the BOOK BUFFET

When I started the Book Buffet blog several years ago, I had a couple of goals. Partly I just wanted to share what I was reading. I also wanted to help authors get the word out about new releases and, since I read everything except horror, I was willing to help promote any book that wasn’t awful.

I guess I thought readers would find me. After all, I follow a lot of blogs. I read their stuff in my email, not at their site, but still, I follow. Here we are, years later, and I have just a handful of (semi) faithful readers. I give away books, which costs me money to mail. Every year when I do my taxes my accountant asks me why I am still doing a blog. “You know you’re losing money, not making it?” she asks me. Again.

But I’m a writer. And writers write. I’m also a reader and this seemed like a perfect marriage. Problem is, when I go visit the metrics, no one else cares. That’s hard to admit, that no one cares about your baby. But it’s true.

I realize I could go out there and entice more readers. I even took a course on social media. The process of rounding up readers sounded exhausting. Honestly, I’d rather craft or read or garden or sew or bake or play cornhole or drive my car around or do about 100 other things than post on Instagram/Facebook/TikTok/YouTube/whatever the new dealio is this week. So as hard as this is to let go and as much as I’ve enjoyed writing book reviews and an occasional something else – I think we’re done. And the best thing to do when you’re done is hand in your resignation and go do something else. I have a whole stack of books sitting here to review, but I’m letting that go and moving on.

Thank you for reading my stuff. Thank you for entering the book giveaways. I wish I had a book to mail to each one of you who has read this far! I wish you all the very best and the very best reading!

My parting gift to you is this advice (especially for us perfectionists): Don’t be afraid to quit on a book. Not every book deserves your time and attention. It IS a buffet, so choose the best and enjoy every delightful one.

And if you want to continue a conversation or send me a reading suggestion, please do. –JG

I think you either love cozy mysteries or think they are all just silly. I love them. For me they are an escape, an easy read, a bit of a puzzle to try to solve and usually have enough quirky characters/setting to be entertaining as well.

Amy Vansant’s books are some of the best. I love her Pineapple Port series. Sign up below and get the first book in the series free. (Full disclosure: I also get some kind of credit to my account.) I enjoy her emails as well because hearing what is going on with her writing and in her real life is just fun for me.

Go here:

amyvansant.com/gift

Be sure to include my name (Jacqueline Graves) or “the book buffet”.

Enjoy your free book! (e-book)

When I’m not reading cozies, I’m brewing coffee or baking. Or gardening. Or papercrafting. Or . . . Hope you are also having a lovely Spring! Let me know what you are up to and how you liked Amy’s book!

Do you remember when I reviewed the book about Henrietta Lacks’ story? (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks https://thebookbuffet.wordpress.com/?s=lacks) She died from ovarian cancer, but her harvested, frozen cells were used in research by the university hospital where she was treated. These cells, notated as “HeLa” for her name, became the platform from which multiple drugs and treatments were formed. An anomaly, these Super Cells contributed to the development of the polio vaccine way back then all the way up to the present day COVID-19 vaccine.

Taking cells from patients at “free” hospitals and university medical centers was not limited to Mrs. Lacks’ situation. Many patients’ cells and other tissues were retained and used for research. These other cells didn’t become famous because they played a small role in learning, teaching or research, then were discarded. Most cells do not survive long in a petri dish. The HeLa cells are unique in that they thrived in the lab and were reproduced (cloned) over and over, then used by drug companies who made billions in total from them.

Today the estate of Henrietta Lacks – her grandchildren – are suing John Hopkins University for using her cells for 70 years without compensating her family. “The exploitation of Henrietta Lacks represents the unfortunately common struggle experienced by Black people throughout history,” the suit says. “Indeed, Black suffering has fueled innumerable medical progress and profit, without just compensation or recognition. Various studies, both documented and undocumented, have thrived off the dehumanization of Black people.”

John Hopkins never sold the cells nor made money from them, but pharmaceutical companies took their research and created products which became financial goldmines. John Hopkins insists it does not own the rights to the HeLa cell line.

This is a bellwether case to watch. Even today when you go in for surgery, you are usually asked to sign a form giving permission for the facility to do whatever it wants with the proceeds of your procedure, be it fluids, tumors, blood, and all that medically stuff. I always sign. I figure if they can find something out with my junk that helps somebody else, power to them.

If I found out they were making millions off that junk, how would I feel? What do you think? What do you think about the Lacks family’s claims?

That’s a fun title for a book, isn’t it?

Local author, “Bobin”, aka Robert Zee, writes for fun after work and on weekends.

Squeaky Chain Girl gives us a glimpse of what it means to really love someone, through the good and the bad, over the long haul, no matter how the other person treats us, even when there is no hope for the love to be returned. Although the writing is, at times, repetitive, the message comes through loud and clear.

It’s a short and easy read and I am giving away the review copy. To be entered in the drawing for the book, just leave any comment on this post. (You also need to be a follower of the blog so that I can contact you.)

Required Disclaimer: There is no cost to you. The book will be mailed to you at my expense. I am not being compensated for this review. I have not received anything except the review copy of the book.

“Beach books”. When some people say that they mean lighter reading – romances, rom coms, cozy mysteries and so forth.

Other people like to read some heavy duty stuff at the beach, those huge, impressive tomes they never have time for in normal life: War & Peace, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, Atlas Shrugged, Greek tragedies, Homer and so forth.

And others just take a big ol’ pile of magazines. Any book is too much mental lifting. “That sun just bakes my brain cells,” one friend told me. (That didn’t seem to worry her.)

So, I’m curious as I’m musing my pile prepping for vacay: what do you read on your getaway?

Light? Heavy? Fun? Serious? Fiction? Non?

Or do you (gasp) take a vacation from books, too? (Say it ain’t so!)

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Love the painting above? “Girl Reading On The Beach” is a painting by Holly LaDue Ulrich. For more info about this print or her other works, you can go here: https://pixels.com/featured/girl-reading-on-the-beach-holly-ladue-ulrich.html

I don’t know her, nor am I in any financial arrangement with this artist. I just loved the painting!

Welcome to The Book Buffet new subscribers:

much0ecur0 (did your mother name you that?)

and

Flavor Wanderlust (another inventive mom).

Just kidding! Welcome and feel free to share what you’re reading.

I believe almost everyone has a bit of a book in him or her. It may not be a full-blown novel destined for Netflix adaptation, but there may be something in you that needs putting on paper. Writing your thoughts on paper seems to come out differently than sitting at a computer typing them. Reading someone’s handwriting feels more intimate than reading something typewritten, even if it has a cute emoji with it. I offer you – the Blank Book.

Use your Blank Book (you got one for Christmas, didn’t you, and it’s still sitting there – empty) for:

• Writing about your day using a bullet list rather than a big, long narrative. This is especially helpful if you aren’t really the writing type, but you tend to lie in bed reviewing your day. Bullet that day into a Blank Book and see if you don’t fall asleep faster.
• A prayer list or a worry list. Maybe your trouble going to sleep is more about all the things you lie there wishing you could control. Often just writing down what you are worrying about helps you to let go, especially when you can see in black-and-white how little control you do have over most of it. Do you believe in a Higher Power? Pray over your concerns. Picture yourself turning your hands upside down and letting go. As your worries tumble through space, watch God catch them in His capable and loving hands.
• A griping place. Rather than complain out loud to another person, write out your angst. People, situations, customer service that didn’t serve – all your complaints and criticism – log them in your book. You’ll be surprised how much better you feel. At the end of the year, pray to forgive all these bums, then burn the book or rip out the pages and shred them, one at a time. Now take $100 (a fraction of the money you would have spent on a counselor) and go do something fun.
• Speaking of counselors, if you are in therapy, a Blank Book can be an invaluable tool. As you spill out whatever is bugging you onto the paper, patterns eventually appear that can help you get to the bottom of your issues. It can be easier to speak the truth on paper then read it out loud during therapy than to say everything in real time.
• Recording your blessings. When you have a bad day and feel like a victim, pull out your book and read through those blessings you previously recorded. You’ve had good days in the past (Look! there’s proof on page 26) and you know you’ll have good days again.
• Tracking the books you read, what you thought about them and any new words you’ve learned. This can be especially helpful if you are in a book club. When you get to the meeting and get a little nervous do you have trouble remembering what you wanted to share? Now you’ve got a cheat-sheet.
• Riffing on what you read, see, hear. Whether a Bible verse, something in the news, a movie or a convo with a neighbor, something gets my wheels turning, one thought leads to another and I’m off – thinking a long, not always cohesive ramble. My hubby doesn’t want to listen to it, so most of my journaling is this type – musings about whatever caught my attention that day.

All kinds of Blank Books and Journals are in vogue right now including crafting your own as you go with magazine pics, rubber stamping, bits of ribbon, lace, found items, nature cast-offs, even your own artwork if you please. You may want to start a journal that you beautify and tell each day’s (or week’s) story. Don’t underestimate how much your children or grandchildren will love reading your book some day.

Good places to pick up a blank book are Ross, TJ Maxx, Target, and other discounters. They have beautiful books at Barnes & Noble, but they can be pricey. A blank book, some pretty markers, a tea mug with assorted teas, a little thought for the day book or devotional, and some little edible thing make a nice gift basket for someone’s birthday or even to cheer them up when they need comforting.

How about you? Do you journal? Where do you buy your journals? Do you always buy the same kind or do you look for something new and exciting every year?

Covid 19 News!

newest member of The Book Buffet family.

We’re glad you’re here. Sit down, pick up a book and join in.