by Malena Lott
Sure, spring is wonderful and all that. If we’re hooked up on Facebook, you saw that I even posted a picture of monarchs mating in my backyard yesterday. Monarch, as in the butterfly, not royalty (But that would be more fun, wouldn’t it?)
But as much as I love the wisteria blooming and bees buzzing and azalea buds opening at my new house, I get positively psyched that books are in bloom year around. I know I sound like a total book geek when I say that, but it’s true. While books are more prolific than ever, thanks to Twitter, Facebook and great e-newsletters and blogs, I can always find just the right fit for my mood in the pages of a book.
I don’t get to thank my fellow bookettes often enough for their contributions on the blog. They blog because they love books, love meeting authors and want stories to get their due promotion. It’s tough in the book biz today, so we all need to “share” on FB, RT on Twitter and tell our real life friends about books we heart so much we stayed in the tub until our skin resembled great Aunt Fay’s. (Thanks, Sarah Pekkanen, SKIPPING A BEAT!)
Confession time: I haven’t had an in person book club party since 2010. With my house on the market and the move and now all the fixer upper goodness going on, I’ve put off something that makes my soul soar: getting the girls together to dish about books.
But, NO LONGER. I’m e-mailing my club this weekend and setting a date. I hope you’ll do the same with your girlfriends. I’ve also been way behind in sending out book totes and starter kits to the new book club chapters, so I promise I’ll get to that now that I’ve located the box that had them in it. (Nothing is easy, is it?)
Life is. What I mean by that is we have 24 hours in a day. We choose how to spend it and sometimes the universe forces us to spend it in ways we weren’t expecting. But we forge on and we MAKE TIME for our loved ones, including our girlfriends. That’s what this blog is all about. It’s also about ME TIME and connecting with stories that can make you laugh, cry and give you a-ha moments for life beyond the pages.
I hope you visit Book End Babes often, and remember each month you can click on the book covers in the sidebar for our top picks and read our blog entries for even more book recs in all genres.
Right now I’m laughing my hiney off reading Tina Fey’s BOSSYPANTS, and Rebecca Rasmussen’s THE BIRD SISTERS is so well drawn, I feel like I’m right there in the kitchen with the sisters. If you need a word pick-me-up, then try Sark’s GLAD NO MATTER WHAT. A lot of s*** goes down in life, and peppy people like Sark with her incredible insight into joy really is the icing on the cake some days.
Hugs to all my book-lovin’ friends. Books rock. Girlfriends rule.
Here’s hoping you’re reading this with a not-too-aching head from ringing in the new year last night/this morning. On behalf of all the Book End Babes around the country, I’d like to wish you a very happy, healthy and successful 2010. Dream big, take action to make traction and PLAN TIME WITH GIRLFRIENDS THIS YEAR. 
Confession: I have a thing for all things paper. Every shape, size, color and purpose gives me goosebumps. I love great design and the possibility provided by the blank page within. So not a huge surprise that many of our BEbabes Impulse Prizes will be of the paperie variety. 
I think girlfriends are the diamonds of life—most of us won’t have all that many, but the ones we do should be cherished.
She listened while I exposed my stunning naiveté and self-doubt, and then she calmly boosted me up with thoughtful words of wisdom and the kind of love only girlfriends understand. We talked until the moon rolled over the treetops, and while I stood on my front porch and watched her head for home, I felt a sense of gratitude that remains to this day.