Top 10 Books of 2007

Design by Paul Sahre; photograph by Tony Cenicola

The New York Times Book Review announced the top 10 books of 2007 a few weeks ago.

We think their list is great, but we thought it would be fun to give you our personal top books of 2007.

In no particular order here are the books we loved, that moved us, and that we will remember well into 2008.

Jane
Here are four thrillers that Jane loved this year, and one novel that had to be on her list!

1. The Ghost - Robert Harris

2. No Time for Goodbye - Linwood Barclay

3. Body of Lies - David Ignatius

4. Killer Weekend - Ridley Pearson

5. A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Lisa

1. Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

2. Harry Potter Collection - J.K. Rowling
After an imense amount of peer pressure Lisa read the entire Harry Potter series this year. Like most of us she quickly fell in love with all things Harry Potter.

3.Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris

4. Richard Misrach: On the Beach
This oversized photography book is amazing.

5. Absurdistan - Gary Shteyngart

Laura

1. Bad Monkeys - Matt Ruff
It's a bizarre set of twists and turns that you want to make sense, but they don't. Bizarre, hard to keep up with, but funny. I didn't want it to end.

2. Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl
The characters were great, but the story gripped you.

3. Thursday Next - Jasper Fforde
Had to get it! Had to read the sequel to such a good series.

4. What is the What - Dave Eggers
I never would have picked it up on my own, but it was for book club. I am so glad I did. The boy's experience is so real and so heartbreaking. It is astounding that all of this was going on a few years ago. I am glad I read it, and was able to learn from it.

5. Before I Die - Jenny Downham
Very well written. The author took a taboo subject, and made it a beautiful story.

Patrick

1. By Night in Chile - Robert Bolano
-- Technically, it didn't come out this year. I read it this year, though, and his "new" book The Savage Detectives was called the best Latin American novel of forever, so I think it counts. It's a dying Chilean priest's deathbed confession of his life in poetry and his complicity in Pinochet's rise. But the images! Woah! Hallucinations, right off the page. He's the new G.G. Marquez.


2. Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris
-- The funniest book I've read this year. Told in the third person plural, narrating the downfall of a Chicago advertising agency in the dot com bubble burst, you get sucked up in the office gossipy vibe -- who's sleeping with whom, and who stole a chair, and why does Benny have a totem pole? -- while feeling for these people who are all too much like you and me.


3. Collected Poems of Lynda Hull
-- You like poetry, or you don't. If you don't, skip to number 4. If you do, and you haven't read Lynda Hull, buy it now. Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost! She's got all of them, and a million more, crammed into single poems that are simple, accessible, and which will decimate you and rebuild you in the same breath.


4. The Yiddish Policeman's Union
-- Michael Chabon is my buddy, but only in my imagination. If we were buddies, though, this is our conversation:
"Hi, Mikey."
"Hey Patrick, that racketball last week was killer."
"Yeah, I know. So hey, the Yiddish Policeman's Union was brilliant. Jews in Alaska? Where do you get this stuff?"
"Um, they really were going to do that."
"Ho man, the government! You kill me! But the characters, the story (so gripping), and everything so detailed and vivid. You're so great. Wanna get a smoothie?"
"Fo Sho."


5. Five Skies -- Ron Carlson's story of three men at different points in their lives, brought
together to build a stunt ramp over a gorge in Idaho, made me cry. But it was a manly cry, and I'm not even kidding. He gets men, and tells a gripping story, and his descriptions of the landscape are awe-inspiring. I was really surprised by how much I liked this book.

Kristiana

1. Raw Shark Texts - Steven Hall
This book is amazing. It's a little strange, but completely compelling and original. I bought it for most of my friends this year because I needed to talk about it with others. It's Steven Hall's first novel and I can't really express how much I loved this book.

2. Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl
Another astounding first novel. While the title may be intimidating the book is entirely accessible. It begins with a table of contents and ends it with a Final Exam. Special Topics has been compared to Donna Tartt's "The Secret History", and it is a fare comparison. Pessl makes the story of a close knit group of friends under the influence of their teacher completely her own. It is so good on so many different levels.

3.Divisadero - Michael Ondaatje
I had a friend in high school whose last name was Ondaatje - who was also Shri Lankinn - I wonder if they are related. I saw the movie the English Patient, and I know that is not the same thing as reading the book, but I liked the movie which is what made me pick up Divisadero. Having said that, I was blown away by Michael Ondaatje's most recent work of fiction. I was sucked into the story of a family on a farm in the 1970's - something I did not think I could be so enraptured by. The writing was beautiful and the story was absolutely moving and captivating.

4. Edible Woman - Margaret (Maggie) Atwood
I love Margaret Atwood. I would read anything by her so when Randy gave me Edible Woman (Atwood's 1969 novel) I read it with joy and abandon. It's the story of a 20 something girl who gets engaged and begins viewing the world and her life in new ways. It was great. Atwood's most recent works are: The Door, a new book of poetry with an audio cd of poems read by the author, The Tent, a collection of fictional essays, and Moral Disorder, a series of interrelated stories. Enjoy!

5. The Year of Magical Thinking a Play by Joan Didion
I read Year of Magical Thinking, the memoir, at the beginning of this year, and I loved it. I read the play on the plane ride home from New York after hearing Joan Didion speak. I was drawn into the story again, and was blown away by it. It is heartbreaking and beautiful.

Yet Another Reason to Visit the Store...

Thanks to the fine folks at msn.com, The Art of the Bookstore Pickup:

http://msn.match.com/msn/article.aspx?articleid=7453&TrackingID=516311&BannerID=544657&menuid=6&GT1=10678

I think this was my favorite bit:

Ed Lowe, a Chicago pensions analyst, recalls the time a woman interrupted him as he read a collection of short stories by the existential philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre: “I think I said something pithy about Sartre’s thoughts on human frailty,” he recalls.

A true smooth operator.

I don't think we've had an Laguna Beach Books love connections happen yet. Maybe we should have an event that crosses both Speed Dating and Speed Reading, or (what with the writers on strike), maybe a vie-to-be-his-bride reality show called The Protagonist.

J.K. Rowling!!!! (a.k.a. the longest blog ever)

For those who don't know, J.K. Rowling is on a three city book tour. It began yesterday in L.A. and will conclude in New York on the 19th. Rowling decided when she finished book seven of the Harry Potter series that she wanted to come to the States and thank her fans. To avoid the mayhem of trying to sell tickets (my speculation) to this event Scholastic set up sorting hats in local schools. 1,600 school children were invited to attend. When I arrived at the Kodak theatre there was a group of students in Hogwarts robes and scarves, their chaperone appropriately dressed as a Hogwarts teacher. No joke. It was a surprising - and perfect - touch.

J.K. was introduced by the superintendent of L.A. school district - who was introduced by the president of Scholastic (I think it was the president, but I didn’t have a pen to write down his name, so I’m not 100% certain). Both mentioned how Rowling has had such an impact on students. Harry Potter is the first book that many students have wanted to read for fun. It has also given students the confidence to read bigger books. It is an impact that I hadn't really thought of before, but it’s huge! J.K. mentioned that fact has meant so much to her.

There was Harry Potter soundtrack music playing while we waited for the event to start. There was a starlit backdrop and giant posters of the seven American book covers. In the middle of the otherwise bare stage was a giant rug, a giant throne like chair and a table with tea on it- I'm assuming it was tea because she's British.


When Ms. Rowling was introduced and came on stage she was met by a standing ovation (I'm embarrassed to admit I totally got chills). Ms. Rowling began by reading from chapter two (page 30) of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She mentioned the page number and to my surprise tons of people flipped open their books to follow along. Also to my surprise, she did voices! She had amazingly good voices for each individual character. Who knew?! Chapter two is when the Dursleys and Harry part ways. There's a part in the chapter where Dudley says 'I don't think you're a waste of space Harry', and the whole audience awed. J.K. replied, "I know! I felt that way when I wrote it." It was adorable.

After the reading she answered questions from the audience. I was surprised that many of the questions were about J.K. rather than the plot, but there ended up being a good balance. An eight year old girl asked if J.K. had as big of an imagination when she was young as she does now, and another child asked what inspiration she had growing up. She answered that her parents did not think being a professional writer was very steady, so she got inspiration from various teachers along the way, concluding that “a good teacher is worth her weight in gold”.

When asked about all the deaths in the book Rowling apologized for putting us through that, but pointed out that if someone we don't care about dies we won't really care. She mentioned the (SPOILER) death of Doby and said that it was necessary, but understandably sad, primarily because Doby was so innocent. The saddest deaths to her were Tonks and Lupin (sigh). She said that it was the saddest because they left behind Teddy, but that it was important because it closed a circle in the story. Harry grew up as an orphan and as Teddy's godfather he will be able to relate to Teddy and give him all the things he missed out on growing up. She talked about Snape. Snape! Rowling said she knew all along why Snape was the way he was, and all the history between him and Lily, and that he is not cut and dry and not necessarily all good.

OH! A student asked if any characters were based on real people, and J.K. explained that Hermione was an exaggerated version of herself (isn't that fun?), and that there are pieces of different people she knows in some characters. Gilderoy Lockheart IS entirely based on someone real. Rowling said that she did not need to embellish anything, and that he would never in a million years guess that he was the mold. "He probably thinks that he is my Dumbledore." Loved it.

When asked if she would rather be the Queen of England or write more Harry Potter books, Rowling replied that she would rather write more Harry Potter books because being the Queen is a really hard job. She also explained that the next thing she works on will have to be something she loves just as much as Harry Potter because otherwise it just wouldn't work.

The whole event went by way too quickly, but it's understandable because she was going to sign 1,600 copies of the book for the students present. Scholastic is giving away 5,000 copies of the Deathly Hallows. Running along the width of the stage were the 1,600 copies of the book. It was impressive, and amazing that
1. Scholastic would do that
2. J.K. could sign that many books in one sitting

Since she was entirely busy signing books for children I did not get to take her out for coffee - I mean tea - and hang out. I'm sure she would have wanted to given the opportunity.

It was an amazing experience. It was like Christmas and I felt like Cinderella going to a ball - yes I'm mixing my metaphors, but that's how it felt.

Since I was at the Kodak theatre I'm going to thank people like I just won an Oscar,
I would like to thank:

• our Scholastic rep for inviting Randy
• Randy for liking me enough to let me go
• Lisa, Jane and Robyn liking me enough to agree to let me go
• Patrick for not reading the Harry Potter series, so I didn't have to arm wrestle him
• And you the reader for listening to my ramblings about the best day I've had as a bookseller.

Good night!

-Kristiana

Teachers and Administrators head down to Laguna Beach Books Tuesday the 9th to enjoy:

• 
  20% disount with school ID card or pay stub (remember: 10% off for teachers, everyday!)
• 
  Free giveaways!
• 
  Raffle for store gift certificate!
• 
  Expert advice on the newest, best books for kids!
• 
  Bring your educator friends (school administrators welcome, too!)
  

We hope to see you then!!

Love books, not banning!

What is Banned Books Week?

Every year books are challenged in public and school libraries across the nation. What does that mean? If someone is offended by material, they can challenge the book asking that the material be restricted or banned. This happens to TONS of books throughout the year. It’s strange for me to think that this happens all over the nation, all throughout the year, year after year! It is totally understandable that not everyone likes or wants certain books in their city library, or that parents don’t want some material in their child’s school library. It would be unfortunate though if challenged material was taken out of these venues. Could you imagine a city where Catcher in the Rye was nowhere to be found or a school that didn’t have To Kill a Mockingbird?

At Laguna Beach Books we agree with the American Library Association that not every book is right for every individual. It is our privilege as an independent bookstore to make available a wide range of material, and that includes things that not everyone will agree with. Judith F. Krug, director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom says, "Part of living in a democracy means respecting each other's differences and the right of all people to choose for themselves what they and their families read."

There are many books that have been challenged this year, and so many more books that have been challenged in years passed. We aren’t trying to celebrate controversy. Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom we have to read, the freedom we have to think for ourselves and to hold our own opinions.

Without further ado we present to you The 10 Most Challenged Books of 2006:

· “And Tango Makes Three” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, for homosexuality, anti-family, and unsuited to age group;
· “Gossip Girls” series by Cecily Von Ziegesar for homosexuality, sexual content, drugs, unsuited to age group, and offensive language;
· “Alice” series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor for sexual content and offensive language;
· “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things” by Carolyn Mackler for sexual content, anti-family, offensive language, and unsuited to age group;
· “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison for sexual content, offensive language, and unsuited to age group;
· “Scary Stories” series by Alvin Schwartz for occult/Satanism, unsuited to age group, violence, and insensitivity;
· “Athletic Shorts” by Chris Crutcher for homosexuality and offensive language;
· “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky for homosexuality, sexually explicit, offensive language, and unsuited to age group;
· “Beloved” by Toni Morrison for offensive language, sexual content, and unsuited to age group; and
· “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier for sexual content, offensive language, and violence.

Off the list this year, but on for several years past, are the “Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger, “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain.

During banned books week we will have various challenged books featured in the store, and we invite you to let us know what books you love that may be on a challenge list somewhere.

Happy Reading!

Kristiana

Celebrating Spinelli

Jerry Spinelli

Beloved young adult and children's book author.

Newberry Book Award winner.

A teller of tales that affect both the funny bone and the tear ducts.

More than 20 books published, including Wringer, Stargirl, and Crash.

Why celebrate Jerry Spinelli?

Why the heck wouldn't we??!!

Sunday, September 30th

5:00 pm

Join fellow Spinelli fans at the store.

We'll discuss our (and your) favorite books like

and

and the sequel to Stargirl

Laura (Ms. Silver to those "in-the-know") will lead a read-around

for Jerry's new book

(It's called Eggs in case you couldn't figure it out)

But wait, there's more...

Put your name in a raffle for a chance to win a Jerry Spinelli collection of books!

We look forward to seeing you all there!!

Laguna Beach Books Offers a Writers Workshop

The Workshop has been postponed. It should start in January!

Mentored by Julie Brickman, MFA, PH.D

• Author, What Birds Can only Whisper
• Fiction Faculty member, Spalding University low-residency MFA in Writing
• Reviewer, Books section, San Diego Union-Tribune

When: 2nd and 4th Thursdays each month, 6 -8 pm: October 2007 - March 2008

Start: October 11, 2008

Membership: fiction and creative nonfiction writers, maximum of 8.

To join: Submit a portfolio that includes (1) your resume, focused on writing experience (2) a brief essay, 2-3 pages, that discusses your goals as a writer, the reading experiences and authors that have shaped you as a writer, and how well you accept critiques of your work, and (3) a writing sample of no less than ten and no more than 15 double-spaced manuscript pages in one of the above genres.

Fee: $600.00, payable in two installments: $300.00 upon acceptance; $300.00 by January 1st 2008. A nonrefundable reading fee of $25.00 will be charged for each application. This will be applied to the course fee for those who are accepted.

You can submit portfolios in the store. Feel free to call us with any questions. 949-494-4779

Why you should read Special Topics in Calamity Physics

I've said it before and I'll say it again, don't let the title intimidate you. We're getting closer to our instore Book club, so I wanted to say a few things on Special Topics to get your engines running and those pages turning.








First off, I think I'm a litte jealous of Marisha Pessl. I'm jealous because she's amazing. She's a fantastic writer, she's not that much older than I am and she's pretty too. If you don't believe me I'm attaching a visual.


Marisha looks like the kind of girl you don't like because you think she's really cool. Maybe that's just how I feel about her, but don't let her picture keep you from reading this book.


In all seriousness though I loved 'Special Topics'. I was excited that there was a table of contents set up like a college course. I was excited that the narrator sites all of her references like it's a term paper. It's strange and quirky, and unbelievable. When I was done with the book I made my friends read it because I enjoyed it so much. If you're thinking about reading it you should. When you're done reading it you can come talk to us about it on September 18th. We'll be in the bookstore the third Tuesday of this month at 7:00pm dying to talk about 'Special Topics' with you!



I can't wait to talk to people about this book. It's one of those books that I think will get better the more it is discussed.


Here are some clues to get you started in your reading:


1. THE FLYING DEMOISELLE: An archaic means of hanging someone, popular in the American South between the years of 1829 to 1860. It is also, in all likelihood, how Hannah Schneider died.


2. THE IRON GRIP: An unfinished tour de force.

3. LION SEX: Something that happens in Room 222 of The Dynasty Motel.

4. VALERIO: A clue


MORE RESEARCH is available at: http://www.calamityphysics.com/



If you still need convincing I will leave you with one last push to get you to pick up the book:



Yes that is Tom Hanks, and yes that is a copy of Special Topics in Calamity Physics, so come pick up your copy and start reading.



Hope to see you Tuesday, September 18th in the store! (7:00pm)


Happy Reading!

Kristiana

Sena Jeter Naslund!

Last night we had the pleasure and privilege of having Sena Jeter Naslund, the acclaimed author, in Laguna Beach Books for a reading and signing!

Everyone was charmed by her eloquence and insight into both the history of France and Marie Antoinette the human being. Sena told the story of Stefan Zweig's earlier biography, Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman, which not only portays the French queen as dim-witted and self-absorbed, but insinuates that this is what the "average woman" is. Average woman?? In a way, Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette, she said, is a response to that. In it, Naslund gives Marie Antoinette her most full, human, sympathic and nuanced rendering, drawing deeply from historical sources but giving her life as only a novelist can.

Many in the audience were intrigued to hear Sena talk about writing Four Spirits, set in Birmingham, Alabama during the Civil Rights era -- a time and place that she experienced first-hand. And she assured everyone: you don't have to have read Moby Dick to appreciate her female retelling of that story in Ahab's Wife!

I'll admit, this is my only experience with the great white whale:

We'd like to thank Ms. Naslund and Julie Brickman for their time, and everyone who attended for making the evening such a wondeful experience.

And yes, we still have some signed copies if you missed the good time!

Things I Did at Work Today - a haiku

i put in orders

i opened bills to be paid

damaged books called on

by Kristiana

Simon Van Booy Event!

Simon Van Booy joined us Tuesday night at the Mandarin Fine Art gallery, and besides being a gentleman and a scholar (of course), his earnest demeanor and genuine interest in all of the attendees was wonderful to see.

He began the evening reading from ancient Chinese poetry. The aspect of their art he kept referring back to was how readers at the time were trained to read for the metaphor first, and then to savor the actual, physical, realistic minutiae secondly. We tend to go the opposite way: the dying flower is a dying flower first, a reminder of death second.

To close the evening, Simon read "Little Birds" from his collection The Secret Lives of People in Love. It's the story of a fifteen year old Chinese boy and his adopted French father, and it's a tender and elegant portrayal. In addition to the fine language that pervades the story is a genuine-ness and level of empathy for characters that is hard to come by. Most short stories, especially with "literary" aims, lean so heavily on irony, on mocking anything that resembles sentiment. We talked a little about this, how irony is easy but trying to be beautiful is difficult and a brave, vulnerable step to make. Simon's modesty might prevent him from saying so, but I think his book takes that step confidently and successfully.

Thanks again to Simon, and to Kim and John at Mandarin, and to everyone who turned out and made the evening such a pleasure!

-Patrick

(and we have signed copies in the store!)

Joseph Cornell, John Taylor, and Poetry

In honor of the Festival of Arts closing up shop, I want to single out a particular artist there that blew my mind.

Not that the other fine artists didn't -- some of the childrens' art was breathtaking -- but in John Taylor, there is something so contrary to the other pieces on display. Wildly detailed and even quietly fanciful ships and submarines made of scraps of refuse that he lovingly collects and then shapes into something like this:

Out of who knows what junk, he crafts these rusted remains of battleships and submarines that are simultaneuously hyper-realistic and ever-so subtly skewed into the fantastic. They tap into multiple layers of child and adult fantasy: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea wonder, World War heroism and destruction, Little Mermaid romanticism and the unrelenting progress of death and time in the body of an unreasonably large shark in Jaws. They cause a sort of associative disorientation, bringing out (in this viewer) childlike wonder and the chill awareness of inevitable decay.

And then there's the added level of these wondrous things being made from other peoples' cast-off and disposables. Upon closer inspection, the deck is a bit of CD jewel case. Over there is a fan cover from a computer. Look beneath the rust:

It's these qualities in Taylor's work that remind me of Joseph Cornell's shadowboxes. Cornell has been discussed and explicated (and envied and admired and...) to an overwhelming degree. But they're still fantastic, I don't care. And if you want a new way to approch Cornell, you should check out Dime-Store Alchemy, by our new Poet Laureate Charles Simic. It's Simic's dark, powerful poetry being driven by Cornell's whimsey and history, and it's a real treat.

And if you're the type that is sick to death of Cornell, sick to death of poets taking inspiration from that scumbag Cornell, then take a gander at this fine and funny essay by Naem Murr: http://www.poetrymagazine.org/magazine/0707/comment_179843.html

-Patrick

From Where You Dream

Some of you might know Robert Olen Butler: Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, and the how-to writing book, From Where You Dream. Others might as a distinguished professor at the University of Florida MFA in Fiction program. And now, reaching the widest audience of his career, Robert Olen Butler (of all people) is a Lohan-esque gossip column superstar.

Yes, I know this probably the first time Mr. Olen Butler has been described as "Lohan-esque," and, one hopes, the last.

For the details, you can look here:

http://gawker.com/news/robert-olen-butler/

But the basic run is: wait, what? Who left who for whom? Huh? Butler's wife left him for Ted Turner, he's fine with that. She did it because Ted reminds her of her abusive grandfather, and he's fine with that, too. Ted unabashedly keeps a stable of women on the ready at all times; Butler says groovy. Her real reason for leaving is that she (as a writer herself) can't get out of the shadow of Butler's Pulitzer, and he's downright eager to tell the world about that. Somehow he's turned a breakup into an ego massage with a happy ending.

I consider myself an open-minded person. People are entitled to live their lives as they see fit, as long as they're not hurting anyone else. (Unless that's part of a pre-arranged bargain, of course.) Reading Butler's email is a fun challenge to that sort of relativism. Is this kind of thing really all right? Is it healthy? Add in the Russian Doll situation of voyeurism -- the masses getting off on the gossip rags getting off on an egotistical writer getting off on an ex-wife getting off on the founder of CNN who, through his wealth and media power, gets off on all the rest of us, bringing everything full circle -- and I think I just had a mental freakout.

In a more bookish-related item, if you want a strange, funky look at a similar type thing, take a look at Donald Barthelme's Paradise. For those of you not familiar Barthelme, he writes hyper-intelligent, incredibly witty and funny stories and novels that, not to sound too academic, really launched post-modern fiction as we know it now. He wrote a retelling of Snow White that is hilarious and his stories, most well-know being The School (which you can check out over at NPR: http://www.npr.org/programs/death/readings/stories/bart.html), are fantastic.

Dalkey Archive Press reprinted some of his lesser-embraced novels. I read The Dead Father and wasn't too impressed. The King was a riotous retelling of the Morte D'Artur story. I'm only half-way through Paradise but already it has some energy the other didn't. The story's center is on a man whose wife leaves him. He happens to meet three models in need of a place to stay, they all move in and suddenly it's the Three's Company episode you always wished they'd made: he's in Pleasure Town. But he's not happy. That's the kicker. He's living the non-monogamous fantasy life and it's not satisfying.

I haven't figured out why yet. Any ideas?

-Patrick

Welcome!

You know what's funny about a first blog post? You have to write like someone's reading it, but of course no one's reading it. But you're hoping someone's going to read it. Except now, even what I'm writing seems aware of some imaginary audience. And by imaginary, I mean audience of zero.

So let's play make-believe:

Welcome to Laguna Beach Books' official blog! We'll be posting reviews of new books we've loved (or marginally liked, or in the case of Laura possibly just lusted after), old books we still love, news from the bookselling trenches (yeah, we have it so rough), and funny things that happen in the store. Like that one time that Freddy Kruger came in because he's a Lagunan (Laguna-ian? Lagun-ite? Lagunese?), which is actually really creepy. Don't fall asleep, Laguna.

Actually, we'd rather tell you about something very dear to our hearts: Laura Silver. Some of you may know her as Dr. Laura, radio personality extraordinaire, or others call her Ms. Silver. What ever you call her, just don't call her late for work! (Da-dum.) Speaking of da-dum, she's learning to play drums. And she's really excited. She might give up teaching to play professionally. Keep an eye out for this female John Bonham, unless--in a rock-induced rage--she sets fire to the kit and, therefore, would have nothing left to play.

Which would be fine, because then she could stay at LBB, where she reads more and knows more about children's book than any child. And she's friendly. And she knows everyone in Laguna Beach. And if you ask her for a quarter, she'll give it to you. Honestly. Come in and try it.

So thanks for reading, pretend imaginary audience. Check back, tell all your imaginary friends, and come meet Laura (and the rest of us) in the store!

That's all for this one. Stay tuned for more serious posts, and more ridiculous ones, too. Until then, remember Laguna Beach: you're good enough, you're smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like you. Except the misanthropes. Misanthropes don't like anyone.