Merry Wanderer of the Night:
lists

It is finally spring break! I'm not going anywhere this week because my parents are in London so I am watching their dog. I'm planning on spending a lot of time reading (as well as a lot of time at various medical institutions, trying to get all check-ups). I brought fifteen books home to read. I'm hoping to finish five this week.

1. Nineteen Eighty-Four

(I can't believe I still haven't read this!
2. A Thread of Sky: A Novel

for review.
3. A Doll's House for a Year of Feminist Reading. This is actually a reread.
4. Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers: The Best New Voices of 2006

5. The Wild Things

by Dave Eggers.
6. The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present

. I brought this home to read E.B. White's essays per the recommendation of my friend Katherine.
7. Michel de Montaigne - The Complete Essays for my Montaigne readalong.
8. Blankets

9. Any Human Heart

. I start this before midterms and put it down once exams started. I'm about a third of the way in.
10. I Is an Other for review. I started this before midterms as well and put it down.
11. The Complete Essex County

12. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. I just realized I might be reading this for Leif Reads later, so might not start it right now.
13. The Control of Nature

by John McPhee-- one of my favorite writers.
14. Coop: A Family, a Farm, and the Pursuit of One Good Egg.
15. Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things

, which I'm currently reading for Leif Reads. (Not pictured).

Are there any books here I must read before spring break ends? What are you reading this week?

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I've said for awhile that I would never put myself on a book buying ban. I didn't think I was buying that many books and after all, if I was having a bad week a new book on the weekend could make me feel a little better. For some reason I've bought a lot of books since I got back from Europe. Maybe because I wasn't buying any while I was there? It just seems like there have been a lot of sales, coupons, and books wanted over the last two months. My TBR pile grew substantially and my reading pace slowed down a bit. I'm realizing I need to stop.

For about a week I've been on an unofficial sort of ban. I'm going to continue this ban until April 1st. It's not so much that I can't buy any books at all, but I really shouldn't. I've just gotten too many lately. However, I'm visiting my parents this weekend and last night I went to the mall with my mom. You know how moms are... Anyway, she gave me a little book money and I went ahead and spent it on a few books. In the spirit of shopping.

And since some of you want to know, I got the following books.
1. Oryx and Crake

by Margaret Atwood because I've only read one book by Margaret Atwood and that needs to change.
2. Delirium

by Lauren Oliver even though I wasn't going to buy if after all the hype. I still think it sounds really good.
3. Flapper by Joshua Zeitz, which is a historical nonfiction book about flappers. I thought this would be fun after Bright Young Things.
4. The Girls from Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow, finally, after a year I bought this because the hardcover was on sale for six dollars and I've wanted it ever since it came out.

I just don't think I can make myself not buy any books, so the ban is really more of an attempt of awareness. Awareness of how many books are coming in and how recently I've bought a book and how quickly I can read the books I'm bringing in. I got into some bad book buying habits over the summer because I was reading so fast. When you're reading three books a week, buying a couple new ones doesn't grow the pile that much. When you're reading one it makes a pretty big difference.

Have you put yourself on a book buying ban? A bit of a ban? How do you manage your book buying habits?

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Last year around this time I made a list of Gifts for English Majors. Another year has gone by and there are a lot of new things out there for English majors, so I thought I would make an updated list for the English majors (or book lovers) in your life.

1. McSweeney's and Believer combo subscription. For ninety dollars you can get a whole year's worth of awesome literary goodness. I've been a Believer subscriber for one year now and even though it has a hefty price tag, I haven't regretted it at all. The Believer is an almost monthly publication (nine issues) that has book reviews, comics, columns, and literature. They also have special issues throughout the year. I don't subscribe to McSweeney's (yet), but it's a fantastic literary magazine with great contributing writers. A year's subscription gets you four issues, which is basically like getting four books in the mail. Speaking of which, McSweeney's also has a Book Release Club for $100.

2. Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float: Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook

is a book I reviewed last spring. It's super cheap ($6 on Amazon) and will give any English major hours of fun. Ever since I reviewed it I've lent it out to at least four people and everyone loves it. For more info on this book check out my review of it.

3. Moleskine Passions Book Journal

is another item I reviewed earlier this year and I absolutely love it. It's a great way for any reader to keep track of their notes from the books they read. I use this for school to keep track of the main ideas from books so by the end of the semester I can return to those notes and remind myself of the main points of the book. Check out my review of the journal for more info.

4. Penguin Classics Hardcover Collection

. I'm not suggesting you buy the entire $200 set, but a favorite book out of this collection would make a nice gift for an English major. I, of course, have my eye on Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. Several stores have these on sale for less than $15 right now, so it's a good time to get them.

5. LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4

, because English majors have to have fun too. I can just see myself coming home after a long day of school and work, curling up in front of the television to play with my Harry Potter LEGOs. That actually sounds very nice.

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This week's Top Ten Tuesday is favorite authors, much easier than last week's!

1. Charlotte Bronte
2. Jeffrey Eugenides
3. Eula Biss
4. Chuck Klosterman
5. Nick Hornby
6. Joan Didion
7. Virginia Woolf
8. J. K. Rowling
9. Bill Bryson
10. Anna Godbersen

Who are your favorites? Join in at The Broke and the Bookish!

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What a hard list to make! I feel like I haven't been that interested in bookish couples to keep up with who I like. So here goes.

1. Jane Eyre and Rochester. I find them less romantic every time I read the book, but as a senior in high school I thought Jane hearing Rochester calling her name at a great distance was the most romantic thing ever.
2. Diana and Henry from The Luxe. Their kind of not exactly a couple all the time, but I get so into their storyline every time I pick up the books.
3. Dick and Anna Moss from High Fidelity. Best movie couple, best book couple, just best couple ever. Killer taste in music and just too cute together. If you don't believe me go watch this video. They appear thirty seconds in and are just too great.
4. Katniss and Peeta from The Hunger Games. I suppose I was always kind of rooting for Peeta.
5. Rob and Laura from High Fidelity. Apparently High Fidelity is just the winning couples book for me.

I just can't think of other couples I love as much as Dick and Anna and Rob and Laura, so instead of listing off five more couples I'm going to force you to watch this video so you can see why they're so great.

Join in at The Broke and the Bookish!

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

This week's Top Ten Tuesday at The Broke and Bookish is favorite book quotes. Luckily I have a lot of these! In no particular order:

1. "I had that terrible feeling you get when you realize that you're stuck with who you are, and there's nothing you can do about it. I mean, you can make characters up, like I did when I became like a Jane Austen-y person on New Year's Eve, and that gives you some time off. But it's impossible to keep it going for long." A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
2. "Sometimes, I look outside, and I think that a lot of other people have seen this snow before. Just like I think that a lot of other people have read those books before. And listened to those songs. I wonder how they feel tonight." The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
3. "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you." Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
4. "Sometimes I think that knowledge--when it's knowledge for knowledge's sake, anyway--is the worst of all. The least excusable certainly." Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
5. "It is simply wrong to love music halfway." Perfect From Now On by John Sellers (I love this book! I've never mentioned this on her before because I forgot but I really, really love this book!)
6. "And so now, having been born, I'm going to rewind the film, so that my pink blanket flies off, my crib scoots across the floor as my umbilical cord reattaches, and I cry out as I'm sucked back between my mother's legs. She gets really fat again. Then back some more as a spoon stops swinging and a thermometer goes back into its velvet case. Sputnik chases its rocket trail back to the launching pad and polio stalks the land. There's a quick shot of my father as a twenty-year-old clarinetist, playing an Artie Shaw number into the phone, and then he's in church, age eight, being scandalized by the price of candles; and next my grandfather is untaping his first U.S. dollar bill over a cash register in 1931. Then we're out of American completely; we're in the middle of the ocean, the sound track sounding funny in reverse. A steamship appears, and up on a deck a lifeboat is curiously rocking; but then the boat docks, stern first, and we're up on dry land again, where the film unspoolls, back at the beginning..." Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
7. "Youth and death shed a halo through which it is difficult to see a real face--a face one might see today in the street or here in my studio." Moments of Being by Virginia Woolf
8. "Everything she said was like a secret voice speaking straight out of my own bones." The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
9. "If I broke down here, what would that mean/ Was I not as strong as my father had been?/ But I think I can fight this all on my own/ With a handful of happiness that never was shown/" The Doctor's Waiting Room by Joshua Partington, Part of the anthology Revolution on Canvas
10. "Buy why think about that when all the golden land's ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?" On the Road by Jack Kerouac

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

This week's list at the Broke and Bookish is all about words. I really struggled to think of my favorite words, so I just looked at some words that I really like.

1. Ineffable. adj. 1. Inexpressible 2.Too sacred to be spoken
Mostly because that was my descriptor word when I was on my high school newspaper. Ineffable Ash.
2. Struck. vt. 1. to give (a blow, etc.) to 2. to make by stamping 3. to announce (time) 4. to ignite (a match) or produce by friction
3. Ambivalence. n. simultaneous conflicting feelings
4. Mischief. n. 1. harm or damage2. a causeof harm or annoyance 3. a prank
5. Hanker. vi. to long or yearn.
I use this most often in relation to food.
6. Vagrant. n. one who wanders from place to place, esp. one without a regular job, supporting himself by begging
7. Grotto. n. a cave.
8. Grove. n. a group of trees, often without undergrowth.
9. Percipience. n. faculty, act or power of perceiving; perception.
10. Heretic. n. one who professes a heresy; esp., a church member who holds beliefs opposed to church dogma.

What are some of your favorites?

I love books with really strong female characters, so I'm excited that Top Ten Tuesday is all about that this week. Check out other answers at The Broke and Bookish.

1. Jane Eyre of Jane Eyre One of my favorite books of all time. Jane isn't particularly outstanding, but she does stick up for herself and does what she believes is right, so I must respect her for that.
2. Katniss Everdeen of The Hunger Games series Another girl who does what she thinks is right, even in the face of danger.
3. Diana of The Luxe Series This is another girl (am I seeing a pattern?) who isn't afraid to say what she thinks or live her life the way she pleases, even if it's unpopular.
4. Marian Halcombe of The Woman in White Oh Marian. She is ugly, but incredibly smart and you just have to love her. The best character in the whole book.
5. Bridget of Bridget Jones's Diary She is hilarious, honest, and messed up just like the rest of us. A girl to love.
6. Margaret of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret A young heroine, but like Bridget she is totally honest with what she thinks, even if its bizarre or rude.
7. Joan Didion of The Year of Magical Thinking This is a nonfiction book, but I think I love her character in the book for a lot of the same reasons as I love Bridget and Margaret, although she is less funny. She doesn't lie though, and it would be easy to lie in the situation she is in.
8. Hermoine Granger of The Harry Potter series Smart, outspoken, and not afraid to run with the boys. Gotta love Hermoine!
9. Edna Pontellier of The Awakening This is just a beautiful, sad book and I really admired her character when I first read it.
10. Scout of To Kill a Mockingbird Another young heroine but one of my favorites. Not afraid to ask questions or say things how they are.

So apparently I love women who aren't afraid to tell it like it is! Wonder what that says about me in real life?

This week at the Broke and Bookish the list is top ten books I can't believe I've never read. Up until last night The Catcher in the Rye would have made the top of my list, but I finished it last night! Finally I can stop pretending I've read that book!

1. 1984 by George Orwell. I've read tons of other dystopian novels but I just haven't read this one. Most people read it in high school but we had three choices and I chose a different book. Must read this within the next year.
2. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I just haven't given much thought to this book but I'd like to read it someday.
3. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I started this book and got about 100 pages in, and just stopped. It's not that I didn't enjoy it I just don't think it was the right time for me to read it.
4. Anything by Ian McEwan. I keep hearing his praises and haven't read anything by him. I guess I'm really missing out!
5. Anything by Charles Dickens. I've taken three Victorian Lit classes and still no Dickens! How am I supposed to get through one of those things without the support of a classroom?
6. Oranges by John McPhee. Basically I just need to read more John McPhee. Because he is amazing.
7. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. A die hard Jane Eyre fan like me?!? And this book is super short, must read it!
8. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. I've tried reading this book several times and just haven't been able to get into it yet. But I want to read it so badly!
9. IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas by Chuck Klosterman. I was amazingly excited when this book came out and I still haven't even bought it... four years later. And I love Chuck Klosterman. What kind of fan am I?
10. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins! Okay, so it didn't come out until today, but why am I blogging and not reading it right now?!?!

This week at the Broke and Bookish we're talking about our top ten favorite book blogs. Since I was listed on their top ten I will definitely have to share the love! These are in no particular order.

1. The Broke and Bookish. I love the idea for this blog! It's great that they have multiple bloggers because each one has a different way of reviewing and reads different books. Lots of variety here!
2. Reading on a Rainy Day. Quite a few reviews of books dealing with India, which is different from other blogs out there. She really has eclectic taste and has reviewed some great books this year, including The Bell Jar which I love. I always come away with something I want to read.
3. 1330V. You can always count on this blog for really thoughtful posts about reading and great reviews on an assortment of books. Quite a few graphic novel reviews and lots of books I've never heard of before!
4. Sophisticated Dorkiness. A journalist and book lover blogs about mostly nonfiction. This is the only book review blog I can think of that focuses on nonfiction and that is part of the reason I love it. Since I found Sophisticated Dorkiness I have started to review more nonfiction myself because it's my favorite genre as well!
5. Sasha & the Silverfish. Sasha was one of the first blogs I read when I started blogging. Her posts are long but wonderful. It's like discussion in an English class, except you don't have to worry about getting a grade! Lots of great books here.
6. A Literary Odyssey. This blog attempts to read 250 classics and does multiple posts on quite a few of them. I like that about this blog because you get to hear so much more about her thoughts on a book than you would with just one post. With classics I think that works really well.
7. Drunk Literature. On a bit of a hiatus right now but still one of my favorite book blogs. Rebecca blogs about more than books, that includes art, music, and just what's she into at the moment. She has great taste!
8. A Guy's Moleskine Notebook. He reviews quite a few classics but also a lot of newer books so there is a lot of variety. The reviews are very thoughtful and specific, and he is great at starting discussions.
9. The Displaced English Major. Similarly to A Literary Odyssey this blog is trying to read a list of 100 books. I've been amazed at how patient she can be with books she doesn't really care for. She's read some fairly obscure titles so be sure to check out her thoughts!
10. Iris on Books. I didn't find Iris until this summer but it's quickly become one of my favorite book blogs. She reviews mostly literature and classics, but I really enjoy her posts about reading. She's funny too!

There are a lot more I'd like to list. Basically, check out any blog in my blogroll and know that I love what they do!

This week's list at The Broke and Bookish is most dislikable characters. Let's start the hate fest!

1. Penelope from The Luxe Series. Oh boy, I loathe her. This is more like what character to you love to hate. She's so conniving and creatively wretched you kind of have to give her props. She's also a spoiled brat though, and she thinks what is best for herself is what is best for everyone, and that makes her awful.
2. Armadale from Armadale (the one they actually call Armadale throughout the book). The professor I had for this book would argue with me about this, but I just can't stand Armadale. He's so immature, indecisive, and oblivious to the world around him. I found his character really difficult to sympathize with, which is probably why I supported most of the villains in the book.
3. Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment. I read this book and high school and found it really difficult to get through because I didn't like Raskolnikov. I don't think you're really supposed to like him but maybe you're supposed to sympathize with him. One of my friends said to me, "Well how would you react if you murdered someone?" I didn't really have an answer, it was hard to place myself in his shoes.
4. Howard Roark from The Fountainhead. This is another book I read in high school and didn't really care for. Howard Roark just had no personality in my opinion. He is so focused on his vision that he misses out on the world. I could see the genius in a person like that but I don't think it's someone I want to spend 500 pages getting to know.
5. Luke from The Lightning Thief series. Luke! I'm only through the second book but I was (spoiler alert!) so disappointed at the end of the first book when Luke turns so bad. I thought he was such a nice guy. I don't think Riordan plays up his badness enough though, I wish he made him much worse than he is now.
6. Robert Audley from Lady Audley's Secret. Robert is just an annoying little pansy playing detective. I think Lady Audley could have wooped his ass. "Oh I miss my friend," "Oh I think I'm in love with my uncle's wife," blah, blah, blah. Go read your French novels and sulk on your own time.
7. Orlando from Orlando. Maybe the reason I didn't really like Orlando the book is because I didn't really care for Orlando the character. Male or Female, Orlando is incredibly self centered and a bit unaware of him/herself.
8. Truman Capote in Mockingbird (Harper Lee Biography). Okay, I'm not saying I hate Truman Capote, but in Mockingbird the picture painted of him is not so nice. Harper Lee helped him a lot with In Cold Blood and he basically took his manuscript and ran, leaving her a measly dedication at the beginning of the book. Can you say ugh?!
9. Paul Gauguin in Sunflowers. Another real person, but for 8 and 9 I'm not trying to be mean about the real people, I'm just calling it like I see it from the book. Gauguin was pretty mean to Van Gogh in Sunflowers and I'm not sure how much of it is known or based on fact, but yowza. Gauguin seemed like quite a pig to me, trying to steal other guy's ladies and all.
10. Miss Minchin from A Little Princess. Miss Minchin is so mean! She is the ultimate boarding school tyrant and all she cares about his money. You kind of have to hate her.

So who do you hate?

This week's top ten list at The Broke and Bookish is favorite book characters. I think this is incredibly challenging to think about. It's easy to think of books I love but to remember specific characters is a little harder for me.

1. Mr. Slinger from Lily's Purple Plastic Purse. This is probably my favorite children's book and I just love Lily, the little mouse the book is about. Even though Lily is adorable and cute no one is better than her teacher Mr. Slinger. Mr. Slinger is kind of a hippie, he makes yummy cheesy snacks, and he loves to teach. When Lily has some problems in class Mr. Slinger tucks a note in her purse that says, "Today was hard. Tomorrow will be better" (I'm paraphrasing because my books are all packed right now). Every time I read that page I get a little choked up, at 20 it's still one of my favorite books to read on a bad day.
2. Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I really identified with Charlie when I read this book. He was a freshman in high school, kind of weird, loved to read, and was just trying to figure life out. I was a about a year younger than him when I read this book but I felt like I was having all the same experiences, which made the book extra special for me. Charlie was also so honest about his thoughts and since he was a "wallflower" he noticed really specific things about the world. When I finished this book I felt like I took a little bit of Charlie with me.
3. Hagrid from Harry Potter. I immediately took to Hagrid when I read Harry Potter. I loved how he was so big and frightening, but was such a nice guy. He's so idealistic and I'm always amazed by the things he does know and the the things he doesn't know. And Hagrid always had Harry, Ron, and Hermoine's best interests at heart.
4. Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird. She is tough and super smart. When Scout stands up to the members of the Klu Klux Klan my heart swoons because she has no idea what she really did. And she loves her dad unconditionally and worries about him like a parent does about a child. Scout is a great role model for young girls.
5. Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre. These two go together for me, you can't have one without the other. I feel like they both change every time I read the book and their relationship becomes increasingly more complicated. From an initial viewing I love how simple their love appears and how sweet it is, but Mr. Rochester is abrasive and Jane is needy, which makes the relationship more difficult than I thought when I first read the book.
6. Marcus from About a Boy. I love Marcus! He is definitely one of my favorite book characters and movie characters. He is so young but has such a realistic view of the world, probably because he's mom is a little messed up. I feel for him because I was a little weirdo too, but I admire him because he works so hard to make his mom feel better even though he really has no control over her.
7. Katniss from The Hunger Games. Katniss is kind of like Scout for me. She is so tough and badass. She never complains about the horrible situation she is put in, she just goes with it and thinks about ways to make everything work for her and those she cares about.
8. Dumbledore from Harry Potter. When Dumbledore died I cried for hours. I wore a RIP Dumbledore bracelet for months. It was a horrible experience, but that just shows what a huge effect he had on me. I grieved over him like I would any person I know in real life.
9. Henry De Tamble for The Time Traveler's Wife. When I read The Time Traveler's Wife I was at a place in my life where I felt like nothing was in my control so I really identified with Henry. He works in a library, listens to punk rock, and wears sweaters, which makes him more like me. Similar to Katniss, Henry makes the situation work for him even though it's horrible and he loves Clare so much he does everything he can to protect her. I find him to be very admirable.
10. Diana from The Luxe Series. Oh, Diana. I just love her more as the series goes on. She is so unafraid of being outside of the norm, outside of society. She lives her life for herself and no one else. Sure, she's a bit annoying sometimes over her boy problems but I don't think she reacts any differently than I would. I just love her.

What are some of your favorite book characters?

Ah I feel like whenever I put this list in writing I want to go back and change something. So perhaps this isn't a perfected list of all-time favorite books but I will try my best.

1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I just really love this book and every time I read it I find something new. The main reason I love Jane Eyre is that it's a book that grows with you. Every time I've read it's been a different experience, my focus changes and I read a different story.
2. On the Road by Jack Kerouc. This was my favorite book through most of high school. I have wanderlust and I was always attracted to Kerouac's free, uncaring attitude.
3. Notes From No Man's Land by Eula Biss. Okay, I'm really going to shut up about this book soon, but I just love these essays. It's a wonderful collection and I remember reading the essays in it multiple times and still not wanting to put the book down.
4. Middlemarch by George Eliot. I read this last year for class and one look at the size of it made me want to run away. It's actually a really engaging multiplot Victorian novel that made me experience an array of emotions.
5. Moments of Being by Virginia Woolf. Woolf's personal essays and stories. I think this was actually the first book I read for my Virginia Woolf class and I loved learning about this famous author in such a personal way.
6. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. I read a ton of Nick Hornby in high school but this book has always been the one that stood out to me. It chronicles a group of people who met on the top of a building, all intending to kill themselves. They decide to wait a year and then see if they still want to die.
7. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Every time I sit down with this graphic novel I want to read it from cover-to-cover. I love the simple images because they say so much about what the characters feel and it's amazing how many actions she can show in just a few panels.
8. Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman. Chuck Klosterman is another author I was really into in high school and I just recently got a newer book by him since I haven't been keeping up since I got out of high school. Not really sure why that was because Killing Yourself to Live is a fantastic book about rock stars and how they are more successful in death. He talks about a ton of music I hate in this book and I still loved it. So there you go.
9. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. This was a childhood favorite of mine. Anne was weird and kind of magical almost. Not that she had magical powers but she just had a special personality. This is one of the few books that has really stuck with me through my whole life. I need to reread it soon.
10. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I'll be honest, I still have 100 pages left in this book but I honestly think it is one of my favorite books of all-time. I would move it higher up on the list but I feel that would be unfair since I still haven't finished it. When I picked up Middlesex I thought it was going to be a bit of a chore, but I've been surprised by how excited I got with this book.

Honestly though, I don't think some of these books are my favorite books of all-time because I just haven't read ten books that made me go WOW! yet. There are a lot of books I love but when I think of favorite books of all-time I think of books that made a serious imprint on my life and that I really enjoyed. I think maybe I've read six books like that. Time will tell what my favorites really are. What are some of your favorites? You can join the conversation at The Broke and the Bookish!

I do like a nice book cover, but I don't give them nearly as much thought as Jana at the Broke and Bookish so my list won't be as in-depth or interesting as hers. Mine aren't in any order either because I'm just putting them in as I think of them basically.

There were times when I was reading The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova where I just couldn't help but stop reading and look at the cover. This is truly one of the most beautiful covers I've ever seen. I love the darkness of the background and how the image changes for you as you read the book and find out more about the story. The text is great as well, kind of a mix between old and new, which is something the book plays with a lot. Also, I know this isn't part of the cover and I don't know what the books that have been released look like, but on my ARC the binding is gold and looks quite nice on my shelf.

One of the most effective ways to sell books is probably to have them cover out instead of binding out. If it wasn't for that, I never would have seen The Impostor's Daughter by Laurie Sandell this weekend. I was attracted to this cover because of the bright colors, fun font style, and the mystery about why she's covering her face with a picture of her dad. I picked up the book and read the back cover, thought it looked interesting so I opened it up to find it was a graphic novel! I was really excited to find a graphic novel in memoir form because I loved Persepolis so I bought it right away.

This cover is really simple and white, with a great brightly covered image that totally sums up the message of this book. It looks comicy, but still empowering. This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson is probably one of my favorite covers from books I've read this summer. Every time I see the librarian with her cape I smile and I realized something a little different about the picture every time I look at it. For instance, it took me awhile to realize that those were books she was flying out of.

I think part of the reason I read Sunflowers by Sheramy Bundrick was that every time I looked at it I said "Pretty!" I love Sunflowers and Vincent Van Gogh's art and I think it was really effective to do a close up of one painting rather than try to fill the cover with an entire painting. The white text allows the image to speak for itself, and those who know Van Gogh will be immediately attracted just by recognition. Plus I just love green and yellow.

I buy children's books all the time even though I have no children and I'm not a teacher nor do I want to be one. Part of it started when I was a reading tutor and it's just kind of carried on since then. One day I'll have kids to share some of these beautiful children's books with and one I can't wait to share is The Curious Garden by Peter Brown. This was a staff pick at a store once and the artwork is just beautiful. I was attracted by the little red haired boy who sticks out amongst the green and blue of the natural scene behind him.

I still haven't read Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman but every time I walk by the cover I get the urge to start it. It is so simple, most of his covers are, but it just looks interesting. The image reminds of a children's reference book about dinosaurs with all of the labels on it. I love dinosaurs so I'm attracted to that. And I like how the author's name and the title are the same size and sandwich the image.

I just had to add one more children's book to this list. Boris and Bella, authored by Carolyn Crimi and illustrated but Gris Grimly is just a great cover. It's Tim Burton-esque and creepy. Normally when you see a male and female name on a book you assume they are in love, but this is not the case with Boris and Bella. We can tell from the image that these ghouls obviously do not like each other. I also like the purple and black for a creepier story like this one, plus the text fits perfectly.

I haven't read Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart yet, but I intend to soon because the book sounds great to me. I love this cover because it combines and simple colorless photograph with a tiffany blue colored box for text, and then the box is topped with a bow like one from Tiffany would be. I just think that was a really cute idea and I love the simple color scheme of this book.

I read this book a week ago and I think it has a pretty neat cover. This cover of Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman really embodies Rita's personality. The orange and green are bright and fun, which is just like her attitude. I also like the map at the top of the cover that shows all the different places she goes to and how she's constantly traveling back and forth. Plus I like that they used a photograph for a travel narrative because it let's you feel like you're in on their trip a little bit.

My last cover is the 50th Anniversary edition of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It's beautiful. The color scheme is really unique, you don't see that deep, wine red on books very often, and it let's the green of the tree really pop. I have the older lavender version right now and I have been lusting after this book ever since I saw it. I also love the text they use on this cover, a slanted print that looks almost like a child's handwriting.

I actually learned a lot about myself by doing this, I appears that I'm really attracted to colors or white covers with a single image on them. Who knew! What are you attracted to in covers?

I have talked about the Iowa City Book Festival quite a bit over the past few weeks and I'm sure those of you who aren't in Iowa are getting annoyed by me. But today is the actual festival! So after tomorrow I will shut-up about it, I promise. But for those of you who can't be here or those of you who are here who can't see me or for those of you who listened to me but forget what I said, I'm going to post my list of books I talked about during my talk today. These are my top five books I've read in the past year (basically, there are some I just didn't feel needed to be advertised as much, like Middlemarch, which I also advise you to read).

1. Notes from No Man's Land: American Essays

by Eula Biss. Yes, I'm recommending this book even though I've never reviewed it on this blog. It is a fabulous essay collection that deals with race, gender, age, and just growing up. You must read it. I read this book in two days a little over a year ago and I am still talking about it, so that should be a pretty good indication of how much I enjoyed it. And for fellow Iowans, there are many references to Iowa and Iowa City, as well as Chicago and New York. I haven't reviewed this book, but I did talk about on of Eula Biss's earlier essays.
2. The Creation of Eve

by Lynn Cullen. There have been several books about artists recently but this is by far the best, in my opinion. It is a historical fiction novel about Sofonisba Anguisolla, a female Renaissance painter who works in the court of Queen Elisabeth of Spain. I learned so much about gender restrictions in Spain through this novel, which is something I don't think I was ever interested in until I read this. I couldn't put this down. There is also sexual scandal that deals with Michelangelo, and some beautiful scenes about painting when Sofonisba is his student. Follow the link for my review of The Creation of Eve.
3. This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All

by Marilyn Johnson. It's really no secret that I want to go into library science after I graduate, but that isn't the only reason I enjoyed this book. Johnson goes on several interviews across the East coast with librarians and those who love them. She meets librarians who network using the online game Second Life, librarians who teach people from underdeveloped countries so they can help their own countries, and librarians who love to blog. I learned a lot from this book and Johnson is incredibly witty which made a book that could have been a total snore become a joy to read. Follow the link for my review of This Book is Overdue!
4. The Imperfectionists

by Tom Rachman is a series of character sketches. It takes place in Rome and most of the characters work at an English language international newspaper or are somehow related to a person who does work there. Rachman does an amazing job of making every character unique, believable, and sympathetic. All of the characters connect somehow throughout the novel and somehow all have similar themes going through their lives. Like relationships, failed relationships, lost love, and death. By the end of this book you'll feel like you you just got to know a bunch of people at party, except you'll know them better than anyone you've met at a party. Follow the link for my review of The Imperfectionists.
5. The Luxe

by Anna Godbersen. I had to put some junk food on the list and out of all the junk food I've read in the past year The Luxe series is my favorite. I'm reading the third book, Envy, right now and I think I can safely say the series gets better as you go on. It's about a group of teenage girls in the early 1900's New Amsterdam, today Manhattan. They are rich, snobby brats and I love every minute of it. Penelope is new money and out to get everything she wants, no matter who she has to step on along the way. Elizabeth and Diana are sisters and from old money, but totally different. Elizabeth is in love with her chauffeur and is really looking for a more down-to-earth life than the one she lives, and she's a bit of a goody-two-shoes. Diana is much more interesting, she is dark and a bit moody, loves to sit and read, and thinks all the social airs her family puts on are stupid, she's just more vocal about it than her sister. Very dramatic. Follow the link for my review of The Luxe.

I actually haven't talked about my picks at the festival at this point, so if you're reading this and in Iowa City come see me at 1 PM today!

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A couple of week ago Ron stopped by to talk to us about what makes a good graphic novel. It seems like a lot of you out there agreed with Ron's thoughts and some of you were looking for a good place to start with graphic novels. Ron compiled a great list of some of his all time favorites. I've read about half of these and I can vouch to their greatness!

Boiling the medium down to just a few recommendations is…impossible, but I’ll do my best to provide an interesting and diverse list. Even so, superhero comics will comprise a healthy portion of the list because they are so integral to the medium. I’ll also try to mix ongoing series with singular, one-shot works. Away we go—

Watchmen/The Dark Knight Returns

These two works are closely linked despite being vastly different when it comes to content. Watchmen is the arch-comic, the comic of comics, not only because of its brilliance, but it’s also a comic about comics. This is something the movie didn’t adequately capture. Writer Alan Moore spins a “Golden Age” story out of control, warping it into a self-reflexive mirror to the superhero genre, and artist Dave Gibbons subverts classical style, yet doesn’t seem like a carbon copy of it. This is a perfect comic.

In The Dark Knight Returns, Writer/Artist Frank Miller redeems a laughable Batman by infusing him with eighties pop-culture sensibility. The story sees Bruce Wayne as an old man, forced to once again become Batman in order to stop a brutal crime wave in Gotham City. The work, while whitewashed in eighties action movie veneer (Miller’s Wayne owes more to Clint Eastwood than Adam West), also explores the enduring nature of the character and his relationship to other heroes in the DC universe. It’s a rip-roaring read, but it’s also Miller at his cleverest—there’s a density to the work that he rarely has been able to recapture.

(Further reading: [Moore] The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen I & II; From Hell; [Miller] Batman: Year One; Daredevil: Visionaries Volume 2; Sin City.)

Criminal

Ed Brubaker is one of my favorite writers, and this is the reason why. Criminal pulls on the pulp origins of early comics as well as film noir and blends it into one outstanding package: contemporary but timeless stories about the criminal underworld. The tropes may feel familiar, but a good story, especially a crime story, isn’t “predictable” so much as it is inevitable. If there’s one thing this series has in spades it’s that sinking feeling.

(Further reading: Captain America; Sleeper; The Immortal Iron Fist; Gotham Central.)

Asterios Polyp

This is one of the most formally experimental pieces that I’ve ever read. Writer/Artist David Mazzuchielli uses everything at his disposal to construct a fascinating character study of a dead-beat architect named Asterios. It’s a vibrant book, story-and-art-wise, with each character constructed in interesting colors and character-specific fonts. It’s simply a pleasure to behold.

(Further reading: City of Glass.)

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
This is an amazing work, something you’d lend to non-comics to get them hooked on the medium. It plays simply at first, but unfolds beautifully, each chapter adding a layer of complexity to the story. The art is outstanding, too, and lends to the credibility of the story itself, about a death in the family and so much more. The story will resonate with any reader, and that’s the highest praise I can give it.
(Further reading: Dykes to Watch Out For.)

Daredevil Volume 2 #16-19, 26-50, 56-81

This run of issues comprises Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s run on the book, a run that is simply outstanding. The most common phrase associated with the series is that, “Daredevil spends as much time out of his costume as he does in it,” which is a simple way of saying that the run is unusual within the genre. It’s more than that, though. Bendis’ characters speak in dialogue closer to David Mamet’s theater aesthetic than “word balloon banter,” and he fractures the timeline brilliantly to deal with heavy thematic concerns about the real power that a hero holds. Maleev’s art is also outstanding. He brings gritty realism to the book, and employs specifically cinematic techniques to convey the story. It’s a terrifically exciting body of work.

(Further reading: Powers; New Avengers; Ultimate Spider-Man.)

Scalped

This book is similar to Criminal (I could see them shelved together, yes), but offers a unique slant on the crime genre. Instead of portraying the underbelly of a city, Scalped digs into an Indian reservation in the Dakotas in which a sleazy FBI agent tries desperately to bring down the corrupt man who runs the rez, Lincoln Red Crow. The best part of the series is that it doesn’t pull any punches, everything writer Jason Aaron throws at the reader means something, and either pushes the plot forward dramatically or tells the reader something important about a character. The stakes in this book are incredibly high.

(Further reading: The Other Side; Wolverine: Weapon X.)

As I said, great list! Be sure to check out Ron's previous post and his blog Entertainment Etc.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

Overall, I thought May was a kind of disappointing month. In the middle of finals and projects and staying with a friend for a week there just wasn't very much time for reading. In fact, all six of these books were finished in the last two weeks of the month I think. And the grades are, well, fairly mediocre. Sunflowers wasn't as good as I wanted it to be, Dead End Gene Pool lacked some personality, American Born Chinese was good, albeit a little quick to end, Just Kids was really good in the beginning, but overall lacking, This Book is Overdue pretty much saved the month, and I've yet to review Scrolling Forward but while it offered a lot of interesting ideas I think the writing style was in need of some serious help. So let's hope June is a better month for me, although I've yet to finish anything yet. I think I might be in a bit of a slump right now.

1. Sunflowers by Sheramy Bundrick (B)
2. Dead End Gene Pool by Wendy Burden (C)
3. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (B)
4. Just Kids by Patti Smith (B)
5. This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson (A)
6. Scrolling Forward: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age by David M. Levy (B)

How was your May?

While I was avoiding homework this morning I ran across an article on Twitter called 20 Books Every Teen and Tween Should Read Before They Hit 16. It's a pretty good list, although I haven't heard of some of the books before and I have read less than half of them and most of the books I definitely did not read by the time I was 16. Some of these I've actually read during the course of writing on my blog! Books from the list I have read are:

To Kill a Mockingbird
The Harry Potter Series
Animal Farm
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Macbeth
Go Ask Alice
The Outsiders
Are You There God? It's Me Margaret

Books on the list I haven't read are:

The Catcher in the Rye (Although I've read pretty much everything else by Salinger)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Maus
The Lord of the Flies
The Golden Compass
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Flowers for Algernon
A Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Treasure Island
Slake's Limbo

Some of these I'm not that interested in reading, but some of them I feel like I really need to read. And since I didn't quite make it by sixteen, I think I'm going to try to get some of them in before 21. I have about eight months until my 21st birthday and there are 12 books I haven't read. I think I'd like to read at least six. Does anyone have any ideas on what books would be the best to read from this list? Have you read the books on this list? What do you think is missing? Personally, I think On the Road should be on there.

I made myself a new layout last night! I think it's much improved from my previous layout, which I never thought reflected me very well. This is closer to what I'm wanting, but I only have time to do a little bit on the layout every once in awhile. Luckily I'm ahead on posts for next week so that gave me some extra time to work on layout.

I've been tossing over what to do Sunday Salon about this week. It's not quite the end of March, so I didn't really want to do a March wrap-up post, but I did just reach 25 books which I think is something to celebrate! So I think I'll do a 1/4 year wrap up today, and next week I'll do a quick, more focused, March wrap-up. You can check out the full list of books I've read on my 2010 Reads page.

Books read in 2010: 26
YA Books: 5
Classics: 7
Graphic Novels: 3
Historical Fiction: 12
Romance: 2
ARC/For review: 4
My favorite: The Creation of Eve by Lynn Cullen
My least favorite: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig
Distributed grades: 10 A's, 8 B's, 6 C's, and 1 D.

I was actually really surprised by a few things on this list. For example, I thought I'd given out mostly C's this year, but I've actually read more A books. I think this is partially because I read a lot of C books at the beginning of this year and recently I've had a streak of awesome books. I was also surprised to see how many "Classics" I have read, since it seems like I haven't read that many. I was really surprised by how many historical fiction books I've read because I felt like I've read hardly any, although to be fair I counted graphic novels in that which I don't really consider historical fiction while I'm reading them. 26 books in three months means I should be able to read 100 books this year. This was never really a spoken goal of mine, but I thought it would be neat. I'm glad to see I'm on my way.

This week I posted a review of Dawn of the Dreadfuls and Aurora Floyd. I brought back Children's Book Thursday with a vlog about a great book called Library Lion. I shared my thoughts on Writing Classes and posted a review of the Moleskine Passions Book Journal. Also, don't forget to enter the contest to win a bag from Strand Bookstore in New York City! I will announce the winner next week so be sure to leave a comment on last week's Sunday Salon before next Sunday!

Do you guys all know about Lauren Leto? If you're a college student you probably do. She is the creator of Texts From Last Night. I saw a link to her blog on Facebook today and she has a great post about Stereotyping Readers by Author. It's hilarious and you should all go check it out. One that applies to me:

Nick Hornby
Guys who wear skinny jeans and the girls that love them.

And a great TFLN for good measure:

(319): I brought red and green boonsfarm to the white elephant party. classy and festive. I think this is what people are referring to when they talk about killing two birds with one stone.