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It's A Leap Year!
According to the Gregorian calendar, we get an extra
day this month making this a 366 day year.
That day, February 29, is closing in fast! What
are you going to do with
your extra 24 hours? Does it have to be just another
Friday spent punching in your eight
hours, trying to make it from sunrise to sundown with
as little stress as possible? Absolutely not! Make it
special- it only happens once every
four years! Take
the day off, pull the kids out of school, do something
you'll all remember for the rest of your lives (or at least
the next four years)!
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Between the Lines
Reading Recommendations from the Cottage Shelves
Before I get to my book round-up, I need to gloat a little
bit regarding a certain book I mentioned last month
which had been adapted to the screen;
with the Oscars just barely over, let me remind
everyone that I told you No Country for Old
Men was good! Additionally, Allen Beres delivered
a very favorable review of the film adaptation of
Atonement .
Back to books... getting
ready for this week's
Reading
Group discussion of Love in the Time of
Cholera. I
have to say I found this book relatively
easy to read; a lot of people I know couldn't get into
this Gabriel Garcia-Marquez classic, but surprisingly
enough I liked it even though I couldn't identify with any
of the
main characters. Lots of symbolism, heavy prose,
tropical heat and unrequited love but worth the read.
Our next discussion
will be of Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits
by
Laila Lalami. A new hardback getting attention is
Now You See Him (Eli Gottlieb).
What
begins as narrator Nick's life evaluation triggered by
his best friend's suicide turns into a complex
mystery that unravels to a most unexpected
conclusion I did not see coming. A
curious little book. Currently reading
Consumption (Kevin Patterson) which takes
place in the frozen Arctic tundra and follows an Inuit
woman who spent most of her childhood in a far away
sanatorium recovering from TB but is spending her
adulthood still trying to find her place on the ice. Not a
very quick read and still not sure where it's going,
but the setting is quite interesting. Finally picked up a
copy of Ha Jin's novel, Waiting. I liked it every
bit as much as I did his much longer A Free Life
and have decided he is one of my current
favorite writers. Unlike the US setting of A Free
Life,
Waiting takes place in China and is
somewhat
similar to Love in the Time of Cholera if only
for the
compelling love-sick characters who want the one
thing they can't have- love. A great story about a man,
the woman who loves him and the wife it takes 18
years to divorce. Definitely my pick of the month!
Deanna read the new release A Fraction of the
Whole
(Steve Toltz) and has been recommending it to
everyone. She even predicts it will be made into a
movie. Friend Elizabeth Davenport highly
recommends The Power of Kindness by
Piero Ferrucci, a book I mentioned back in December.
She reports it can be read in small bites as each
chapter is independent enough to stand alone and
that the stories 'really stick with you'. Just out in paper,
Peony in Love (Lisa See) which I read as a
hardback and thoroughly enjoyed. See also wrote
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan , I think
Peony in Love will see the same kind of
paperback success. One of Caroline's picks, Half
of a
Yellow Sun (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) just
arrived in paper as well. Charlie is currently reading
Red Scarf Girl (Ji-Li Jiang), the true story of a
12 year old girl's experience during China's Cultural
Revolution. Sarah's teacher recently read I Am
David (Anne Holm) to the class and the story of a
boy (another 12 year old!) whose entire
life has taken place in an Eastern European work
camp truly captivated
her. This was also adapted as a movie, we were able
to find it at our video store and I had to agree it was
a very moving, heart-wrenching tale.
Selling fairly
briskly-
both Barack Obama's memoir, Dreams of My
Father, and his latest discourse, The Audacity
of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American
Dream. Not selling quite as well, Carl Bernstein's
Hillary bio- A Woman in Charge. Not selling at
all- anything by John McCain, but then again I haven't
been stocking anything by the Senator from Arizona.
Passages from Waiting and more...
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Flotsam & Jetsam
Footnotes from life at a coffeeshop
Several new projects going on in Duck... Twiddy &
Company will have a new home later this Spring-
a lovely Nags Head style building that will fit in
perfectly with Duck's Village atmosphere... Aqua S
is looking good for an early April opening and
exterior changes are providing a much-needed face
lift... Easter will be here before we know it-
everybody's sprucing up, stocking up and getting
ready... the 2008
Summer Schedule of events for the Town of
Duck has just been posted- an unbelievable array
of music, drama, children's storytime, jazz festivals, tai
chi, 4th of July Parade, pilates and more... Rick
Fagersten just walked out the door after a nice
visit by the fire; it sure is good to see him up and
around again!... we've been enjoying daily visits to the
pond by a beautiful American Bittern...
described
as a 'stocky, well camouflaged heron' these birds are
rarely seen due to their shy nature but apparently our
all-you-can-eat tadpole (and snake) buffet has brought
him out of
his 'shell'... hmmm... not much else to report this
month which proves that it is, indeed, February in
Duck!
View the 2008 Town of Duck Summer Schedule
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February 29, AM
Leap Year, My Style
I've mentioned my good friend Carol Fitzgerald
before, she is the Founder/President of
The Book Report Network, a great ring of websites
devoted to all things literary. One of their sites is
Reading Group Guides.com, an online community for
reading groups and all around terrific resource for
readers with discussion guides for thousands of
books, recommendations and more. Carole recently
unveiled a new blog for the site which features a
different guest blogger five days a week! They come
from
all walks of life and have one thing in
common- a love for the printed word. I was very
pleased when Carole asked me to be one of the
guest bloggers
and will be making my debut on... you guessed it,
Friday, February 29... thus ensuring it will be a
memorable day for me! My blog will
appear on the last Friday of every month and, just like
the shelves at Duck's Cottage, will be an eclectic
mix of books, reviews, book club news, stories, you
name it. Whatever your plans are for your extra day,
be sure to check out my blog!
the new blog at Reading Group Guides....
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February 29, PM
Leap Year, My Style
So then I have this other good friend, Katherine Quinn,
my personal style guru. Katherine owns a
local boutique, Ally & Maddy, keeps her
finger on
the pulse of fashion and her eyes on Project Runway.
Katherine got me addicted to an awesomely snarky
little website called GoFugYourself which features
reviews and opinions of the best and worst dressed
celebrities. Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan (the
masterminds behind GFY, as we loyal fugfans like to
call it) are too talented for their own good and, as if to
prove it, have just put out a classic collection of the
best and worst entitled Go Fug Yourself Presents
The Fug Awards. Chapters are well illustrated
with a plethora of celeb shots and include such titles
as Put It Away: Most Underclad and
Overexposed, The Dr. Noooooo!: Most Tragic
Surgical Choices and The Fug of All Fugs:
Fugliest Fughound That Ever Fugged. (And before
I get lots of emails complaining about the word 'fug' it
is a contraction of the words fantastically and ugly, so
there.) To
celebrate the release of this book, which to us is right
up there with Harry P., Katherine and I are holding a
release party featuring cupcakes and cocktails!
You are cordially invited to join us at Ally &
Maddy's (in Loblolly Pines), Friday, 2/29, 7pm - 9pm.
Copies of the book will be available for sale, along
with other recent titles from the new
Fashion & Style shelf at Duck's Cottage. Katherine will
have a sneak peek at spring Ally & Maddy fashions
and a super winter clearance will be in force. We do
encourage you to come either in your most FAB outfit
or try to stun us with a FUG ensemble! There might be
prizes!!
We will also be unveiling our
OWN
fashion inspired blog- Queen Beaches- which
got off to a rockin' start this week with a live blog of the
Oscars.
my OTHER new blog...
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If you died tomorrow, the company you are working for
could replace you in a matter of days but the family you
leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.
What are YOU going to do on February 29?
Jamie Layton
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The Duck's Cottage 2008 Summer Signings schedule
is starting to take shape- here's what we have booked
so far... Traci Lower will be here on July 11
signing copies of her book Shades of Gray: A
Novel of the Civil War in Virginia. This just
published tome has garnered good reviews
from Civil War historians and authors. Local Outer
Banks resident John Amrhein, Jr. will be in
the store on July 18 with his book The Hidden
Galleon- the true story of a lost Spanish ship and
the legendary wild horses of Assateague Island. On
July 25, we will be hosting Beth Wiegand and
the brand new Outer Banks Cookbook, a
100+ recipe collection that includes traditional Outer
Banks dishes, restaurant specialties and family
favorites served with a sprinkling of tips and folklore.
This book is
going to be a hot seller at Duck's Cottage! 
