It can totally be yours for a mere $525,000.  Done and done, right?

Friday Ritual: Iced Americano @ Beans & Bagels on Montrose pre-class. The Americano is made from Metropolis Coffee's Red Line Espresso, and is awesome.

With only three classes left in my Handmade Books class, we finished two books today.  The first, which we’ve been working on for a few weeks, was the Western Case style book – which is essentially a library-style binding, as shown below.

Being an overachiever, I made two books this time around.  The bigger version is going to be my travel journal for our April road trip.

In previous classes, we cut and covered our boards for the book covers and spine for our Secret Belgian Book — I’ve been going very sedated in color for the past few books, so I decided to kick the girly psychedelia up a little.

Today it was time to sew the pieces of the book together.  Which was easier than I thought it was going to be. (I’m really not much good with a needle and thread.)

The rest of the class was spent sewing our book block (aka, the pages) to the spine of the pieces we’d sewn together.  I finished, and my book held, but it wasn’t as tight as I wanted – so I’m going to re-do it.

Next up, we’re going to be tackling a project from the book “Re-Bound” by Jeannine Stein, the “Cabinet Card Sketchbook.”   (I’m excited.  It’s a quirky little book.)

Lillstreet will be offering the Handmade Books class again for their spring session, if you’re interested.  It’s a really nice class, and I’m having a great time.  I look forward to it each and every week.  The price looks a little steep, but it’s 30 hours of instruction, plus materials and open studio time as well, so I think it’s actually quite a good deal.

1.  J.K. Rowling is going to write a novel for adults.

2.  Anthony Bourdain’s publishing imprint announces titles.

3.  “Jane Eyre” screenwriter Moira Buffini to adapt “The Night Circus” for film.

Woot.

To borrow a phrase from my mother-in-law, I already had a bee in my bonnet to visit my favorite bookstore in Chicago, Unabridged Bookstore.  Then, I watched Ann Patchett’s appearance on The Colbert Report (see previous post) where she extoled the virtues of indie bookstores, and I was inspired.  So I bundled up my 4 month old, strapped him in the Baby Bjorn, and hopped on over to Unabridged.  (I’m lucky, this gem is mere blocks from my home.)

On a weekday afternoon, the store is fairly quiet.  This is the perfect time to browse the shelves.  It’s not the biggest bookstore in the world, but their staff is really smart, and their featured selections are usually right-on.  In addition, the kids section is wonderful, and the whole basement is full of travel books.  (I can’t think of a rival travel section anywhere in town.)

But the best thing about Unabriged is their amazing sale section.  Where many stores use the word “sale” to clear out books that obviously were of no interest to people, Unabridged’s is full of stellar selections – a mecca for booknerds.  I noticed books by John Irving, Christopher Moore, Sarah Vowell, Toni Morrison, and a plethora of other authors I truly care about.  It’s hardly a dumping ground.

Sure, they didn’t have a couple of the books I was looking for, but I like my haul anyway.  I got Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods” on sale for 5 bucks, as well as “The Philosophical Baby” by Alison Gopnik, and an adorable board book for my little guy called “A Book of Sleep.”  Plus that, they are an IndieBound store and feature the “Next” lists of recommendations from which I’ve found several books I’ve loved.

Also, the bookseller on duty talked to my baby.  I always like when people do that.  And my baby smiled back.  That’s an all around win.

**Since I’m trying to match Bookstore adventures with coffeeplaces of late, I have to give mad props to the Caribou Coffee across the street from Unabridged.  Apparently I walked into a conversation about potty training little boys, and it was hilarious. Good times. **

Because it’s wonderful.

SSP are a lovely group of friendly people who produce and perform live theatre in the basement of St. Bonaventure church in Chicago.  They’ve been at it for a while – this is their 31st season – and they’re just good people who truly love doing theatre, and do it quite well.  It’s church basement theatre, so you won’t be seeing any Sarah Kane angst or X-rated action, but if that’s your thing – it’s Chicago, I’m sure forty other groups can assist you.

“Mark Twain: Patriot, Teacher, Philosopher” is another success for the group.  John Oster has compiled some of Twain’s lesser-known works into a sweet two-hour showcase of the talent of the legendary writer, as well as the talent of the assembled cast under the direction of Stephen F. Murray.

Using the framing device of Twain’s “The Diary of Adam and Eve,” Oster weaves five of Twains short pieces with some live folk music, and the whole thing comes off as a comfy, folky good time.  Right out of the gate, Kelsi Karch’s Eve is likable and endearing, and she and her Adam (Dylan Parkes) serve as our guides for the evening – it begins and ends with them, as they portray the beginning of man and woman in the Garden of Eden through their old age, when Eve has died and Adam is left alone to remember her.  Heads up, the final scene of the Adam & Eve arc is a complete heartbreaker. (You’re familiar with their sons, right?)

However, most of the show will have you chuckling.  In one piece, Mark Twain himself (played by an affable Brian Hurst) runs for governor only to find himself surrounded by reporters for all sorts of salacious (and perhaps true) reasons.  In “A Telephonic Conversation,” Laura Stephenson is an absolute stitch as a wife on the phone having a long-winded, bizarre conversation while her husband (Eric Prahl) looks on.  There’s also “The French Duel,” which has two Frenchmen and their seconds preparing very seriously for a duel that is anything but serious. Murray keeps everything skipping along, and the whole cast seems to be putting their all into their roles.

Between all these pieces, a merry band of cast members appears and plays folk songs – “Down by the Riverside,” “Simple Gifts,” and “I’ll Fly Away,” among others.  At intermission, it’s a jam session, and the audience at the opening performance was loving it.

Fans of Twain should head to this show, as should fans of theatre with a heart.  It’s a charming, down-home time, and a nice way to spend a couple hours.

For those who like hard copies, check out the free preview copy of the new Printer’s Row journal in today’s Chicago Tribune.  Also, there’s a copy of “Clover” by Billy Lombardo – part of the Trib’s new journal as well.  It’s certainly pretty, and I can’t wait to read it.

We’re working on two projects right now that are spanning multiple classes.  I’ll have pics to show next Friday, byt I’m really excited about both.  One is a library-style binding, and the other is the secret Belgian binding seen above.  Mysterious, no?

That was enough for me. You know I’m obsessed with “Jane Eyre” right?

This book is a really good read, but it works best when you take the novel it’s taken from out of the picture and read it on it’s own merits. Essentially, all this book shares with “Jane Eyre” is a basic outline. Gemma, like Jane, goes from being an orphan raised by her terrible aunt to a working girl at a tough boarding school, then becomes an au pair for a semi-mysterious older man who she falls in love with and leaves because of his secrets.

Rather than being a carbon copy, Gemma is a heroine that’s easy to like on her own merits.  She’s ballsy and smart and a survivor.  She’s also not hung up on God, as Jane Eyre notoriously is.  Gemma’s actions are driven less by her religious fanaticism than her own gut instincts. The most interesting parts of this story are her search for herself, and her travels.  She’s described at one point as a “wanderer,” and it fits.  Gemma’s older paramour, Mr. Sinclair, is a lot more forward about his feelings for his young employee than a certain Mr. Edward Fairfax Rochester, who has beguiled and frustrated readers for centuries. (I was delighted that one of my favorite “Jane Eyre” characters got an update, too – Stand back, Blanche Ingram, Coco is all your snootiness consolidated into a few mere chapters.)

Without the melodrama of the moors and fogs and ghosts of Bronte’s original novel, certain events seem to not make much sense – namely, Gemma’s reason for leaving her beloved Mr. Sinclair.  The reveal of Mr. Rochester’s crazy wife Bertha is certainly a reason not to marry a man.  In Mr. Sinclair’s case, let’s just say there’s no madwoman in this attic. (I’m still not entirely sure why Gemma felt the need to run away from the marriage.  I guess I’m still thinking about that.)  Also, I had an issue with the way Gemma winds up “engaged” to a man named Archie toward the end of the book – it seems a little cliche, a little too much of the unbelievable stuff romantic comedies have been built on.  This is a smart girl who could have easily and quickly fixed that whole situation.  As far as the “update” aspect goes, with the setting being rural Ireland in the sixties and seventies, sometimes it doesn’t really feel like an “update” at all.  Minus the presence of a few pieces of updated technology, like the airplane by which Gemma makes her way back to her roots, a lot of it still takes place in the middle of nowhere and there are a lot of rustic folks doing rustic things.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and breezed through it, driven mostly by the likability of Gemma.  It’s a solid read, but it shouldn’t be compared to “Jane Eyre” in any sort of deep way.  Gemma is Gemma, and Jane is Jane, and their stories are both worth telling, albeit in two different books.

FYI – Ms. Livesey will be in Chicago, reading and signing at Women & Children First on February 28th at 7:30pm. I’m absolutely going, and you should too.