Space Station Mir

The other day, I came across this at my workplace, and it literally transformed my whole day! My co-workers and I had fun picking out what we wanted. I took home Every Last One by Anna Quindlen and The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. One of my co-workers took The Little Prince home for her kids.

I'd been hearing about this little free library phenomenon over at BookRiot , and was thrilled to discover one in my neighborhood! I picked up a copy of Cinder by Marissa Meyer, and dropped off a couple of books ( We'll Always Have Paris; Songs for the Butcher's Daughter ) that had already been snagged last time I checked!

Happy Top Ten Tuesday! This will probably be pretty similar to the Top Ten Authors I Own the Most Books From. 1. William Shakespeare All of the sonnets (1), The Rape of Lucrece , Venus and Adonis , tragedies (Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, Othello, Romeo & Juliet--5), histories (Henry IV Part I and II, Henry VIII--3), problem plays (The Tempest, Measure for Measure, Cymbeline--3), comedies (Midsummer, Much Ado, Shrew, Twelfth Night, All's Well, As You Like It, Two Gentlemen, Errors--8 at least). --23 works, at least. 2. Madeleine L'Engle The Time Quintet (5), Austin Family (I've read 4 of 7), O'Keefe Family (3), Camilla books (2), Katherine books (2), Certain Women , And Both Were Young , The Joys of Love , A Circle of Quiet --at least 20 L'Engle books. 3. L.M. Montgomery The Anne books (8), Emily books (3), The Blue Castle , Jane of Lantern Hill , A Tangled Web , The Road to Yesterday , The Doctor's Sweetheart and Other Stories --16 books. 4. C....

When I attended the Shore Leave Con panel on Voyager: 20 Years Later, I was shocked by the overwhelmingly critical tone. In particular, panelist Kirsten Beyer, author of the current Voyager novels asked, "Twenty years later, did Janeway make a difference?" The answer from the panelists and audience seemed to cohere around "No." I was stunned. As a young girl growing up in the '90s, Captain Janeway was an icon. I grew up watching Next Gen and reruns of the original series with my dad. I remember asking him, "How come there aren't any girl captains?" "There are girl captains," my dad replied. "It's just that the TV shows focus on the Enterprise , and Kirk and Picard happen to be men. There are lots of other ships out there too, and some of them have girl captains." This made sense. But I wished, I wished , that we could have a TV show with a girl captain. And so, when Star Trek Voyager was announced years later, I...

40. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr My great aunt loaned me this book; otherwise, I wouldn't have picked it up. I'm not big on hype or bestsellers (though I've read and loved my share), and I've long since overdosed on World War II books. All the Light We Cannot See isn't a World War II novel. It is a set of prose poems composed around the theme of that which we cannot see, but surrounds us. It is a clever and authentic story focused on the lives of Marie-Laure, a blind French girl, and Werner, a German soldier skilled with radios. My great aunt asked me why the chapters are not in chronological order, and the best answer I could give was that taking each moment out of time forces the reader to experience each moment one at a time. It's a technique that reminded me of The Time Traveler's Wife , but plot is even less relevant. Narrative tension exists, but this book turns on a light we can feel, if not quite see. 41. Bombay Blues by Tanuj...

37. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith I Capture the Castle wasn't what I expected: it was better. It's the British version of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn , set in a castle, featuring a significant dog character. Cassandra is an imperfect quirky protagonist coming of age in a world that hasn't been fair to her or her family. Her English bulldog Heloise is my favorite character. I've rarely noticed a dog that's written so well, and it turns out that Dodie Smith is also the author of 101 Dalmations , so no wonder. Recommended to weird, romantic readers. You know who you are. 38. Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter I already had plenty to say about Ship of Fools , and though I did finish it, my first impressions proved consistent. Ship of Fools has wry third person narration, sweeping views of an enormous cast of characters, and possibly the most stereotypes and racial epithets I've ever seen gathered in one place. 39. The 100: Day 21 by Kass Morga...

Happy Top Ten Tuesday! I LOVE fairy tale retellings, so this is a perfect topic for me! I haven't read as many of these in recent years though, so I look forward to recommendations from everyone's lists. 1. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine Ella Enchanted is my gold standard for fairytale retellings since it was my first, at least that I remember. I didn't even understand it was based on Cinderella until halfway through because the world and characters are so complete. One of my favorite books of all time, period. 2. Fairest by Gail Carson Levine Not as magical as Ella Enchanted (to be fair, I read it when I was much older), but this retelling of Snow White set in the same world is engaging nontheless. 3. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire I am a huge Maguire fan, and though I don't think Wicked counts as a fairytale retelling, Ugly Stepsister certainly does! Like Wicked , Maguire transforms an antagonist into the protagoni...

I'm reading at a rate beyond blogging capacity. My reading rate vs. my blogging capacity, anyway. Between college, grad school, and adjuncting, this is the first year of the blog that I've worked >60 hours/week. Since timely reviews of all books read are no longer plausible, system adjusts will be made. Numbers of books I've read/year is still a primary personal reason for keeping the blog, but perhaps I'll move to monthly lists and let those books that speak the most earn featured reviews. Or perhaps I'll move more toward theme posts, as that seems to be the current direction of the book blog wind. In the meantime, some quick reviews of books read in April (May, June, and July to follow): 33. Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko So, the first year that I don't make reading books in translation a goal, I'm on a roll with books in translation (or, at least, this is the fourth, which is better than I've done in the past few years I've been kee...