It's amazing how quickly a book can leave my mind. I just got back from a 2 1/2 week trip to Sweden (with a day in Amsterdam) and can't remember much at all about the books I read on the way over (Speaking in Tongues by Ian McDonald and Now Wait for Last Year by Philip K. Dick). I also read Joseph Ellis's Founding Brothers throughout the trip, finally finishing it on the flight between Stockholm and Amsterdam. I liked the beginning but thought it lacked any real conclusion. On the flight home I read The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster which I enjoyed and got partway through George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones which had been recommended by quite a few people.
posted by kristin at 7:21 PM

I stayed up too late last night finishing Ron David's Arabs & Israel for Beginners. Yes, it's illustrated. Yes, it's informative. No, it doesn't treat you like a moron. Yes, the author is Jewish, but, no, he doesn't think the Israelis are always (or even often) the good guys.

The only problem with the book really is that it only covers up to '93 though it looks like it was only published last year.
posted by kristin at 9:32 AM

I finished a couple of books in one sitting earlier this week that I didn't get around to writing about. Coraline by Neil Gaiman (which showed up from amazon that day), and Cities of the Fantastic: Brusel by Schuiten and Peeters. Coraline would have caused nightmares when I was 10 for about a week, so I think Gaiman did a good job. I wouldn't mind finding a stone with a hole it in now. (You'll have to read the book, I'm not explaining.) Brusel was a gift from Charles when he was here for the lindy exchange in April. I'm still not much of a graphic novel person, but I really liked the fact that it wasn't about superheros or anything other than ordinary people, who happened to be living in an unordinary (to us) world.

Todays purchases (Powell's and two other stores within a block of there that I don't remember the names of):
Devices & Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America by Andrewa Tone
Remake by Connie Willis (the last of hers to buy, I believe, at least until her next book comes out
Arabs & Israel for Beginners by Ron David
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife
posted by kristin at 4:50 PM

I'm working on Divided We Fall by Haynes Johnson, so it might be awhile. I'm normally not much for reading about politics but this guy writes so well I had to start it. I predict I'll eventually move it to the "read a bit here and there" pile at some point and pick up a novel but we'll see.

Today's amazon shipment:
Gumshoe Gorilla by Keith Hartman
Banvard's Folly: Thirteen Tales of People Who Didn't change the World by Paul Collins
Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis
and Verve//Remixed (but that's not a book)
posted by kristin at 12:51 AM

After finishing All the Names last night, I decided to start another book before going to sleep. A couple of hours later I put that book down finished and finally went to sleep. The book was Jonathan Lethem's As She Climbed Across the Table, which is a very quirky love story. I'd previously only read Motherless Brooklyn but at some point I'd started picking up his books so I have all of them sitting there waiting for me.
posted by kristin at 9:25 AM