Celebrate Winter Solstice With Bending the Boyne

Winter Solstice is nearing and I can't think of a better way to celebrate the coming of longer days than reading a debut novel about ancient Ireland Bending the Boyne, by J.S. Dunn. This lyrical and sparsely written tale has received an IndieNext award from the American Independent Booksellers Association for historical fiction.

Living in the Pacific Northwest, where darkness falls at about 3:45 pm in December, has made me acutely aware of my Irish ancestors' keen interest in tracking the sun and stars. It is delightful to have this novel to help me to imagine what inspired the people who created the megalithic architecture along the River Boyne, which served as a seasonal clock.

The following link is an recent article in the Irish Times on this subject.


http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sciencetoday/2011/1215/1224309094012.html

Happy Holidays!

Occupy Seattle Library Needs Books

One of my most memorable book signings took place at the Occupy Seattle Library. It's located just around the corner from Elliot Bay Books, one of Seattle's finest independent bookstores. The day I visited the encampment, Adrienne Sevilla, standing on my right, had just been appointed Head Librarian three days before. The tent library has roughly fifty books. Her co-worker Darlene Nordyke, holds a masters in library science and is currently out of work, so she's donating time here along with Adrienne and others. To learn more about Occupy Seattle and how you might support them, visit http://occupyseattle.org.

Meanwhile, Occupy New York City's library lost thousands of books in a police raid. Democracynow.org reported, "In a press conference held last week, civil rights attorney Norman Siegel revealed that property taken in the raid filled 26 sanitation trucks and nearly 80 percent of the roughly 4,000 books housed in the so-called Peoples’ Library were either destroyed or never returned." For more details visit:www.deomcracynow.org