Quick recap

The End of Food by Thomas F. Pawlick (221 pages) was my last library book. The first chapter or two were really excellent, then in the middle it got impersonal and boring, but picked up a bit by the end. After the first chapter or so, I wasn’t learning anything new, and there were enough repeats in the book to make me notice. 3/5

So I got The Three Signs of a Miserable Job by Patrick M. Lencioni (272 pages) from my work, in the pile of free books (mostly uncorrected proofs). I was planning on putting it on Bookmooch right away, but I ended up reading it, since it’s mostly story. And yes, I thought he was absolutely right. Immeasurability, irrelevance, and anonymity do make a miserable job. And I have at least two if not three of those right now. Hmm. 4/5

A Bookmooch book I requested, Happy Endings are All Alike by Sandra Scoppettone (192 pages) was pretty good. About typical for a teenage lesbian romance (if only gay and lesbian romances had less drama!). I probably won’t read it again, but I’ll keep it for my lesbian book collection. 3.5/5

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (288 pages) was a book I read in the slow times at work, as an experiment to see whether I could read fiction at work, and because a co-worker urged me to read it so I could tell her whether Snow Flower seemed like a lesbian or not. This was excellent, very, very well-written and -researched. The descriptions of foot-binding actually made me have to close the book; I thought I was going to be sick. Just a beautiful and achingly sad account of a character’s life. 5/5

Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (159 pages); Restaurant at the End of the Universe (200 pages); and Life, the Universe, and Everything (199 pages) by Douglas Adams were all re-reads, since I’ve been meaning to re-read them since I started this blog. Not long before I get to read the radio scripts! Oh, and 5/5 for them as a whole.

At least, I think that’s all I’ve read. I really ought to be doing this more often. Oh, and I bought The Meaning of Tingo and Magical Thinking through my work, since I got an iRewards coupon and they were in bargain, so they ended up being about $12, minus the $10 iRewards. (Why the “i” in front? I don’t know, but I hate how many businesses are doing it now. I blame you, iPawd!)

March reading:
Books read: 14
Pages read: 2,653
Nonfiction: 4
Fiction: 10
Male authors: 6
Female authors: 6

Money spent on books: $2

Three of those books were by the same author, that’s why there’s more books than authors.

The End of the Library-Stockpile

As I may have mentioned before, the library has a lock-out right now, so I stocked up on books the day before, but I’m reading the final one now… It’s quite sad.

Weight by Jeanette Winterson (151 pages) was a re-telling of the story of Atlas and Heracles. I wasn’t disappointed; Winterson’s prose continues to captivate. As usual, though, with her work, there wasn’t really a sense of a beginning, middle, or end. Like in Lighthousekeeping, it felt like dipping into a story and then surfacing just as unexpectedly. I loved her Heracles character, and the description of Atlas’s devotion to the world he supported and the dog (Laika) was heartbreaking. 4.5/5

I impulsively picked up The Anxiety of Everyday Objects by Aurelie Sheehan (278 pages)
when stocking up on library books The writing was interesting, the plot was pretty good, and one of the characters turned out to be lesbian-ish. It was an okay read, nothing marvelous, but not bad. 3/5

The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook by Albert Bates (197 pages) was something I’d meant to read since I first became more interested in peak oil, and I’ve read some great recommendations for it. Plus, the foreword is by Richard Heinberg. At first I dismissed the recipes, because a lot of the ingredients were only grown in very specific climates (no chiles for me after peak oil!), but after a while I realized most of them were vegan, so that’s handy. The recommendations were good, the instructions were clear, and I loved the quotes. One section confused me, though, since it claimed that very soon all vehicles could be converted so that they were dependent on oil. But the rest of the book is how to deal with these systems collapsing… strange. Overall, quite good, better than Peak Oil Survival. I think I’ll be buying it soon (It’s a library copy).

I’ve been requesting multiple Rita Mae Brown books from Bookmooch.com, as I was telling my mom. I told her it probably wasn’t a good idea since I hadn’t read any of her books yet, and she was aghast that I still hadn’t read Rubyfruit Jungle (she was the first person to recommend it to me, about a year ago, when she heard I hadn’t read it and said “And you call yourself a lesbian.” That comment was what sparked by lesbian reading obsession), so I picked it up (246 pages). It’s great! No wonder everyone raves about it. If I could describe it one word: gutsy. She makes no apologies, tackles not just lesbianism, but also polyamory, even touching on racism and incest as a taboo. Even for these times it’s gutsy, so writing it decades ago is epic. Loved it, I’m looking forward to reading her other ones. 5/5

I also finished a couple more books at work. (Slacking? Me? Never!) Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi (192 pages) is a kid’s graphic novel, and it was a quick read. The artwork was amazing, I’ll be looking for the graphic novels Kibuishi has done, and the plot was fabulous, too. Can’t wait ’til volume 2 comes out! 5/5

Don’t Get Too Comfortable by David Rakoff (240 pages) was another humor collection of essays that L recommended. It was interesting, and I loved reading something from a gay man’s perspective (I’m tired of straight narrators). The bored viewing of a Playboy shooting was particularly amusing. 4/5

March beginnings

I’ve just finished Pages for You by Sylvia Brownrigg (264 pages) and adored it. I remember at one point thinking “This is clumsily written”, but by the end I’d fallen in love with it. Sigh. It’s so sad, though. The part that really hooked me to the book, though, was when Flannery, the main character, is seeing off the woman she’s secretly-ish in love with, and runs to the train to hand a book of poetry to her through the window that contains her own poem, confessing to her love, and she realizes as the train pulls away that she has powdered sugar from a donut all down her front, and she says aloud to herself “You’re a charmer, Flannery. I don’t see how anyone could resist you.” It made me so sad, though. It was very good. 5/5 Good way to start a month off.