A Pig in Sh*t

So, I am going to be happily wallowing soon - saw Noni this weekend and she gave me a brand-new, gorgeous looking copy of The Long Song, by Andrea Levy, which I have been meaning to read for a while.  And with that in mind, when I was reading a little piece about this year's Man Booker short-list in the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2010/sep/07/man-booker-prize-shortlist-2010), I started running through Hollis looking for what else is out there.  Managed to reserve the on-order copies of C (Tom McCarthy), The Finkler Question (Howard Jacobsen), and Parrot and Olivier in America (Peter Carey), which means I will have in my hot little hands 4 of the 6 nominees.  Room (Emma Donoghue) and In A Strange Room (Damon Galgut) were both checked out already, and I didn't think I should recall them...although one is due in 2 days anyhow, so maybe I should, before someone else get it...  That's probably enough to have on the shelf, thought, especially since - beyond the normal lack of space for my "to read" collection - I already today picked up Conspirata, the sequel to Imperium, and requested from deposit The Red Velvet Turnshoe (I don't even know what that is, but I like the name a lot!), the sequel to Hangman Blind.  Speaking of those two, I read both over the weekend.
Started Hangman Blind, by Cassandra Clark (can that really be her real name?  good for her if it is) after the Rickman book (hmm, should consider having some of those on hand for sick days).  I liked it, I guess.  A bit predictable, especially with the love interests, and some rather heavy-handed foreshadowing on the same for the next books (I was reading it and thinking, okay, it's like she's setting us up for fictional r&d ("revelations and developments" - yes, just coined that phrase...I think...) for another book, and then sure enough I was reading the quotes on the cover later, and one of them revealed that Hangman Blind was intended as the commencement of a series featuring the book's main character, Sister Hildegard.  Hildegard, a recent widow & nun in 1382 England is a decent character, not too prone to anachronistic independence or feminism.  And what she has of both (and I've read enough of these types of novels to know that you can't escape them in a heroine) is fairly legitimately explained by her being the widow of a rich man - thus, she has some exposure to the world, and learning, and also more freedom than as a married woman.  It's not perfect, by any means, but it works - enough so, clearly, that I'm going to read the sequel - and Clark does a nice job showing the unsettled nature of a time and place where Saxons struggle still against Norman overlords, even if the Conqueror is long since buried, and two popes vie for supremacy as Wat Tyler's followers look for a new direction, and a young king and his supporters and enemies try to rule England.
Imperium, by Robert Harris, was the next book, and it wasn't what I was expecting - in a good way.  Much less the toga-clad, murder-mystery pot-boiler I was expecting, and more a fun, super accessible tale of Cicero's rise to prominence.  I had put Imperium on the "to read" list because it's the predecessor to Conspirata which got a Select 70 mention in a Harvard Bookstore flyer this winter (I think this winter?) - and that, I thought, was a murder mystery that happened to be set in Cicero's Rome.  But this, purportedly the memoirs of Cicero's personal secretary/slave, Tiro, talks about how Cicero trained as an orator, prominent cases and speeches, and takes us from his initial entrance into Roman political life to his election as Consul in 64 BCE.  It really was quite fun - all the gossip and scandal and deal-mongering of today's elections and politics, but with togas :)  The issue of imperium in the Roman Republic could have been drawn out more, but that would have been a different book...

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.

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.