April, 2023 Reading

April feels as if it vanished in a flash. Great month -- vacation to San Antonio, Texas where I saw my wonderful friends Teresa and Cindy for the first time in...what? 24 years? (Before I forget, Teresa is an audiobook fan. I'm hoping she'll give me ideas for books to listen to.) Visited The Alamo, which has given me ideas for May reading. Ate an embarrassingly huge amount of delicious Tex-Mex, except that I don't feel embarrassed at all. Did I mention San Antonio's Riverwalk? I dream of a small, book-filled apartment right there, overlooking the river. Another fun excursion was to Ripley's Odditorium. Fun and overwhelming. Plus, Fiesta de Los Reyes was going on, so the city seemed especially lit up, in all senses of the phrase.

My two bookstore visits in San Antonio were to: Pandora's Bookstore, which is tiny and charming with a small stock that seems thoughtfully selected. My favorite of the two was The Twig Book Shop, a larger space with more variety. The area The Twig is in used to be a brewery, and the whole area feels fresh and idyllic. Anyway, back to The Twig: Hooray for Indie bookstores! I found several Annie Ernaux books, which I've been looking for. I bought Happening, a memoir. I also bought The Last Confessions of Sylvia P. by Lee Kravetz, which I'd sort of been dancing around for a few months. I also bought some book earrings to wear to book group. What I regret not buying was a little Dorothy Parker doll which was nestled in with other literary figures in doll form. Mark Twain was cute, but Dot caught my fancy. When I finally checked out and left, I really really really did not want to go. Is there a word for the pain of parting from a bookstore?

But wait! During a looooooooong layover at Dallas Love Field, I stumbled onto a gem of an airport bookstore called Ink. Quirky inventory Entertaining browsing. I had to restrain myself. Finally, I saw The Last Detail by Darryl Ponicsan. It was 50% off. I HAD to take it home. I'll happily do another layover at Love Field. 

And at last, here's what I read in April:

1. The Rainbow Comes and Goes - Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper. Memoir. Audiobook. Now I feel like bingeing and reading all about the Vanderbilts. Enjoyed hearing the authors read their book. Gloria's Mid-Atlantic accent -- does anyone talk like that anymore?

2. Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen - Sarah Bird. Novel. Historical fiction about Cathy Williams, who successfully posed as a male soldier named William Cathay right after the American Civil War. I discovered that for me, historical fiction has got to be feisty and fearless. Sarah Bird was firmly anchored in history, and once she did that, she really leaned into the fiction part. And that's how it needs to be. The novels that stick too close to the history feel stuffy and airless. Practically the very moment I finished Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen, I found the audiobook version at another library. Oof. Read by Bahni Turner, one of my favorite audiobook narrators. Double oof. This book is definitely worth a reread, so I'll go that route next time.

3. Who Is LeBron James? - Crystal Hubbard. Biography. It may seem odd, but I knew almost nothing about LeBron James, except that he was a pro basketball player who had played for Cleveland. I enjoyed this biography.

4. What Is the Story of Nancy Drew? - Dana M. Rau. Literary History? Although I only read two or three Nancy Drew mysteries, I was still a great admirer of the greatest girl detective. Glad to read her origin story. It was interesting to see how she's changed and evolved over the years. Bonus points to this book for talking about my favorite Nancy Drew book The Hidden Staircase.

5. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen. Novel. Bolstered by the annotated edition and the audiobook version in tandem, I finally finished this novel. Does Austen get the credit she deserves for her truly memorable supporting characters, some vile, some hilarious?

6. At the Edge of the Orchard - Tracy Chevalier. Historical Fiction. Audiobook. In the early 1800s, the Goodenough family settles in the swamps in Ohio, because their wagon gets stuck there. The patriarch, James, is mad about apples, so he sets about creating an orchard by buying seeds and saplings from Johnny Appleseed, and by grafting. His wife, Sadie, has no patience for orchards and prefers the apples to be used for applejack, which is her way of escaping the difficulties of pioneer life. In what I consider a good reading month, this was my favorite book. Highly recommended.

7. The Last Confessions of Sylvia P. - Lee Kravetz. Historical Fiction. I gobbled this down immediately. Sylvia Plath doesn't really speak or confess in this story. Instead, her life and legend is examined from three varying points of view: First, Esmee, a master curator at an auction house, is brought three spiral notebooks which seem to contain a handwritten draft of The Bell Jar. Secondly, the reader is sent back in time to the late 1950s where we meet Boston Rhodes -- she's a blast, what you'd call the breakout character on TV -- a poet who was part of Robert Lowell's poetry seminar that Plath attended. Boston Rhodes, who seems based largely on Anne Sexton, perceives herself as Plath's rival.  Finally, we go back again in time to 1953 and Dr. Ruth Barnhouse, who treated Plath during her first breakdown. For devotees of Sylvia Plath, this novel is a little irritating, but also vastly amusing -- so many Easter eggs to be found! Kravetz did his research, and did it well. In addition to being historical fiction, it's also a mystery, and I'm not a mystery fan, but I liked this very much. I'm thinking: Reread.

For some reason, I have recently developed a longing to get a book tattoo. Don't know what to make of this, and it has extended to looking at potential designs.

I hope to do a post in a few days to share what I'm currently reading -- it's a fascinating stack.

Booklahoma And Everything After

Every month is a bookish month in my universe, but July was bookish-bookish. It's been a stressful spring and summer on the Mom front, so it's obvious that I sought solace and relief from stress in bookstores.

My Spawn (AKA my son AKA that bookworm I made that one time back in 1984) took me around to Gardner's when I visited Tulsa. I love the feel of Gardner's. It's so comfy and sprawling with that sweet smell of book dust but it's insanely organized. I always go in with the idea that anything is possible as far as treasure-finding goes.

He also introduced me to a new bookstore in the downtown area called Magic City Books. What can I say about perfection? I was reminded of another sublime experience -- my trip to Prairie Lights in Iowa City back in the late 80s or early 90s. Clean, pristine, tasteful, quirky...I loved it, and can't wait to visit again. I bought some books and the cool t-shirt pictured above. I offered to buy The Spawn one, but he turned me down. His bookish light shines so brightly, he has no need of apparel that accentuates the fact.

The following books are the deluge that was July.

 I must be stern with myself and rein in during August. 

Yeah, right.

True Grit - Charles Portis. The 50th anniversary edition. Now I have three copies of the novel. One of my great finds at Magic City Books.

Fevre Dream - George R.R. Martin.  Borrowed from The Spawn.

Conviction: The Untold Story of Putting Jodi Arias Behind Bars - Juan Martinez. This case happened while I was in Korea, so I'm not really familiar with it. All part of my True Crime reading spree. Bought at Barnes & Noble.

The Good Son - Jeong You-Jeong. I am over the moon when a Korean author breaks through and has a bestseller in English. Looking forward to reading it. Another purchase from Magic City Books.

Born a Crime - Trevor Noah. I can't say enough good things about this audiobook. Narrated by the author. Smart, sharp, funny, moving -- but those are just words. Have a listen for yourself. I'm loaning it to The Spawn when I see him again soon. Bought at Barnes & Noble.

Coming To My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook - Alice Waters. This memoir by the godmother of the foodie movement is on my 100-book resolution list, so I was quite excited when I found it at Barnes & Noble.

The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South - John Edge. I'd never heard of this book, but Magic City Books cast a spell over me and I had to have it. I love books about food. Someday I'm going to compile a list of all my foodie reads. The Potlikker Papers won the James Beard Award.

My Life in Middlemarch - Rebecca Mead. A BIG SCORE from Gardner's! I've been dancing around this book since it came out in 2014. Since I'll be reading Middlemarch again next year -- once every ten years since 1999 -- I might set this aside and make it my last book of 2018 or the first of 2019.

They Went Thataway - Malcolm Forbes. I got this 1988 capsule look at famous people's demises for a friend. He's been reading through, and was especially troubled about Hemingway taking his life with a shotgun. "There's no way a person could survive that!" he exclaimed. Well, no. That was probably Hemingway's take on it.  I'm going to borrow this book when my friend is finished with it. Found it  on Gardner's  bargain rack.

Cell - Stephen King. I wish I hadn't bought this audiobook. I quickly realized my mistake after a few chapters and bought Born a Crime. Usually I love to listen to Uncle Stevie on long trips. This time, no. Zombie novels aren't my thing. To make matters worse, I chose it over a book I really wanted to listen to. It was a memoir called Educated by Tara Westover.

Oh, well. Even bookworms can have missteps. I regret not buying My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh from Magic City Books. I haven't found it here in Sedalia. To add to the misstepping, I bought Eileen by the same author for five bucks at Wal-Mart and discovered when I got home that I have it on my Kindle. Read it last year and loved it. Enjoyable whiffs of Jim Thompson and Patricia Highsmith. So impatient to read the new one. Why did I pass it up? Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy? I had it in my hand, I opened it, I smelled it, I tasted...no, not that, but you get the idea.

Another thing I'm miffed at myself for is not checking out Gardner's audiobook section. I don't know for sure if they have one, because I went right instead of left when I came through their doors and stayed right. Which seems wrong now.

Returning home from Tulsa, my book-buying engine was still fired up. 

In addition to the abovementioned Eileen, I bought the children's classics The 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith and Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers. Both are on my 100-book Resolution list. They are on my Kindle. I never realized how much less expensive children's books are. Perhaps I should make it my main genre. Nah.

Browsing a book about the best of cult fiction, I came across the title Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse. Are you there, Amazon? It's me, Susan.

Always on the hunt for an audiobook, I bought Dad is Fat by comedian Jim Gaffigan from Reader's World in Sedalia. I thought this was another bad buy, but after a sluggish start, it's growing on me. If you're a parent and you don't take yourself too terribly seriously, you'll enjoy this one. Especially as Gaffigan's five (!) children get older in his stories.

Right after finding Dad is Fat, I looked at the biography/memoir shelf and gasped aloud. Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood was beaming out at me with attitude. People have been recommending this book to me since it came out.  O my Fellow Readers, you know me. This book ticks all my boxes. Lockwood, a poet bends language into the most beguiling shapes and having an unconventional family to write about adds to the hilarity. I'm trying to read Priestdaddy slow, to savor it, but one chapter calls for another. My ribs hurt from laughing. My neck hurts from nodding in admiration for her quirky prose. It's not too often I get that pleasure/pain thing going on while reading.

My final buy was a book from Dollar Tree, Here and Now, a small collection of letters between Paul Auster and J.M. Coetzee over a three-year period. I like writers. I like it when they like each other.

I shopped more than I read, but I had a good month with that, too. Next post.

February: Buying

4 books this month. Half of January's total, although it could have just as easily been 5 books. Who am I kidding? It could have just as easily been 20 books.

1. Effi Briest - Theodor Fontane. I just read about this 1894 German novel about adultery in The Rough Guide To Classic Novels, one of last month's purchases. New book.

2. The Foreign Student - Susan Choi. The March book for Talya's book group. New book.

3. Who Ate Up All The Shinga? - Park Wan-Seo. Big score! Park's autobiographical novel of growing up during the Japanese occupation had been eluding me for several months and countless bookstores. New book -- hardcover and very expensive, but at least I'll finally find out what "shinga" is. Then I'll go out and eat up some, perhaps all of it. Aren't I lucky to be in Korea?

4. It Can't Happen Here - Sinclair Lewis. There's no way I could leave this book behind. Since 1981, I've had a fairly continuous book crush on Sinclair Lewis. I hope to one day read his entire canon. Even better, this 1935 satirical novel about fascism in the United States was on the bargain rack. New book, yes, but I got out of Bandi & Luni's having spent only 5 bucks, which is almost like getting a book for free over here.

It's just as I suspected. If I have to confess my purchases, I'm much less lightly to trip the lit fantastic all the way to the cash register. Let's see how that theory holds up in the months ahead.

Of Books And Bathtubs

Right now, I'm playing the waiting game -- waiting for a visa issuance number so I can travel to Japan and get my new work visa, and waiting and wondering what would be the best date to move my stuff over to Erewhon. Being in a holding pattern makes me feel too frenzied to read. Yesterday was the first day in *years* that I didn't read one word. I can't even find my Tough & Cool Inner Bookworm anymore. Baby come back?

Sunday was book group (Lonesome Dove) at high noon in Gangnam, but I got in so late Saturday evening from the US that I couldn't rally. Damn. Jet lag almost always wins. I heard that we picked up a new member named Melinda. I'm looking forward to meeting her at the March 8 (Atlas Shrugged) meeting.

On Monday, my son and I went to the U.S. Embassy in Seoul to get my (lack of) criminal record notarized. Ooops, forgot it was President's Day. I was annoyed, but not for long. After all, there's a Kyobo bookstore nearby, where I bought The Zahir by Paulo Coelho for an upcoming book group. After that, we found a hotel near the embassy, then set out to do more bookstore-hopping. As we went down in the subway at Jonggak, I gasped. Right there in front of me, glittering like jewelry, was a Bandi & Luni bookstore that I didn't know existed! Silently promising it that I *would* be back, we took off for Yongsan Station.

I had not revisited the bookstore at Yongsan Station since my son showed it to me in 2007, so I'd forgotten what a gem of a place it is. The books seem to be slightly cheaper, and the literature section had some delightfully quirky finds. To my delight, I found The Mambo Kings Play Songs Of Love, the 1990 Pulitzer fiction winner. Since the train from Erewhon goes directly to Yongsan Station, I won't let another 2 years go by till I visit again.

After a dinner of rice and octopus and assorted vegetables, we headed back to the Bandi & Luni at Jonggak. They had some Wodehouse, which I want to read, but I hesitated to buy any because I'm not sure which book to start with. Also, I saw a Sigrid Undset novel called Jenny that I had also seen at Yongsan Station. From the description, I was pretty sure I'd like it, but ended up leaving Bandi & Luni empty-handed. I started thinking about how I was going to have to move all of these books I was buying. We headed back to the hotel. Determined to appreciate the bathtub to its fullest extent, I took a hot bath for about an hour. Still smashed over the head with jet lag, I crashed at 8:30.

On Tuesday, I completed my business at the U.S. Embassy, then my son and I took the train over to Erewhon so I could meet with my new director. Discussion moved to the subject of the new apartment, and she kindly showed me some sample pictures on her computer. When she got to the bathroom, I was awestruck: A BATHTUB! I'M GOING TO HAVE MY VERY OWN BATHTUB IN MY APARTMENT! The bathtub is one of my very favorite places to read, and I've been missing that sorely during my Korea sojourn. Not only will I have a wonderful place to enjoy books, I'll be able to get back in touch with my girly side -- the walls and the fixtures are all bright pink. The whole bathroom looks like it was hosed down with Pepto-Bismol.

Today's project involves moving all the books I have in my office and bringing them over to Dorm Sweet Dorm. Can you feel my pain? Building a library is one thing. Moving it is quite another.