Yesterday, my kindly postie left me a long-awaited package and I must confess to being utterly delighted with its contents.
I have spent the past year amazed; not that so many of my friends have had books published, but at the astonishingly high quality of those books. First came Margaret's hilarious and touching "The Goddess Lounge", then Petrea's brilliant "Camelot and Vine", every page of which left me thinking "This woman can really WRITE" and feeling slightly guilty that I had not expected that from a friend.
Norm (Mr.M) of course is a long established and far-famed poet, music and architecture critic, jazz historian and just an all round brilliant guy, and Katherine now has a list of books as long as your arm (though Poems From The Battlefield holds a special place in my heart).
My oldest and bestest blogpal Robyn has written a slow-burn masterpiece of American Realism that still awaits a lucky publisher, our Lynn has a startlingly good book in the same situation, Vanda has a whole bunch of books published (which I love but which are written under a pseudonym and kept off here to protect the innocent) and even my dear neighbour Gerry is in on the act, having spent the past four years crafting a tautly plotted and beautifully written thriller set in Berlin (where he lived and worked at the end of the Cold War) and which we sent off to his agent last week and toasted with rather too much wine and grappa.
And now here comes Sara's masterful survey of the history of the American steamboat (one of which she used to own), a subject that has fascinated me since I was a little boy lost in Mark Twain.
Meticulously researched by a woman who really knows - and loves - her subject …
… written in a gorgeous prose style filled with the fabulous imagery of someone whose life has been spent as a professional artist and photographer (and blogger) …
… and lavishly illustrated with maps, paintings and glorious period photographs, this is a gem of a book and I am loving every minute of reading it. It shall sit happily between Twain's Autobiography and his Life on the Mississippi.
A hearty cheer, too, for Shire Books for the extremely high quality of reproduction and layout.
The season of summer reading is upon us so follow the links and go shopping:
Sara's "Steamboats - Icons of America's Rivers"
Petrea's "Camelot and Vine"
Margaret's "The Goddess Lounge"
Katherine's Amazon page
Norm's "No Wrong Notes" (Amazon keep muddling him up with a similarly named chef so you have to filter through to find the poetry and prose).
Robyn, Lynn and Gerry will no doubt follow and Vanda remains a secret delight all her own.
I'm going to have to learn how to write so I can play with you guys.
