Shopping Indie: My Local Bookstores

Independent bookstores are an integral part of the bookish community, yet I find that (at least in my city) many people don't realize what indie bookstores are out there.  I live in Buffalo, NY, and the city, suburbs, and surrounding region has so many local bookshops selling used and new books to offer the people in my community.  I've decided to showcase a different indie bookstore in my area every 2 weeks or so (depending on how busy my life decides to get) for a while until I've exhausted the pretty long list.  I'll give a brief description of each store, say what each has to offer, and will personally visit each one to give you an idea of the atmosphere (and buy myself a book or two or three....).  I may sometimes even interview owners or employees as well!  I hope that this feature will encourage those who live in the area or who visit the area to stop in, buy a book or two at one of these stores, and support the local indie community!  And if you don't live in Buffalo, I'd love to see what local book shops your city has to offer!

Look for my first "Shopping Indie" bookstore post coming soon!

Review: The Artificial River by Carol Sheriff

I don't review many non-fiction books, mainly because they are usually being read for school and I get really sick of whatever it is I usually have to read for school.  But I had to read The Artificial River: The Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress, 1817-1862 for a class on New York State history, and I ended up loving it.  As a lot of you know, I live in Buffalo, NY, the last stop on the Erie Canal, so the canal has always been close to my heart (because my city is close to my heart, and it's great here, and you should come and visit it!).  Artificial River chronicals the building of the canal across the state and focuses on how it was both progress and a frustration for the people living along it.  Filled with an insane amount of info, from what cities like Buffalo and Rochester used to be (pretty much nothing but a few shacks) to primary sources depicting real life and real opinions at the time the canal was built and afterwards, this book is a treasure trove for anyone interested in NYS history or the Erie Canal.

I really liked reading about what people living along the canal route thought of it.  At first, many people were ecstatic.  The canal would bring mail a lot faster than roads, and farmers would be able to transport their goods to more markets.  Entrepreneurs were able to set up their own businesses along the canal, and the construction of the canal and subsequent boom in business employed tons of people.  The canal could also be frustrating though.  Farmers' land was sometimes ruined or taken from them.  The canal sometimes broke in places and flooded the land, and boats would be stuck waiting in long lines while repairs were made.  Also, because of Upstate New York's cold temperatures, the canal had to be shut down every winter when it froze over.  This frustrated settlers in remote areas because they had gotten used to fast news from loved ones in New England or Europe during the warm months and didn't like the long wait for letters all winter.

Child labor was also an issue on the canal.  Young boys and sometimes girls lead the horses who pulled the boats.  They were mistreated and often abused by boat captains, and they were surrounded by the canal workers, ruffians with bad manners who many living along the canal didn't like at all.  These are just a few of the conflicts of progress that the canal brought with it.  Much more in discussed in the book.

As mentioned above, one of my favorite things to read about in Artificial River was the building up of towns and cities along the canal routes.  Buffalo, Lockport, and Rochester are mentioned frequently, but so are many other canal towns stretching across the state.

I think anyone who likes canal or NYS history will enjoy this.  It's non-fiction, but it's not insanely heavy.  It's written in an easy to understand way, and I loved how Sheriff kept all the spelling mistakes in primary sources that are quoted.  It helps to show who these people along the canal were.  They weren't all great spellers, but they were intelligent people nonetheless, and they were people who wanted a better life for their families.  Many of them had lived through or had relatives who lived through the American Revolution, and they felt very strongly about their property rights.  When parts of their land were taken away for the canal, they expressed their unhappiness (I'm ignoring for the purpose of this review the fact that the land had once belonged to Native Americans, who were forced off of their homelands).

Artificial River ends with the railroads and how they eventually surpassed the canal.  As Sheriff put it, "If the Erie Canal compressed distance and time, the railroads annihilated them" (page 173).  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait to read about more NYS history in my class.

And oh yeah, how awesome is the name "Cadwallader"??!  Never heard that before reading this book!  (and yes, it's a first name)

Title: The Artificial River
Author: Carol Sheriff
Date of Publication: 1997
Number of Pages: 177
Genre: Non-Fiction, Erie Canal
Source: Personal Cop

Review: Keep the Change by Steve Dublanica

When I got Keep the Change: A Clueless Tipper's Quest to Become the Guru of the Gratuity in the mail, I was a bit clueless myself as to why I requested it from the publisher.  Then I remembered.  The night before requesting a review copy of this hilarious book, I had eaten out with Boyfriend.  And I was paying.  And, as usual, I was totally freaked out about what to tip.  I want to be that nice customer who leaves a decent tip, not the crabby one who barely tips at all.  But I am clueless when it comes to tipping, and Keep the Change by Steve Dublanica definitely helped.

Keep the Change is basically what it says in the title.  Dublanica, famous for his book Waiter Rant (which I've never read but want to get), goes on a sort of quest.  He divides the book into chapters based on the different tipping scenarios (such as Chapter 3: Doormen, Bellhops, Maids, and Concierges, or Chapter 7: Delivery Men and Movers) and then tells the readers about his discoveries.  He interviewed a ton of people, which I loved.

This book was hilarious.  But be forewarned.  This book deals with one of the highest tipped professions: Strippers.  And also prostitutes, and dominatrixes, and the book even opens with a strip club scene.  Dublanica explains what these women do (and what they consider good tips for their work) in a way that (to me anyway) was eye-opening.  He doesn't get all into detail (I'd say it's PG-13), and it's very interesting.  I just wish he had included information about their male counterparts.  What if I wanted to go to a male strip club?  Would I tip the same amount?

I liked how Dublanica did his research and tells the reader all about the history of tipping.  When I started reading the history chapter, I was worried it would be really boring.  After all, how exciting can the history of tips be?  But he presented it in a great way.  Seeing the words for tips in different languages was a real eye opener, and I agree that it makes sense for tipping to have started in bars.

What I loved even more than learning how to properly tip was getting to "meet" so many people in so many different professions.  These people have stories, some heartbreaking and some heartwarming.  We learn about how they ended up where they are now. 

Dublanica has a great sense of humor, and I think that (plus all the great interviews) is really what makes this book great.  He says some hilarious things.

Example: Dublanica worked as a waiter for years, and this line cracked me up:
Page 31: "Waiting tables can be a real mind game, and servers aren't above engaging in psychological warfare."  (talking about how badly waiters want tips)

Another great line I thought was funny (you may not share my sense of humor, but my family has a long-dead relative who was a bit crazy and nearly went blind while praying to the sun gods..)-Page 32: "And like ancient cave dwellers who didn't understand that the sun is a gigantic fusion reactor ninety-nine million miles away and instead, turned it into a deity worthy of human sacrifice, waiters have tried wrapping their heads around the mystery of tipping by cooking up some pretty interesting metaphysical systems."

This book was pretty helpful.  Not only do I now know what to tip at a restaurant, I am now prepared to tip in almost any other circumstance, even that poor bathroom attendant at the Erie County Fair who I've never tipped.  (Okay, Dublanica used to do the same thing, so I'm not that bad of a person!)

I recommend this book.  It's interesting and funny, and definitely worth the reading time.  It's the kind of book you could keep on a coffee or bedside table and just read a chapter here, a chapter there.  I'd love a sequel.

And now for some quotes:
**This was a review book and may have been edited or altered since I received my copy.  Some of my page numbers or quotes might be off because of this.
Page 116: Giving dating advice to us women- "Of course, some guys are just assholes about how women look, but girls, they're probably not worth getting to know."
(I should mention that Dublanica does swear once in a while..)
Page 33: "There were quite a few times I saw servers ready to ritually sacrifice a busboy so they could make th rent."

And ah yes-The BUFFALO, NY mention :)  Holla to my people!
Page 140: "Sandy, a pizza delivery girl near BUFFALO told me...."
-Really?!  Yay!  Near Buffalo means she could even work at one of the suburban pizza joints I frequent :)
-P.S. Buffalo really is awesome. <3

And a quote writers might understand:
Page 279: "Writing is like getting into a knife fight with yourself in a phone booth."

In the end, Dublanica makes some discoveries about tipping.  I won't give it away, but I must say it makes sense and the more I think about it, the more I agree with him.

Keep the Change: A Clueless Tipper's Quest to Become the Guru of the Gratuity hits stores Tuesday November 2nd.



Title: Keep the Change: A Clueless Tipper's Quest to Become the Guru of Gratuity
Author: Steve Dublanica
Date of Publication: November 2nd, 2010
Number of Pages: 320
Genre: Non-fiction
Source: review copy from publisher