fiction at bsb

we want you to tell us your favorite fiction, kids, memoir and biography books of all time.

here's the deal. as everyone knows there are going to be not one but two major bookstores moving into norfolk very very soon. we know we can't carry everything that they can because they're bigger, but what we can do is specialize. you'll notice some changes on our shelves in the next few months as we change up our focus from "a little bit of everything we love" to "everything we love in kids books, fiction, memoir and biography." we're going to do our best to keep up with bestsellers and fad books too, but we're going to start focusing and make you proud to shop with us!

comment here and tell us your favorites...

-susie

Ellen Burstyn at Broad Street Books...

you heard it here first...well, maybe not. Ellen Burstyn is going to be in town on March 23rd and 24th to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award from ODU during the film festival. Following the gala-style showing of "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore", the movie she won an Academy Award for, we will be having a booksigning at the Attucks Theater. In addition, on Sunday, March 24th, Ellen will actually be in the store here at Broad Street Books to sign copies of her book, "Lessons in Becoming Myself". We're so excited we could just burst!

-susie, eleanor, gordon, ricky and chris

If I Am Missing or Dead : part two

i am trying to write the book review for the local paper about this book, so i'll just post on here the un-professionally-worded (ok, that's not a word) quick thoughts now that i have finished the book, "if i am missing or dead" written by janine latus.

i feel totally, completely, through my entire body and mind...emotionally drained. when i was a child i read this book by a psychologist titled no language but a cry.i was in junior high school and it woke me up to an entirely different world of abuse and heartbreak than i had ever seen. as an adult, i would have to say that this book by janine has done the same.

janine's book is about her sister and her too-soon death at the hands of an abusive boyfriend. before picking up the book and reading it, i thought based on descriptions that this was going to be a grief recovery type of book, one that would be more about the aftermath of amy's death. it is much more about what led her down the path into the wrong mans arms and about strength... of family, of her family as individuals.

i'm rambling. i think all women with daughters should read this book. not just to see how to protect their daughters from the outside world but to remind them that sometimes there's an inside world that they need to protect them from too, that what happens in their own lives and how they allow themselves to be treated will lead to how their daughters are treated. that's all for now.

on to read a happier book and back to this one soon.

susie

If I Am Missing or Dead by Janine Latus

I am currently in the middle of a book by Norfolk writer, Janine Latus titled If I am Missing or Dead. After writing an essay for O Magazine, Janine was asked by Simon & Schuster to write a memoir about her life. The essay, with the same title as the book, was written about Janine's sister Amy and her struggle to free herself from an abusive cycle of men, from her father to her husband. When Amy goes missing and the note if found, "If I am missing or dead...contact so and so."

I was expecting this book to be more about Amy than about Janine. It is just as much about Janine and about her relationships with men and about her relationship with her little sister.

I was bothered by Janine's writing at first, because she is very much a fact-stater. She was abused by a father of children she was babysitting and she just tells you about the experience in a matter-of-fact tone. I didn't like it because I didn't hear any emotion in her voice.

Now that I am about half way through this book, I am glad that Janine doesn't show too much emotion in her voice. Too much happens, things would get too emotional and be too sad if she said what was really going through her head and heart I wouldn't be able to get through it at all.

I'll let you know more details as soon as I've finished reading the book.

susie