Authors and books

Louise Farmer Smith chatting with book lovers today at Full Circle Bookstore.

The books and authors of the past year came more alive today when I got to meet and chat with Louise Farmer Smith at Full Circle Bookstore. www.fullcirclebooks.com/
She was here for a reading and signing of  her book 100 Years of Marriage, which arrived on my doorstep last year and I reviewed here, an unexpected book and new friend indeed. See this article from June:
http://clarkcoffee.blogspot.com/2012/06/why-did-your-mother-say-yes.html
A native Okie and award-winning author living in Washington D.C., met a large crowd and took her time to converse with each person, writing  in the books, and then blowing the ink dry, the old-fashioned way.
I already had the book, signed by her,--one of 12 I read in the first half of last year-- but she inscribed it personally to me, happy that I showed her how marked up some of the pages were. Important books always deserve to have words and original phrases underlined or checked so I can find them again.
She's the fifth author who enlivened my reading and autographed books for me last year. Craig Varbajedian and his photo book Landscape Dreams, A New Mexico Portrait and Jimmy Santiago Baca's The Lucia Poems came from our trip to Santa Fe. Here's that post: http://clarkcoffee.blogspot.com/2012/10/an-oasis-for-spirit-in-lifes-desert.html
Before that I received the landmark poetry and watercolor book, The River White, by Ada poet Ken Hada and his brother Duane, published by friend Jeanetta Calhoun Mish of Mongrel Empire Press mongrelempire.org in January.  http://clarkcoffee.blogspot.com/2012/01/rhythm-of-water-review.html   Later in the year, Ken signed the book for me at the First Sunday Poetry Reading  at Beans&Leaves,  organized by poet Dorothy Alexander. http://www.facebook.com/BeansandLeaves
Most recently, friend and author Kent Anderson signed his latest novel  to Susan and I, The Silver Cross, another suspense thriller set in Oklahoma and Texas. We bought it at Best of Books in Edmond. www.bestofbooksedmond.com/
Kent's was the last book I read this year, the seventh in the last six months, which included Varbajedian and Baca.
Others that rounded out the year were Austin Kleon's Steal Like and Artist, and Newspaper Blackout--books found by mistake that helped my creativity.
Two spiritual books included The Evolution Angel by Dr. Todd Michael, was an emergency physician's lessons from death and the divine, and Dr. Doris Cohen's Repetition, a clinical psychologist's take on past lives, death, life and rebirth.
Reading is so much more than picking up a book.