NON-BOOKISH NEWS -- NEW JOB!

It’s official! The Dumas Law Group will open its doors for business on March 31, 2014.  (April 1 would have been more logical, but I didn’t want anyone thinking it was an April Fools prank!)  My new contact information is below. The website isn’t up yet, but soon, we hope.  We are based in Portland, but handle cases across the country.

After seven years of working with Kelly Clark on sex abuse cases – starting with his very first case against the Boy Scouts that we took to trial and won a $20 million verdict – it is time for me to move on to my next challenge.  When Kelly passed away rather unexpectedly before Christmas, the loss of him as my partner made me really think about the work I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it.

The answer was a smaller firm, focusing only on litigation.  My associate attorney, Ashley Vaughn, and I will continue to represent survivors of child abuse – those who are now adults as well as those who are still under 18 – in cases against the perpetrators and the trusted institutions that allowed the abuse to happen.  We will continue to work on cases across the country, working closely with our network of skilled attorneys in other states.

Drawing on my 22 years of experience with commercial litigation, we also will continue to represent small businesses and individuals with civil lawsuits, employment claims, real estate matters, and other business disputes.  We also have the flexibility to handle certain personal injury and professional malpractice claims.

Both Ashley and I will be marketing like crazy to get this enterprise off the ground.  We appreciate your referrals and are open to associating with other attorneys on cases.

Gilion C. Dumas

Dumas Law Group, LLC

Weatherly Building, Suite 309

516 SE Morrison Street

Portland, OR  97214

www.DumasLawGroup.com

503-952-6789

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Rose City Reader Jumps on the Facebook Bandwagon!

Rose City Reader finally has a Facebook fan page!

You can now find this blog on Facebook as Rose City Reader Book Blog. Please "Like" the page, either by visiting it here and clicking the Like link, or by clicking the Like box over there in the right hand column.

I have had a Facebook professional page (Gilion Dumas, Attorney) for a while now, but put off making a fan page for my blog because it felt like one more social media obligation.  But I use Facebook myself, way more than twitter or google+, so I figured I would actually use my Facebook page to connect with my own favorite book bloggers.

OTHER BLOGGERS:  If you have a Facebook fan page of your own, please let me know. I am happy to Like you back!  I'll do the same for your business or professional pages if you Like my attorney page. Let's connect!

Used Book Love

I can think of dozens of reasons I buy used books, including the availability of out-of-print titles, price, and the happy feeling I get from knowing a book is being "reused" instead of recycled.

What about you? Do you buy used books? Why do you? Or don't you?

For fanciers of used and rare books lucky enough to be in Portland this weekend, try to stop by the Rose City Used Book Fair, where 40+ dealers will offer a treasure trove of cool books and ephemera. 

If you need further encouragement, check out this spify "info-graphic" the folks at Thriftbooks came up with and asked me to post.  

Pin This!

Uh oh. I jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon.  It is too fun to skip.

I'm there as Gilion Dumas.  So far, I've created boards that tie in with Rose City Reader, like Favorite Author boards, book review boards, and a board for the reading challenges I'm doing.  But I also added a couple of house, food, travel, and general interest boards.

If you are on Pinterest too, please leave a comment with your Pinterest user name so I can find you. Or follow me on Pinterest so I can find you and follow you back.

You know, now that I think of it, the same goes for twitter.  You can find me there @GilionDumas.

Happy 11th Anniversary! And Happy Veterans' Day!

Hubby and I are celebrating our 11th anniversary today, on 11/11/11.  We got married at 11:00 am, so we could even add another 11 to the list.

It seems momentous.

How Cool is This? Deck of Chords

My wonderful friend and Renaissance woman Kirsten Rian has once again amazed me with her versatile talents.

Kirsten and photographer Lauren Henkin just produced Deck of Chords, a full deck of offset-printed playing cards. Each card front features an image of Lauren's from an unpublished portfolio titled The Lines Between Us, and on the back, a poem by Kirsten. There are 52 cards in total plus a signed cover card.

The set is completed, the prototype printed, and the final product is expected in a few weeks. Until then, Kirsten and Lauren are offering a pre-sale price of $14, which includes shipping to anywhere in the US.  Order on Lauren's website.

After November 1st, the price will go up to $24. Please email Lauren for shipping costs outside the US.

All photos © Kirsten Rian and Lauren Henkin.

What's With the Skimpy Content?

There have been a lot of "Opening Sentence" posts here on Rose City Reader lately. 

My excuse is that I have been so hectic at work and with a landscaping redo at home that I haven't had time to review any books. I blame child abusers and poodle trees.

When I get crazy busy like this, I don't have the attention span for heavy books. I keep reading because it relaxes me, but I've been reading mysteries, chick lit, and other lighter stuff that I read for entertainment. I don't need anything thought-provoking right now -- the point is to let my brain calm down, not rev up!

So I am going through books very quickly, hence all the Opening Sentence posts, but not reviewing or otherwise posting with much substance.  Please bear with me for a while.

I'm Famous!

I've been blurbed!

My review of The Mermaid and the Messerschmitt by Rulka Langer is quoted on the back of the reprinted edition.



This was one of my favorite books of 2010.  Subtitled "War Through a Woman's Eyes," it is a lively, personal memoir about the WWII German invasion of Warsaw.   

My full review is here. There is a hefty quote from my review on the back of the new edition, along with a glowing compliment from Alan Furst, author of Spies of the Balkans and other really good historical spy novels.

From my review:

An incredible book . . . thoroughly absorbing and quick to read . . . deserves a wide audience . . . would make an excellent book club choice, especially for readers who enjoyed  Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky, The Diary of Anne Frank, or Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.

I feel like the Book Blogger Queen for a Day!

Shopping Day: Books & More

The turkeys have all marched on, so it is time to start Christmas shopping.

For those here in Portland, here are a couple of fun idea to help avoid the mall:

• Friday & Saturday, 10 am -6 pm, Second Glance Books is having its Annual Holiday Sale & Open House. Everything in the store is at least 10% off. All holiday books, children's books and cook books are 20% off. Bargain books are 50% off the clearance price. There are refreshments and a chance to win a Second Glance Books gift certificate.

• Today only, the Multnomah County Librarys' Title Wave Used Bookstore is having a sale with 55% off its' usual low prices. All money goes to the Multnomah County Library. 

• My new favorite non-book store, ink & peat, is open early today and will be festive all weekend. Click the picture to see a bigger, readable version. Remember to print this to get 10% off.

Announcement: Portland Used Book Sale

The annual Grant High School Used Book Sale is this week. Donated books are for sale to raise money for the school library.


Here are the details:

Location:

Grant High School

2245 NE 36th Avenue, Room 130

Portland, Oregon

Dates and Times:

November 22nd from 8 am to 8 pm

November 23rd from 8 am to 6 pm

Prices:

$2/book from 8 am to noon on the 22nd

$1/book from noon to 8 pm on the 22nd and all day on the 23rd

A Literacy Award

My thanks go to the talented Michele Emrath of Southern City Mysteries for passing on the "I'm a Literacy Builder" award to me. Deanna of The Other Side of Deanna created the award to recognize International Literacy Day and help promote literacy efforts around the globe. Here is a link to programs supported by the UN Literacy program.

Here are the rules:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.
2. Display the award logo on your blog site.
3. Tell us five of your favorite words and why you like them, (add as many as you like).
4. Pass the award on to three bloggers you feel are excellent literacy builders, and link to their sites – Yes, only three!
5. Contact the bloggers you’ve chosen and let them know about the award.

My words:

1. squirrelly: This is a great word because it exactly captures someone getting agitated and fidgety like a squirrel.

2. lunatic: I like the sound of lunatic and the old-fashioned idea that the moon caused insanity.

3. dipsomaniac: This is one of my all-time favorite words. It packs so much more punch than the more prosaic "alcoholic" and is more flexible in its variations -- dipsomaniacal, dipsomania, etc.

4. derelict:  Again, I like the sound of this word. Apparently, words with clicky sounds in them appeal to my inner ear. This is such a descriptive word, like "decrepit," although this one can be used as an adjective to describe a building or a noun to describe a person.

5. brigand:  Although there is not much opportunity to use this word, I like it and its bad guy kin, bandit and buccaneer.

6. scurrilous: This is one of those words that sounds great and proves that the English language can be infinitely precise.  It means to be vulgar or obscene and evil. I wonder what word describes someone who is refined or inoffensive but evil?

Passing it on to:

Paperback Fool
100 Books. 100 Journeys.
chaotic compendiums

Awards: Thanks Bev!

I really shouldn't be given blog awards. I always appreciate them, but I am not good with the requisite follow up.  But Bev at My Reader's Block passed on several nice awards to me, so I will make an effort here. Geesh! I don't want to be a total wet blanket.

Now the follow up part: I list 10 things about me and then pass the awards on.

10 (Bookish) Things About Me

1. According to my LibraryThing tags, there are 1142 books on my TBR shelves.

2. I have never read Anna Karenina, Don Quixote, or War and Peace, all to my shame. And, yes, they are all on my TBR shelves.

3. A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell is my favorite “book” even though it is really 12 separate novels.

4. Jim Harrison is my favorite living American author, with Philip Roth as a close second.

5. I have read all 121 books on the Modern Library’s list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century.

6. Although I resisted Twitter, I now admit it is a very fun book-related time suck.

7. David Lodge is my favorite living British author, with Ian McEwan as a close second.

8. I have on a couple of occasions – and usually by accident – read a mystery from a series out of order, but it makes me very uncomfortable.

9. I am currently working on 27 books lists of prize winners or other “must reads,” all listed over in the right column.

10. If I had to define my favorite genre, it would be Mid-Century novels by dipsomaniacal, male British authors.

My Choices for Award Winners

I chose a few of my favorite Pacific Northwest bloggers:

At Home With Books
The Book Pirate
The Life and Times of Michael5000
We Be Reading
Whimpulsive
Worducopia

Announcement and Miscellany

ANNOUNCEMENT

The August issue of the Internet Review of Books is up now, with a dozen non-fiction reviews, a half-dozen fiction reviews, two poetry reviews (including one of a collection of Dorthy Parker's poetry that is particularly interesting), and the always-entertaining Brief Review section.

BOOK RELATED MISCELLANY

I got several things in the mail this that caught my bookish fancy.

ONE

The first is a catalog from Open Letter, an publishing house I had never heard of before. Based at the University of Rochester in New York, the press specializes in "literary translations" and has a small but impressive selection of books in print.

The book that caught my eye is The Ambassador by Bragi Olafsson, translated from Icelandic. It is a novel about a poet invited to an international poetry festival in Lithuania as official representative of Iceland, only to be accused of plagiarism on the eve of his trip.  It looks great.



The catalog is a treasure trove of novels, stories, poetry and non-fiction  from Argentina, France, the Czech Republic, Poland, Catalonia, and elsewhere. This is a terrific resource and would be particularly useful when finding books for an international reading challenge.  I see from browsing the on-line catalog that you save 20% by ordering direct.

TWO

The second thing I got in the mail iss the latest calendar for workshops and events at the San Francisco Center for the Book.  It made me wish that I still lived in San Francisco! I attended several events there, including a poetry reading/letterpress exhibit with Kirsten Rian and a Mail Art workshop where we made collage postcards and submitted them for this "digital exhibit."

For anyone living in the Bay Area or visiting, I highly recommend taking part in the goings on at SFCB.

THREE

Finally, a friend of mine sent me a book swap chain letter.  The idea, as with all chain letters, is to send whatever it is to the name at the top of the list and to pass the letter on to six friends, with the idea that when your name goes to the top, you will receive multiple whatevers. 

In this case, the whatever is a paperback book and the list only has one name on it.  That is, there is one person's name on the back of the letter -- I am supposed to send her a book.  The friend who sent it to me included six of her own return address sticky labels. I stick one on the back of each of the six letters I send out. So the pyramid for this pyramid scheme is pretty squat!

I have always been a sucker for chain letters. Ever since I was a kid, I have sent pennies, recipes, stamps, socks -- anything. Well, maybe not socks.  But I am enchanted with the idea, even though I don't know that I ever got anything.  The chain always broke before my name got to the top of the list.

So, Annette in Wisconsin -- keep a loot out for your book. It's on the way!

I am curious to know what other people think of chain letters. What about book chain letters? Tempting at all? Has anyone ever successfully participated in a chain letter?

Announcements!

First: the July issue of the Internet Review of Books is up now in time to impart some summer reading inspiration.  There are ten non-fiction reviews, including my review of Lunatic Express, a manageable three fiction reviews, two poetry reviews, and the always popular "Brief Reviews" section, along with a fun new "photos of libraries" feature.

Please visit the IRB. And, if interested, get involved! They are looking for volunteers and there are other ways to support the IRB.

Second: I am pleased to report that Laura at Musings has completed the Battle of the Prizes, American Version, Challenge! Here are links to her three challenge reviews, Tinkers, Let the Great World Spin, and Morte d'Urban.  Thanks for taking part Laura!

So far, three participants have completed this challenge. In addition to Laura at Musings, chaotic compendiums and 100 Books. 100 Journeys are also finished. Much to my shame as the host, I haven't even started!

The challenge goes until January 31, 2011, so there is still time to sign up.

Announcements

Thanks go to Art Scatter for giving me the Prolific Blogger Award. Mr. Scatter managed to write a clever and engaging post about a blog award, which should be worth some kind of award in its own right. For those who haven't visited Art Scatter, please do -- it is a real star among arts and culture blogs.

The March issue of the Internet Review of Books is up now.  It looks particularly tempting, packed as it is with reviews, including reviews of a new Winston Churchill biography and Ian McEwan's latest novel.  They have also added a section for reviews of poetry books.