Win a Free Book!

How’d you like to win a free, autographed copy of Matrimony by Joshua Henkin?  Mr. Henkin has kindly offered to send a couple of copies of the just-releaed paperback version of the novel to readers of this blog.  If you’re interested, send me a message at sue kamata (at) msn (dot ) com with your name and address.

I reviewed the book here last summer.  Since then, this beautifully told story of a more or less ordinary marriage has garnered praises far and wide.  It was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a National Booksense Pick and a Borders Original Voices Selection.  

Here’s what Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Cunnigham had to say about Matrimony:

“In the tradition of John Cheever and Richard Yates … a novel about love, hope, delusion, and the intricate ways in which time’s passage raises us up even as it grinds us down. It’s a beautiful book. Here’s to its brilliant future.”

Reading with Mamas

Okay, I know I’ve been out of touch for awhile.  I’ve been buzzing around here and there, trying to get the word out about my books.  Yesterday I had the pleasure of reading with several editors of literary mama at the fabulous Blue Bicycle Books, owned by the truly gracious Jonathan Sanchez in Charleston, South Carolina.  In spite of the rain and wind resulting from Tropical Storm Fay, we had a nice little group on hand.  A few other mamas brought their kids, so there were children running around eating cookies, drunking lemonade, yanking the books off the shelves and tormenting the store cat.

For the first time ever, I read in front of my children.  At one point when I was reading about my daughter, I teared up, and Lilia patted my arm.  It was very sweet.  My son, who’d never read or heard one of my adult essays before, told me afterward that I’d done good job and that he’d almost cried as well.  So that was special.

Sonya Huber read an excerpt of her marvelous memoir Opa Nobody.  (Lilia enjoyed miming Sonya’s tatoo.)  Then Melinda Copp, assistant fiction editor, read a very interesting piece about alligators.  Amy Hudock, founder and editor-in-chief of Literary Mama, read her essay from A Cup of Comfort for Single Mothers, and Amy Mercer and Stephanie Hunt read from their columns.  In fact, we were treated to the world premier of Stephanie’s latest Great Green Room column which will be posted today. 

It was great to meet these wonderful women for the first time in person.   

Next weekend I’ll be at the Decatur Book Festival.  I’ll be sure to share my experiences here.

The Beetle Keeper

Lilia volunteered to take care of the class stag beetle during the first few weeks of summer vacation.  She was supposed to feed it, and moisten the soil with water from time to time.  I suppose we were supposed to change the soil, but no one said anything about that, and I didn’t get around to buying any.

Lilia was quite enthusiastic for the first few days, remembering to feed it the smelly jelly even when I forgot.  But then, it crawled out of the plastic box once and she was freaked out and said she wanted to give it to her grandmother.  Since then, she has fallen in love with the kindergarten’s hamsters, and has decided that she wants one of those. 

I’ve been feeding the beetle and sprinkling water on the soil.  Up until last night, I heard it scrabbling around.  But this morning, when I checked on it, the jelly was uneaten and the beetle was belly up in the box.  Nothing happened when I tapped the box.  I was pretty sure it was dead.

Lilia is supposed to take it back to school tomorrow for the hand-off to her classmate.  I figure’d they’d be having a beetle burial instead.  But we went out for awhile, and when we came back, the beetle had moved!  Whew!  I reached in and turned it over so it could burrow into the dirt.

She’s a Poet and I Didn’t Know it

The other day an official-looking letter arrived for Lilia.  I figured it was something complicated about laws pertaining to the disabled or a reminder about some piece of equipment that we haven’t yet paid for, or maybe news of a conference.  I left it for my husband to open. 

“Lilia has received a citation for a work called ‘Hana’ (Flower),” he said.

He showed me a list with names of students at various schools for the disabled all over Japan.  Lilia was the only one mentioned from her school.

At first I thought she was being honored for a painting.  She once won a citation for a work of art in a prefecture-wide competiton.  But no.  This was an award for poetry – the Osamu Yazawa Prize.  My daughter, who could barely write a sentence on her own up until last year, wrote a poem good enough to gain her national recognition.   As you can imagine, I am busting my buttons.