Posted by: Eva on: July 1, 2009
It’s time for a mid-year review!
Rather than go through all of my statistics, I decided to just look at the goals I made on January 1st and see how I’m doing.
Translated Works
Goal: >13
Read so far: 19
I’ve already matched this one!
Classics
Goal: 25
Read so far: 8
I’m definitely behind on this one; I should have read 12 or 13 by now. But I just got several classics from the library, so I hope to catch up soon.
Short Story Anthologies
Goal: read anthologies instead of collections
Read so far: 2 (halfway through 3)
You know what, I think this resolution backfired. I’ve simply been reading less short stories this year. I guess I prefer collections to anthologies.
International Reading
Goal: more geographic balance
Read so far: I decided to do this one visually! I made no less than four maps: one for countries visited via fiction, one for countries visited via nonfiction, one for author nationalities I’ve read this year, and one that combines everything. I think I’m definitely balanced! However, I am quite embarassed that I haven’t read any fiction or nonfiction set in/about Canada. At least I’ve read some Canadian authors though!First, I thought I’d post the ‘everything’ map: it includes 62 countries visited via fiction or nonfiction.
Getting into specifics, here’s fiction, which has brought me to 33 countries.
And here’s nonfiction, which has brought me to 48 countries (this is higher because of travelogues and all of the World Citizen books).
And finally, here’s the 33 different nationalities representing the authors I’ve read this year.
All maps were made at InteractiveMaps.org.
(For you Library Looters, Marg is hosting the Mr. Linky this week! My loot should be up later today; my vlog is delayed because of car trouble.)
Posted by: Eva on: June 30, 2009
You should realise that there are many men who simply adore doll-like women, and you ought to accentuate your appealing air of ‘a little bird fallen from its nest.’ Be delicate, extremely meticulous in your grooming, scatter-brained, tender-hearted, and helpless. And when you are old, be an adorable little lady always cuddling herself to keep warm. Men will want to protect you throughout your life, and you will always be spared the tiresome chores which your taller sisters are expected to cope with all by themselves. (From the entry “Handicaps-being extremely short”)
Despite the seeming ridiculousness of that excerpt, I truly enjoyed reading Genevieve Antoine Dariaux’ A Guide to Elegance. Imagine you have a dear old French grandmother, who is always impeccably dressed, taking you out to tea and giving you little bits of advice on elegance, mostly pertaining to clothes but occasionally including wider life issues. Of course, you’re not always going to agree with her, since she’s two generations removed from you (and pre-feminist movement), but much of what she says gives you food for thought, and even makes you approach your wardrobe in a different way. So it’s pretty simple to overlook her more dated views.
It is seldom possible to recognise a bargain at the time you buy it, because the true cost of a garment is not necessarily the sum that is marked on the price tag. In order to figure out how much it really cost you, you would have to take this price and divide it by the number of times you wear the article in question, and then accord generous bonus points for the pleasure, self-confidence, and elegance it may have given you. A dress marked down to half price and worn only once is sheer extravagance, while a perfect little custom-made suit costing six times as much and worn with confidence day in and day out during eight months a year for several years is an outstanding bargain!
The book was originally published in 1964 by Darnaux, a French woman involved in fashion and boutiques in Paris. She wanted to share her life experience to help other women love themselves and their clothes. In her own words, “If I may be permitted to use a high-sounding word for such a minor art, I would say that to transform a plain woman into an elegant one was, and still is, my mission in life.” It was republished in 2003, probably due to the popularity of makeover shows and books. It’s written as an alphabet book, with Darnaux’ thoughts and advice on 101 topics including Age, Colour, Girlfriends, Ideal Wardobe, Posture, Shopping, Travel and Yachting. The entries vary from a few paragraphs to several pages in length, with the more general/important topics getting more space.
If you consider that when you are far away from home and surrounded by strangers, you are judged entirely on the strength of your external appearance, perhaps you will realise the importance of being flawlessly well-dressed whenever you travel. Which means that your clothes should be perfectly adapted to your role of traveller and not give the impression that you are on your way to a wedding with a veiled hat and a fur stole-or, at the opposite extreme, toward the conquest of Annapurna with a knapsack on your back.
Even though it’s written alphabetically, it still has a nice flow, I suppose because there’s a strong voice and point of view throughout. Dariaux really is quite charming, and I enjoyed every page of this book, even the ones I didn’t agree with. (For any guy readers, are short women more attractive when scatter-brained and tender-hearted? Perhaps I should adopt a new approach to first dates!) It made me long for a smart linen skirt suit, which I have yet to find in a store, and affirmed my own femininity. I absolutely loved reading it, and I’d like my own copy for reference in the future (much of her advice really is wonderful, towards a simplified, high-quality, perfect closet).
One of the most striking differences between a well-dressed American woman and a well-dressed Parisienne is in the size of their respective wardrobes. The American would probably be astonished by the very limited number of garments hanging in the Frenchwoman’s closet, but she would be bound to observe that each one is of excellent quality, expensive perhaps by American standards, and perfectly adapted to the life the Frenchwoman leads. She wears them over and over again, discarding them only when they are worn or outmoded, and she considers it a compliment (as it is meant to be) when her best friend says, ‘I’m so glad you decided to wear your red dress-I’ve always loved it!’
I’d recommend this to those who love clothes (or wish they did!), anyone who adores old movies, any francophiles, anyone who loves the ton all of the excerpts I’ve included, and those who can include a grain of salt with their reading. It is definitely directed towards women, so I’m not sure if les hommes would enjoy it or not.
Posted by: Eva on: June 29, 2009
This is an old-fashioned style poll; vote using comments! Anyway, for the Orbis Terrarum Challenge, I’ve decided to stop in South Africa. But while researching South African books, I came up with too many that sound great! I’ve listed them, providing links to Powell’s (where you can read about the plot) and why I put them on the list as well as my hesitations: your job is to vote for the ones you like the best. You can vote for as many as you like, and then whichever title gets the most votes is the one I’ll read. Plus, if you’re curious about South African lit, now you have a bit of a jumping off place!
So there you go! All of the books have their pluses and minuses, which is why I need you to vote. Seriously.
Posted by: Eva on: June 28, 2009
Well, thanks to last week’s answer post, I didn’t get to cover all of the books I’d read. So we’re in for another long post this week! But at least I can just do paragraph reviews rather than the interview thing. Unlike most of my posts, this one contains several books I didn’t really like, so the tone of my reviews feels a bit like a rollercoaster to me.
But we’ll start on a high note!
I loved Wesley the Owl by Stacy O’Brien. O’Brien was a young biology researcher working at the CalTech labs when her mentor suggested she adopt a baby barn owl, Wesley. This book talks about their relationship. O’Brien obviously has a very deep love for animals, which really comes through in her writing. Getting to know Wesley through her eyes was fascinating! Additionally, since O’Brien works at CalTech for about half of the memoir, and I really enjoyed whenever she gave peeks of the ‘weird’ aspects of being in a science community. Parts of it amused me because I went to a liberal arts college that had more than its fair share of strange students, so I could identify with the atmosphere. But I found myself laughing loudly on more than one occasion, due to the stories she relates (and she compares CalTeach to Hogwarts several times, for you HP fans!). Most of the book is lighthearted and fun, but things take a turn in the last couple of chapters, as first O’Brien experiences major health problems, and then Wesley inevitably dies. I cried. I’d highly recommend this for animal lovers, people amused by crazy scientists, those desperately searching for a happy memoir, or anyone who’s hesitant about nonfiction. Just prepare yourself for a less than cheerful ending.
I expected to love Kampung Boy by Lat. It’s a memoir of his childhood in a small Malaysian village. And it’s in graphic form! And Claire loves it. Unfortunately, I have to be honest: while I would have given the story itself five stars, but the drawing style repulsed me. The people don’t even look like people to me, just weird, part-animal, I don’t even know what. Now, Lat has a reputation as an awesome cartoonist, and other reviews I read written by people who understand cartoons are in awe of his drawing. So I totally admit that this is my problem, probably because I didn’t grow up reading cartoons/comics, so my eye isn’t adjusted to it. And I did love the peek in village life that Lat gave me. I’d probably read the sequel, Town Boy, if my library had it, but it’s not a book I’d read over and over again, savouring. Just not my style of art.
It took me forever to read Mia Couto’s Sleepwalking Land. Couto is a white Mozambiquean (?), and this story is set during the civil war. It’s a complicated format, with nested stories, and a definite magical realist flavour. All of that really appealed to me. But the style is just so bleak that I had to force myself to pick it up after I had set it down. And I was never sad when I had hit my fifty pages (I read in chunks), and I never went over the fifty. In other words, it was work to read this novel. That being said, I’m glad that I did. I got to see Mozambique, and in the less depressing scenes, I could feel some of the flavour of life. Recommended for those who are willing to be sad in order to read a novel set in Mozambique!
On the other hand, I raced through My Invented Country by Isabel Allende. She’s one of my favourite novelists, so reading this memoir about (for the most part) Chile was a real treat. And the narrative tone definitely felt familiar from her fiction; I like it when authors have a consistent voice. I didn’t know much about Chile before reading this, so I felt privileged to have such an insightful and intelligent guide. And her family story is almost as crazy as the ones you find in her novels!
Reading this is like having a close friend over for tea, and listening to her life story. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll find yourself nodding your head a lot. And of course, by the end, you’ll want to read her whole oevre! Recommended for everyone.
After Sleepwalking Land, I needed a fictional break. So I turned to Sally Gardner’s The Red Necklace. I adored her first novel, Coriander (about a young girl who gets tangled up with faeries in Cromwell’s England), when I listened to it on CD a couple of years ago. This one is set during the French Revolution, and doesn’t have faeries, but it still has a driving plot, loveable characters, and more than a hint of magic. There are definite overtones of The Scarlet Pimpernel, but without the weird slang or absurdly dense heroine.
I didn’t love it as much as Coriander, but it was still a thumping good read, and I plan on reading the next one (The Silver Blade). I’d recommend it for those who enjoy younger YA stories, historical urban fantasy (like Sorcery and Cecilia), magical gypsies, or of course The Scarlet Pimpernel!
I picked up Antoine’s Alphabet by Jed Perl because of the pretty cover, and since it was about Watteau, I assumed I could use it for the Art History challenge. But this isn’t a biography of Watteau at all. It’s more like Watteau is the jumping off point for Perl’s imagination. Rather as if you and an intelligent professor went out for a few drinks, and the professor kept up a steady monologue, that got stranger as the drinks kept coming. And that was alphabetised. I enjoyed it in small doses, but mainly I was frustrated because Watteau seems like an interesting artist, and we only get glimpses of him. Pretension soaked the whole book, and even though it was little, it took me awhile to work through.
Fortunately, the next nonfiction book I picked up, Ann Marie Fleming’s The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam was wonderful. It’s a graphic memoir about Fleming’s quest to learn more about her great grandfather, who was a famous Chinese magician who toured the world, his Austrian wife, and their two daughters (one of them Fleming’s grandmother) who became integral to the act. Fleming is a film maker, and she made a documentary about his life, so I guess the book is a companion to that. It felt complete in itself though! Not only did I really enjoy learning about Long Tack Sam’s unique life, I thought the book’s format was perfect. It mixes cartoons with pictures with old posters and includes little things like timelines for the years; it felt so reader friendly and interesting. Highly recommended for anyone interested in fascinating, cosmopolitan families, magic, or who enjoy graphic memoirs.
I was on a bit of a memoir kick, so I picked up Choosing You by Alexandra Soiseth. In it, she recounts how she got to be thirty-eight, single, and determined to have a baby, as well as the process of becoming pregnant (she went the sperm bank route), pregnany and labour, and having a newborn. This could have easily been banal (Soiseth discusses her struggles with weight, her family issues, etc.), but Soiseth’s brutal and complete honesty instead made it a fascinating read. I also loved it because, at heart, it’s a story of the sisterhood of women. Once Soiseth is pregnant, she relies on her girlfriends to help her out, and of course they deliver! Highly recommended for those who enjoy peeking into other women’s lives.
Then I read my third southern book of the summer, Hillary Jordan’s Mudbound, which I was really looking forward to. I’ve read only positive reviews of it, so I’m going to say upfront that it seems most people don’t agree with me, but I wasn’t very impressed. Most of the characters felt like stereotypes (crochety, racist, sexist grandfather, strong black midwife, fifties housewife left to rot due to husband’s decisions, God-fearing, land-loving black man, etc.), the majority of the sad events seemed emotionally manipulative and ultimately extraneous to the plot (I won’t cite particulars, since it’d involve spoilers), and the whole thing just felt like it’d been done before. Also, while several characters took turns narrating, their voices all sounded similar; I often had to flip back to the chapter heading to see who was talking. Not to say it’s actually bad, I’d call it an average read, and I did like the parts about being a young black soldier in WWII. But it didn’t grab me, or challenge any of my viewpoints, or even introduce me to a society I haven’t ’seen’ before. I saw a Barbara Kingsolver quote on the front, and the flaws did remind me of The Poisonwood Bible, which I loathed and everyone else seems to love. So if you enjoy books like that or The Memory Keeper’s Daughter (which I also hated), I bet you’ll like this one. I think it’s much better than either of those, but it has the same feel, if that makes sense.
Since it’d been an up-and-down reading week, I took refuge in one of my favourite authors! I’ve been rereading Laurie King’s Mary Russell series this year, and I picked up A Letter of Mary, the third in the series. I loved the character development, especially Holmes’ and Russell’s relationship, and most of the book was tightly plotted. That being said, the ending wasn’t from a ‘traditional’ mystery ending, and while I found it refreshing (you mean the suspect doesn’t immediately confess all when confronted with evidence?!), it might annoy some. My own reaction, though, on finishing the book, was to want to grab the next one immediately. I find Mary Russell and her world immeasurably comforting, and of all the fictional characters, she’s the one I’d most want to be. I’ve gushed about this series a ton, though, so if you haven’t read the first one (The Beekeeper’s Apprentice), go out and get it already!
The final book I’m going to talk about now is Alberto Manguel’s A Reading Diary. Now, I loved both A History of Reading (which I’ve reread) and The Library at Night, so I totally expected this to be a comforting, awesome book. Unfortunately, I barely enjoyed it, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend it as the place to start with Manguel. It’s published as an actual diary, with random paragraphs following one another in a kind of stream-of-conscious style (but with normal grammar). And for some reason, I thought most of the book just seemed pretentious. Like, I was actually rolling my eyes while reading. I may have even scoffed once or twice. Especially at his comments about “the English speaking reader.” There were a couple of months I thoroughly enjoyed (each month he rereads a different book), but for the most part I just felt sad. Also, there’s lots of political talk about Iraq (the diary was kept in 2002/2003), which I didn’t like at all.
So there you go, the ups and downs of a couple of reading weeks. Most of my five-star reads I either talked about last week or reviewed in their own posts, so my reading has been much happier than this post necessarily portrays!
Still, out of the eleven books I talked about, I loved six and didn’t love five, so the overall balance is definitely positive. And reading, even with less-than-stellar books, is always a magical experience.
Posted by: Eva on: June 27, 2009
Sorry about triple-posting in one day guys! But I’m a week into the challenge, so I really needed to get my initial post published. Promise it won’t happen again! -Eva
Jules of Jules’ Book Reviews is hosting the Summer Lovin’ Challenge. It runs from June 21-September 21, and calls on participants to reread a set number of favourites. Yes, I know, I’m joining another challenge! But this is one that will really help me fulfill one of my reading resolutions (reread 25 this year; I’m awfully behind). I’m setting myself a goal of seven for the three months, but I’ll probably keep using this list until the end of the year! And if I exceed it, that’ll be great!
I loved this one, and reading Marillier’s Wildwood Dancing this year reminded me.
I just think it’d be nice to revisit it; it’s the only Gaiman I haven’t read at least twice.Posted by: Eva on: June 27, 2009
The generous and talented Carl hosted the third round of what is probably one of the book blogosphere’s most popular challenges! I completed Quest the Second, which called for me reading one book in each of four categories (fantasy, folklore, fairy tales, and mythology), and then there were some extras.
Books read (linked through to reviews):
The best book: Tender Morsels hands down. My other two favourites were The Fox Woman and Wildwood Dancing
Any new authors? Yep! Margo Lanagan (who I definitely want to read more of), Lesley Livingston, Sergei Lukyanenko, Kij Johnson (also want to read more of), Katie Macalister, Philippa Pearce, and Guy Gavriel Kay (I didn’t love Ysabel, but I think I’ll try another one or two of his)
Books I did not finish: None! I thought about abandoning Nightwatch, though.
What did I learn from this challenge? I already knew how much I loved fantasy.
But I discovered several new authors that I’ll definitely be checking out in the future, which is great! And that I should read more fairy tale retellings. Also, I made a big pool at the beginning of the challenge that I’ll probably keep reading from throughout the year.
Posted by: Eva on: June 27, 2009
In the past, once I picked up a book, that was it. I was Committed. And come Hell, high water, or atrocious writing, I would make it through to the end.
Now I’m a bit more cautious. I’ll dip into a book, maybe read the first ten, fifteen pages, before I decide whether or not to read it.
But actually abandoning a book that I’ve made progress in (50-100 pages) is still difficult for me. So I end up reading books I’m not enjoying, constantly counting how many pages are left. As you can imagine, this isn’t too much fun. Which is why I proudly announce that I’m abandoning my first book of the year: Mr. Muo’s Travelling Couch by Dai Sijie.
Why? Because I find it distasteful. More particularly, I find the attitude towards women unacceptable. And since I’m a woman, I shall give the book no more of my time.
I wasn’t aware when I began the book that the plot involves Mr. Muo (the shy, Freduian psychoanalyst) roaming about the Chinese countryside looking for a virgin to sleep with a magistrate. Or, to put it the way the book does, “a girl whose red melon has not yet been slashed.”
I actually kept reading after that, as well as a horrid story about the origins of the Japanese flag, but then I got to this, an excerpt from Mr. Muo’s diary:
That bitch Mrs. Thatcher is driving me insane. This is the first time I have resorted to coarse language in my psychoanalytic notebook (my custom being to employ neutral, objectives words), but only the bluntest, most brutish terms can aptly describe my nightmarish encounter with this crone. …[she] is unnerved and offended by anyone’s shutting his eyes in her presence. So I have had to force myself to look at her as she narrated, but repulsed as I was by her pockmarked face, the only thing to enter my head was a vision of her brain riddled with smallpox.
Such negative word choice, as well as hatred towards a woman whose crime is to have smallpox scars, brought home to me that all of the women in the book are portrayed merely as sexual objects. And I have better things to do with my time than read misogony masquerading as literature.
Do you abandon books? For what reason? Do you blog about it?
Posted by: Eva on: June 26, 2009
I put Lucy the Giant by Sherri Smith on hold at the library during my ‘whim phase.’ It sounded interesting at Black Eyed Susan’s Library Loot (now y’all know the real reason I started/host LL! So I can feed my raging book addiction!), and I couldn’t recall reading a book set in Alaska (I prefer civilisation and four seasons, thank you). It sat in my ‘Library Fiction’ pile for about a week, since I’m always nervous a touch about new authors, until I was in the right mood for it.
And then I ended up reading it in one sitting. And crying a little. (I’m a total cry baby, though…tons of books and movies will make me tear up. Even some of my niece’s books have done it.)
Lucy is fifteen years old and lives in Sitka, Alaska. Her mother was a Native American (I already returned the book! eek! So I can’t check the tribe.), but she left a long time ago. Her father is a drunk, who Lucy tries to avoid as much as possible. Oh, and she’s over six feet tall, which makes high school even more fun. Pretty early in the book, something happens which makes Lucy snap, and through a series of random events, she ends up working on a crabbing boat out in Kodiak as the adult Barbara. (ETA: Sorry, apparently this wasn’t very clear. When she pretends to be an adult, she says her name is Barbara.) Slowly, she begins to make open up to the people she meets there. And in the dangerous Bering Strait, she’ll need all of her giant frame to make it.
That’s my plot summary, but this book is much more than plot. It’s really about the characters. Lucy narrates the book, and from page one, she felt so real. Here’s an excerpt from the beginning:
I stopped marking the inches on my doorjamb when I passed six feet. I haven’t grown much since then, but enough to make getting out of bed almost impossible. My room is so small I can’t even really stretch my legs in it.
I could have a bigger room if I wanted-one that fits me, more or less. But that would mean being closer to wherever my dad is. And that could make any room seem small. It doesn’t help to be my size when someone wants to ignore you.
And her friends along the way, from the stray dog she meets to Sheila, a tiny high schooler who is determined to be her friend to the crew on the crabbing boat, I wanted to know them all too.
I enjoyed the parts where she’s on the crabbing boat, not because I care particularly about crabbers (I’m a happy vegetarian), but because I love nautical books, and the passages really evoke the feel of being out on the sea. Smith has that ability to bring a place to life with just a sparse description, and throughout I felt like I could see where Lucy was. Since I’ve never been to Alaska, it was definitely part of the book’s appeal to me!
This isn’t a perfect book, or a book that demands to be reread for all of its nuances. But it is a wonderful, touching YA read. The writing wasn’t fancy, but it was strong and distinctive. This was Smith’s debut, which feels right, and I’ve already put her latest book, Flygirl, on hold (this might have something to do with how much I loved seeing Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart in Night at the Museum: the Smithsonian). I’d recommend this one to those who enjoy YA that feels like YA (coming of age, accepting responsibility, beginning to love yourself, making a new family when your biological one doesn't cut it, etc.), anyone curious about Alaska, and those who prefer characters and relationships over plot. It was a charming way to spend a couple of hours, and I’m glad that I read it!
Have you read any books set in Alaska or northern Canada? Did you enjoy them?
Posted by: Eva on: June 25, 2009
I haven’t done a meme in ages!! Well, a real meme; not a weekly thing. So here you go. Started by Ms. Mazzola, I stole it from Nymeth and Daphne.
1. How long have you been blogging?
Since January 2007.
2. Why did you start blogging?
I wanted to join in reading challenges!
3. What have you found to be the benefits of blogging?
I’ve made some really, really close friends. And what I love is that these friends are all spread out geographically, and some lead such different lives from me, that I doubt we ever would have met without the internet. My bloggy friends are definitely more diverse in terms of background/life experience/etc. than my face to face friends. I also have discovered so many great books and authors thanks to bloggers. And thanks to reading challenges, I’ve expanded my reading so much…I’m much prouder of how I read now!
4. How many times a week do you post an entry?
This varies. For a good time, I was posting almost every day. Then no internet and life got in the way for a couple months. Now I’m hoping to get back to 5-7 posts a week.
5. How many different blogs do you read on a regular basis?
A lot. In addition to the book blogging community, which I’m an active part of, I also lurk at some fashion and travel blogs. I refuse to count them all, because it would horrify me.
6. Do you comment on other people’s blogs?
All the time on book blogs!
7. Do you keep track of how many visitors you have? Is so, are you satisfied with your numbers?WordPress used to have the stats graph in the dashboard, so I saw it every time I signed in. Now it isn’t there, and I check it maybe once a week. I’m not too concerned about my numbers, although when I was a ‘younger’ blogger, I checked them religiously. I’m much more into comments and bloggy friends! That being said, I’m exactly where I want to be; I have enough visitors/feed readers to feel like people care what I say, but any more and I’d just be overwhelmed.
8. Do you ever regret a post that you wrote?
No, but I try to avoid controversial things. Sometimes I’ll write a controversial post, sit on it for a couple days, and then decide it isn’t worth it.
9. Do you think your audience has a true sense of who you are based on your blog?
When I did my first vlog, several people told me I was exactly who they expected me to be.
So in that sense, yes. But at the same time, my blog plays up my bookish tendencies and downplays my other ones. For instance, I’m not sure people know that I love watching movies and documentaries. And TV on DVD. Or that I’m a total clothes horse; clothes shopping calms me down faster than anything, and just like my TBR list, I have an ‘ideal closet’ list. There’s no way I’d leave the house without minimal make-up, and at least a bit of a hairstyle; I don’t think people who just know me from A Striped Armchair would realise that.
10. Do you blog under your real name?
I blog under my middle name. There are several reasons for that, the main one being that I love my middle name, and I’m thinking about going by it in non-internet life. (I would have switched over already, but I’m uncertain if it would cause confusion when my family and old friends know me by a different name than my new friends!) The other one being that I don’t tell my friends and family about my blog (except my mom and sister), and my first name has a pretty unusual spelling. Obviously, if anyone who knows me stumbles across the blog, they’ll immediately know who it is from the pictures and videos! hehe
11. Are there topics that you would never blog about?
My niece. I’ll never say her name, or include pictures or videos (I had to re-do my latest Library Loot vlog because she kept popping in!). My sister and I have discussed this, and we’re both just too nervous about her being on the internet, open to possibly creepy people (obviously not my regular readers!). Which is too bad, because she’s seriously one of the cutest kids ever. (As in, when we take her out, we get told she should go into modelling!) As I mentioned earlier, I also don’t blog about controversial stuff like religion, politics, etc. I just don’t think it’s worth it.
12. What is the theme/topic of your blog?
LOL: Bibliophilia
13. Do you have more than one blog? If so, why?
Nope. But this isn’t my first blog; I kept one when I studied abroad in Russia for my friends and family. I’ve since made it private, since I don’t like the idea of strangers reading it.
Posted by: Eva on: June 24, 2009
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by myself and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!
Want to share your loot? Link it here:
Here’s all of mine via vlogging:
The list:

Oaxaca Journal by Oliver Sacks (because I love Sacks!), Route 66 A.D. by Tony Perrottet (I wanted a travel book), Shadows of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron (I read a history about the Silk Road last month, so now I want a travelogue)

The Corpse Walker by Liao Yiwu (just sounded interesting), A Reading Diary by Alberto Manguel (Love Manguel!), Country of My Skull by Antjie Kroj (What’s in a Name? 2 Challenge)

Choosing You by Alexandra Soiseth (just sounded interesting), The Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen by Donna Klein (recently discovered I’m allergic to wheat), Sisters by John Fialka (Bybee’s review)

Ghost Hunters by Deborah Blum (love ghosts!), Snoop by Sam Gosling (Bride of the Book God’s review), A Suitable Boy by Vikran Seth (wanted a 1,000+ page novel for Chunkster Challenge)

A Golden Age by Tahima Anam (never read anything by a Bangladeshi author), The Story of the Cannibal Woman by Maryse Conde (Lost in Translation Challenge), The Tango Singer by Tomas Eloy Martinez (Lost in Translation Challenge)

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (one of my very favourite authors!)