Facebook

PaperBackSwap Blog


Archive for the ‘Newsletter’ Category

PBS Local Chapter News:

Monday, June 15th, 2009

New Local Chapter Leaders:

If you want to be a Local Chapter Leader for PBS, you just need to have a PBS NIckname, a viewable public profile, and some organizational skills…check the Local Chapter Leaders Forum List of Official Chapters to see if your area already has a local Chapter.  If not, and you want to do this, just contact us.  There are no formal guidelines for being a Chapter Leader.  All of the information is in the Local Chapter Leader Discussion Forum topic.    If you are an official Chapter Leader and want us to include your upcoming meetup in the Newsletter, send in a message to us with the date, at least a week before the end of the preceding month.

Books for Father’s Day

Monday, June 15th, 2009

Look at these books by, for and about dads, currently available to request…

General Fiction… Look Back All the Green Valley. Jess Kirkman returns to the North Carolina mountain town of his boyhood to tend to his ailing mother, and clean out his deceased father’s workroom. What he discovers there leads him—and the reader—on an unforgettable journey through the secret life of Jess’s father, which culminates in a moment of profound mystery… and comedy.

Memoirs Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul. Tony Hendra, a writer and satirist who was one of the geniuses behind THIS IS SPINAL TAP, shares an inspiring true story about his spiritual journey toward God, in the form of a tribute to the Rev. Joseph Warrilow, a Benedictine monk who lives in a monastery on the Isle of Wight.    A New York Times Notable Book.
Military History … Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War.   When Bob Greene went home to central Ohio to be with his dying father, it set off a chain of events that led him to knowing his dad in a way he never had before — thanks to a quiet man who lived just a few miles away, a man who had changed the history of the world….  Duty is the story of three lives connected by history, proximity, and blood; indeed, it is many stories, intimate and achingly personal as well as deeply historic.

Business …Business Dad : How Good Businessmen Can Make Great Fathers (and Vice Versa) Businessmen with kids often feel trapped between rising expectations at work and at home…there are never enough hours in the day. What’s a business dad to do? Tom Hirschfeld, veteran businessman and father of two, addresses the dilemma with surprising insights and sensible solutions….

Contemporary Fiction... A Father’s Affair. What happens to a father when he discovers that he has been infertile all his life? That intriguing question is the starting point of this book. Still reeling from the sudden death of his wife (the one person who could answer his questions), the protagonist, Armin Minderhout, begins a quest to discover the biological father of his thirteen-year-old son. The reader joins him on an extraordinary journey, one in which he is forced to reconsider everything and everyone he has ever believed in…

NEWS:

Monday, June 15th, 2009

Whatcha hidin’?  …Wouldn’t you like to know!  The soft bookcovers in the Kiosk can keep your reading material private, as well as protect your books and make them easy to hold.  Now in three sizes: Mass Market, Premium Mass Market (= most trade paperbacks) and Hardcover, and a number of different patterns.  Seriously, if you haven’t gotten one of these yet, you are missing out!

Cross-Country Champs… Check out the new page of Most Traveled Books under Search at the top of any page on the site…. These are individual copies of books that have been swapped the most times and are still traveling and available to request.  You can see the path each book has taken, and you can also see the most-swapped copies of all time from a link on the still-traveling copies page.  Think of it, each of these books could have had just one reader and then languished on a dusty shelf forever.  Instead, each of them has gladdened the hearts of multiple readers – and the currently-traveling copies are still going strong!

Dear Members, …Father’s Day

Monday, June 15th, 2009

Every year it sneaks up on us while we are gardening, finishing out the school year, getting ready for the Fourth of July…  Father’s Day!

When I was growing up, I never thought of my Dad as being special.   He went to work every day and came home to us three boys and my Mom.   My brothers and I hardly noticed when people stared at him rolling by in his wheelchair (where polio put him when he was a teenager) – to us he was just Dad.   But as I grow older and face my own relatively minor challenges every day, I begin to see things in a new light, and realize how  special he really was.  Not because of his disability – but because of his abilities.   Thinking of him inspires me to enjoy what I have instead of worrying about what I don’t have – to celebrate the many miracles that go into every day on this earth.

Here’s to you, Dad!   And to everyone else who reminds us that there is extraordinary in the ordinary all around us.
Let’s all have a wonderful June,
Richard
and the PaperBackSwap Team

PBS Local Chapter News:

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
The Massachusetts Local Chapter had a special guest at their last meetup: author Louise Shaffer!  Read all about it in Lori’s blog here.

Above, Left to right: Diane (onefinetabby), Laurie O (badkitty), Lori G (thebookpimp), Melanie (Melsy626), author Louise Shaffer, Trice D. (Trice) holding Lori’s pup Sadie, Jacquelyn (JJO), Lisa E (LisaCC), Lynn D (bears1) & Lynne D (Lynne)

Below: Louise Shaffer holds the group enthralled.

New Local Chapter Leaders:

  • Ruth T. – RegencyBelle – Long Island (Suffolk County), NY
  • Debbie DDarlin-DKentuckiana (Louisville KY + Southern Indiana)
  • Anna B – annajay – Front Range area, CO
  • Melody G – blondeprincess Western Hernando and Pasco Counties, FL
  • Jenn E. – JennEscalona – Midtown Atlanta, GA
  • Paulette S – mswings4him – San Bernadino County, CA

If you want to be a Local Chapter Leader for PBS, you just need to have a PBS NIckname, a viewable public profile, and some organizational skills…check the Local Chapter Leaders Forum List of Official Chapters to see if your area already has a local Chapter.  If not, and you want to do this, just contact us.  There are no formal guidelines for being a Chapter Leader.  All of the information is in the Local Chapter Leader Discussion Forum topic.    If you are an official Chapter Leader and want us to include your upcoming meetup in the Newsletter, send in a message to us with the date, at least a week before the end of the preceding month.

Get your Summer Reading Here!

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Check out these books, currently available to request…

Children’s...  Hatchet. On his way to visit his recently divorced father in the Canadian mountains, thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is the only survivor when the single-engine plane crashes. His body battered, his clothes in shreds, Brian must now stay alive in the boundless Canadian wilderness.  More than a survival story, Hatchet is a tale of tough decisions…Brian discovers that if he is to survive physically as well as mentally, he must discover courage.
Memoirs The Glass Castle. In this riveting and un-self-pitying memoir, Jeannette Walls’ chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents…she describes in fascinating detail what it was to be a child in this family, from the embarrassing (wearing shoes held together with safety pins; using markers to color her skin in an effort to camouflage holes in her pants) to the horrific (being pimped by her father at a bar)…the author’s removed, nonjudgmental stance lets her love for her parents – despite their flaws and overwhelming self-absorption – resonate from cover to cover.
Mystery/Thriller … 1st to Die (Women’s Murder Club, Book 1).  The first book in bestselling author James Patterson’s hugely popular series The Women’s Murder Club pits four San Francisco women professionals against a serial killer who’s stalking and murdering newlyweds.   This is a PBS club favorite.  The whole series so far (all seven books) is currently available to request. Get your whole summer’s reading – although if the couldn’t-put-them-down reviews are correct, these books won’t last you that long!
Contemporary Fiction…The Friday Night Knitting Club.  “Walker and Daughter” is Georgia Walker’s little yarn shop, tucked into a quiet storefront on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The Friday Night Knitting Club was started by some of Georgia’s regulars, who gather once a week to work on their latest projects and to chat-and occasionally clash-over their stories of love, life, and everything in between….they’ve created not just a knitting club, but a sisterhood.  A charming and moving novel about women’s friendship.

Chick Lit... The Next Big Thing.  Kat Larson figured she had nothing to lose by becoming a contestant on the new reality show “From Fat to Fabulous” — except maybe a few dozen pounds. Then she’d finally be able to arrange a face-to-face meeting with Nick, the British hunk she met online, who still thinks she’s a size four….  In this funny, poignant debut, a plus-size heroine discovers she’s already beautiful enough to be… the next big thing.

News: Better Browsing, Postage Increase, Survey, Twitter BG Contest, Requestor Conditions & Caps!

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Holy Better Browsing, Batman! Check out the new browsing options on the Member Homepage.  Click Home in the top menu to get to this page, on which you can choose up to 3 favorite genres for your sliding display of available books; below that, you can now also browse available books in other genres – just one click displays the genre you choose from the list.  What used to be the Recently Posted Available Books display is now viewable by genre – so you can look at cookbooks — mysteries — Libros en Espanol — whatever you like.   One click “refills” the display with available books in the genre you have chosen.  There’s no quicker way to browse for your next great read!

Postage Increase THIS MONDAY. Effective Monday, May 11, postal rates will increase slightly.  The price of a First Class letter stamp will increase from 42 cents to 44 cents (so stock up on those Forever stamps this week!).   A 1-lb Media Mail package will be $2.38 (up from $2.23). Download the USPS’ new price list, or read the information at USPS‘s website.  Please note that PBS Printable Postage will shut down for Sunday May 10th, so you will not be able to print the “old rates” on that day.  It will be enabled again on May 11, and the new rates will print out.  Remember to mail your books  you have agreed to mail on or before Saturday the 9th of May, so that you are not sending packages with insufficient postage!

We’ll give you something to talk about…. We’re looking for member input on the club, and we will be sending out survey emails to random members in the next couple of weeks.  When you get one of these emails (it will come from librarian@paperbackswap.com and it will have the PBS logo in the message body), click the link inside to take the survey.   The surveys will be short, and your responses will help us make decisions about what direction to take new features in the club.   So if you get a survey email, please take a few minutes to take the survey.  Your opinions could have a big impact!

So you think you can design? Prove it in our upcoming Twitter Background Design Contest!  We want our members to be a part of representing the club on our Twitter profile @paperbackswap.   The contest begins May 7th and ends June 7th. You can submit your entry on the site http://www.TwitterBackgroundsGallery.com after May 7th.   Winners get cold hard cash, credits, and Swap Money as well as unending glory!  And those of you who dont design…you can still get in on the act by voting on the submissions. There will be “people’s choice” AND “PBS Team choice” winners!   For more about how to submit, the prizes, and all the nifty details, check out the PBS Blog. A huge thanks to TwitterBackgroundsGallery.com for helping us set this up & use their website to run the contest.

Oh, we didn’t mention the Blog? It’s just a little somethin’ we threw together…. You can find it under Community at the top of any page on the site.  It has info from previous newsletters, plus stuff you can’t find anywhere else on the site, and you can comment on the items there.  Check it out.

Requestor Conditions Refinement. Now when you request a book you will have the option NOT to apply your Requestor Conditions to that request, during the process of submitting the request.  No need to go into your Account Settings to turn them off, then back to the request, then back to your Account Settings to turn them on again.  This new streamlined option should make things easier for those who use the Requestor Conditions feature.

And to top it all off… PBS Caps are in the Kiosk!  100% cotton in black or mustard, and a sueded cotton blend in stone.  Don’t tell us you don’t love them.  It’s not possible not to love them!   Ten bucks to protect your face from sunburn and proclaim your membership in the best online bookclub on the planet?  It’s ridiculous not to buy these.