Thomas Friedman's Longitudes and Attitudes is a book collecting his columns about the middle (mainly) from right before 9/11 and the months following and then a brief travel diary from his travels in the area. There wasn't anything terribly shocking in the book, but I did notice that at times he sounded like a broken record, repeatedly saying what he thought President Bush should do, and then saying it again when Bush did anything but.
posted by kristin at 12:04 PM

Now that I'm taking a Spanish class I've been looking around for ideas of how to learn more than just what's in the class. One place I found some ideas is the blog/podcast Trying to learn Spanish. One of the resources recommended at that site is Barry Farber's book How to Learn Any Language Quickly, Easily, Inexpensively, Enjoyably and on your Own. I checked it out of the library and read it in a couple of sittings. It doesn't actually try to teach you a language but gives ideas for ways to learn and above all provides inspiration and motivation.
posted by kristin at 11:26 AM

Craig Thompson's Carnet de Voyage is an illustrated travel diary from his trip to France, Spain and Morocco. While it's much less length and "deep" I actually liked this one a lot better than Blankets. It includes his lovely drawings without the painful religious story.
posted by kristin at 11:17 AM

I heard an interview on NPR with Gideon Defoe, author of The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists, and decided I should pick up the book. It's a really short read (110 pages or so) and was a really quick read, but was quite funny. I really didn't expect yet another encounter with the Royal Society in fiction this summer, but got it, along with wacky anachronism and the man-panzee.
posted by kristin at 4:52 PM

Kids mysteries aren't really my normal reading fare of choice, but I wanted to read Hannah West in the Belltown Towers because the author, Linda Johns, is a coworker of mine at the library. If there's a tween-aged girl in your life, this good would be a good choice to get her. It was cute, and I found it fun to recognize things around Seattle, like bus routes.
posted by kristin at 4:49 PM

I'd never actually read Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass before, which is somewhat surprising. It's one of those classics I should have read when I was younger.
posted by kristin at 4:48 PM

Everyone who'd told me that David Brin's Practice Effect wasn't nearly as good as his other books was right. Fortunately that still leaves some room for entertaining. A scientist gets marooned on a planet where objects improve with use. Walls need practice being walls, knives need practice cutting, etc.
posted by kristin at 4:46 PM

I always keep a book in my purse for those boring times waiting for things, or eating at restaurants alone. The book that's there is usually chosen at random from my unread paperbacks. Recently it was one of Robert Heinlein's juveniles: Starman Jones. As the story of a teenaged farmer who ends up in space it wasn't bad, but was indeed the sort of book that would have been a lot better if I'd read it around age 14.
posted by kristin at 12:43 PM

After finishing The System of the World I felt a huge need for a much lighter (both figuratively and literally) read so picked up one of the remaining unread Pratchett novels: Carpe Jugulum. The witches take on the vampires. As always, worth reading.
posted by kristin at 12:42 PM

A Circle of Cats is a cute short story/fairy tale written by Charles De Lint and illustrated by Charles Vess.
posted by kristin at 12:41 PM

My book group read Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray for June's meeting. I liked it more than I thought I might, though didn't love it. At some point here I'm going to have to read Will Self's remake, Dorian. I'm glad I put it off after I bought it though since I think I'll get more out of it after having read the original.
posted by kristin at 12:39 PM

In the past month I read both the second and third volumes in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle: The Confusion and The System of the World. I'd read the first volume Quicksilver almost two years ago after it came out, but had avoided reading the next two during the school year since they're both so long. I enjoyed both, but also was ready to be done with them by the time I got halfway through The System of the World. As is typical for Stephenson there are many diversions and tangents along the way; in these books the tangents are mainly about natural philosophy (science), banking, and alchemy. While I liked them, I'll probably find it hard to recommend them to most people purely for the length. If you're curious but haven't read much Stephenson first, I'd say try Cyrptonomicon before you tackle these as it'll give you some idea of his writing style though is set in a different era of history.
posted by kristin at 12:25 PM