Space Station Mir

I LOVE this Top Ten Tuesday topic, especially since I've been reading more contemporary fiction lately. 1. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel 2. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz 3. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss 4. Elizabeth I by Margaret George 5. Harry Potter 1-7 (I do realize half of them were not written in the last ten years, but it seems trite to separate them) 6. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke 7. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi 8. The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak I don't think I have any more to add, as I may have rather stringent prerequisites and I realize not all the books I have read and enjoyed are destined or even deserve to be classics. But if even a few of the books above are still being read in 30 years, I will have a high opinion of the reading public's taste. And I see little evidence today that I should not place my confidence in them. (Especially as I will be shaping the minds of a few...

Tough question, Broke and Bookish ! The vast majority of blogs I read at least are about books. Including websites makes this a little easier. 1. The Chicktionary 2. Feministing 3. The Washington Post 4. PostSecret 5. Baking Bites 6. TasteSpotting 7. Crepes of Wrath 8. AllRecipes 9. And Then Keir Said Everything else I can think of is obvious or does actually relate to books...

The third annual Gaithersburg Book Festival was a large and successful book event that I intend to return to in future years. Besides being a lovely day, the plethora of booths, authors, and panels were astounding. It was an amazing opportunity to meet local authors, publishers, and writing groups, including the Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review , the Maryland Writers' Association , and Lands Atlantic Publishing . I attended readings with authors whose books I'm very interested in reading, including Baratunde Thurston ( How to Be Black ) and Matthew Norman ( Domestic Violets ). I received an ARC for review and two free books from the Bookcrossing booth; Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood, and a Folger Shakespeare Library edition of Macbeth ! These sorts of events bring together people from all aspects of the book world with readers and writers, and I can only hope that events like these can continue to grow and continue to be free for everyone. Excuse me while I attend ...

15. Gilt by Katherine Longshore I received Gilt for review via LibraryThing, and was rather thrown off by the unabashedly YA cover. You shouldn't be! While this is a YA book, it's among the best in its genre, and another historical fiction novel bucking the bodice-ripping historical romance trend. In this smart, hip criticism of modern girl culture, Katherine Longshore transports Mean Girls to Tudor England. Readers will be seduced from the beginning with detailed descriptions of Tudor era opulence. Longshore finds her parallel to Regina in Catherine Howard, or Cat, Henry VIII's fifth wife. The teenage Cat has a bottomless appetite for clothes, jewelry, and young men. She is queen of the group of unwanted Howard nieces and cousins who live as servants-in-all-but-name to their grandmother, dowager duchess of Norfolk. In this boarding school-like setting, Cat blithely manipulates her friends and family members to suit her desires, particularly her "shadow,"...

14. Fables: Legends in Exile by Bill Wallingham Illustrations by Lan Medina, Steve Leialoha, Craig Hamilton, Sherilyn van Valkenburgh, Todd Klein I read my first graphic novel! I tried with Maus , I tried with Watchmen , but I finished Fables . I should have remembered to start slow, as when learning a new language. Fables is a delightful and familiarly narrative tale about fairy tale characters exiled from their homelands by a villain called the Adversary. Those who were not enslaved or massacred managed to escape their various worlds to the "mundane" world (that is, Earth), where the Adversary seems uninterested in pursuing them. Centuries after the General Amnesty, when all characters were forgiven for deeds committed before relocation, we pick up our story in New York City. The Big Bad Wolf, known as Bigby, is sheriff of Fabletown. Snow White is its deputy mayor. And Jack, of beanstalk fame, reports a terrible disturbance at the apartment of Snow White's lesser ...

For Top Ten Tuesday at The Broke and the Bookish . Top Ten Authors I'd Like To See On A Reality Show OR Top Ten Authors Who Deserve Their Own TV Show 1. Vladimir Nabokov The man once said his books were the best ever written. I'd like to see him on Hell's Kitchen or American Idol. 2. Dave Eggers From his first book, I'd send him the route of Nabokov, but after hearing him speak, I'd give him a show about his efforts to help inner-city kids develop their literacy skills. 3. J.K. Rowling Who doesn't want to know more about J.K. Rowling? Or she could just write a Harry Potter TV series and give cozy talks afterward. I'd watch it. 4. Mark Twain He was a traveling show unto himself. I'd watch him on TV. 5. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. See above. I'd also be interested in having him write a show. 6. Azar Nafisi I heard her talk once, she is magnificent. Give her a soapbox and let her go. 7. Victoria Sweet I want to give her a show advisi...

This is NOT an official Top Ten Tuesday topic, but it is based on that format. I got the idea for this topic from Anna at Diary of an Eccentric. Lest anyone get ideas, I'm not planning to procreate anytime soon, but getting to share books with kids is one of the few excitements I perceive in potential motherhood. Luckily for me, I'm going to get to teach a reading and writing workshop for kids this summer, and while I haven't decided everything we'll be reading yet, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is definitely on the list. 1. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg Other books by E.L. Konigsburg 2. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle The rest of the Time Quartet by Madeleine L'Engle 3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling Harry Potter 2-7 by J.K. Rowling 4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis The Chronicle...

13. God's Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine by Victoria Sweet "Excuse me, can I see your book?" says the man next to me on the train. "I have seen so many people reading that book in the past few days, and I just want to see what it's about." "Of course," I say, handing it over, even though I'm almost done and I've been taking notes on this book for the past week. "It may be because the author was just in town," I say, though I'm surprised anyone other than me is reading it. I received it for review, and I'm wondering if he'll notice the author's signature on the title page. He looks at the back, which includes glowing (and richly deserved) recommendations from the likes of Oliver Sacks. "It's about Laguna Honda Hospital, in San Francisco," I say. "It used to be the county almshouse, then it became a hospital. Then, they shut down the old building ...

11. Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore Lorna Doone was recommended to me at a party a few years ago, where the cookies of the same name made an appearance. However, unlike the homonymous shortbread or even the Devonshire cream with which it shares an origin, Lorna Doone the novel is dense, filling, and leaves a lingering taste. Lorna Doone is a Devonshire novel like The Betrothed is an Italian novel, like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an American novel. It's impossible to divorce from the topography of the moor, the passing of the seasons, the harvesting of grains, the bleeting of sheep, the dialect of Devonshire (or Somerset, as the case may be). Here, in the late seventeenth century, is set our Romeo and Juliet tale, if Romeo were an honest yeoman farmer and Juliet were the scion of high-born outlaws whose name inspired fear throughout the land. Lorna Doone is this Juliet's name, and the Doones are well-known and feared in Devonshire for their entitled brand of ...

12. Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear My first experience with Elizabeth Bear closely echoes the reviews of her books that I've read. I know Adventures in Reading is a big fan, and I figured the first book in a new series would be a good way to get introduced to her writing. Temur is a grandson of the Great Khagan, who conquered the diverse lands of the Khaganate and consolidated his victories through intermarriage. Arising from the carnage of a battle between the armies of his uncle and brother, Temur intends to escape to the east. Instead, he becomes entangled in a quest that will lead him to claim his birthright as Khanzadeh (prince). His companions are the wizard and Once-Princess Samarkar of the Rasan Empire, the Cho-tse or tiger woman Hrahima, a mysterious exile from her own people, Brother Hsiung, a mute monk, and a horse named Bansh. His enemies are a religious cult, who intend to resurrect their dead leader, al-Rachīd ibn Sepehr, known also as the Sorcerer-Prince or...