Books I've Read 2010

Books in bold are ones I've especially liked:

1. The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood
2. Futurama: The Time Bender Trilogy, Matt Groening
3. Interview With a Vampire, Anne Rice
4. Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffennegger
5. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
6. Serenity, Vol. 2: Better Days, Joss Whedon
7. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon
8. Shades of Grey, Jasper Fforde
9. Heat Wave, Richard Castle
10. The Help, Kathryn Stockett
11. Confections of a Closet Master Baker, Gesine Bullock-Prado
12. A Widow For One Year, John Irving
13. If You Come Softly, Jacqueline Woodson
14. Shiver, Maggie Stiefvater
15. If I Stay, Gayle Forman
16. Scarlett Fever, Maureen Johnson
17. Marcelo In The Real World, Francisco X. Stork
18. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
    
19. Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World, Tracy Kidder
20. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
21. The Clock Without a Face, Eli Horowitz
22. Day After Night, Anita Diamant
23. The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx
24. Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver
25. Little Bee, Chris Cleave
26. The Red Pyramid, Rick Riordan
    
27. Wizard's First Rule, Terry Goodkind
28. Stone of Tears, Terry Goodkind
29. When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead
30. The Swan Thieves, Elizabeth Kostova
31. Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking, Book 3), Patrick Ness
32. Blood of the Fold, Terry Goodkind
33. Will Grayson, Will Grayson, John Green & David Levithan
34. Beautiful Creatures, Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
35. The Necromancer (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: Book 4), Michael Scott
36. This is Where I Leave You, Jonathan Tropper
37. Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex (Book 7), Eoin Colfer
38. Superior Saturday (Keys to the Kingdom), Garth Nix
39. The God of Animals, Aryn Kyle
40. She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb
41. Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
42. Only the Good Spy Young, Ally Carter
43. The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee, Sarah Silverman
44. The Maze Runner, James Dashner
45. The Mockingbirds, Daisy Whitney (ARC)
46. Incarceron, Catherine Fisher (ARC)
47. Reckless, Cornelia Funke
48. How to Talk To a Widower, Jonathan Tropper
49. The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
50. The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
51. It Is Right to Draw Their Fur, Dave Eggers
52. Knives at Dawn: America's Quest for Culinary Glory at the Legendary Bocuse d'Or Competition, Andrew Friedman
53. Serenity: The Shepard's Tale, Zack Whedon
54. The Scorch Trials, James Dashner
55. Dead Until Dark, Charlaine Harris
56. The Color of Magic, Terry Pratchett
57. Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout

News from the Joss-verse

In the mood for some fantastic, hot-off-the-presses news? The Syfy channel has cast Felicia Day to star in a re-telling/re-imagining of Little Red Riding Hood called Red. The bad news? We have to wait until 2011 to watch it.

Judging a book by its cover II

I'm not generally a fan of merchandise tie-ins to movies or television series, but I am going to make an exception for a book published by Hyperion in 2009, Heat Wave by Richard Castle. Richard Castle is a fictional bestselling mystery writer in the eponymous ABC show Castle. The show is fantastic. Richard Castle is played by Joss Whedon alumnus Nathan Fillion of Firefly and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog fame. This would likely be enough to endear me to Castle, but the writing is funny and clever, and it's a real pleasure being entertained by Fillion
for an hour each week.

Back to the book. I'm sure it is not the first of its kind, but it really tickled me to be able to hold the book published in the television series in my hands. The details are perfect, from the back cover picture of Fillion and the mini-biography on the back flap, to the dedication. It all just makes me happy.

I haven't gotten around to reading it yet and honestly am not expecting great things. For me, the actual substance of the book doesn't matter much since the execution of the idea is just so much fun.

Books I've read: 2009

Books in bold are ones I've especially liked:

1. Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman
2. Owl in Love, Patrice Kindl
3. Lock and Key, Sarah Dessen
4. The Two Princesses of Bamarre, Gail Carson Levine
5. Vegan Virgin Valentine, Carolyn Mackler
6. The Singing, Alison Croggon
7. Inferno, Robin Stevenson
   
8. Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Marisha Pessl
9. City of Glass, Cassandra Clare
10. The Last Days, Scott Westerfeld
11. Guyaholic, Carolyn Mackler
12. Alanna, Tamora Pierce
13. In the Hand of the Goddess, Tamora Pierce
14. The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, Tamora Pierce
15. Lioness Rampant, Tamora Pierce
16. Trickster's Choice, Tamora Pierce
17. Trickster's Queen, Tamora Pierce
18. The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians), Rick Riordan
19. Impossible, Nancy Werlin
20. Brisingr, Christopher Paolini
21. The Sorceress (The Secrets of Nicholas Flamel: Book 3), Michael Scott
22. Revelations, Melissa de la Cruz
23. The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Carrie Ryan
24. Watchman, Alan Moore
25. The Arrival, Shaun Tan
26. Wintergirls, Laurie Halse Anderson
27. A Homemade Life, Molly Wizenberg
28. Pretty Monsters, Kelly Link
29. Good Girls, Laura Ruby
30. Queste (Septimus Heap, Book 4), Angie Sage
31. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
32. The Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness
33. The Secret of Lost Things, Sheridan Hay
34. Kiki Strike: The Empress's Tomb, Kirsten Miller
35. Along for the Ride, Sarah Dessen
36. Heroes of the Valley, Jonathan Stroud
37. Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
38. People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
39. Light on Snow, Anita Shreve
40. Three Junes, Julia Glass
41. Nation, Terry Pratchett
42. Secrets of My Hollywood Life: On Location, Jen Calonita
43. The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown
44. Commencement, J. Courtney Sullivan
    
45. Secrets of My Hollywood Life: Family Affairs, Jen Calonita
46. Secrets of My Hollywood Life: Paparazzi Princess, Jen Calonita
47. The Boy Book, E. Lockhart
48. The Treasure Map of Boys, E. Lockhart
49. The Van Alen Legacy, Melissa de la Cruz
50. Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover, Ally Carter
51. Liar, Justine Larbalestier
52. Forest Born, Shannon Hale
53. Interworld, Neil Gaiman
54. Fire, Kristin Cashore
55. Vendetta, Chris Humphreys
56. The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking, Book 2), Patrick Ness
57. Front and Center, Catherine Murdock
    
58. Sacred Scars (A Resurrection of Magic, Book 2), Kathleen Duey
59. The Overlord Protocol (H.I.V.E.), Mark Walden
    

"Support your local libraries and the crazy people who work there"

From the ALA conference in Chicago, we have dancing librarians!

Books I've read: 2008

Books in bold are ones I've especially liked:

1. The Book of Lost Things, John Connolly
2. Something Rotten, Jasper Fforde
3. Bastard of Istanbul, Elif Shafak
4. Audrey, Wait!, Robin Benway (ARC)
5. Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris
6. An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, Brock Clarke
7. How to Be Bad, e. lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski and Lauren Myracle (ARC)
8. Bewitching Season, Marissa Doyle (ARC)
9. The Last of the High Kings, Kate Thompson (ARC)
10. Thursday Next: First Among Sequels, Jasper Fforde
11. The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, Barry Lyga
12. Garlic and Sapphires, Ruth Reichl
13. In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan
14. The Memory of Running, Ron McLarty
15. What the Dickens, Gregory Maguire
16. The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
17. How Reading Changed My Life, Anna Quindlen
18. Secrets of My Hollywood Life, Jen Calonita
19. The Singer of All Songs, Kate Constable
20. The Queen of Cool, Cecil Castellucci
21. Rash, Pete Hautman
22. The Waterless Sea, Kate Constable
23. The Tenth Power, Kate Constable
24. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie
25. City of Bones, Cassandra Clare
26. Twisted, Laurie Halse Anderson
27. Peeps, Scott Westerfeld
28. The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick
29. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, E. Lockhart
30. The Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart
31. Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me, Ben Karlin
32. The Contract with God Trilogy, Will Eisner
33. Lady Friday, Garth Nix
34. Once Upon a Time in the North, Philip Pullman
35. The Time Machine, H. G. Wells
36. My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult
37. Odd and the Frost Giants, Neil Gaiman
38. Ever, Gail Carson Levine
39. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
40. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
41. City of Ashes, Cassandra Clare
42. Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri
43. Rapunzel's Revenge, Shannon and Dean Hale
44. Squids Will Be Squids, John Scieszka
45. Y: The Last Man: Girl on Girl, Brian K. Vaughan
46. Y: The Last Man: Paper Dolls, Brian K. Vaughan
47. Y: The Last Man: Kimono Dragons, Brian K. Vaughan
48. Y: The Last Man: Motherland, Brian K. Vaughan
49. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Ann Brashares
50. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, Ann Brashares
    
51. The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson & the Olympians Book 4), Rick Riordan
52. Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood, Ann Brashares
53. Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood, Ann Brashares
54. The Plain Janes, Cecil Castellucci
55. Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
56. The Adoration of Jenna Fox, Mary E. Pearson
57. Suite Scarlett, Maureen Johnson
58. Y: The Last Man: Whys and Wherefores, Brian K. Vaughan
59. The Magician: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, Michael Scott
60. Kitty Kitty, Michele Jaffe
61. Girl at Sea, Maureen Johnson
62. Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer
63. The Time Paradox (Artemis Fowl, Book 6), Eoin Colfer
64. Just Listen, Sarah Dessen
65. Breaking Up, Aimee Friedman and Christine Norrie
66. A Conspiracy of Paper, David Liaa
67. The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory
68. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
69. The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides
70. Something Rotten, Alan Gratz
71. The Power of One, Bryce Courtenay
72. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Maggie O'Farrell
73. Physik (Septimus Heap: Book Three), Angie Sage
74. Paper Towns, John Green
75. How to Ditch Your Fairy, Justine Larbalestier
76. The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
77. Physik, Angie Sage
78. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
79. Graceling, Kristin Cashore
80. Ironside, Holly Black
81. The Book of the Unknown, Jonathon Keats

From the internets!

Here are two things from the internets that you must see.

First, a comprehensive list of problems solved by MacGyver. And second, well, let's just let this one speak for itself:

He returns!

July 15th.

Holy crap

If this isn't enough to fill you with joy and wonder, I don't know what is:

Random internet stuff

Random stuff from the internets:

• "Scientists for better PCR" music video
• The next board game I'm going to buy
• PBS is showing all of the movie versions of Jane Austen's books, and we get to vote on which leading man is our favorite! Ah, PBS, educational as always. Now who will I choose...Hot Guy from MI-5? Or Ye Olde Classic, Mr. Darcy? Decisions, decisions.
  
• Shannon Hale interviews Libba Bray
• If you liked the idea of Buffy Season 8 in comic book form, you'll be thrilled to know that the same thing is happening with Angel
• Friend C found this for me, and I have to say, she was dead on that I want to do this to a future room in my future house
  

Conversation with a three year old

I loved this little exchange.

Books I've Read: 2007

Books in bold are ones I've especially enjoyed.

1. The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, Daniel Mendelsohn
2. The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
3. Digging to America, Anne Tyler
4. Fighting Ruben Wolfe, Markus Zusak
5. Looking For Alaska, John Green
6. The Rules of Survival, Nancy Werlin
7. The Case of the Missing Books: A Mobile Library Mystery, Ian Sansom
8. Suite Française, Irene Nemirovsky
9. Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot, Patricia C. Wrede
10. Valiant, Holly Black
11. An Abundance of Katherines, John Green
12. The Peterkin Papers, Lucretia P. Hale
13. The Tale of Despereaux, Kate Dicamillo
14. The Dark Hills Divide, Patrick Carman
15. Mr. Popper's Penguins, Richard Atwater
16. Tithe, Holly Black
17. Victory, Susan Cooper
18. Bad Kitty, Michele Jaffe
19. A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life, Dana Reinhardt
20. Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
21. The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan
22. This Is All: The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn, Aidan Chambers
23. The Book of Story Beginnings, Kristin Kladstrup
24. The Blood Stone, Jamila Gavin
25. Behind the Curtain, Peter Abrahams
26. Y: The Last Man Vol. 4: Safeword, Brian K. Vaughan
27. Y: The Last Man Vol. 5: Ring of Truth, Brian K. Vaughan
28. Beyond The Valley Of Thorns, Patrick Carman
29. Sir Thursday, Garth Nix
30. A Certain Slant of Light, Laura Whitcomb
31. Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, Julie Powell
32. Tenth City, Patrick Carman
33. Dairy Queen, Catherine Murdock
34. King Dork, Frank Portman
35. How I Live Now, Meg Rosoff
36. The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield
37. Golden , Jennifer Lynn Barnes
38. If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where's My Prince?, Melissa Kantor
39. The Boyfriend List, E. Lockhart
40. Fairest, Gail Carson Levine
41. The Book as Art: Artists' Books from the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Krystyna Wasserman
42. Bras & Broomsticks, Sarah Mlynowski
43. The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime, Jasper Fforde
44. Fly on the Wall: How One Girl Saw Everything, E. Lockhart
45. I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You, Ally Carter
46. Criss Cross, Lynne Rae Perkins
47. Incantation, Alice Hoffman
48. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, Carolyn Mackler
49. Magic or Madness, Justine Larbalestier
50. Magic Lessons, Justine Larbalestier
51. Flyte, Angie Sage
52. The White Darkness, Geraldine McCaughrean
53. Peter and the Starcatchers, Dave Barry
54. Peter and the Shadow Thieves, Dave Barry
55. Magic's Child, Justine Larbalestier
56. The Ruins, Scott Smith
57. 13 Little Blue Envelopes, Maureen Johnson
58. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Jean-Dominique Bauby
59. The New Policeman, Kate Thompson
60. Fat Kid Rules the World, K. L. Going
61. Snow, Orhan Pamuk
62. The Mislaid Magician or Ten Years After, Patricia C. Wrede
63. The Naming, Alison Croggon
64. The Riddle, Alison Croggon
65. The Grand Tour, Patricia C. Wrede
66. They Call Me Naughty Lola
67. Ella Enchanted, Gail Carson Levine
68. Feed, M.T. Anderson
69. The Brief History of the Dead, Kevin Brockmeier
70. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
71. Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood
72. Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, Gary D. Schmidt
73. Night Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
74. Lost in a Good Book, Jasper Fforde
75. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
76. Weaveworld, Clive Barker
77. The Well of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde
78. Austenland, Shannon Hale
79. Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You, Dorian Cirrone
80. Snow Apples, Mary Razzell
81. Blue Bloods, Melissa De La Cruz
82. Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie, Jordan Sonnenblick
83. The World to Come, Dara Horn
84. Shadow and Claw, Gene Wolfe
85. Charlotte Sometimes, Penelope Farmer
86. Einstein: His Life and Universe, Walter Isaacson
87. Stardust, Neil Gaiman
88. A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
89. Emma, Vol. 1-4, Kaoru Mori
90. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst
91. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J. K. Rowling
92. Skellig, David Almond
93. The Thief, Megan Whalen Turner
94. The Queen of Attolia, Megan Whalen Turner
95. The King of Attolia, Megan Whalen Turner
96. Wicked Lovely, Melissa Marr
97. Clay, David Almond
98. Masquerade, Melissa De La Cruz
99. Devilish, Maureen Johnson
100. Children of the Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure, P. B. Kerr
101. American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang
102. Soon I Will Be Invincible, Austin Grossman
103. The Uses of Enchantment, Heidi Julavits
104. Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer
105. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson & the Olympians Book 1), Rick Riordan
106. Death Note, Volume 1, Tsugumi Ohba
107. The Fetch, Chris Humphreys
108. The Alchemyst, Michael Scott
109. Gifts, Ursula K. Le Guin
110. Voices, Ursula K. Le Guin
111. Russian Fairy Tales, Gillian Avery
112. Intuition, Allegra Goodman
113. The Foretelling, Alice Hoffman
114. The Norse Myths, Kevin Crossley-Holland
115. What Happened to Cass McBride?, Gail Giles
116. Peony in Love, Lisa See
117. Gertrude and Claudius, John Updike
118. The Headmaster, Taylor Antrim
119. The World According to Mimi Smartypants, Mimi Smartypants
120. Book of A Thousand Days, Shannon Hale
121. Three Bags Full, Leonie Swann
122. The Crimson Petal and the White, Michel Faber
123. The Last Summer (of You & Me), Ann Brashares
124. Platinum, Jennifer Lynn Barnes
125. The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson & the Olympians Book 2), Rick Riordan
126. The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson & the Olympians Book 3), Rick Riordan
127. Kabul Beauty School, Deborah Rodriguez and Kristin Ohlson
128. The Crow, Alison Croggon
129. Service Included, Phoebe Damrosch
130. Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City, Kirsten Miller
131. Peter and the Secret of Randoon, Dave Barry
132. Darkness at Pemberley, T. H. White
133. Dialogue with Trypho, St. Justin the Martyr
134. On Pascha, Melito of Sardis
135. The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman (REREAD)
136. Here on Earth, Alice Hoffman
137. Extras, Scott Westerfeld
138. Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, Ally Carter
139. I Am America (And So Can You), Stephen Colbert
140. Jesus in the Talmud, Peter Schafer
141. The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story, Lemoney Snicket
142. The Book of Air and Shadows, Michael Gruber
143. Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel, Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin
144. The Off Season, Catherine Murdock
145. Skin Hunger, Kathleen Duey
146. Story of a Girl, Sara Zarr
147. Emma, Vol. 5, Kaoru Mori
148. Emma, Vol. 6, Kaoru Mori
149. H.I.V.E, Mark Walden
150. Bloom, Elizabeth Scott
151. The Bermudez Triangle, Maureen Johnson
152. The Pull of the Ocean, Jean-Claude Mourlevat
153. Black Dossier, Alan Moore
154. The Sweet Far Thing, Libba Bray
155. Dramarama, E. Lockhart
156. Infinite Variety: Exploring the Folger Shakespeare Library, Ester Ferington
     

Thanksgivnukkah Extravaganz[nukk]a[h] 2007

I'm sitting here in my warm apartment listening to the wintry mix pelting my windows, and I'm thinking that sometime in the next couple of hours I'm going to have to go outside and shovel just to get the snow up before the freezing rain really starts up in earnest. This is the only thing keeping me from curling up on my couch under a blanket with a nice, big mug of tea steaming next to me; I don't want to get too comfortable too soon or I won't be able to drag myself outside in a little while. It is beautiful outside, though, white and stormy and there's no one out there and wouldn't today be perfect if I didn't have to shovel?

A car just drove by my house with an engine that sounded like horses hooves clopping on a cobblestone street. Weird.

But I didn't begin this post to write about the glorious winter weather we've been missing for the past few years here in New England. No, I wanted to post about the birth of what I hope to be a new Holiday Season tradition: Thanksgivnukkah. You see, for the past several years my family has had Thanksgiving with this one particular other family, very close friends of ours, but since my family went elsewhere this year and part of their family went elsewhere this year, we decided that we needed to hold an after-the-fact Thanksgiving feast, and while we were at it why not celebrate Hanukkah after the fact as well? The Thanksginukkah Extravaganza of 2007 was born.

Just to give you a sense of what you're dealing with, Thanksgivings with this family have always been a day-long event. Everyone gathers at about noon to begin preparing the meal and the fixings, and this is when the snacking and the drinking also begin. Five hours of eating and drinking later, we're ready to begin the actually Thanksgiving meal. Etc. Etc.

Seeing as we were celebrating Thanksgivnukkah and not Thanksgiving, the menu may appear to be missing a few things, but I assure you it was quite sufficient:

• Fresh smoked turkey (a particular specialty of this family, so glorious, so tasty; the stuff dreams are made of)
• Latkes
• Applesauce (made by yours truly)
  
• Stollen
• Salad (how did something health get in there?)
• Cranberry sauce
• Donuts
• Pumpkin pie
• Pecan pie

Everyone was especially excited about my brother's donuts, but something went tragically wrong with this little guy:

All he wanted was to be a delicious donut

For whatever reason, the dough didn't rise and as a result didn't cook through during frying. Let's take a moment to mourn.

RIP. You looked delicious, but weren't cooked through.

The food was followed by a rousing game of Dictionary (my favorite new word: krukolibidinous. I will use it every chance I get) and a showing of The Sting. Could the day have been any more perfect?

But can I wait a year?!

This is possibly the best TV news I've heard in ages! I may implode from all of the excitement! Must! Use! More! Exclamation! Points!

Fresh from the "Hallelujah" department

Shannon Hale has been posting a three-part interview she did with Megan Whalen Turner over at her blog. Part three was posted today, including two extremely exciting pieces of news:

1. MWT is working on a fourth book in her Thief/Queen/King series! Yipee!!
2. SH is also writing a fourth Bayern book! Yipee again!

Granted, as neither of these books is apparently even close to being done, it'll be a while before they arrive on my front porch. But if this type of news doesn't get me out of my Reading Funk, I don't know what will!

Not-so-terrible twos

I went on the most fabulous dinner date tonight with The Tot (and his Mom, T, and about a gazillion of his wee classmates and their parents. It was total chaos!). I'm in love. For the first time in our two-and-a-half years together he kept reaching up for me to hold him (happy to oblige!). But don't worry, he's too rambunctious to stay in those arms for long! We also had a great time running and playing tag, and he told me who all the kids' parents' were like a good little host. And when I had him up in my arms he put his little hands on my neck and my heart grew three sizes. And then when I told him how sweet he was he turned to me, smiled, grabbed my face, and gave me a kiss. My heart is desperately trying to fit back into my body. I think it's unbelievable how wonderful spending time with a little Tot can make me feel. Ah, the beauty of Surrogate Auntyhood: all the fun, non of the tantrums.

On another note, a conversation with J this afternoon helped me realize exactly what I think is wrong with Three Bags Full: it's too long. That's right, folks, I think this would have made a fabulous 100-200 page book, but that's about it. There would have been plenty of room to enjoy everything that's fun and clever without feeling like you're reading the same thing over and over. Way to pin the problem down, J!

The Bibliophile needs...

Taking a page from my friend J's livejournal, I googled "[The Bibliophile] needs" and came up with these helpful suggestions:

• [The Bibliophile] needs to have blush that is very bright and colorful
  
• [The Bibliophile] needs Some Good Thoughts
• [The Bibliophile] needs to refer to Web sites, manuals, and a variety of documentation
• [The Bibliophile] needs more caffeine
  
• [The Bibliophile] needs help when she enters Manhattan's meat-packing district to help three transvestite hookers find out who murdered one of their friends-- and whether one of them might be the next victim
• [The Bibliophile] needs your prayers
  
• [The Bibliophile] needs Netflix friends
  
• [The Bibliophile] needs to set her sights a little higher
• [The Bibliophile] needs to choose between two guys
  
• [The Bibliophile] needs more time for herself and more attention at home
• [The Bibliophile] needs your help

Well now. I think that pretty much says it all.

Books and ephemera

Everyone should have a favorite used book store. Mine is Nancy L. Dole's Books and Ephemera in Shelburne Falls, MA. I've found the following gems there thus far:

• The Lady's Book of Flowers and Poetry (1842)
  
• The Earth: Its Physical Condition and Most Remarkable Phenomena (1854)
• A Popular Zoology (1887)
• Alden's Handy Atlas of the World (1888)

They all contain stunning illustrations, some carefully painted by hand. These four are books that I picked up and fell in love with instantaneously, all for different reasons. Can you imagine how fun it is to look at maps from 1888? A a 150+ year old science book? You can see where I'm going with this.

But back to the store. It's not so much the piles and piles of used books that attract me, but the range of funky, random things you can get there; the store also contains a mind-boggling amount of stuff that has most likely been cleaned out of pack-rat grandparents' attics. Sixty year-old books of postcards, hundred-plus year-old store receipts, salvaged propaganda, pamphlets, out-of-date maps, clothing patterns, old recipe cards, and on, and on. It would be fair to call any of these items junk, worthless. Although now, fifty or one hundred years later, the items have aged enough rendering the junk useful anthropological data, peculiar remembrances, ephemera.

Where are your favorite used bookstores? What makes them so great?

Pity Party: Check

It's very nearly too hot to blog again. I'm practicing the ancient Yoga tradition of stilling one's entire body save the typing fingers.

Pity parties = wild amounts of fun. I'm thinking of making this an annual or semiannual event. So cleansing! Getting all that anger and frustration off of one's chest, defacing inflatable men, burning things, torturing the Homer Simpson voodoo doll...

Give the people a sharpie and a wall to write on, and look at the wonderful gems they produce:

Hopefully my SIL will email me the rest of the pictures from the party soon, so I can show you all the lovely play doh figurines T and I sculpted for the center-pieces, and so you can see the all of the yummy chocolate desserts we enjoyed.

How to eat pie

You all may *think* you know how to eat pie. "Bibliophile," you'll say, "there's really nothing to it. You just take one bite, and then another, and then another, until there's nothing left on your plate!" "Ha!" I'll say. "This show's you really know nothing about how to eat pie."

No worries, I'm here to educate you.

Step 1: Get your hands on some really good pie. This is not as easy as you may think. I would have to say that 99.9% of the pie out there is what I would classify as Bad Pie. Bad Pie has many guises. The filling may be too sweet, the crust not delicate and flaky enough...Let's face it: Good Pie is not easy to make. I suggest you stay away from the store bought stuff (there's rarely anything good there), and either find a friend or family member who has real Pie Making Talent or practice yourself. I'm lucky enough to have a family member who falls into the former category, and several times a year makes pie. Last night, for my sister-in-law's birthday, he made her favorite (and my third favorite): sour cherry pie. Behold:

Step 2: Gaze lovingly at your pie. Please, don't rush past this important step. Remember, Good Pie is exceedingly hard to find, so cherish it while it's on the plate in front of you!

Step 3: If the slice in front of you has a lattice-top crust (as my slice does), delicately remove those pieces of the crust and set them aside.

Step 4: Eat the pie filling, reserving ALL PIE CRUST. I know how difficult this is to do, especially if you happen to know that the pie crust in front of you is top rate. If you find saving the crust for later to be too difficult for you, feel free to snack on the lattice crust as necessary, but reserve the bottom and edge crusts at all costs.

Step 5: Once all of the filling has been eaten, scrape the remaining filling goo from the remainder of the crust.

Step 6: Eat the crust, starting with the remaining lattice pieces, moving on to the bottom crust, and finishing, finally, with the best part: the edge crust.

Class dismissed.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, here is the order in which I like different pie flavors:
1. Pumpkin
1. Peach
3. Sour cherry
4. Everything else