“When all else fails, give up and go to the library.”

~ Stephen King, 11/22/63

“Sarah wondered what it could be like, to live like this - life as a country dance, where everything is lovely, and graceful, and ordered, and every single turn is preordained, and not a foot may be set outside the measure. Not like Sarah's own out-in-all-weathers haul and trudge, the wind howling and blustery, the creeping flowers in the hedgerows, the sudden sunshine.”

~ Jo Baker, Longbourn

Nightstand, 5/19/14

Oops. How'd it get this big again?

Books Read, Week of 5/12/14

The kids and I finally finished Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library. I thought it was okay, and they enjoyed it.

On the recommendations and raves from readers of the Morning News' Tournament of Books, I picked up Rene Denfeld's The Enchanted. By the middle, I was worried it was getting too icky for me, but I plowed through and made it to the end. I was glad I did -- I liked the second half much better -- but I wasn't as impressed as others were. The expectations problem?

“I was beginning to understand something about normality. Normality wasn't normal. It couldn't be. If normality were normal, everybody could leave it alone. They could sit back and let normality manifest itself. But people--and especially doctors--had doubts about normality. They weren't sure normality was up the job. And so they felt inclined to give it a boost.”

~ Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex

“And that phrase - 'sleeping like a baby.' Some blonde said it blithely on the subway the other day. I wanted to lie down next to her and scream for five hours in her ear.”

~ Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

Nightstand, 5/12/14

Oh, no! It's a leaning tower again! Ah, well. So many books...

Books Read, Week of 5/5/14

A classic I hadn't read before, and a new-to-me poet. Melancholy stuff, but excellent.

“She rested her head against his and felt, for the first time, what she would often feel with him: a self-affection. He made her like herself.”

~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah

“I stretched out my hand towards the little bookshelf where I kept cookery and devotional books, the most comfortable bedside reading.”

~ Barbara Pym, Excellent Women

Nightstand, 5/5/14

Same pile as last week, less one. Perhaps next week will be the same.

Books Read, Week of 4/28/14

I finished two books this week:

~ Hideous Love by Stephanie Hemphill. A novel in verse; tells the story of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. Hemphill did all kinds of research, and I love how she connects Mary Shelley's life experiences with the events and themes of her masterpiece. I read this for National Poetry Month and for our Teen Book Club, which met this weekend. (We read Frankenstein together last summer, and checked out novels in verse the last time we met.)

~ BookSpeak: Poems About Books by Laura Purdie Salas. I read this one for our Kids Book Club, and because it's been on my shelf for about a year. I immediately wanted to share many of the poems with kids. It's perfect for celebrating the joy of books and poetry!