Paging Dr. House...

My writing class (ha, yes, I am in one, not that you would know from this blog) teacher assigned us a piece that originally appeared in The New Yorker a few decades ago, by the "Annals of Medicine" staff writer, Berton Roueche (accent on the final E - need to figure out how to do accents in this thing).  In order to get a literal hold on a copy of the essay, "The Incurable Wound," I checked out of the library a collection of his work, The Medical Detectives.  So far I am totally loving it - I just started with the first essay last night on the bus, and have been zipping through.  Going to skip over "Incurable" when I get to it, so I can read it closer to next Tuesday's class, but I am already regretting there aren't more stories in the collection.  According to some of the stories that Prof. T referenced last week, when she was talking about the writer/book, I am pretty sure this is where some of the "House" plotlines come from - when C and I heard her say a teenager is poisoned by wearing pants that were soaked in a chemical while they were still baled, we were like "House!" simultaneously - and these are just as fun, so far.  The strictly medical stuff is a little dry, although Roueche does a great job of writing about science/medicine for a lay audienence, but the fun really is in the "detective work" that the doctors do, tracking down first what could have made their patients sick, and then how it could have happened.  Our teacher kept saying this would be a great book "to give your dad" but I already want to share it around to everyone I know who appreciates an engaging story and nice (humorous, concise, literate) writing.  Weirdly, the book is strongly reminding me of this book of ghost stories I had, and read to pieces, as a kid.  Don't remember what it was called, but I think it had a purple and black cover.  And I think maybe they weren't necessarily ghost stories, but just, like, mysterious occurrences.  I think one might have been something to do with spontaneous combustion, and I think something else was maybe a house that was haunted by Dolly Madison???  In any case, I don't know why, except for maybe the shared spare-but-active prose, but Medical Detectives kept making me think of that other book - which I probably haven't thought of in years.  I need to do some digging, because last time I felt this way I was reading Farenheit 451, and kept thinking - for weeks - of Something Wicked This Way Comes (the movie) for some reason, before I realized that the movie was based on another book by Ray Bradbury.  Ugh.  And Something Wicked This Way Comes makes me think of The Watcher in the Woods, which still scared me, even when I got
older.  Well, okay, Bette Davis, all balding and creepy, scared me. 

Covers, 2

Back to Vanora Bennett in our discussion of the differences between covers geared for different markets.

The first book of hers I read was Figures in Silk; I took it out from the library, but I first saw the book with the (hard)cover at left: clearly historical fiction, but the image doesn't "read" trashy to me.  I do not think I would have noted down the title, and then looked it up, if I had seen the paperback cover,  below, or the British cover (with cheesier title, Queen of Silks).  And why?  Bosoms.  A low-cut bodice is a beautiful thing - of all people, I am the last to deny that - but it has nothing to do with the quality of the book, and I really am pretty sure there is some kind of mathematical relationship, where the more cleavage is showing on the outside of the book, the less brains will be evident on the inside - this is, of course, clearly different from real life, and real women. 

Viva la cleava!

I suppose rather than complaining, I should take a lesson, that just because I might be a little embarassed to take a book up to the register, it doesn't mean it's not a good book.

And maybe I should just get the hell over myself, since I suppose this could all be some sort of intellectual snobbery on my part.  I mean, I am sure I have enjoyed some of those books by that lady, that they made a movie of, the Tudor escapades...lalala, can't think of her name now...Philipa Gregory!  Anyways.  Trashtastic covers, yeah, but a) doesn't mean they're trash books, and b) maybe even the fact I am calling them trashtastic is just me being super judgy, which is not cool.  But...in argument FOR judging, tell me I'm wrong:

Do these look like the same book at all???  I saw the cover on the left, and grabbed for it, before I even recognized the name/subject.  The cover on the right, okay, not too showy, but still - would have maybe been something I picked up for a plane ride, MAYBE, but it would have been something I casually flipped over, in passing, along with lots of other stuff, versus catching my eye & making me take note.  And, okay, yes, this is SO shallow, but if one is going to spill out of my bag at work, which one do I want my Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian boss to see?  Yep.  Ha - speaking of that, I saw this thing online, book covers that say "War & Peace," etc., in big type (obv fake) for your pink-covered books on the subway.  Cute.

International Covers: Or, "What Up With the Covers Being Bosom-ified to Catch the Stupid People Audience?"

I was just on Vanora Bennett's website, and was noticing how different the covers for the UK and US, not to mention hardcover and paperback, versions of her books are, and I thought it would be an interesting (for me, anyways) topic to explore and then talk about here.  Then, not even thinking about it, I went to Lauren Willig's website, and when I was reading about her upcoming book tour stops, I noticed she had a blog posting of her own about the ways the covers of just one of her books have changed based the audience they're being marketed to.  Really, really interesting.  I hate to say it, but it's all about snob factor, I think.  Which I just remarked in the comments on Willig's blog, whoops!  Hope she does not remember I emailed her a while ago, because the covers only disappoint me because I think they don't even HINT at the awesomeness inside...maybe I should have written that, lol!
I think the whole cover issue becomes even more convoluted when you have genre-crossing books, like Willig's - historical fiction, mystery, contemporary fiction, romance.  And they do seem to emphasize the "romance" (a/k/a bosoms and beads) on the covers of the paperbacks and mass-market offerings.
Let's take a look.
This is the version of the Secret History of the Pink Carnation that I first picked up years ago, at the little bookstore kiosk in South Station, while I was on my way to D.C. for a work trip (I think).  I remember being drawn to the matte cover, as I always am, and liking the old-fashioned illustration, and the title line with the parchment & seal kind of look.  When I turned it over and read the back, I was hooked when I heard "graduate student," even though the romance parts made me a little wary, but I wouldn't even have turned the book over in the first place if the cover hadn't caught my eye while I was casually browsing.  If, however, I had seen the cover below, which will be the "mass market paperback" cover (October, 2010 release), I wouldn't even have paused - I would have thought "romance schlock" if I had thought anything at all about it, and kept moving on.  Plus, I mean - it looks Victorian, so how are the spies supposed to be fighting Napoleon??

update

Since apparently it's not just C and myself who read this, I feel the need to add that C just texted, in reply to my "wtf with these essays?!" kind of message "Haha.  I'm staring at barbarella's [name changed to protect the guilty of heinously abusing a word processor], trying to figure out anything to say.  Why does she only profile chefs she clearly wants to bang?"  This, ladies and gentlemen (well, ladies, as far as I know) is entirely true, which makes the awfulness even worse.  If someone wrote so poorly about me I would take my chances with a human-monkey hybrid before choosing to repopulate the planet with that person.  Although that whole last-man-on-earth scenario has always seemed totally stupid to me, because if my only choice was to fate my children to a life of incest, and my descendants to a life of problematic, and likely ugly, inherited phyical and mental issues, I really don't think that would get me in the mood.  But the boredom, maybe.  Eh.  In any case, to keep up the pretence this blog is a "book-log" and not just me b*tching to the cosmos, I started Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Vanora Bennett yesterday, after I finished The Reincarnationist.  Bennett also wrote something called Figures in Silk which was a fun, if somewhat fluffy, historical fiction/romance, but with an interesting look at the development of the silk trade in England, tied to all that craziness with the Shore girl & the War of the Roses.  I feel like I learned a lot, but I would need to check to make sure the information was correct - but the author lists sources for more reading, etc., on her (rather interesting) website (which you can read here; also interesting, but topic for another time - why are UK covers generally so much cooler?  also, just realized she's written some other stuff - should look into it if still feeling positive after Portrait) so I think it is.  I also think this new one should be good - but, somewhat, loosely, to my point, the main character is one of Sir Thomas More's adopted daughters, and I think More could totally be like this guy in the essay.  I mean, super promising, and then kinda huge let-down, inspiring all sorts of violent thoughts.  Can't quite get a grip on More, though, seriously; read a great biography of his daughter & his relationship, and have TRIED to read one about him, but Wolf Hall and The Tudors are just so much more.  Oh...I should really just think of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers whenever I am mad.  I just went from 0 to blissful in about a second.  I know The Tudors is not a book, but it gets a link & image anyways :)  Okay, calm now.  Will take another shot at my homework.

AAAAAARGH

The reading was worse than I thought.  One essay was lovely (C, if you're reading this, it was yours!), one was sorta pointless, but whatever, and ONE MADE ME WANT TO DROWN THE WRITER IN GREEN BEER.  And the worst thing is, in this flaming pile of dog crap that she calls a profile of an Irish imigrant "living the American dream" (actual, literal f***ing quote) and who reminds her when he "talk[s] about being an immigrant and grabbing every opportunity that comes your way, you feel as though you're speaking to your grandmother talking about when she first stepped foot on Ellis Island in 1920" this wac actually f***ing PUBLISHED somewhere.  I hope in her IMAGINATION.  Seriously, C, if you are reading this, and it's tomorrow (Tues.) please gchat me and talk me the hell down, because I want to strangle the profile's subject with the d*** strings from a f***ing Irish harp.  No, I want to tear out his guts and use them to string the harp, and then use THAT to play a dirge at his funeral.  While I laugh. 
I have not had such a visceral reaction to a chraracter in a long time and I just read a book this weekend where there was a slave owner who repeatedly raped his slave/half-sister.  And then I was like "hmm, I want to know more about their backstory, what an AMAZING subject that could have been for Perkins-Valdez to expand on." 
But this person I want to kill.  Persons.  Subject and profiler.  Well, can't do that, but clearly, I am never going to Tommy Doyles.  And once again the preferrable option will be for me to sit in sullen silence in the back of the room during class, because God help us all if I open my mouth tomorrow to comment on the paper.  And Kendall Square is not in Boston!  Maybe other people don't know the difference between the City on a Hill and the People's Republic, but that is no excuse for being sloppy.
Hmm.  Sometimes even I am taken aback by how violent and mean-spirited I am...but I guess that's because I'm not from an island in Maine :)  Good thing nobody turned in an essay this week profiling those d*** barefooted wanna-be hippies lolling about on Newbury Street playing their sitars.  I am probably going to be removed as Governor of Browntown, but something about the sitar just makes me want to hit people.  Totally the opposite of all chill and enlightenment-find-y.  Could just be the sight of other people's filthy feet out in public, though...yeah, let's go with that.

Rain, rain, go away...

I have homework to do, so...guess that makes it blogging time!  Just lugged groceries home in the rain and do not feel like writing essay critiques.  The reading shouldn't be the issue, but the writing is always a pain.  Well, baby steps, I guess.  Reincarnationist was pretty bad.  I kept reading it, because it was either that or fight-starting texts to the guy I tried to break up with over the weekend (which is great, since we weren't even dating), but it was predictable and boring, no matter how many explosions, sex scenes, assasins, and buried treasures were crammed in.  I think it's the first in the series, but I can't see myself reading more unless I am REALLY bored and the book is for sale RIGHT in front of me for REALLY cheap.  And, you know, I am in the mood for something totally pointless.  Wench, by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, on the other hand, was really good.  Roughly, its the story of four slave women, and some slave men, who are brought over the course of a couple summers by their masters to a resort in the North, just before the Civil War.  One of them women ends up being the main character (although not the woman I initially though the book would center on), but all the women, and most of the characters, were well drawn.  Of course, mark of a good book - the more fully-drawn each of the characters were, the more I wanted to know about them!  I would be thrilled if the author were to even tell almost the same story four times, from the point of view of the different women, and I would devour each book as soon as I could.  The men, particularly the white men don't fare as well (the slaveowners are especially one-dimensional), but a minor issue.

Uh-oh

I was looking over the books I've got checked out from the Harvard library system (specifically to see if I was about to recall Adriaen van der Donck's Description of New Netherland from myself), when I noticed I apparently have The Bellini Card by Jason Goodwin checked out - but I could have sworn I read that, and presumably then returned it, a long time ago.  Like, pre-surgery.  Okay - just read the description on Amazon.  DEFINITELY read this already.  So where the f*** is the book?  I am already refusing to pay a replacement fee for a book the library claims I never returned last year (I should really contact them about that, at some point), so I don't want to have to deal with proving I did return yet another one...  Crap.  Anyhow, I need to remember to look for this at the apartment, and maybe next time I am at Mom & Dad's, and my pockets are already stuffed with notes I've been writing to myself on bits of scrap paper for today, so I guess I'll just leave myself a note here.

Latest from NYT Books email

Got one of the Books emails from the NYTimes just now.  Need to remember: The History of White People (history, Nell Irwin Painter), The Irresistible Henry House (Lisa Grunwald), Safe From the Neighbors (Steve Yarbrough), Pirate Latitudes (Michael Crichton), and Mrs. Adams In Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon (history, Michael O'Brien).

SCORE

Oh my God - I am seriously wiggling like a f***ing puppy in my chair right now - I have so many books to pick up this weekend, I am so excited!!!  Widener is holding:
































and the BPL has the two Tracy Grant books for me, to review and read for the first time... 

Correction

Said on Wednesday that I had "tried" to read the third Sebastian St. Cyr mystery, but it turns out I actually did, in fact, read Why Mermaids Sing, by C.S. Harris, from cover to cover.  I was totally confused for a second because it was on my "read, now I need to find somewhere for them to live" shelf, instead of my "waiting to read" or my "started, moved on to something else, will come back to it" shelves, but then I flipped to a random page in the middle, and realized I not only knew the story, but knew how it ended.  So, clearly not the most life-changing of books, but I do think I enjoyed reading it in a desultory, casual way.  And I will almost certainly read whatever the next book is in the series, at some point.  Although not because I am dying to figure out what is going on with the main character's personal life, the amazing tribulations, twists, and turns of which have actually been disappointingly predictable.  And when unintentional incest and maybe dead / maybe not dead people  are predictable, and it's not a soap opera, that's pretty sad.  But now I am thinking I am totally going to spend some time this weekend watching General Hospital, instead of doing my essays, homework, or taxes, yay!  Of course, I also have a gajillion books apparently waiting for me to be picked up from Widener and the BPL, plus the random ones I've been picking up recently, so I should really focus on my fun reading, at the very minimum - someone's recalled Wench, from me & it's due 4/1 now, so that at least has to be read!  Don't even remember what it's about, but the title still makes me giggle, so I am looking forward to it.  Should be finishing up the P.D. James I got the other day, Innocent Blood, some time this evening, given that I have some extra time on the bus getting to and from my electrolysis appointment.  Not looking forward to that, but am just going to try and lay back and think of England...er, hairless armpits.  As If An Enemy's Country is also waiting for me to pick it up, but I think that I will be in too much pain to focus on that, so James it is...and then Wench!  Hehehe.  Yep, makes me laugh every time - God help me if it ends up being some super serious book.

More books to read

Following a good long "what the f*** is wrong with me?!" chat with T on Sunday, we ended up in the Barnes & Noble at the Pru (it was too cold to stay outside sipping our beverages, but I am now a big fan of the Wired Puppy coffee shop on Newbury).  Here's the list of books/authors I stored in my phone to investigate in the future:
The Miracles of Prato (don't know what it's about, just like the title; requested it from deposit)
The Reincarnationist (like the title AND the cover, looks like trashtastic fun.  maybe that should be a label.  anyways, requested it from deposit, too...but if it comes in a non-library binding, I might act like I don't know what it is!)
Haunting Bombay (ditto title)
All Other Nights (ditto cover)
Bleeding Heart Square (ditto title, but realized later I read the Roth Trilogy by the same author last year & found them disturbing, but compelling)
The Blood of Flowers (ditto title) [WidLC PS3601.M57 B56]
The Wives of Henry Oades [Wid LC PS3613.O6816 W58]
Drood
The Outlander
Alcestis

Ohhhhh, St. Patrick's Day...

Well.  Been a while since I wrote about my books...life got a little crazy on St. Patrick's Day and is just settling down.  Good, bad, and awkward, but I think we're back to normal, and I am back to compulsively reading & buying books I can't afford. 
Due to the two-day hangover following St. Pat's, and the two smaller ones since, I didn't read as much as normal the last week, so not too much to report.  Finished The Rose Grower by Michelle de Kretser a while ago (maybe last Friday?  MAYBE Thurs., but I think I just came home from work and passed out, after trying not to die all day), and really enjoyed it.  It's about a family (and associated friends, etc.) during the French Revolution, and I really ended up liking it.  The political upheaval was always very present, but not overwhelmingly so, and the characters were nicely drawn.  It was interesting because it's written from the point of view of several characters, and the chapters switch in between with no real headings, so you need to read a bit to figure out who is talking, which is like in that book I started the week before (?), La Salle, but whereas it was annoying in the Vernon, I thought De Kretser used the device in a way that just made me read more carefully, and be more engaged with the story.  I'm not doing a very good job describing it, but I liked it, and would definitely recommend it as a story; as far as the history part of it being historical fiction, I don't know enough about the period to really know if it's any good or not, but it felt right.  It wasn't incredibly exciting or anything, almost Austen-ish in its quiet - but compelling - narrative flow, but I was pulled into it, and sad when it was over.  This is apparently the author's first novel, but I would definitely read more by her.
Also read The Nature of Monsters by Clare Clark, who wrote The Great Stink, which I raved about in this blog last month.  At first I didn't like Monsters as much, but I ended up being completely absorbed.  This one is set in early 18th century London, and centers around the tension between old traditional beliefs and emerging medical "science" - sort of.  Good NYT review has a better summary than I can give, or feel like writing, but I would say the important thing for me was that she has, once again, characters that are written so believeably they manage to feel totally familiar, despite being in a completely foreign setting, and she makes London come alive in all it's grimy foulness - and moments of crystalline beauty that are all the more special for their rarity.  I wonder if she is planning on just writing a series of books of London at different, stinking time periods...?  Neither one of these was really a good hangover book, though - you had to focus - so I didn't read much else.  Tried to read another one of those Sebastian St. Cyr books by C.S. Harris on Sat., but couldn't make my eyes focus (three girls, one 6 month old German Shepherd, 12 bottles of wine and a 70 degree days spent on Boston Common = me walking home, calling D to tell him his gf is fat, calling R to b*tch that Hsin Hsin wouldn't pick up - at midnight! - and then trying, and failing, to read).  I feel like I started to read a couple books this week/end, but gave up, but now I can't think of them.  Stumbled through the Harvard Bookstore yesterday in a total fugue state searching for something to "read me through the hangover" (as I apparently thought it was fine to explain to the checkout girl) and ended up with a used copy of Innocent Blood by P.D. James.  Enjoying it so far, I guess, but a little thrown by the fact I have already come across two references to "slant-eyed" Asian people - not sure if this was ironic or something, or just the author.  Have never really been able to get into James, so I don't know why that was what I went with.  Honestly, I think I was just wandering through the store's basement and suddenly realized I needed sugar and food, and grabbed whatever I had looked at last.  Did something similar on Sunday: met T for coffee and a rundown of my latest antics and poor choices (if you read this, T, thanks for always listening and never judging!), and we - of course - ended up wandering back and forth through Barnes and Noble, where I started a huge list of books in my phone, and then justified buying a paperback Shutter Island because "I had a really rough couple of days, and I need an escape."  Of course now I've gotten another book since, will be grabbing three from deposit today, and am only on page 5.  Oh, well - the one thing I can guarantee is I will get to it!  And I really think I need a non-drinking weekend, so a couple days of curling up with a good book would be idea.  Esp. because I think today I need to tell Flava-flav that I can't see him any more, so I will need to keep myself occupied so I don't break down and holler at him.

Success!

I was just writing about memory lapses when it comes to book titles, and I know that previously I wrote about a book I kinda remembered, that I kinda liked, that I would maybe/sorta read more books by the author, if I were in the right mood.  Ringing endorsement, I know, but whatever.  In any case, I decided to search about for it and googled "England Scotland "kidnapped son" spy mystery" - and f***ing FOUND it.  Crazy.  Anyhow, the book, a historical msytery set in 1819 England is called Daughter of the Game (now, that is a title I would think I would have remembered, even though the book was not all that memorable).  I remember now I picked it because of the title and because the author, Tracy Grant, studied history at Stanford and had a cool-sounding thesis topic, so I thought her novel might be fun.  And it was, I guess.  I am pretty sure I took it out of the library, so I am tempted to grab it again at some point along with what appears to be a sequel, Beneath A Silent Moon, skim the first just to re-familiarize myself with the major plot points (as I recall, there was a lot going on, although the big "surprise" was totally predictable, and I don't think I guess endings / plot developments well).  It's a little confusing because apparently Daughter of the Game was re-released with a new title and a "prettier" cover - see below - as Secrets of a Lady, but I think Silent Moon is the sequel.  These books would be a good hangover or bus read, even if they're not fantastic.  Like if I go to NYC to see R's new place and visit S & C (although that might require a few trips) - hmm...good plan.  Should stop writing / looking up books, now - all the typing while I am supposedly working with some immigration numbers I compiled is making my boss suspicious - I think he knows I am not really working, and keeps coming over to peer at the computer and ask what I am doing!

The point of this blog

I was reading the NYT online just now while I ate lunch at my desk and pretended to work, and came across an article on how the movie of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is going to be released in the States on Friday.  Now, I am going nuts, because I know that I read, and really enjoyed, Stieg Larsson's "Milennium Trilogy" (I wish there were spell check on this thing, or that I knew how to use it if there is - did I spell milennium right?  I always worry since it was spelled wrong on my high school's senior-class tshirts - not my fault, but now the word is branded in my head as a dangerous one.  Like any variation on "receive").  BUT, I don't know if I read all three.  I thought I had - I could have sworn I read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and then The Girl Who Played With Fire, and then, presumably, the third book in the trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.  But according to the Times, Hornet's Nest hasn't come out yet, and won't be released (in hardcover) until the end of May.  Totally confused.  I REALLY think I read them; I certainly remember putting down the last one, whichever it was, and feeling a sense of (happy) satisfaction and completion, which I did NOT feel at the end of the first (not that it wasn't great, I was just eager to hear more of the story).  And the description of the events on the Amazon page for the book sounds familiar, but, again, it hasn't been released yet.  I thought maybe Widener had gotten a European copy in, prior to the book being published here, which definitely happens sometimes, but there is only one copy listed, and it is the 2010 copy - and has an 11 person waiting list!  So, a mystery, and one I won't be able to solve for a while - I am sure once I read the first few pages I will be all set, but until them I have no idea.
Which is where this blog will come in handy - now, when I read books, I can write down what I think of them, and never have this problem again!  I like to think it's a reflection of the positive fact that I read a lot of books, but sometimes I worry that it's a bad sign I can forget books so easily - the titles, anyways.  I was all excited to read a book called The Heretic's Daughter that I picked up the other day - well.  I am just really glad that when I saw it at the bookstore I decided to check for it in the library first, because I started sensing a familiarity on the first page, and realized by the third I had already read it (I think maybe on the beach in Newport this summer, but that might have been Deliverance Dane, now that I think about it...which was stupid, but fun).  it happened with another book, too, The Pope's Daughter: the Extraordinary Life of Felice della Rovere.   History "lite" for sure, but I really enjoyed it, and remembered it as soon as I read the first page, the title just hadn't stuck.  But it was annoying because I had gone to the bother of checking it out of the library, and ended up having to run back and return it before class, which was still less bother than carrying it home and back (it's good, but heavy in the library binding!).

Harvard Bookstore - March Select 70

Picked up the March Select 70 flyer when I paid for the two books at lunch yesterday.  Here we go:
Notes from the Cracked Ceiling: Hilary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and What It Will Take for a Woman to Win, Anne E. Kornblut
The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments, George Johnson
Gambling Man: Charles II's Restoration Game, Jennifer S. Uglow - yay!  good to know at least someone (Alan H., apparently) thinks it's as good as I hoped it would be based on the title...and author's name!  Although I thought it was "Jenny," hmm...
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot - I keep debating putting this on  my "list" but I think I will
The Man From Beijing, Henning Mankell - did I list this somewhere else?  Just realized this is the guy that wrote the Wallander books, I think - I liked those on Mystery, w/ Kenneth Branagh, I should check out the books.
Little Bee, Chris Cleave - this one's been floating around in the back of my head for a while
The Ides of March, Valerio Massimo Manfredi - okay, first of all, TALK about a great author name.  Valerio Massimo - love it!  Probs a not-so-great sandals & toga potboiler, but whatever.  Great author name, great book name, it makes the list
Pictures at an Exhibition, Sara Houghteling
Ruby's Spoon, Anna Lawrence Petroni
The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire, Jack Weatherford - Oh.  My.  God.  Almost certainly not real history, but I bet it's so fun to read - and then drive M. crazy with :)  It's on order with Widener, I just requested it - wicked awesome.  So excited.

I'm a grammar nerd, I know...

This isn't really about books, but I stumbled across this site at work - love it!!!
Common errors in English Useage - Paul Brians, Washington State University

Oh, Harvard Bookstore...

...you did it to me again!  I was minding my own business, innocently walking to DDs, when you trapped me with your bargain table on the sidewalk.  I just do not think it is fair - I can resist going in.  Sometimes.  But when the books are right there on the street, how am I supposed to help myself?!  It's entrapment...
Managed to escape really well, though, all things considered.  At one point I was staggering towards the door with five books, but I narrowed it down to two, and they were both only a buck, so cheers to me.  A book called Dupont Circle - don't know what it's about, but E and I have had a lot of fun there, so obviously a reason to spend my money on it - and a copy of Thursday Next in the Well of Lost Plots - it's too good  a book for me to see it sitting there, FOR A DOLLAR, which is just INSULTING, and not grab it.  I feel good about having my own copy, so definitely a win on that one.  I kinda want to go back and get a book of these 19th cent. letters between a mother & daughter, but we'll see..

Harvard Bookstore - February Select 70

I know that I spend way too much money on books in general, and at the Harvard Bookstore (not the Coop) in particular, but I can't help it - I love that store, it's got a great selection (limited, okay, but there haven't been that many times I've gone in looking for something and not been able to find it) and the used books & remainders downstairs are a good way to indulge my cravings for new (to me, anyways) books without hitting me too hard in the wallet.  I also am a big fan of their "Select 70" program - their bestsellers, plus recommended books (from "our buyers and booksellers") are discounted 20%; I don't often take advantage of the the discount, honestly, because I do try really hard to get books at the library, plus I've often already read the books by the time they make it to the list.  BUT, Harvard Bookstore prints up their list every month, with book info and a brief description, and I love going through the flyer and circling everything I want to read.  Now, since I have this blog, I can copy down the titles & get the ratty February flyer out of my purse!  So:
Beneath the Lion's Gaze, Maaza Mengiste
Why Architecture Matters, Paul Goldberger
Fortunes of War: The Balkan Trilogy, Olivia Manning
The Book of Night Women, Marlon James
The Lazarus Project, Aleksander Hemon
The Godfather of Kathmandu, John Burdett
Ordinary Thunderstorms, William Boyd - ?  Find out more...
[read Swan Thieves, Elizabeth Kostova on way to/from DC in Feb.  Eh]
A.D. 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State, Charles Freeman
The Poker Bride: the First Chinese in the Wild West, Christopher Corbett
Get Me Out: a History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank, Randi Hutter Epstein
Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation, Charles Glass
Birthright: The True Story That Ispired Kidnapped, A. Robert Ekirch
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, David Grann
Also - they list Conspirata, by Robert Harris, which is apparently the second book in a trilogy starring Cicero; I should find out what the first one is and read it.