Space Station Mir

Library holds are a magical, magical thing. The backseat of my car is filled with heavy hardcover books. I have no regrets. 1. Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons (Already finished! First book read in March. I don't care what anyone says: I LOVE the footnotes.) 2. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon I'm going to be really honest here: I fell in love with the cover and I almost fell over when I saw how big this book is. At 804 pages, it may be the longest book I've read since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. (Apparently The Cider House Rules was 973 pages but that wasn't a hardcover). 3. Blood of Tyrants by Naomi Novik The elusive 8th book in the Temeraire series...it took so long to get this one in that I'd already finished City in the Middle of the Night and started Ruin of Kings, and I'm reading Priory before this one because other people are waiting for that. 4. Off the Sidelines by Kirsten Gillibrand I decided to read as many boo...

I had six books out of the library when these holds came in. But when I went to pick them up, they were so beautiful. I have no regrets. I finished Fierce Fairytales in under two hours. I devoured every story, poem, fable, escaping to the world of the moon dragon princess, where Sleeping Beauty and Snow White wake each other up. As a collection, it is brimming with hope. Must-read for fairytale lovers, for feminists, for lovers of fun, accessible poetry.

Last week, I took off from work, especially to finish (finally!) moving the last items out of our apartment and get a head start on unpacking in the new house. So, that's what I did the first part of the week. Then, I got a notification that a book I'd put on hold at the library had come in, so I had to go get it, and then, I was like, well, might as well look around...and I left with a stack of about six books, even though I figured I wouldn't get past the first one this week. Then, of course, like you do on vacation, I got sick. I'm still not feeling well despite planning to return to work tomorrow, but here are the books I finished this week (along with half a season of Queer Eye on Netflix).: p.s. a lot of amazing books came out in 2018! Besides these, I'm looking forward to Becky Chambers' Record of a Spaceborn Few , which is next up!

55. Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule by Jennifer Chiaverini (audiobook) The story ostensibly focuses on the relationship between Julia Dent Grant and her childhood slave, Jule. Julia, who grew up on a plantation near St. Louis, Missouri, married Ulysses S. Grant, who later led the Union army to victory. During the war, Jule, as well as eventually the Dents' other slaves, escaped, and she later became a hairdresser of some repute in Washington D.C. and New York City, overlapping respectively with her former mistress' time in those two cities. However, although an intriguing concept, the story actually centers on the love story between Julia and Ulysses Grant, and defending the pair from every allegation made over the course of his career (he wasn't drunk, he had headaches!; he didn't know his officials were corrupt!). Jule was frankly the most interesting character, but the main character least deployed. Overall, this is an obviously well researched historical romance, bu...

52. Queen of Flowers and Pearls by Gabriella Ghermandi. Translated by Giovanna Bellesia-Contuzzi and Victoria Offredi Poletto. Came across this interesting gem just browsing in the library. It's a series of interpolated stories, compiled by the narrator, set during Italy's occupation of Ethiopia. Embarrassingly, I didn't even know that Italy had occupied Ethiopia, so it was very informative for me. The author lives in Italy and was born in Ethiopia, and the book is translated from the Italian, so this was a Women in Translation (WIT) read for me this year. Highly recommended if, like me, you want to learn about this moment in history. 53. Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard This well-regarded biography of President James Garfield was an appropriate read during the election. Millard starts with Garfield's rise to the presidency and chronicles the assassination attempt and its aftermath. She compellingly argues, based on contemporary medical evidence inclu...

1. After the election, I decided I can take out all the library books I want. Although I've returned only one of the six from two weeks ago, I took out three more today. Pictured below, minus An Abundance of Katherines audiobook. So far, I like it better than Paper Towns . p.s. Do all John Green's books feature road trips? 2. I'm obsessed with memoirs. Biography used to be the only nonfiction I would read, but now, I can't get enough. I loved Jen Lancaster's Bitter is the New Black so much I read it twice in one month, and when I saw a row of Jen Lancaster books at the library, I couldn't help myself. The Tao of Martha , about her attempts to live a la Martha Stewart stood out the most to me, so I got that one, but I'll be back! Mennonite in a Little Black Dress also caught my eye, and although it wasn't what I was expecting (prodigal Mennonite daughter moves back home, instead of out), I'm intrigued. 3. I'm picking wedding colors, and it ...

It's been a long time since I let myself take out this many books, but I needed it. Even though I won't finish them all, it felt satisfying to take out all the books I wanted. Some are research for my NaNoWriMo novel, which spans the time periods of both WWI and WWII.

Books I picked up recently at the library: All Roads Lead to Austen: A Yearlong Journey with Jane by Amy Elizabeth Smith Discovered this while browsing: the author journeys through South America reading Jane Austen books with local book groups along the way. Seems an odd combination, but it does combine two interests of mine, so we'll see! The True Secret of Writing by Natalie Goldberg I enjoyed Writing Down the Bones so much that when I came across Goldberg's much more recent book (published in 2013!), I had to try it out. I'm eager to see what new revelations she's come across in the years since, though of course the title is tongue-in-cheek. And the truth is, I've been returning to the library in hopes of snagging the second book in The Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy, but it's never there! There's always one or more copies of the third book, but never the second. And I know as soon as I snag the second, I won't catch a ...

Recently checked out of the library: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson I've been meaning to read this series forever. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (audiobook) Giving it a shot now that the furor has faded. Peony in Love by Lisa See (audiobook) Back to my go-to audiobooks on fictional China.

1. All the books with Queen Elizabeth I on the cover made it into the keep pile. 2. Almost all of the philosophy went into the discard pile, with the exception of Wilde's Soul of Man Under Socialism. 3. 41 books I have never read made it into the keep pile, although Ms. Kondo advises that unread books will continue to go unread. The truth is, I have picked up and read (and loved) books after having them for years, so I'm not ready to give up those that still bring me joy. 4. I have now given away every book from my course on eighteenth century British literature except Belinda by Maria Edgeworth. Although I got rid of a few books recently, Pamela and Moll Flanders were flung out the second the class was over. I don't know why, but while I love sixteenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth century British literature, the eighteenth gives me the heebie jeebies for the most part (or just makes me yawn). 5. Books that were given to me by people who are no longer in my l...

1. I'm more than 70% done with my NaNoWriMo word count!!! I think my novel may need to go over the 50,000 words, but it looks like I'm going to win on my first try! I rigged it a little, since I've purposely avoided doing it until such year as I had enough time. Also, I got some advice from a friend who's done it in the past that really helped. She told me to get as far ahead as I could in the first few days, and that even if I write, say, 4,000 words in one day, don't use that as an excuse not to write the next day. When she told me that, I laughed because I thought there was no way I could write 4,000 words in a day, but I surprised myself by writing 4,000 words the very next day and over 5,000 on one other day. Keep in mind, this is definitely an Ann Lamott-esque first draft, but 38, 769 words and counting! 2. My library reduction project has been started and completed! Using the KonMari method as outlined in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up , I went from...

In which I catalog my unbridled reading with my slightly more disciplined writing. Just Finished Library Audiobook: The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (22) Just Started Library Audiobook: The Creation of Eve by Lynn Cullen Skimming Halfheartedly: Allegiant by Veronica Roth Just Finished: The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (23) Lightwall by Liliana Ursu (24) Still Delightedly Skipping Around In: Dispatch from the Future by Leigh Stein

I'm reading far past my capacity to review, so here's an update (some reviews to come). Finished Library Audiobooks: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez (11) Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (17) Next Up Library Audiobook: The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon Finished Library Books: Fire by Kristin Cashore (14) Redshirts by John Scalzi (15) Finished New Books: Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore (12) Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld (13) The Republic of Imagination: America in Three Books by Azar Nafisi (16) Still Reading: Classics for Pleasure by Michael Dirda Next Up: The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord