Space Station Mir

Inspired by this lifestyle-affirming video , I went out and bought some new books the other weekend. Just because they make me happy.

1. Bitterblue from Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore Bitterblue is memorable, not because she's the bravest or the strongest, but because she tries hard, even if her skills are more fit for a spy than a queen! Any girl making her way in the world can relate, and especially children of abusive or emotionally manipulative parents. 2. Breq from Ancillary Justice and Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie Breq may or may not be female, but everyone in her society is referred to by a feminine pronoun, so we'll give her a pass. Breq is uniquely committed to justice, responsible, loyal to a fault, but also strangely cold. I'm a fan. 3. Fire from Fire by Kristin Cashore Fire is a deeply haunting character whose pain is not easily forgotten, but she is also able to forge her own path despite her past. Perhaps this is a trait of all Cashore's protagonists, but they all manage to feel different. Katsa is the most defiant, while Bitterblue is young and confused. Fire is physically ...

7. Against the Country by Ben Metcalf Ben Metcalf's Against the Country is a novel distinguished by two attributes: its virulent attitude toward untamed terra firma and its excessive use of parentheses. On both counts, it is entertaining, but not as deep as its elevated vocabulary and precise punctuation might suggest. The editor, however, and/or the author, are to be highly commended on the appropriate if ample use of commas, semicolons, colons, and the aforementioned parentheses. Footnotes are, mercifully, contained, if not brief. Popularly compared to southern Gothic, Metcalf's narrator has at least a superior reliability to most of Faulkner's, and the prevailing mood, while depressing, does not quite reach the lugubrious depths of O'Connor. It's a book I suspect many raised in the country could relate to, if they were not likely to be outdone by the aforementioned vocabulary. At any rate, it encourages the rest of us to remain, if not happily, more safely ...

Walking through my workplace last Friday, I found a sign for "Free Books" next to a pile. I picked up these:

Happy Top Ten Tuesday! 1. Not. Enough. Time. (to read all the books, that's what time is for, right?) 2. Spend more time savoring the book I just finished...or start reading the tempting new book? 3. Or read polyamorously? How many can I read before I can't give adequate attention to the rest? 4. Suitcases that are too small for all the books I want to read 5. Paperbacks vs. Hardbacks Cheap and portable or beautiful and durable?!? The eternal conundrum. Don't even bring in matching series. 6. Matching series. Is it more important to get the book I need NOW or wait till I can get the same edition I have the rest of the series in? Ugh. 7. Library vs. Bookstore Free for three weeks or not-free and mine forever? 8. Bookshelf space. 'Nuff said. 9. Laughing aloud in public places 10. Needing to discuss a book...and nobody else you know has read it

6. Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments by Michael Dirda It is entirely apt, actually poetic, that I discovered this collection in a used bookstore. Throughout these pages, Dirda leads us down labyrinthine library steps, through bookstores forlorn and flourishing, to conferences focused on Wodehouse and Faulkner, to his own private paradise sabbatical featuring the The Tale of Genji . He is always in quest of the cheapest, most covetable, most elusive quarry--the books he wants to read. Readings is a collection of essays that appeared in The Washington Post Book World from 1993-1999. Although they could easily be read separately, reading them together produces a pleasing mental marinade. For example, Dirda's emphasis on the physicality of books in each of his essays becomes all the more clear, even more so against a modern backdrop. In 1993 or 1995 or even 1999, it might not have stood out so much that Dirda is preoccupied with old paperbacks and books of corresponde...

5. Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women Ed. Ayesha Mattu & Nura Maznavi Along the bookstore tour of the DC/Baltimore area, I introduced my friend to Busboys and Poets on 14th & V St. Though it's sadly more of a restaurant (or happily, the food is quite good) than a bookstore, it still has a uniquely curated collection of activist literature and poetry. In fact, the last time I'd been there, I almost bought Love, InshAllah , because a girl I knew from high school was published in it. Instead, I surreptitiously read her story and left, because I couldn't justify the expense. This time, I decided to splurge (the main difference between now and then being that I can count on having employment). Love InshAllah fulfills two of my reading goals this year: more short stories and authors from a minority group. On these fronts, it is quite successful. These stories are exactly what they claim to be, experiences of American Muslim women from ...

4. The Twelfth Enchantment by David Liss I've been trying to figure out why this novel just didn't click for me. It's set in Victorian England, it's got magic, and it's written in a style reminiscent of Austen. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell , which I would describe similarly, is one of my favorite books of all time. The Twelfth Enchantment is definitely the most boring book I've read this year (which is not saying much yet, but I imagine I'll say this in December too). I was a big fan of David Liss' The Coffee Trader , and I really wanted to like The Whiskey Rebels , but maybe I'm just going to have to accept that, for me, he was a one-hit wonder. I most frequently complain about writing style, but it's not that. It is derivative of Austen, and that bothers me a little, but I've been known to appreciate homages, so it's not that. I had to re-read my review of The Whiskey Rebels (#54), and I realized--it's the characters. T...

Stocking up on audiobooks for my commute: And, browsing in the stacks, found some books of interest:

Today's Top Ten Tuesday is the shame game from this book I haven't read. But honestly? I've read a lot, and I'm not ashamed. If I were though, these are the omissions I regret most: Top Ten Classics I Can't Believe I Haven't Read 1. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller 2. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand 3. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad 4. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (couldn't get through the prologue) 5. Dracula by Bram Stoker 6. Anything by George Eliot, especially Middlemarch 7. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (I have read parts of it, but I don't think I've read the whole thing straight through) 8. Bleak House by Charles Dickens 9. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 10. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh