Bought in Denver:
Fires of Eden by Dan Simmons
July's People/My Son's Story/Jump by Nadine Gordimer
Riding Shotgun by Rita Mae Brown
The Witling by Vernor Vinge
Creative Bookbinding by Pauline Johnson
In the Pond by Ha Jin

Christmas presents:
Common Non Sense by Andy Rooney
The Onion Ad Nauseum

posted by kristin at 6:45 PM

I'm a bit behind here. I went to Denver for Christmas and bought some new books while I was there. They aren't unpacked though. I read My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok on the way. Great book. I ended up leaving it for my mom to read though since she paints. While I was there I read Djinn Rummy by Tom Holt, which was (like usual for him) entertaining and much less serious than Asher Lev was. On the way home I finished Whites by Norman Rush (probably not as good as Mating but worth reading) and got halfway through Roads by Larry McMurtry. I now have a desire to visit his bookstore in Texas someday.

On the way home from the airport today I stopped by Barnes & Noble to use a gift certificate I'd received from my aunt and uncle. When I finally got up to the cash register (after lots of wandering and then a line) I found out that it was an online only one. Oops, I hadn't read the not-so-fine print. I bought the books anyhow:
The Hope Valley Hubcap King by Sean Murphy
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl


The two books I finished before I left for Denver that I forgot to write about were Southern Discomfort by Rita Mae Brown and Aqua Erotica. The first I'd recommend for anyone who doesn't get offended too easily (two of the main characters are prositutes, etc), the second wasn't fantastic but really WAS waterproof as advertised.
posted by kristin at 5:51 PM

Arrived today:
Billy Collins - Nine Horses
Thomas L. Friedman - From Beirut to Jerusalem
Larry Gonick - The Cartoon History of the Universe III
Chaim Potok - My Name is Asher Lev
posted by kristin at 6:36 PM

"The letters I tried to read as part of the novel rather than as letters, and immediately found myself frustrated and bored. I put the book down and read something else before returning to trudge my way through the letters. After that, the book was a joy to read.". I'm not the only who got stuck in Possession. I'll go back, I promise.
posted by kristin at 6:23 PM

I finished Stupid White Men yesterday. Nothing too surprising in the ending based on my reaction to the beginning. It's worth reading (at least currently, I don't know about in a year or two). [quotes]

Instead of going back to Possession I started Rita Mae Brown's Southern Discomfort. My reading is really going all over the place this winter.
posted by kristin at 4:39 PM

So I've paused on In Dreams which was my break from Posssesion to work on Michael Moore's Stupid White Men. I don't agree with absolutely everything he says, but it's managing to make me get all pissed off.

Arrived in a box from my parents a few days ago (a couple of things my dad passed on and a couple that I bought while I was in Denver that wouldn't fit in my suitcase):

From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury
The Art of Hunger by Paul Auster
Jupiter by Ben Bova
The System by Haynes Johnson and David S. Broder
posted by kristin at 12:35 PM

Time to catch up a little. I'm still working on Possession. I've stalled a bit though. Usually if I can get through the beginning of a book I'm good for finishing it (at least for fiction), but this might be an exception. I hit the section of letters in the middle and am having trouble getting through it so paused for a bit and have been working on some short stories from In Dreams.

I actually took several other detours in the last week as well. Last week Jonathan Carroll's The Heidelberg Cylinder showed up so I read it to complete my reading of his oeuvre. Another weird take on possibilities for the afterlife. Worth tracking down if you can find an inexpensive copy.

Over the weekend in SF I read 3 books. Valhalla by Tom Holt which was a much more lighthearted romp about the afterlife (or an afterlife). Miracle and Other Christmas Stories by Connie Willis which I read more because it was Connie Willis and less because I'm really into Christmas stories (but this seemed like the right time of year to read it). And Switch Bitch by Roald Dahl, which made me realize that I should go find more of his non-kids books. The same sick and twisted (in a very good way) mind writing stuff not meant for 8 year olds. Good stuff.


posted by kristin at 11:48 AM

The other books I purchased (for myself) over the weekend:
Gridlinked by Neal Asher
First Meetings by Orson Scott Card
Into the Looking-Glass Wood by Alberto Manguel
Timbuktu by Paul Auster
posted by kristin at 11:29 PM

Tonight at Powell's a did the one-for-you, one-for-you, one-for-me approach and walked away with Tom Holt's Nothing But Blue Skies for me and a book each for my parents. More info about the weekend's reading and purchases after I unpack.
posted by kristin at 11:21 PM

Monday night I stayed up a bit too late polishing off Ha Jin's Waiting It became a nice detour from Possession (which amazingly enough, for a book by A.S. Byatt, I'm enjoying) after I started reading it on the exercise bike at the gym. (They've started a "take a book/leave a book" table there and it was one of the few non-romance novels).

I was especially impressed with Waiting after I discovered that it wasn't translated, that Jin writes in English which isn't his native tongue.
posted by kristin at 4:53 PM