Books Brought Home -- October 2010

Just thought I would get it started! Nothing to report regarding new book sightings at my house yet!

Returned the library book I finished today and borrowed The Footnote: A Curious History.

Delta of Venus through PBS...got a couple more on the way

And my ER copy of The Mistress of Abha is on the way.

I'm in Savannah tomorrow so I will definitely have to visit the Book Warehouse...

I bought Dragonfly in Amber by Voyager by Diana Gabaldon today, and got an unsolicited review copy of Missing Lucile by Suzanne Berne.

Queen of the Ring. The story of the first female wrestler.

I am still working on September's books, but I will post them here.

These have been added to LT. I have others still to enter on LT.

Non-Fiction:

Mind of the Raven by Bernd Heinrich
Cleo by Helen Brown

SF:

Blackout by Connie Willis
Between Darkness and Light by Lisanne Norman

Mystery:

The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny

In the mail today from the Scientific American Book Club:

From Eternity to Here by Sean Carroll. A subject of continuing fascination for me, time; this is written by a physicist. The dust jacket shows his prejudice, "...all based on the most obvious yet mysterious feature of time -- the fact that it has a direction."

The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley. I'll give the other side a chance to speak its mind.

Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. Well liked at LibraryThing, this might be a little away from fundamentals for me, but I wanted to be a space traveler when I was a boy.

The Matchbox that Ate a Forty-Ton Truck by Marcus Chown. Scientific curiosities.

Curious Curves by Richard B. Darst, Judith A. Palagallo, and Thomas E. Price. Sometimes I like to look at mathematics books over my head. Maybe I should make this the one for the month and skip the mathematical logic book I've been eying at Borders. Existence of the second and third authors cannot be verified at LibraryThing.

Robert

Brought home from B&N yesterday --

Bloodline: a Repairman Jack Novel by F. Paul Wilson,
Vampyres of Hollywood by Adrienne Barbeau and Michael Scott;
The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes, and
Guardians of Ga'Hoole: The Capture by Kathryn Lasky.

I made my first trip to City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco this morning, and came away with the following haul:

The Sorrow Gondola by Tomas Tranströmer: The first collection of poems he has written since his debilitating stroke in 1990.

A Life Like Other People's by Alan Bennett: A 'poignant' memoir of the marriage of Bennett's parents, along with his childhood and his beloved aunts.

We Press Ourselves Plainly by Nathalie Stephens: This is an extended prose poem that was featured in the poetry section, which looked interesting.

Where Shadows Will: Selected Poems 1988-2008 by Norma Cole: This is the first selection of City Lights' new Spotlight Poetry series.

The Rising of the Ashes by Tahar Ben Jelloun: Another book of poems published by City Lights, which consists of two epic poems about the consequences of war and violence in the Middle East.

Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love and Language by Deborah Fallows: I first heard about this book from Oprah's Book Club web site, which featured interesting books for September. Several of my closest friends are Chinese; two of them speak Mandarin fluently, and the other two speak about as much as I do.

Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers by Arundhati Roy: A collection of essays about the successes and failures of democracy, by this Booker Prize winning novelist.

After-Dinner Declarations by Nicanor Parra: A hefty collection of 235 poems that cover a variety of topics and issues, ranging from personal relationships and culture to politics, ecology and the future of our planet.

Antipoems: How To Look Better & Feel Great by Nicanor Parra: A collection of vital and humorous 'antipoems' from several collections.

Friday by Michel Tournier: Recommended by Kerry, a retelling of the legend of Robinson Crusoe.

So Lovely a Country Will Never Perish: Wartime Diaries of Japanese Writers by Donald Keene: I accidentally passed on this book on my last SF trip in August, so I'm glad that it was still available.

The Poetry Lesson by Andrei Codrescu: A hilarious account of the first day of a creative writing course taught by a "typical fin-de-siècle salaried beatnik"; I might put everything else aside to read this!

Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work by Edwidge Danticat: A personal reflection of art and exile, and what it means to be an immigrant artist from a country of crisis (in this case, Haiti).

No Surrender: Poems by Ai: The final collection by the award winning poet, who died earlier this year.

Sanctificum by Chris Abani: I was unaware that Abani, a noted Nigerian novelist, was also a poet, and I picked this book among several that were on the shelf. It's a 'tour de force that {brings} together religious ritual, the Igbo language of his Nigerian homeland, and reggae rhythms in a postracial, liturgical love song.'

Mihyar of Damascus: His Songs and The Pages of Day and Night by Adonis: I haven't read anything by this Syrian poet who has been frequently mentioned as a finalist for the Nobel Prize in Literature, so I thought I'd start with these two books.

On a Saturday that seemed (but maybe didn't really) mostly to go wrong, I was at a Borders with a coupon:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Lemming that I am.

Robert

I have a coupon form B&N , decisions decisions !

I've been so bad this month...

I ordered Death Masks from Powells, and they refunded my money when the book wasn't available. So now I'm reordering it and Blood Rites, the next in the series, along with Another Faust, since it wasn't in the bookstore yesterday and Fade...Though my order for Cemetary Dance did arrive yesterday!

I already have an order from Powells on the way with:
St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Shift by Rachel Vincent
Alpha by Rachel Vincent
White Cat by Holly Black
City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
Dracula, My Love by Syrie James

But this wasn't enough. I decided to walk into Borders, to ask about their new rewards program. I walked out with...
Blood Pact by Dan Abnett
Soulless by Gail Carriger
Paranormalcy
The Iron King
Fallen
Linger
The Replacement
Clockwork Angel
Along with Ouran Host Club 10 & 11. I had 12 & 13 in my hand but wisely decided to see my total first.

From Amazon:
The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany

and from PBS:
Blood Ties by Pamela Freeman (stupid touchstone is wrong!)

I think this book was mentioned favorably somewhere here on LibraryThing and then was not so easy to find. It came from the Book Depository today after a fairly long wait for it to become available:

In Defence of the Enlightenment by Tzvetan Todorov. (The spell checker attached to Firefox does not like this spelling of 'defence,' but I have pinioned my typing fingers and will not change it.) I am in favor of the Enlightenment and am seeking support in my faith. Where would we be without the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?

Robert

Two books today! Skippy Dies by Paul Murray and The Oh My God Delusion by Paul Howard aka Ross O'Carroll Kelly.

Turgenev's Fathers and Sons. I've been on a Russian lit kick for a while.

I got By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham and thanks to richardderus I also got The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri.

#16 Also in a Russian frame of mind. Just purchased War and Peace, Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy and Collected Works of Nikolai Gogol.

I went to Half Price Books today to pick up a Black's Law Dictionary. Didn't find one, but did leave with Aura by Carlos Fuentes. Also (finally!) got my copy of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo from the library, after 600-some others.

From PBS:
Dictionary of Superstitions which should be a great addition to my mythology collection! The cover is awesome!

Had to go to BAM today
Crave by J.R. Ward - just came out yesterday!!!
Also raided the $1 shelves for a couple others:
All Shall be Well; and all shall be well; and all manner of things shall be well by Tod Wodicka - I've been thinking about this one, and you can't beat a buck!
Intercourse: stories by Robert Olen Butler - looks entertaining to say the least!

moneybeets, I wish for you at least a part of the enthusiasm I felt for the Millenium Trilogy. I can be happily attracted to a book I am reading, but it is very rare, if I have even experienced it before, for me to be as happily compulsive about books I am reading as I was with those three.

Yesterday I filled my calendar with entertainments in town, one of which was using a Borders coupon:

The Philosophy of Set Theory by Mary Tiles. This book has a green cover, so I won't be showing it off, but I do hope to read it sooner rather than later. Set membership and infinities fascinate me, and I continually need more of it without having a technical frame of mind to support my curiosity.

I have a Barny Noble's coupon and a likely trip across town tonight to see a National Theater high definition broadcast of Phedre at the same mall as the bookstore. I'm thinking of The Art of the Sonnet.

Robert

Brought the following home from Chapter's Bookstore today:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - as a gift for my daughter
Promise Not To Tell by Jennifer McMahon - a crime novel set in Vermont for my Fifty States Chellenge
The Various Flavors of Coffee by Anthony Capella - I love another of his books that I read last year
Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer - one of my favorite authors

From B&N used book dealer:

Restless by William Boyd

Phedre was available in a high definition transmission at a theater next to a Barny Noble's so I bought books.

The Art of the Sonnet by Stephen Burt and David Mikics. This is a hardcover; I can partly justify that by my having used a coupon to get it. bobmcconnaughey was very enthusiastic about this book.

Conversation in the Cathedral by Mario Vargas Llosa. I already had The Feast of the Goat, but this was favored on LibraryThing talk over and over yesterday, and it was not readily available from Barny Noble on line or off except at this store, so I called them to set it aside for me.

Robert

Bother!

The Usurper by Rowena Corey Daniels

My latest books entered:

Non-Fiction:

Apathy for the Devil by Nick Kent,
Aztec and Maya: The Complete Illustrated History by Charles Phillips
Dewey by Vicki Myron
The Invisible Century by Richard Panek
Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings by Charles Hapgood
Muck by Craig Sherborne

Mystery/Thriller

A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny
Neuropath by R. Scott Bakker

Historical Fiction

The Burning Land by Bernard Cornwell
The Wrong Blood by Manuel de Lope

Historical Mystery

Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander

Humor

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris (Audio-Book)

I bought these books at City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco yesterday morning:

Final Exam by Julio Cortázar: An early novel (1950), which is a "bitter and melancholy allegorical farewell to an Argentina from which he would soon be permanently self-exiled".

How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired by Dany Laferrière: A new release of this 1985 novel, which is a satirical and humorous look at the life of a Haitian immigrant to Montreal, who writes a novel about his life and loves.

Let the Wind Speak by Juan Carlos Onetti: This has been on my wish list forever, like the Laferrière novel, which was written while the author was exiled from his native Uruguay and lived in Spain. The novel is about an 'archetypal' Onetti hero, who "is at different times a {phony} doctor, a painter, a police chief" and lives in a town across from the city he wishes to enter, and then seeks to destroy.

Genesis by Eduardo Galeano: The first novel in his Memory of Fire trilogy about the Americas from their birth to the present day, which is a "giant, colorful mosaic of hundreds of stories depicting the clashes between the Old World and the New".

Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa: I wasn't expecting to find any MVL novels at City Lights after he was announced as the winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday, but most of his most highly regarded novels were there, including this one, which I didn't own; it's a novel about contemporary Peru, set in a remote Andean village where the Peruvian Army is battling the Shining Path guerrillas in a town that trusts neither side.

Tradition and the Black Atlantic: Critical Theory in the African Diaspora by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: This is a guide to the world of cultural studies, which begins with the British theorists of the 1970s and 1980s and examines cultural theory from Edmund Burke to Frantz Fanon to Spike Lee.

All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost by Lan Samantha Chang: A "starkly honest portrait of people caught up in the drive to write and of the personal bargains and self deceptions that such an ambition can entail." Chang, the director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, is in San Francisco this week, and City Lights had signed copies of her latest novel.

Monument Eternal: The Music of Alice Coltrane by Franya J. Berkman: I hadn't heard about this biography of John Coltrane's second wife until this morning, when I received an e-mail about the book's release. City Lights had just gotten this book in stock, so I added it to my pile.

The Giant of the French Revolution: Danton, A Life by David Lawday: I saw this amongst the new nonfiction books and had to get it, after seeing the play "Danton's Death" at the National Theatre in London last month.

Made it to 2 library book sales today,
.
Hotel De Dream by Edmund White
Nemesis by Jo Nesbo
Bucking the Sun by Ivan Doig
Mountain time by Ivan Doig
The Eleventh Man by Ivan Doig
Priest by Ken Bruen
The Monster in the Box by Ruth Rendell

I picked up Percival's planet on audio and received Bobby Flay's Throwdown for review. I can't wait to try out the recipes.

ordered from Amazon:

boneshaker by cherie priest
the seance by john harwood
banquet for the damned by adam nevill

all perfect for halloween!!

From Audible:

This Time Together by Carol Burnett
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley
Nemesis by Philip Roth
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

Went to the Friends of the Library yesterday:

Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan
The Bad Girl from this year's Literary Nobel Prize Winner, Mario Vargas Llosa
Dreaming Water by Gail Tsukiyama
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
Family Album by Penelope Lively

One more from Audible:

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

Got Leigh Anne Tuohy's book In a Heartbeat: sharing the power of cheerful giving for my birthday - with a gift certificate inside - and autographed!

Also went to the Book Warehouse and picked up 16 books for $20! I love that place!
I would list them out here, but I'm way too tired for that today.

A forty per cent coupon, Borders bucks, and a store on the route home from church led to:

Looking for Calvin and Hobbes by Nevin Martell. I have The Complete Calvin and Hobbes and have never read it. I might as well add to it. Huh?

Robert

Picked up Connie Willis' Blackout in paperback late last week. I usually don't read science fiction but the time travel plotline and World War II London setting lured in me.

I just returned from the Great Lakes Independent Bookseller Association trade show with about 80 books. I'm not going to list them all, but maybe after I sort through them I'll come back and list the ones about which I am most excited.

I bought these books from Green Apple Books, a great independent bookstore in San Francisco:

An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris by Georges Perec: The author spends a weekend in October 1974 sitting in a Parisian café (Place Saint-Sulpice) where "nothing happens", and records all the events that he sees.

Everything and Nothing by Jorge Luis Borges: A collection of the best of Borges' stories and essays.

Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley: A novella originally published in 1917, which is a romantic comedy about a female bibliophile who believes that her love of books can rescue her from a life of servitude.

The Private Lives of Trees by Alejandro Zambra: A novella about a literature professor who improvises a bedtime story for his step-daughter while he anxiously awaits his wife's return from art class, who recounts their lives in detail.

A Week at the Airport by Alain de Botton: I had meant to buy this while I was in London last month; the author spends a week in Heathrow Airport, recording his observations, and lives to tell his tale.

How to Be an Existentialist: Or How to Get Real, Get a Grip and Stop Making Excuses by Gary Cox: A 'concise, witty, and entertaining book about the philosophy of existentialism'; I am interested in existentialist thought, but I had to get this book after reading its subtitle.

The Habit of Art by Alan Bennett: I was stunned and thrilled to see the transcript of the play I saw at the National Theatre last month prominently displayed at Green Apple Books.

White Coat Black Hat: Adventures on the Dark Side of Medicine by Carl Elliot: A venture into 'the uncharted dark side of medicine', which shines 'a light on the series of social and legislative changes that have sacrificed old-style doctoring to the values of consumer capitalism'. This book was on my wish list, and I was pleased to see what looks to be a brand new copy sold for half price as a 'used' book.

My order came in Friday, and it made it into the house today. Another Faust, Fade, & Death Masks have joined the overburdened TBR shelf.

I went to the mall to pick up workout supplies, and when my favorite shop didn't carry the item I drove an hour to get, I turned to Borders for retail therapy. Sadly/Luckily, they didn't have two items I wanted, so I walked out with only $20 worth of books. Volume 14 of Ouran Host Club (I bought volumes 12 & 13 last night), and Going Bovine, which was finally in paperback!

My husband actually demanded to know how many books I have yet to read. I lowballed it and said 20. He said when I actually manage to get the shelf down to 20, we can buy some new bookshelves.

Now I'm off to count how many I have...I'm guessing well over 100...

Oh! I almost forgot: Little Bee arrived in the mail Saturday, as well.

Had a Columbus Day coupon for BAM, and my mom wanted more books on CD for her birthday...but I also found a few things for myself.

Level 26 on CD - about a serial killer
Caleb and Jared: Shadow Wranglers by Sarah McCarty (always needing some romantic junk for a quickie read.)
In the Courts of the Sun - I've been thinking about this one for a while and it was on clearance, so we shall see.

And for my mom on CD
Glass Books of the Dream Eaters - this one may go to my Dad too!
Skin Trade
Now I can't remember the rest!!! Have to add those when I get off work...

#41- Little Bee is great- I hope you enjoy it!!

Just got The Fall by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan.

From this week's library run:

Newspaper Days 1899-1906 by H. L. Mencken
Years of Conscience-The Muckrakers by Harvey Swados
Wise Women by William P. Rayner
Journalistas by Eleanor Mills

Found at home:

As Long As Life by Mary Canaga Rowland
Slave and Citizen by Frank Tannenbaum

My September ER book, The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, arrived yesterday!

I picked up The Book of Unholy Mischief in hardcover today at Dollar Tree. They also had Knife of Dreams, but considering it's the 11th book in the series I passed on that one.

Over the past week or so, these books came home with/to me:

Books/Audiobooks I Possess:

Palace of Justice: An Aristide Ravel Mystery by Susanne Alleyn (pBook; ARC)
Regression by Kathy Bell (eBook)
Testimony by Anita Shreve (pBook)
Storyteller by G. R. Grove (eBook)
The Red Church by Scott Nicholson (eBook)
Luck of the Wolf by Susan Krinard (eBook)
The Keepers by Heather Graham (eBook)
The Wrong Blood by Manuel de Lope (eBook)
American Gods by Gaiman (audio)
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (audio)
The Book of Night Women by Marlon James (audio)

Library Books/Audiobooks:

Dexter Is Delicious by Jeff Lindsay (audio)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (pBook)
Mean Streets by Jim Butcher, et al. (pBook)
The Passage by Justin Cronin (pBook)
World War Z by Max Brooks (pBook)

Think I'll manage to stay busy over the NEXT FEW YEARS????!!!! lol Just kidding. This batch shouldn't take more than a few months to get through, though that assumes no shiny new books will come along in the meantime and distract me.

The Scientific American Book Club finished up an order for me today with The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean. This book about the chemical elements has received favorable attention here at LibraryThing and is within, although not central to, my circle of interests.

Robert

My latest batch, and the first books truly bought in October.

Mysteries:
Shadow Woman by Ake Edwardson
Death Angels by Ake Edwardson
Blood Safari by Deon Meyer
Red Bones by Ann Cleeves

Fantasy
Nekropolis by Tim Waggoner
Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

I picked up Guardians of Ga'Hoole: The Journey by Kathryn Lasky today.

More books entered. 3 of my Book Depository order from the UK came in.

Fantasy
Phantom by Terry Goodkind
Confessor by Terry Goodkind
Hunting Memories by Barb Hendee
Chosen by Jeanne Stein
Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton

SF
Engineman by Eric Brown

Humor
Adrian Mole:The Prostrate Years by Sue Townsend

Non-Fiction
Gypsy Boy by Mikey Walsh

Historical Fiction
Mistress of Abha by William Newton - LT ER Review Book

I had in the mail today from Barny Noble:

Prejudices: The Complete Series by H.L. Mencken. I don't especially enjoy Mencken. I read him in freshman English so I feel a duty to him.

The Ends of the Earth by Robert D. Kaplan. LamSon recommended this to me in a context that escapes me at the moment. It doesn't matter; this book fits a couple of my interests -- the failure of society, the decline of governance.

Not Even Wrong by Peter Woit. This book came out about the same time as Lee Smolin's The Trouble with Physics. Smolin's book did much better with the reviewers of the time and seemed good to me, but Yapete said that Woit is scientifically more credible, so I have bought it.

The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson. This just won the Booker Prize or whatever it is being called this month, and people on LibraryThing liked it. I'll set it next to Wolf Hall for some sort of collection.

Million Little Mistakes by Heather McElhatton. What I want more than anything else is to win a major sweepstakes or lottery. This novel should feed my wishful thinking on that matter, and, if I win, help me to avoid mistakes.

Robert

I received my ER book Breaking Night by Liz Murray yesterday; I'll start that as soon as I finish Wolf Hall sometime this week

Added the rest of my books from the Book Depository UK order.

Non-Fiction
Gypsy Boy by Mikey Walsh
Orgy Planner Wanted by Vicki Leon

Fiction
Gents by Warwick Collins
As The Earth Turns Silver by Alison Wong
The Nature of Ice by Robyn Mundy

Historical Fantasy
Hav by Jan Morris

Picked up a couple for a quick paper I had to write this weekend from B&N:

Shelley's Poetry and Prose - I LOVE Norton criticals!
William Wordsworth: Selected Poems

And I received a new bunch of audiobooks from my mom - many of which I'll be putting on PBS to swap, but she had Interred with their Bones that I have to listen to first!

After belatedly becoming obsessed with the TV series Dexter, I picked up Jeff Lindsay's Darkly Dreaming Dexter a couple of seeks ago. Enjoyed it even more than I expected!

Got an early birthday present yesterday - volumes 3 thru 15 of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series. I now have the complete set. Yipee!

>57 thioviolight: thioviolight ~ The Dexter TV series, while remaining relatively true to the character and feel of the novels, has a completely different storyline than the novels. I enjoy both, but I think I'm actually partial to the novels (although the actor who plays Dexter is particularly scrumptious in the part) (and what does THAT say about me?).

Anyway, what I started to say, is that, if you continue with the novels, don't expect them to parallel the TV show's plot line.

Got my ER copy of Mistress of Abha, and from Amazon: Mabinogion Tetralogy.

One more from Amazon on the way :)

# 57 and 59, I had to smile about Dexter. I too was obsessed and have finished viewing all episodes of Seasons 1-4, courtesy of Netflix.

Now I have to wait for the current season to become available. I did notice differences between the series and the first book, but I still think I will enjoy the books once I get around to reading them.

A co-worker told me that the actor who plays Dexter was also in the show Six Feet Under, which I never saw.

The Dark End of the Street, my June ER book, arrived in the mail yesterday. After waiting so long to receive it, I hope to be able to get to it before the end of the year. So many books to be reviewed before I can start that one, and then there's NaNo November.

In the mail today as a consequence of subscribing to the American Institute of Economic Research publications:

Follow the Money by Lyndee Kemmet. This is a slim volume on tracing the essence of local government through its funding and expenditures.

Robert

Yesterday I received two books from Amazon: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, for next month's Le Salon Litteraire du Peuple pour le Peuple group read; and The Passport in America: The History of a Document by Craig Robertson. I also received my LT Early Reviewer copy of How to Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu.

#59 Storeetllr and #61 jonesli:

I did notice how even in the first Dexter book the storyline took a different turn even though it started quite the same. I think because I started with the series (finished the entire first season before reading the book), I am partial to the TV series, though I very much enjoyed the book and look forward to the rest even if they don't parallel the TV's plot line.

But I have to agree about Michael C. Hall, who plays Dexter! ;-) I just finished season 3 over the weekend, and am looking forward to the 4th. And maybe I should see about Six Feet Under while I'm at it. ;-)

#61- yes, he played David Fisher and was excellent- Six feet under is a show about a family that runs a funeral parlor and it is fabulous... I love Dexter too and its on my Netflix list too

#65- Six feet under is great- quirky and just all around good stuff

Little anecdote about Michael C. Hall. I live in a large apartment building in downtown L.A. The other day, my daughter came in breathless and said she had just been followed down the long (and at night eerily spooky hall) by none other than Michael C. Hall. She said she didn't know whether to ask for his autograph or run for fear he was going to come at her with a syringe. lol (Apparently they were filming an episode of Dexter in my area.)

Library run today.

Borrowed:
What American Women Did, 1789-1920 by Linda Miles Coppens
The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook by Randolph Hock
The History of Street Literature
Murder One by Dorothy Kilgallen
Shady Ladies of the West
and a list of 25 titles to look at eventually.

Bought:
No Life for a Lady
The Everyday Writer
and a list of 4 more for another day.

#67 cdyankeefan -- Six Feet Under does sound interesting! I've heard of it before but never really checked it out, but now I've added incentive to see it. Hee hee. ;-)

#68 Storeetllr -- That's too funny, but how awesome! I'm still on a Dexter high so your anecdote got me excited, lol. If it had happened to me, I'd have approached him not caring if he had a syringe lol! So what did your daughter decide to do after all? =)

>71 thioviolight: Well, she came in all excited to tell me about it, but I was already in bed and, frankly, by that point I'd be scaring Dexter :) so didn't bother to get up. She stuck her head back out but he was already gone. Apparently he was visiting someone in my building (she was standing behind him when he was talking to our 24-hr. lobby guard). We looked for him all weekend (not stalking, but just, you know, keeping our eyes open), but he never showed up again, and the filming crews were on breaks apparently when Meg and I walked by them the next day.

I asked her why she didn't ask him for his autograph, and that was when she told me about her syringe fears. lol She always was afraid of needles.

Inspired by the imminent group read of it in the Le Salon Litteraire du Peuple pour le Peuple group I used my Borders coupon yesterday on The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky in the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation.

It remains to be seen whether I read it.

Robert

Oh I went to a "Book Club Extravaganza" sponsored by a great independent bookstore in CT RJ Julias. They had the Pres. of RJ Julias and 3 reps from Random House & Penguin discussing their recommendations and favorite books--oh geesh I got 4 of them that nite and I have several more on the list. Blame, The Bells, The Unit, and This is Where I leave You. So many books--so little time!

The next batch of books entered:

Kindle, Ebooks

SF
The Technician by Neal Asher
Gabble and Other Stories by Neal Asher

Non-Fiction
Life was a Cabaret by Becky Coffield

Real books:

Humor
Just Enough Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse - omnibus

From a great used bookstore:

SF
A Cop's Outer Space Odyssey by Raymond Wood

Thriller/ Mystery
Red Snow by Edward Topol

Non-Fiction
Mycenae-Epidaurus by S.E. Iakovidis
Alexander the Great by Charles Mercer
Mummies, Myth and Magic by Christine El Mahdy

From the Friends of the Library:

The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson

A Gift from a dear friend!

The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard

My copy of All Clear by Connie Willis just arrived in the mail.

My Goodwill is so impressive sometimes:

Norton Critical Edition of Moby Dick - I can never resist a Norton
Anthem by Ayn Rand
Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Each one for .99!

>78 HarrietBB: HarrietBB ~ Thanks for the tip! The Secret Magdalene was so good that I added Flow Down Like Silver (LOVE the title) to my wishlist as soon as I read your post.

From PBS today Some Are Born Great by Adela Rogers St. Johns. I can't wait to get into it. Her quote inside the cover about Willa Cather, "...maybe our finest American woman novelist. She was a horrid, harsh repellent woman and a lousy, unscrupulous reporter." Can't wait to find out what brought this on!

John Connolly was interviewed on a local news show the other night- prompting me to pick up The Gates and while at Borders Changes just popped off the shelf and into my hand (outstretched lol) =:)

My recent book order has been trickling in over the last week, I have received:

In A Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes
We Speak No Treason by Rosemary Hawley Jarman
Ngaio Marsh Collection #2 by Ngaio Marsh
The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard

Ordered The Spirit Lens by Carol Berg through Amazon a little over a week ago, and it has finally arrived!!! Yay! I can't wait to get into this one.

Arrived today:

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
Our Kind of Traitor by John le Carre
How to Read Air by Dinaw Mengestu
Great House by Nicole Krauss
Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith

A trip to town otherwise well-motivated and a coupon took me to Borders:

The Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin. The touchstone reads wrong in the right hand column as I post this, but it apparently goes to the right book. There were probably two not very good reasons I got this: it looks exotic (although my interest in the far east is longstanding), and it was expensive enough to make the dollar value of my coupon high enough to pay for the diversion to the store.

Robert

the Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie arrived from PBS this morning!

I have a coupon for BAM and my paycheck was also in the mail so I may have to pay them a visit this weekend.

And I have a bunch more on the way from PBS - October has been quite the book hoarding month for me :)

I checked my mail finally late last night and found a book from Barny Noble in it.

Christianity: 5000 Years of History and Development by Gary A. Stilwell. This book purports to show that Christianity is much more of an amalgam than is commonly spoken of. I think that is likely true but would like evidence. The author's credentials are not so much bad as not so much standard, and the publisher is out of the mainstream, so it remains to be seen whether this book is credible.

Robert

The rest of my order from Barny Noble came in the mail today.

The Ruling Class by Angelo M. Codevilla. If I read the cove.r right, this is about how America is oligarchic, a notion to which I subscribe. The cover has warning signals on it, like the advertisement that the introduction is by Rush Limbaugh.

The Anatomy of Fascism by Robert O. Paxton. How do fascists justify themselves? What exactly is fascism? I hope someday to know.

Before the Storm by Rick Perlstein. This is about the impact of Barry Goldwater on American Politics. The cover is a little turgid, but the contents look like they will be worthwhile.

Robert

EnriqueFreeque is listing Daniel Burt's top 100 novels over in Le Salon Litteraire du Peuple pour le Peuple from his The Novel 100. So armed with a coupon I sought out the companion volume at Borders:

The Literary 100 by Daniel S. Burt. It says on the cover that this is a ranking of the most influential novelists, playwrights, and poets of all time. Whether he gets it right remains to be seen. Before I committed to the book I read the entry to Dostoevsky in the store. I think this book may not be necessary, but I hope that its value as a curiosity justifies it.

Robert

From the library:

The white woman on the green bicycle by Monique Roffey
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

From my own personal book fairy:

Room by Emma Donoghue
The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell
Rupture by Simon Lelic

From the Open Letter Series:

The Ambassador by Bragi Olafsson

Books I have entered. Not sure if I will get the rest of the October books in today.

For a RL Book Group:
Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Historical Fiction:
Penelope's Daughter by Laurel Corona

Non-Fiction
I.O.U. by John Lanchester. Saw on LT. It tries to explain the recent financial crisis.

Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein. Also saw on LT. About an American crime reporter in Japan.

Murder of King Tut by James Patterson. Have not heard good things about this, but it is about ancient Egypt and I want to see what he says that is new (if anything).

You Better Not Cry by Augusten Burroughs. Short Stories about Christmas. Black humor, my first A. Burroughs.

Life by Keith Richards. Got the Kindle edition, now reading it.

Monsters of Men, I Am Number Four and The Passage all came in at the library at the same time. Since they're non-renewable and due back soon and I'm already reading two others, I'm skeptical I'm going to get through all of them. We'll see.

I received three books from The Book Depository earlier this week:

Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life by Nick Lane: An earlier book from the author of Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution, which won this year's Royal Society Prize for Science Books, which is about mitochondria, the energy factories of human and animal cells.

Angel of Death: The Story of Smallpox by Gareth Williams: This was selected for the Wellcome Trust Book Prize shortlist; this UK prize is awarded to the "finest fiction or non-fiction book centered around medicine."

A Different Sky by Meira Chand: This novel received a favorable review by Maya Jaggi of The Guardian, my favorite book reviewer, several weeks ago. It's set in Singapore starting in 1927, and it concerns three young people (Chinese, Eurasian, and Indian) over a thirty year period.

Tonight I bought Big Machine by Victor LaValle, one of the winners of this year's American Book Awards, and Granta 112, the latest edition, which focuses on Pakistani literature.

>FicusFan
Ooh, seeing you bringing home The Murder of King Tut and listing it as nonfiction (as Patterson & Hachette did) makes me mad at James Patterson all over again. My two cents about it are that it was pretty clearly historical fiction (and not very good historical fiction at that), not not the nonficiton they claimed it was, and it made me crazy. I'll be interested to see what you think about it.

> Devourer,

I am not expecting much, and think the subject has been pretty well covered, but I had to get it and see what is said.

I will post my thoughts when I read it, not sure when though.

#72: Storeetllr >> Sorry, only logged on again today. But what an awesome experience; too bad you didn't see him again, despite keeping your eyes open. ;-) I don't suppose Dexter's penchant for needles has done anything to allay your daughter's fears, lol.

# 81 - Great books, both The Secret Magdalene and Flow Down Like Silver. I'm a Margaret Atwood fan but these are every bit as good.

Devourer,

I am now reading The Murder of King Tut. I had no idea it would be as putrid as it is. I am on page 138, and it is almost total BAD Fiction.

He keeps talking about research, and that not much is known about Tut, but he ignores what is known, and just makes stuff up.

Sad, that there are people who will believe this junk.