Explosion of New Books

I don't know if y'all noticed, but I had an explosion of new books on my stacks! I originally posted about a trip to my local, now-defunct Borders store when merchandise was 60-70% off. Silly me made a return trip when items were 90% off and, boy, I found more than I thought I would!!!

Books that jumped into my cart and came home with me:

• You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon (have seen several favorable bloggy reviews of this one)
• Sunset Park by Paul Auster (I'll basically buy anything by Auster, though I haven't really heard much about this one)
• The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle (I don't really feel terribly motivated to read this, but I liked the Penguin Ink cover!)
• Hummingbirds by Joshua Gaylord (Another tattoo-inspired cover caught my eye. The blurb sounded interesting enough.)
• The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (Much buzzed about)
• Edible: Stories by Mark Kurlansky  (Food stories can't be a bad thing)
• The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt 

I'm pretty darn excited about all of these -- especially The Sisters Brothers since it's been shortlisted for the Booker. I'll probably jump into that one as soon as my RIP reading slows down.

Have you read anything on the list that I should move to the top of the pile?

Explosion of New Books

I don't know if y'all noticed, but I had an explosion of new books on my stacks! I originally posted about a trip to my local, now-defunct Borders store when merchandise was 60-70% off. Silly me made a return trip when items were 90% off and, boy, I found more than I thought I would!!!

Books that jumped into my cart and came home with me:

• You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon (have seen several favorable bloggy reviews of this one)
• Sunset Park by Paul Auster (I'll basically buy anything by Auster, though I haven't really heard much about this one)
• The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle (I don't really feel terribly motivated to read this, but I liked the Penguin Ink cover!)
• Hummingbirds by Joshua Gaylord (Another tattoo-inspired cover caught my eye. The blurb sounded interesting enough.)
• The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (Much buzzed about)
• Edible: Stories by Mark Kurlansky  (Food stories can't be a bad thing)
• The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt 

I'm pretty darn excited about all of these -- especially The Sisters Brothers since it's been shortlisted for the Booker. I'll probably jump into that one as soon as my RIP reading slows down.

Have you read anything on the list that I should move to the top of the pile?

The Impending Bookgasm

So I was sitting around picking my nose at work today because I've already graded half of the assignments turned in yesterday, and I won't be in the office much longer today, AND I'm here with nothing to do but grade for a whopping nine hours on Monday. What better time to blog? But I found myself in quite the quandary: nothing to write about! Then I laughed and slapped my knees and thought, "But there are all those tasty new books to read!"

 

These are the books you'll see appearing here soon. Many projects and deadlines are involved, so you can bet I'll be whipping through them pretty darn fast.

 

 

 

First on the menu, Scarlet Thomas's really weird-sounding novel, Our Tragic Universe. Jackie from Farm Lane Books wrote a great review of it, and I knew I had to try it. The publisher explains the tangle of ideas in this book far better than I could at this point:

Can a story save your life? Meg Carpenter is broke. Her novel is years overdue. Her cell phone is out of minutes. And her moody boyfriend's only contribution to the household is his sour attitude. So she jumps at the chance to review a pseudoscientific book that promises life everlasting. But who wants to live forever? Consulting cosmology and physics, tarot cards, koans (and riddles and jokes), new-age theories of everything, narrative theory, Nietzsche, Baudrillard, and knitting patterns, Meg wends her way through Our Tragic Universe, asking this and many other questions.

Sounds tempting, eh? Sort of reminds me of Paul Auster's surreal weirdness in some of his novels. I really can't resist a book like this.

 

Next is an e-galley of The Little Prince THE GRAPHIC NOVEL illustrated by Joann Sfar!!! I am hesitant to admit that when I read the picture book--as an adult, you should note--I didn't really see what all the hooplah was about. Sure, it's a sweet story, yadda yadda. However, I am really excited to see it as a graphic novel, and I think it'll push things to a new level for me as a graphic novel-loving adult.

 

Next, another e-galley, this time a copy of The Best American Comics 2010, edited by NEIL GAIMAN!!! Are you bouncing in your seat a little bit, too??? I seriously can't wait to see which works Neil has pulled to showcase this year.

 

The next round of books all have to do with food or sustainable living. I'm on a real kick with these right now as I'm working my way through The Backyard Homestead and drooling over several other books.

 

It's no secret that I've been jonesing to read Coop, by Michael Perry. When Heather offered to be saintly and send her copy on to me, I almost wet myself. Thanks, Heather!

In a sweet, but somewhat selfish gesture, I picked up on Chuck's comment that he wanted to own copies of The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan and The Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne. I mean, it's not toooo selfish because he really did want these in the house, and I just happen to want to read them, too. No harm there, right? It's really a smart, economical gifting choice! It didn't take much to convince me.

Finally, I happened upon Ten Acres is Enough by Edmund Morris when I was looking for small press or e-books for Estella's Revenge E-Zine. It falls into the sustainable living category, but it was first published in 1867!!! I was really surprised and sort of intrigued when I saw the year and realized that it falls into line with my 2010 sensibilities. Why not give it a try, too?! Read more about this and other awesome e- and print books at Dminoz.

Other titles coming up or whispering to me from my library stack and Nook:

• Horns, by Joe Hill
• The Art of Disappearing, by Ivy Pochoda
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society which everyone already knows about.
• Vanity Fair, by William Thackeray which is long and scary.

The Impending Bookgasm

So I was sitting around picking my nose at work today because I've already graded half of the assignments turned in yesterday, and I won't be in the office much longer today, AND I'm here with nothing to do but grade for a whopping nine hours on Monday. What better time to blog? But I found myself in quite the quandary: nothing to write about! Then I laughed and slapped my knees and thought, "But there are all those tasty new books to read!"

 

These are the books you'll see appearing here soon. Many projects and deadlines are involved, so you can bet I'll be whipping through them pretty darn fast.

 

 

 

First on the menu, Scarlet Thomas's really weird-sounding novel, Our Tragic Universe. Jackie from Farm Lane Books wrote a great review of it, and I knew I had to try it. The publisher explains the tangle of ideas in this book far better than I could at this point:

Can a story save your life? Meg Carpenter is broke. Her novel is years overdue. Her cell phone is out of minutes. And her moody boyfriend's only contribution to the household is his sour attitude. So she jumps at the chance to review a pseudoscientific book that promises life everlasting. But who wants to live forever? Consulting cosmology and physics, tarot cards, koans (and riddles and jokes), new-age theories of everything, narrative theory, Nietzsche, Baudrillard, and knitting patterns, Meg wends her way through Our Tragic Universe, asking this and many other questions.

Sounds tempting, eh? Sort of reminds me of Paul Auster's surreal weirdness in some of his novels. I really can't resist a book like this.

 

Next is an e-galley of The Little Prince THE GRAPHIC NOVEL illustrated by Joann Sfar!!! I am hesitant to admit that when I read the picture book--as an adult, you should note--I didn't really see what all the hooplah was about. Sure, it's a sweet story, yadda yadda. However, I am really excited to see it as a graphic novel, and I think it'll push things to a new level for me as a graphic novel-loving adult.

 

Next, another e-galley, this time a copy of The Best American Comics 2010, edited by NEIL GAIMAN!!! Are you bouncing in your seat a little bit, too??? I seriously can't wait to see which works Neil has pulled to showcase this year.

 

The next round of books all have to do with food or sustainable living. I'm on a real kick with these right now as I'm working my way through The Backyard Homestead and drooling over several other books.

 

It's no secret that I've been jonesing to read Coop, by Michael Perry. When Heather offered to be saintly and send her copy on to me, I almost wet myself. Thanks, Heather!

In a sweet, but somewhat selfish gesture, I picked up on Chuck's comment that he wanted to own copies of The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan and The Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne. I mean, it's not toooo selfish because he really did want these in the house, and I just happen to want to read them, too. No harm there, right? It's really a smart, economical gifting choice! It didn't take much to convince me.

Finally, I happened upon Ten Acres is Enough by Edmund Morris when I was looking for small press or e-books for Estella's Revenge E-Zine. It falls into the sustainable living category, but it was first published in 1867!!! I was really surprised and sort of intrigued when I saw the year and realized that it falls into line with my 2010 sensibilities. Why not give it a try, too?! Read more about this and other awesome e- and print books at Dminoz.

Other titles coming up or whispering to me from my library stack and Nook:

• Horns, by Joe Hill
• The Art of Disappearing, by Ivy Pochoda
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society which everyone already knows about.
• Vanity Fair, by William Thackeray which is long and scary.

The Sunday Salon - Book Lusties

The best laid plans and all that....

So those posts I mentioned that would be coming up later in the week didn't exactly work out. I think I took a nap right after I wrote that, and I haven't surfaced since. So what's shakin' in Andiland? We switched from first to second summer session, which means a new class at the wayyyy-out-there college (two hours round trip everyday). The session at the college five minutes from my house is ending, and we're almost ready to start the August quarter. This quarter system is a killer, but it sure does keep me occupied, on my toes, and all that.

Chuck is planning a two-week trip to New York with Rocketboy, and they'll be picking up Rocketboy's sister. Good sense and very little imagination would make her Rocketgirl. They'll be bringing her here to live with us. All of this trip planning business makes for much stress and running around like a chicken sans head. The bummer of it all is that I don't think I can take that much time off work. SO, I'll be chillin' at home reading while they're gone. The reading part is not a bummer so much, but I really wanted to go.

I comfort myself with book lust. MUCH much book lust. I stepped into a Barnes & Noble today for the very first time in eight months or better, and I swear I was as excited as a pig in new slop. We say "a pig in shit" in Texas, but I was going to spare you that.



The first book I lusted after at B&N was Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by the illustrious Jane Austen and retold and screwed with by Seth Grahame-Smith. I just can't help myself...it sounds so weird; it's just gotta be awesome. I didn't buy it--I abstained--but I will be interlibrary loaning this one.

The only title I did buy today was The Abstinence Teacher, by Tom Perrotta. I have several of his books on my shelves, but I didn't really have any good motivation to read them until I watched Little Children starring Kate Winslet and the most unattractive but really talented man in Hollywood (besides Steve Buscemi), Jackie Earle Haley. He also played Rorschach in Watchmen if that tells you who he is. Anyway, Little Children knocked my socks off. I need to read the book now, and I can't wait to crack the proverbial spine on The Abstinence Teacher.



I received this book lust-worthy nugget in the mail this week. Visions of America: Photographing Democracy, by Joseph Sohm. I think I mentioned that Chuck and I have been taking a digital photography class on Tuesday nights, and it's really revitalized my interest in photography. When I saw this one up for grabs from Lisa, the Online Publicist, I just couldn't wait to put my request in. Full review coming later this week or early next.

I've spent most of my day running around. When I did get back home this afternoon, Chuck had to run off to a meeting so I set about doing laundry and all that other domestic crap. Now I'm free for the night, and I plan to whip up a little chicken stroganoff (sorta...weird casserole recipe, but it's delicious), and I AM going to finish Briar Rose! It's a great book, but I have the attention span of a gnat.

Happy Sunday, lambchops!

The Sunday Salon - Book Lusties

The best laid plans and all that....

So those posts I mentioned that would be coming up later in the week didn't exactly work out. I think I took a nap right after I wrote that, and I haven't surfaced since. So what's shakin' in Andiland? We switched from first to second summer session, which means a new class at the wayyyy-out-there college (two hours round trip everyday). The session at the college five minutes from my house is ending, and we're almost ready to start the August quarter. This quarter system is a killer, but it sure does keep me occupied, on my toes, and all that.

Chuck is planning a two-week trip to New York with Rocketboy, and they'll be picking up Rocketboy's sister. Good sense and very little imagination would make her Rocketgirl. They'll be bringing her here to live with us. All of this trip planning business makes for much stress and running around like a chicken sans head. The bummer of it all is that I don't think I can take that much time off work. SO, I'll be chillin' at home reading while they're gone. The reading part is not a bummer so much, but I really wanted to go.

I comfort myself with book lust. MUCH much book lust. I stepped into a Barnes & Noble today for the very first time in eight months or better, and I swear I was as excited as a pig in new slop. We say "a pig in shit" in Texas, but I was going to spare you that.



The first book I lusted after at B&N was Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by the illustrious Jane Austen and retold and screwed with by Seth Grahame-Smith. I just can't help myself...it sounds so weird; it's just gotta be awesome. I didn't buy it--I abstained--but I will be interlibrary loaning this one.

The only title I did buy today was The Abstinence Teacher, by Tom Perrotta. I have several of his books on my shelves, but I didn't really have any good motivation to read them until I watched Little Children starring Kate Winslet and the most unattractive but really talented man in Hollywood (besides Steve Buscemi), Jackie Earle Haley. He also played Rorschach in Watchmen if that tells you who he is. Anyway, Little Children knocked my socks off. I need to read the book now, and I can't wait to crack the proverbial spine on The Abstinence Teacher.



I received this book lust-worthy nugget in the mail this week. Visions of America: Photographing Democracy, by Joseph Sohm. I think I mentioned that Chuck and I have been taking a digital photography class on Tuesday nights, and it's really revitalized my interest in photography. When I saw this one up for grabs from Lisa, the Online Publicist, I just couldn't wait to put my request in. Full review coming later this week or early next.

I've spent most of my day running around. When I did get back home this afternoon, Chuck had to run off to a meeting so I set about doing laundry and all that other domestic crap. Now I'm free for the night, and I plan to whip up a little chicken stroganoff (sorta...weird casserole recipe, but it's delicious), and I AM going to finish Briar Rose! It's a great book, but I have the attention span of a gnat.

Happy Sunday, lambchops!

The confessions of a moody reader...

Ok, ok, yes, I have plenty to write about other than high heels and other miscellaneous mindless burblings. So here we go...

The WONDERFUL and kind BookFool sent a Books-A-Million gift card my way for graduation, and I decided to put that puppy to good use this morning after my 8am class. BAM was having a buy 2, get one free sale on selected books, and I had every intention of taking them up on the offer. However, as I perused the sale table (which was woefully smaller than I'd expected), nothing really jumped out at me. There were memoirs by Augusten Burroughs, plenty of chick lit, and only a few "literary fiction" offerings. The one book that caught my interest was The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World. It's about the author's attempt to read his way through all the volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica. A quick flip through the book revealed an entertaining enough read, but I decided, since it hadn't really grabbed me by the nosehairs, to put it back and attempt to Mooch it.

With no luck at the sale table, I began at the very first book in the Literature and Fiction section in search of the perfect books to add to my already wavering piles. One of my first finds was a display of Oxford classics that did grab me by the nosehairs. While I've begun to mooch most of my classics, there are occasionally some books that I still have a hard time getting hold of. Recently I had my heart set on a copy of O Pioneers!, by Willa Cather, but the sender never came through.

After browsing through the classics, I decided to limit my choices until I was done perusing the other fiction. I settled on a copy of *20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Enriched Classics), because 1) I've never read it 2) the little bit I read grabbed me 3) it sounded fun, and it's one of very few classics that I've never even contemplated picking up.

A quick trip through the rest of the Lit/Fiction section didn't yield any results, so I decided to go with this sudden urge to read classics by picking up a very inexpensive copy of O Pioneers!. It's a Mariner Books edition, a beautiful trade paperback, and it was only $7.00! I'll definitely be picking up more of the Mariner classics for such great prices, and they're pretty. What's not to love?

My sudden itch for classics has gotten me thinking (so rare). I'm not sure if it's a byproduct of my recent graduation and lack of current class taking, but every time I look at a piece of fiction that's not 1) classic 2) written by one of my favorite authors (Auster, Hustvedt, Roth, etc.), I feel sort of a gaping lack of interest. Admittedly, and quite sadly, despite my two degrees in Literature, I feel woefully underread in the classics. I'll be the first to admit that I'm a mood reader--a finicky, picky, stubborn mood reader. I can't even tell you how many books I didn't finish in college. I got a little better in grad school, but I should still probably be ashamed of myself for all the reading I didn't do. As a result, I now feel the urge to catch up.

Part of my renewed interest in the classics also comes as a result of a Yahoo discussion group I recently joined: Thematic Classic Reading Challenge. This group is particularly perfect for me given that picky reading nature I mentioned. I continually fail to read books on time for book groups because it feels too darn much like an assignment. At Thematic Classics the only guidelines for reading are monthly themes. Members are free to interpret those themes as they like and pick a book that goes along according to their own logic. Voila! A reading group I might actually READ FOR!

If you're feeling the itch to read a few classics, come on over and join us. So far we've had a great time, and voting is currently in motion for our first theme.

Listening: "Supermassive Black Hole" --Muse
Watching: CNN
Should be: Writing freelance articles!!!

*This isn't the exact edition that I bought, but Amazon doesn't want to recognize the ISBN

R.I.P. II

The time has come for Carl V.'s second Readers Imbibing Peril (RIP) Autumn Reading Challenge. Somehow I missed out on this monumental event last year, but I'm not stupid enough to miss it twice, kids. Carl puts on a hell of a challenge, and I plan to be right in the middle of things!

As Carl puts it, the RIP Challenge is "a September 1st through October 31st celebration of all tales gothic, eerie, creepy, and dark."

And what's not to love about that???

Carl outlines several Perils, or reading plans for the challenge, and I've chosen the simplest and most flexible:

Peril the First:
Read Four books of any length, from any subgenre of scary stories that you choose.

But, of course, I have an assload more than four perilous books for the RIP challenge, so here's my Peril Pool from which to choose at least four books:

Heroes and Villains (Angela Carter)

The Little Black Book of Short Stories (A.S. Byatt)

Rebecca (Daphne Du Maurier)

The House of the Seven Gables (Hawthorne)

Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)

Blood and Chocolate (Annette Curtis Klause)

The Borden Tragedy, a graphic novel (Rich Geary)

Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)

This list represents books that have been on my "to be read" pile (TBR) for quite a while now. Longer than I'd like to admit in most cases (but isn't that always the case with my piles o'books?). The grand dame of the pile, though, is Wuthering Heights. I've started and tossed the book at least three times, never managing to get more than 50 pages in. So, if I can conquer that one, I'll be *very* pleased with myself.

Now, go join Carl's challenge. You know you want to!