Space Station Mir

1. We got married! It was beautiful and perfect and it's over :-) 2. We went on our honeymoon to Colonial Williamsburg, which was also pretty perfect, and I picked up Everlasting Syllabub and the Art of Carving by Hannah Glasse, an 18th century cookbook intended to be for the servants and thus not written in the "high polite style." Although I don't think I'll be attempting any of her recipes, it is a fascinating read. 3. While I was gone, a pair of books arrived from Bookmooch, The Magician King by Lev Grossman and The Scar by Sergey and Marina Dyachenko. I gave up on the former at the library, so now I've got two handsome hardcovers to call my own. I read The Scar first, and enjoyed it immensely. It's a fleshed out fairytale about an arrogant man from a militaristic culture, who receives a scar that turns him into a coward. It has strains of Beauty and the Beast, now that I think about it, and I liked it much better than A Court of Thorns and Roses...

Received recently from Bookmooch: Already finished hypocrite in a pouffy white dress and halfway through I Capture the Castle !

I've received a couple new reads lately, hopefully reviews will be soon! Against the Country: A Novel by Ben Metcalf, through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld, via Bookmooch

My recent book acquisitions include a few books that have been on my mind for a year or more, as well as a few that were completely unexpected! From Bookmooch, the online book swapping community in which I partake, I received: The Last Boleyn by Karen Harper I received for review from Tor: The Inexplicables by Cherie Priest Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone The Rise of Ransom City by Felix Gilman For Hanukkah, my dad gave me: This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz The Joys of Love by Madeleine L'Engle Looking at them together and knowing what I know of both authors, they look like a delightful juxtaposition. Finally, I had the opportunity to visit The Book Bank in Old Town Alexandria. The used book store was impeccably organized and boasts an impressive collection both of antiques and recent releases. I was actually surprised at the quality of the latter, since I saw several books I thought people would have wanted to hold onto! They also have an excellent sele...

I'm late (by US Eastern Standard Time), but I'm back for Mailbox Monday. Last week was my birthday. I received the following book in the mail as a gift; My boyfriend knows the author, and it looks really interesting. I've been meaning to read more about Prague for a while now, since I went there last year. Much to my surprise, the copy of Atlas Shrugged I thought I had gotten from Bookmooch turned out to be a set of cassette tapes of Atlas Shrugged. Fortunately, I do have a cassette player, but I've never listened to books on tape before, aside from a couple during family car trips. I haven't quite decided what I'm doing with them. Happy Monday!

I'm in a transitional life phase, so to speak, and I just moved back to live with my parents for the summer. As both my home and dorm rooms were overflowing with books and the situation is getting untenable, I've managed to convince myself to let go of those books that I'm fairly sure I will never read again. I've been a member of Bookmooch since 2009, and I just listed 8 books in my inventory, probably more to come. I've enjoyed being a member of Bookmooch, I've managed to get a few titles I was interested in and more that I found through browsing the Bookmooch inventory. While the selection is not always inspiring, it's a great tool and I would definitely encourage more people to join, so more books can be shared. It's exciting to be notified whenever a book on my wishlist is available, and I have to race to get to it first! How does this help with overflow? In the long term, not much. However, this way I can build up points for books, sort of an i...