“It's spring fever.... You don't quite know what it is you DO want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!” - Mark Twain

It’s the Spring Preview of Books. Because none of us have spent nearly enough money on books yet this year….

Whitethorn Woods - Maeve Binchy. Binchy is one of the few writers whom my mother-in-law and I have in common. Um, actually, she is the only one. While I don’t adore her (Binchy), I can appreciate the homeyness and comfort of her writing and subjects, and her novels are down-to-earth and imminently readable. Unlike many other authors of this amorphous sort of romance-novel genre, Binchy’s writing doesn’t make me cringe. (Hmm, I don’t mean to damn with faint praise; that sort of came out wrong but I don’t know how else to say it.) (March 2007)

Quilter’s Homecoming - Jennifer Chiaverini.
I like Chiaverini’s sweet, detail-filled, semi-historical quilting novels. Some are better than others, and sometimes I can’t always keep track of the characters, but mostly I enjoy them. If you don’t like to quilt, you may not. I still haven’t read the last installment, Circle of Quilters, and I’d like to get the Elm Creek Christmas novel as well. (April 2007)

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life - Barbara Kingsolver. Barabara Kingsolver could rewrite the phone book and I would read it. Fortunately, she chooses much more interesting topics, such as this recounting of her family’s move to a farm in Appalachia and their attempt to eat only locally-produced or -grown food for a year. (May 1, 2007)

Bright Lights, Big Ass: A Self-Indulgent, Surly, Ex-Sorority Girl's Guide to Why it Often Sucks in the City, or Who are These Idiots and Why Do They All Live Next Door to Me? - Jen Lancaster. Jen is a very very funny blogger, who wrote a very very funny book sometime in the past couple of years which I own and have read but then lent to someone who failed to return it to me. So, Andrea, if you have ANY desire to borrow my copy of Jen’s new book when I buy it, and I will because have I mentioned that I find her very very funny? you better give me back Bitter is the New Black, woman! (And come have a beer with me because I haven’t seen in you for fucking ever.) (May 1, 2007)

Hungry in LA turned me on to Nicola Griffith, and Aud Torvingen, Griffith’s Norwegian detective, with a copy of The Blue Place; several years later when I read a review of Griffith’s second novel featuring Torvingen, Still, describing the story as “literary noir,” that descriptive was so perfect that I felt validated in reading a mere crime novel. You can be as snotty as you want about the crime/mystery genre; Marlowe, Spade, and Spenser have made their way into college-level lit classes and are there to stay. (The Maureen Corrigan book I am leisurely enjoying boasts a chapter on the noir genre, and its sociological value and insights.) Now Aud stars in a third installment, Always, due for release in the beginning of May. (May 3, 2007)

I have a bit of a thing for the historical supernatural. When my mom and I traveled to England in '99, she was already ill, and we just didn’t know it yet. Her liver disease manifested itself then in extreme fatigue, and so while my mom went to bed early most nights, I occupied myself by strolling around London and York with various tour outfits specializing in the ghost walk. In London, I indulged myself in the Jack the Ripper tour; the York tour was shorter, but somehow even spookier, wandering around the dusk in the shadow of the looming minster. So when I saw Rebecca Stott’s novel, entitled Ghostwalk, I had to read the blurb. And it looks very cool. The Barnes & Noble description and feel of the book reminds me of Possession. And we all know how I feel about Possession. Add it to my list. (May 8, 2007)

Crashing Through: A Story of Risk, Adventure, and the Man Who Dared to See - Robert Kurson. Much to my surprise, I really enjoyed reading Shadow Divers. I thought it might be fun, but it was really intriguing; I liked it enough to give it to my little brother for Christmas. So, although I find the subject matter of Kurson’s new book (a blind man can have an operation to restore his sight – but does he want to? Should he?) slightly disturbing in a sci-fi kind of way, I will read it. (May 15, 2007)

A Thousand Splendid Suns -Khaled Hosseini. This book looks depressing as hell, but so was Kite Runner and I still liked it. (May 22, 2007)

Divisadero - Michael Ondaatje. I once harbored a passionate crush on a weenie little English professor due solely to his brilliance. He was Canadian, and so he liked to teach Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje. I had a tough time getting Ondaatje, but was glad I persevered. He is a lyrical writer, if a tad on the inaccessible side; this is his first novel in six years. (May 29, 2007)

Michael Tolliver Lives - Armistead Maupin. Could this book be as funny and heartwarming and engaging as Maupin’s Tales from the City et al? I really don’t know; this novel may well be oddly dated, but there’s only one way to find out. (June 26, 2007)

Thursday Next: First Among Sequels - Jasper Fforde. I am a big fan of Fforde’s Thursday Next novels; they are fun, and quirky, and imaginative, and I like to describe them as “The Hitchhiker’s Guide for English majors.” I am a little concerned about the possibility that the fifth may not live up to the first ones, but I am willing to risk it. (July 19, 2007)

So, yeah, I am trying to read from my shelves, but I have every intention of continuing to endear myself to my local branch librarians as usual.


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Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding! We have a winner. Although I didn't realize it was going to turn into a quiz.

Some old dude was turning around in my street and crashed head-on into my car, going at a decent clip, even though he had JUST TURNED AROUND and how fast should he have been going? He smashed into my car (with a Dodge Neon, not some tank, so consider that if you will) and pushed my in-gear, emergency-braked, parked car backwards about eight feet, and up onto the curb and into the tree. My crazy neighbor saw the whole thing (he was the one who was giving the dude directions just before he turned around) and swears the dude was drunk, but the babysitter thinks he was just old and confused.
I am still waiting for the insurance estimate.
I'll keep you posted.