A Very Special Book Stack

What would you do if it had been ten years since you had been "home?"
And you are headed there for three weeks?
And "home" does not include internet access?

Well, my strategy is to ship books to myself ahead of time.  Growing up in my family I could read as many books as I could carry and play the piano as many hours as I wanted, but television had to be educational and no more than thirty minutes a day.  I understandably didn't watch a lot of tv.

It is fitting that I need to first plan the books I'll bring. I haven't even considered any other part of the trip.  But books, I'll have.

I wandered my room of unread books, I asked friends for advice, and put the box together tonight.  I discovered that I could easily pick a majority of ironic or not-so-ironic titles, and so I have.  At the very least, seeing them will make me smile.

 

I don't know, do I need to explain them?  The Journey Home? Homeland? My Family and Other Animals? Small World? In the Woods?  Heh.  

Some are for other reasons but the Crux of the pile is home and family. Oh yeah and my Dad is from Yamhill.

I have a bunch of books on my iPad too.  I think I might be okay for three weeks.  I'll be an hour from Powell's if things get desperate.

Reading Envy 007: Top Secret Dance-Off

Seth:


Ms. Marvel #1 by G. Willow Wilson
Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal


Scott:

One Human Minute by Stanisław Lem
"The Hedge Knight" from Legends by George R. R. Martin

Jenny:

Diaries by George Orwell
Serena by Ron Rash


Other items of note:
Memoirs Found in a Bathtub by Stanislaw Lem
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
Jane McGonigal TED Talks
SC Book Festival

And Poland was never part of the USSR.  Jenny would like to express sincere apologies for her complete lack of historical knowledge.  *grin*


Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy, Episode 7

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Library Books Mid-June Edition

This past month has been light on bringing books home from the library, because I was extra busy teaching a Storytelling class during our May Experience term.  It was my first time teaching it, which always requires more attention, so I wasn't going to bring home many books that I'd chance not reading by the time they were due! 

Interesting that this stack is 3/4 female authors, and 1/2 science fiction.

Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
I was talking to our circulation supervisor at the library, and as I always do, wandered the books heading to be reshelved after being checked in.  I kept seeing this on my various friends lists in GoodReads and it sounded like what I needed to take a break from heavier things.  I checked it out and read it the same night, tonight! My review is already up in GoodReads if you are curious.  Relationships, family, career, told through blurbs and thoughts and conversations.  I loved it!

Flowering Judas and Other Stories by Katherine Anne Porter
I can blame my On the Southern Literary Trail group for this book, but I am so glad having this as a June pick brought my attention to it.  Porter was unknown to me but is a masterful short story writer.  Many of these stories are about Mexico, which Porter loved, relationships, and writing.  They were originally published in 1935 although this mottled volume was an expanded edition from 1940, despite what the call number says.  I enjoyed the stories very much, but I am even more interested in the author's life!  Four husbands, drama the whole time.  I'm planning to read her biography someday.  I had some favorite stories, including The Rope and The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.  I managed to bring up the Granny story during a discussion of an eminent-apocalypse police-procedural novel just a few days ago.  They stick with you!

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Winner of the Nebula award, on the nominations list for the Hugo award, and an earlier pick for the Sword and Laser this year.  I need to read it by June 22, when the book I got from interlibrary loan is due. 

Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross
Another book from the Hugo nomination list. Despite the fact that I quit the first book in this series/trilogy(?) after 100 pages, I decided to give this one a try anyway.  So far I'm glad I did, because it has a lot more complexity to both story and character, and it has even made me chuckle a bit.  I'm past the 100 page mark and I'm hoping to get past the describe-the-economics slump that sent me looking for a palate cleanser.

Summer Reading

I have to admit that I'm an eye-roller.  I roll my eyes at the people who think of summer reading as the time to "read something brainless" or to "take it easy." To me, summer means I have MORE downtime with fewer recitals and meetings that might bleed into evening, fewer conferences and deadlines, and sometimes an actual day off!

I'm the girl who read Gravity's Rainbow on a beach in Mexico.  I read Infinite Jest along with the Summer of Jest group last summer.  That group stuck together and read several more books together, including The Pale King.  Not long ago, people were feeling lethargic, unchallenged, and disconnected.

Obviously the answer to these feelings is to read a more challenging book!  We agreed in less than a day that this summer we would tackle War and Peace.  Unlike last year where there were weeks of planning to read Infinite Jest, we just kind of jumped in, although one kind soul did come up with a schedule involving a certain amount of the book every week and targeting dates for online video chats about the mighty tome.

Today the library where I work was closed for the annual fumigation and carpet cleaning.   What did I do for my day off?  I started reading War and Peace, of course.  I downloaded the Kindle version because I had yet to read a very large book as an eBook.  I'm not sure I'll be happy with this decision, as so far I have to click every time I want to read a footnote or the translation of the French, and seeing it on a separate page isn't quite the same as glancing down to see it in the print.  And the translators of this particular edition kept the French parts French! 

Oh, the translation.  This is an important issue and I did a lot of research about which one to read, which could have been a 1,024 page error.  The article in The New York Review of Books about the newer translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky made my decision easy.  They are pretty much the new champions of Russian literature in English, and made strides towards capturing the best of Tolstoy, including his sentence fragments, repetition of phrases and descriptive language, and quirky word choices. 

So far it has been pretty amusing.  Tolstoy really seems to capture the complicated imperfection nature of his characters.  The reading experience may also be quite educational as I am not ashamed to admit that I know very little about this period of Russian history.  Or Napoleon, for that matter. 

Jenny's Books Added May 2014

It's time for another edition of the books that followed me home!  I have to say this month is a vibrant pile of books I hope I read someday. 

These books fit pretty nicely into distinct categories.  And all of them have ties to reading communities in the state of South Carolina! 

Category #1 - The SC Book Festival
I went to the SC Book Festival this month, and prior to that had finally read Serena by Ron Rash.  I bought another book of his so I could stand in line for him to sign it (The Cove) and tracked another book down through Paperbackswap (Saints at the River).

Category #2 - International Book Club of the Upstate
I have this wonderful book club; I'm sure I've mentioned it.  In May we had our annual potluck dinner at one of the member's houses, where we swap books we no longer want and discuss potential books for the next year.  Our list had over 60, so it was a long night!  I picked up Lie Down in Darkness and We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families through the swap, and ended up finding copies of Death Comes to Pemberley, La Cucina, City of Thieves, and The Geography of Bliss because they sounded so good during our discussion.  It doesn't matter if they don't end up on the official list for next year, but I will wait to read them in case they do.  I'll find that out at our last meeting of the year, on Monday.  (We break for summer but have a book we're supposed to read during those three months.)

Oh yeah and I've owned The Geography of Bliss three times now.  I enjoyed it the first time but kept giving my copy away.  It is his chapter on Iceland that started my obsession with going there!

Category #3 -  The Open Book Series at the University of South Carolina
I so enjoyed meeting David Mitchell and hearing him speak this past spring that I am clearing my schedule for the five authors coming in the fall for this series.  I have to drive two hours to get there, but I was impressed by the attendance and avid readers showing up for this series!  I've seen a list of the authors coming in the fall although I notice it isn't updated on their website.  David Bajo and Kate Christensen will be two of them, so I decided I should find copies of their books. 

Perhaps Jeff VanderMeer's book Authority doesn't have an immediate connection to South Carolina.  But he spends several weeks every summer at Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC, to run the Shared Worlds writing program for teens.  That's why I've met him, and that's where I first heard him read from the first book in this Southern Reach Trilogy, pre-publication.  However I bought this book in North Carolina.  I was at Malaprop's and couldn't leave empty-handed!  He'll be doing a reading there July 9, but I think I will miss him this year since I may be in Oregon at that time. 

Reading Envy 006: Bailey's Women's Prize 2014

For a slightly different podcast episode, Jenny and Scott got together to focus on this year's Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist. Jenny read the lot and Scott adds a bunch to his to-read list.

• The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri (Jenny's review)
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (Jenny's review)
• Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (Jenny's review)
• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Jenny's review)
• The Undertaking by Audrey Magee (Jenny's review)
• A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride (Jenny's review)

Links from our discussion (all lists. gosh we love lists.):

• Bailey's Womens Prize for Fiction
• Pulitzer Prize:
• Jhumpa Lahiri wins in 2000 for Interpreter of Maladies
• Donna Tartt wins in 2014 for The Goldfinch
• Man Booker Prize
• Goldsmiths Award
• Folio Prize
• The Morning News Tournament of Books

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 006: Bailey's Prize 2014

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SC Book Festival 2014

I really would like to tell you about my trip to the SC Book Festival last weekend.  My original plan was to go all day both days, but because of the two hour commute each way, that quickly shortened to just part of the first day.  I still wish I had left home early enough to see the great Nikki Giovanni, but I just couldn't get out of the house on time!

I went to several sessions:

"Science and Supernatural in YA Fiction" - Jessica Khoury, Megan Miranda, Megan Shepherd
"A Sense of the Midlands" - Cindi Boiter, Ed Madden, Tom Poland, Randy Spencer
"South Carolina Encyclopedia Guide to Authors" - Tom Mack, Ron Rash, George Singleton, Marjory Wentworth
"Southern Fiction Revival" - Wiley Cash, Jon Sealy, George Singleton
"A Conroy Family Roundtable" - Jim Conroy, Mike Conroy, Pat Conroy, Kathy Harvey, Tim Conroy

More after the jump, but this will be long!