02 May 2008

Just desserts for a whiner

Remember how I whinged about my borrowed copy of SACRED GAMES, eventually buying the paperback because it was just too hard to carry around?

I have gotten my due all right. I picked up a couple of packages yesterday morning of new review books and one of those -- well, it's not 1100 pages, but it's about 900. Hardcover, not paperback. I asked for this book, and it's on a subject that really interests me, but I'm going to have to upgrade to a tote bag to take it anywhere.

What I'm saying is, serves me right! At least I can use it to do arm curls when I'm not reading it. Here's what I will be carrying around this weekend, besides that book:

  • Junot Diaz, THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO. My book club is doing this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, and I'm excited because I might not have been motivated to get around to it right away otherwise. Oddly enough, I saw Mr. Diaz doing a book signing last fall at the New Yorker Festival -- he had so many fans they were lined up with switchbacks like roller-coaster riders. But A.M. Homes, who was doing a signing at the same time, had no fans in line, so my friend and I hung out with Ms. Homes (whom we had heard speak with Miranda July at a panel the night before) for a bit.
  • David J. Schwartz's SUPERPOWERS. Could a modern-day Justice League be lurking in Madison, Wisconsin of all places? Well, let's hope so.
  • Naomi Ragen, THE SATURDAY WIFE. This book, which I picked up off the New Releases shelf at the library, is part of a niche of literature I have enjoyed in the past -- literature about Orthodox Jewish women. I'm not Jewish myself, but the community is fascinating and unknown to me. If I like this book as much as I liked Tova Mirvis' THE LADIES AUXILIARY or Naomi Alderman's DISOBEDIENCE, it will be a serendipitous find.

2 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Morgan was only able to read War and Peace because the library had a copy of it in many small 200-300 page volumes (a far more manageable size).

I once knew two roommates who were taking the same calculus course, but one was taking the first quarter while the other was taking the second quarter, so they bought one book and ripped it in half.

I think you can see where I'm going with this. Unless whoever sent you the book for review wants it back, in which case some duct tape may be in order.

Ellen said...

Haha! My mom did that for a book once -- I forget which, but she was traveling and she left chunks of it everywhere.

They won't need it back, it's just... but the precious book! I might hurt its feelings! More than I just did by calling it fat.