisher: Vintage Copyright 1991 ISBN: 0-679-73604-2 Slowly, I'm working my way through Peter Mayle's books though these books could more rightly be described as his love letters to Provence. Tourjours Provence begins where his first book A Year In Provence ended. Now a seasoned resident of this region of France, he broadens his view to give us an affectionate portrait of the French in all their regional peculiarities. At once amusing and educational, this book gives the reader the sense of what it would be like to see France as a resident, not a tourist. I know I've entertained daydreams of living in France of Italy, at least for a summer. Mayle's books make me want to act upon that fantasy. This book is my perfect choice for bedtime reading. Not because it's boring and makes me sleepy. Not because it's easy to put down when sleep calls. Reading this book is a calm interlude in my busy life. Mayle has a droll humor and a flair for understatement of the incongruous situations that develop. I find myself smiling, and I can feel the stress melting away. Toujours Provence, like its predecessor A Year In Provence, is the perfect armchair vacation. Reviewed by Joan Reeves Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Vintage; 1st edition (June 4, 1991) ISBN-10: 0679731148 Book Size: Trade Paperback I’m probably the last person in the world to read this charming book. My interest was stirred by the Russell Crowe film A GOOD YEAR which has been running on the premium channels for the last two months. The movie is heartwarming, witty, and full of sweet charm. Naturally I had to seek out the author of the book from which the movie was adapted. In doing so, I bought all of the other books written by Peter Mayle an ex-patriot Englishman living the life we all want to live in Provence. Thus I began the first of his books A YEAR IN PROVENCE, his twelve-month epistle of establishing a new home in the Provençale region of France. Mr. Mayle, a refugee from the advertising business, is of course articulate. More importantly though, he has a fondness for his subject matter and a humorous delivery that will at times make you smile and at other times make you roar with laughter. The book is part travelogue and part love letter to Provence that will make you wish with every fiber of your being that you could find a similar Provençale farm house with land dotted with grape vines and shuck this rat race for the tranquil life described by Mr. Mayle. If you haven’t read this book, get a copy from your favorite online or local bookstore. I must warn you about one thing though. Don’t do as I did initially and read a chapter at bedtime. The descriptions of the food consumed by the Mayles and their French neighbors and friends will make your mouth water. You’ll find yourself in the kitchen uncorking a bottle of pinot noir and rooting through the fridge for a block of cheese.  Have you read Chapters 1 through 4 of Moonlight On Snow: A Love Story? Hurry over and read because Chapter 5 will be published this month. Don't forget the articles in The Archives for more good reading. Work In Progress
Writers always have a work in progress. The trick is to actually finish the work. Visit this page to read more about what I'm currently writing. Previously Published
Funny, emotional, and heart-felt are all adjectives critics used to describe my previously published romance novels. Visit this page to see the covers and read about each of my previously published books.  "The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader to self-activity." Thomas Carlyle Copyright 2002-2008 by Joan Reeves. All rights reserved. For permission to reproduce anything on this web site, please contact: Joan Reeves, P. O. Box 1045, Richmond TX 77406-1045 or email: joan @ |
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