THE BACK CHAMBER by Donald Hall 

"Hall’s been writing about approaching death ever since The Museum of Clear Ideas (1993). But, nine years after The Painted Bed, here’s another collection, in which he confesses an octogenarian’s further decrepitude but sure doesn’t sound about to expire—not in the eldritch jump-rope rhyme, “Apples Peaches,” anyway. Many of the short poems in the book’s first part are wholly or partly concerned with eros, lovemaking—you know, fucking. What’s more, one of the three “extra innings” (an inning consists of nine stanzas of nine lines of nine syllables—a form Hall introduced in the nine-part “Baseball” in Museum) lets slip that Hall has (or has had, as the ruefully wry, repetitious “Three Women” may imply) another lover since the death of his wife, Jane...

Can Bugs Improve Your Sex Life?

SPEAKEASY (WSJ.com) 

By Marlene Zuk

"When people are interviewing you about your book but have not read it, they ask stock questions that most authors find difficult to answer, or at least answer with any sort of creativity. One of the more common of these is “What did you find in your research into the topic that surprised you?” presumably because it isn’t enough simply to determine what’s in the book that might be of interest to the reader. Apparently one has to find out something even the author didn’t know beforehand. With a title like “Sex on Six Legs,” so far the biggest surprise has been that no one has assumed that the book is about threesomes, though I...

  Nearly every Sunday morning in the summer, we go into town to the Maine Coast Book Shop to pick up the newspapers, perhaps have a cup of coffee, and always browse.  And nearly every Sunday, we come home with a book or two that we never would have found on line.  We have iPads, and yes, I’ve even bought and read a book or two on mine.  But you simply can’t browse for books on line, and readers everywhere will lose the serendipity of finding something they didn’t know they were seeking if we lose our bookstores.   This week’s find:  The Hercules Cup by Bettany Hughes.  I loved her book on Helen of Troy, so couldn’t resist this one.  50 pages in and I’m glad I bought it!  So, next time you pass a bookstore, stop in, and you’ll find something magical.  Guaranteed.

--Wendy Strothman

Hidden Gems And 'Killer Stuff': A Flea Market How-To

All Things Considered (NPR) 

"The flea market day starts long before the crowds stream in, says author Maureen Stanton. And that's when the real deals go down.

"The dealers are here, sometimes right at the crack of dawn," she tells NPR's Laura Sullivan. "The antique dealers, generally, are 'picking' the other tables ... looking for the thing that they can resell for double or triple or 10-fold."

Stanton has written a new book about this growing subculture, Killer Stuff and Tons of Money: Seeking History and Hidden Gems in Flea-Market America.

Her main character is a man she calls Curt...

Book is a revolutionary product: Bio Optical Organiced Knowledge device...  Find out about its amazing advantages! (English subtitles)

Watch the video here: http://youtu.be/YhcPX1wVp38

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Review: “Killer Stuff and Tons of Money”

By Annie Groer, Washington Post June 17th, 2011

"Curt Avery is the fake name of the very real hero of “Killer Stuff and Tons of Money,” which is too bad. Because after whipping through Maureen Stanton’s utterly engaging, heavily researched account of her old college buddy’s life on the yard-sale flea-market antiques-show auction-house circuit, I wanted to invite myself into his multi-state universe and hang out with all those dealers, collectors, sport shoppers, decorators, scholars and especially the pseudonymous Windsor chair restorer whose brilliantly altered and repaired pieces have fooled a number of...

Animal webcams: Days of their lives

Live webcams of animals show us birth, romance, skullduggery and death — animals behaving like animals 24/7. But don't confuse animal behavior with human behavior.

By Marlene Zuk

"Thanks to modern technology, peering into private lives all around the world has never been easier.

When Su Lin, the San Diego-born daughter of Chinese parents Bai Yun and Gao Gao, had her first medical exam, eager viewers proclaimed that she was the cutest baby ever. When a mother of three died in an airplane accident, leaving the father to care for the family alone, thousands of people across the country mourned online. As a youngster at New York University got close to takeoff, his family's Facebookwall was crammed with notes from well-wishers.

Did I mention that all of these are animals? The Chinese American family of pandas has graced the San Diego Zoo for...

 A Never-Ending Treasure Hunt

In the antiques trade, you can fake a lot of things—but not good taste

By JONATHAN LOPEZ (Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2011)

"The Stoic philosopher Seneca wrote that "luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." For the habitually "lucky" antiques dealer at the heart of Maureen Stanton's "Killer Stuff and Tons of Money," preparation means cultivating a deep knowledge of objects—Shaker furniture, heirloom porcelain, 18th-century weathervanes—while opportunity results from meticulously examining tens of thousands of items every year at flea markets, auctions and antiques fairs. His sharp eyes spot unrecognized wonders amid a profusion of second-rate wares—much to the...

Book Offers Look at Professional Antique Dealer

".... Any fan of PBS' "Antiques Roadshow" would love to spend time with him. And that's just the opportunity Maureen Stanton gives us in "Killer Stuff and Tons of Money." She takes us along as Avery loads up his pickup truck with maybe $30,000 of antiques and drives off to yet another hall, or open field, to see what he can do.

 It's a fascinating look at the life of professional dealers who check out all the stuff at these shows before the rest of us even show up. In this world, Avery (that's a pseudonym, at his request) can make a $1,300 sale before he even sets up, or lose a chance for $1,000 profit by reaching another dealer's table five seconds too late. The appearance of a rental truck at the setup for a flea market is good news, we learn. It's the mark of an amateur...