"No, the free one."

As a postscript to yesterday's rant about author marketing and social networking, here's a funny video made by author Dennis Cass about how he's promoting his book HEAD CASE: HOW I ALMOST LOST MY MIND TRYING TO UNDERSTAND MY BRAIN. I'll say this, I had never heard of his book before but I added it to my Goodreads list right after I finished the video. (Via Gawker)

Are those reads really good?

A bit of a Goodreads rant today, but first, a confession! Yesterday morning's post was not really written yesterday morning! In an act of devious timestampery, I used Blogger's new "scheduled" option to reflect a little on WINESBURG, OHIO when I had time to do so, so while I was dashing off to wherever it is I go when I'm not on the Internet, the blog auto-updated. Oh, the magic! I feel the need to protest, however, that usually I write, if not all of each post, then at least the bulk of it on the morning it goes up. Sometimes I'll scrap out a couple paragraphs right before bed if I get a good idea in the shower. (Too much info? OK.)

So I use Goodreads, and I love Goodreads, but I've been noticing a disturbing trend on it that I will call, with apologies to the site, its Myspaceization. By that I don't mean that the site has been taken over by unstoppable music players and blinky things (we all know how I feel about Flash, and I have never been a MySpace user for many reasons), but as Goodreads has gotten more and more popular authors are starting to use the site to connect with readers who may be adding their books.

In terms of book marketing, these social networking sites are a great way to cut out the middleman (or -woman). Jennifer Weiner made her own group where she has been doing a Q&A this month, where readers have been posting questions which she (or her minions) respond to when they can. That's the ultra-involved route; some authors are fine with putting up a profile, maybe a wee bio. and letting the readers add them. One of my first Goodreads friends was author Tao Lin, whose books I have not read yet (sorry, sir!) but who updates at least semi-regularly. Author Scott Douglas added me as a friend when he saw I put his library memoir QUIET, PLEASE! on my want-to-read list. Now I can see that when he comes across a positive review of his book on the site he checks that he likes it. (I find this bizarrely charming.)

A few times, though, I've been added by authors whose works have nothing to do with me or what I like. When I check their pages, they haven't updated except to connect with hundreds of friends, who they're hoping (I would assume) will go to that author's page and add, or even buy, all her or his books, presumably without bothering to find out what they're about. I'm not going to single any authors out because for all I know, this work is being done on their behalf by well-meaning PR teams or personal assistants.

But it tweaks me a little when someone who exclusively writes, say, romance novels about undead football players, will go out of his or her way to say "Hey, read this book!" to someone who cares not for romance nor football players. (Love the undead, though!) To do this is to undermine what I use Goodreads for, as a fount of recommendations and a way that friends who have read the same books as I have can compare notes. I don't need Charles Dickens* updating my page with, "Hey, you know what a great book to read after THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO would be? THE PICKWICK PAPERS! Why? I'm not going to tell you!"

They are the hot girls on MySpace who just want as many friends as possible so they can get their MTV shows. They're not adding anything; they want me for a statistic. And as much as I respect them for trying out new angles to reach readers, I wish I could tell them that what they're doing is just Spam 2.0.

*Charles Dickens does not update his Goodreads page, for he is dead.

24. Sherwood Anderson, WINESBURG, OHIO

If the residents of this small Midwestern town were alive 60 years later, we would know them from the work of B. Springsteen instead of S. Anderson. A man with a passion for teaching gets his dream job ripped away from him with one misinterpreted gesture; a minister loses his faith when he catches sight of a beautiful congregant through a window; a hired hand decides to give his friend real advice for once, only to chicken out at the point of speech. These are the residents of Winesburg and with one exception they are a sad, defeated lot. That one is George Willard, an 18-year-old who works for the Winesburg Eagle and who often hears or witnesses moments in the lives of these unhappy people, old and young, as told through Sherwood Anderson's short stories.

I had a hell of a time getting into this book. Maybe it's because I was reading it on Dailylit and thus getting its fragmented stories in further fragments, but I searched in vain for someone I knew to "explain" it to me -- to give me a reason (other than this Modern Library project) to continue with the book when I felt so confused by it.

Eventually, though, I hit upon my own method of appreciating Anderson's pitiable people: My seventh-grade geography teacher used to read us a Zen quote of the day (off one of those page-a-day calendars) and afterwards encourage us to let out a meditational, "Ahhh." Once I got the rhythm and the tone of Anderson's stories down, I felt like that after finishing each episode -- taking a moment to reflect, and then going on. Some of them I found tremendously poignant, while others just puzzled me, but the last five or six stories were extremely powerful.

Those, more than others, dealt with George's own romantic interest in the town and with the life of his mother, who in herself is a tragic figure. The third-to-last story is called "Death," but even without that parallel it would have reminded me of the ultimate story in James Joyce's DUBLINERS. Here's an example of the elegiac quality which captivated me so much in those last few pages, from a passage about George walking with a girl from the town near the fairgrounds:

There is something memorable in the experience to be had by going into a fair ground that stands at the edge of a Middle Western town on a night after the annual fair has been held. The sensation is one never to be forgotten. On all sides are ghosts, not of the dead, but of living people. Here, during the day just passed, have come the people pouring in from the town and the country around. Farmers with their wives and children and all the people from the hundreds of little frame houses have gathered within these board walls. Young girls have laughed and men with beards have talked of the affairs of their lives. The place has been filled to overflowing with life. It has itched and squirmed with life and now it is night and the life has all gone away. The silence is almost terrifying. One conceals oneself standing silently beside the trunk of a tree and what there is of a reflective tendency in his nature is intensified.

One shudders at the thought of the meaninglessness of life while at the same instant, and if the people of the town are his people, one loves life so intensely that tears come into the eyes.

A Whole Lot Of Stuff About WINESBURG, OHIO

• Read WINESBURG, OHIO for free on Google Books or, as I did, subscribe to it on Dailylit.
• Winesburg, Ohio is a real town, although it does not (apparently) resemble the fictional Winesburg at all.
• Funny poll I found on Livejournal about WINESBURG, OHIO. Hurry up and vote, "Platypus" is winning!
• From author Tom Perrotta: "Winesburg, Ohio feels like a village full of eccentric strangers desperate for a moment of connection... It made me remember what it felt like to be a high-school sophomore, wandering the quiet night-time streets of my hometown, slowly coming to realize that the people I knew were more complicated and interesting than they appeared." Read more at NPR.org.
• Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre produced a musical version of the play a while ago -- here the adapter speaks a bit about that.
• This book is not safe for rehab.
• Apparently in Philip Roth's new novel, the protagonist attends Winesburg College in Ohio.
• The Onion (as usual) with the last word: Wal-mart Opens Store in Winesburg, Ohio

Progress of LNVSML: 46 read, 54 unread.

Next up on Dailylit and in LN VS. the Modern Library: #30, Ford Madox Ford's THE GOOD SOLDIER.

Book Party Brag Box

I hope you all had a lovely Mother's Day weekend. I tried to come up with a post about the best moms of literature, but I found the field, at least from what I've read recently, to be kind of lacking. Then I read TIME magazine's "Best Moms" list for inspiration and when I got to Dumbo's mom it, uh, got a little dusty in my room, so I gave up. (I never even liked that movie!) But here's to my mom anyway, who read SNIPP, SNAPP, SNURR AND THE GINGERBREAD, GO DOG GO and STREGA NONA to me at least 100,000 times.

I did end up going to the book giveaway party I mentioned on Friday and holy cow, what a haul! There were about 10 of us there and between us we probably walked away with half the books on the shelves (plus one guest with a car promised to take away everything that remained on Moving Day -- awesome for the hostess). Here's what I picked up:

• Steven Gaines, PHILISTINES AT THE HEDGEROW: PASSION AND PROPERTY IN THE HAMPTONS -- I spotted this one at the Strand a few times but ended up putting it back; still, I can't resist something free!
• Jillian Medoff, HUNGER POINT
• Jennifer Belle, HIGH MAINTENANCE -- Jennifer Belle is a New York City-based novelist whose name seems to turn up on blogs and in reviews all the time. Now I can see what the fuss is about with her second novel.
• Eric Garcia, CASSANDRA FRENCH'S FINISHING SCHOOL FOR BOYS
• Sarah Dunn, THE BIG LOVE -- Read in 2006, gave it away, wanted to reread it again.
• Elizabeth Noble, THINGS I WANT MY DAUGHTERS TO KNOW
• Sheri Holman, THE MAMMOTH CHEESE -- I read Holman's book THE DRESS LODGER back in high school when she came to speak to our school, at which time she was working on this second novel about a small town trying to break a record set by Thomas Jefferson.
• Nick Fowler, A THING (OR TWO) ABOUT CURTIS AND CAMILLA
• Marisha Pessl, SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS -- I named it one of my favorite fiction books of 2006 but I read it so fast I barely had a chance to absorb it. The hostess had it in paperback and liked it but not enough to keep it, which is lucky for me.

I told my mom about the party when I called her for Mother's Day and she said, "You should throw one of those!" Sheesh. Yeah.

Books and The Stars: Ellen Page and Geri Halliwell

Honest to blog, Mr. Rochester? Academy Award-nominated actress Ellen "Juno" Page is set to play Jane Eyre in the umpteenth adaptation of the Bronte novel, according to Variety. The adaptor of the recent historical adaptation "The Other Boleyn Girl" is involved but there is no director, and more importantly no Mr. Rochester, announced yet. (I'm thinking, pull a "Ghost World" and cast Steve Buscemi as Rochester -- he's older than her and he needs a role that's completely opposite from what he usually does. And Blake Lively in a minor role as Jane Eyre's sainted friend who [SPOILER] dies tragically.) Other Janes have included Joan Fontaine and most recently Charlotte Gainsbourg. (Related: my review of WIDE SARGASSO SEA, a postcolonialist response to JANE EYRE.)

Celebrity author of the week: Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, whose signing for her children's book UGENIA LAVENDER in Essex, England was disrupted this week when she got stuck in an elevator for an hour. She had to be rescued by firefighters! That's a lot of excitement for a book signing.

What not to bring to a party

I'm going to a special kind of party this weekend -- a book giveaway party! Someone I know from my (typically neglected) other blog, also the proprietress of History is Funny, is moving and invited all and sundry to come take books away so she won't have to sell or move them. There is a caveat, though: While we can take as many books as we want, we are not allowed to bring any for her in return. Of course, that would defeat the purpose!

That admonition reminds me of when I was little and had no social skills. My parents would take us to dinner at people's houses, and I would beg and whine to be able to take a book with me. It wasn't just at their friends' houses either -- I have a picture of myself at age 6 on Christmas Day, and while I look ready to sit at the table and eat with my relatives, I am clutching my newly received LITTLE HOUSE COOKBOOK (recipes inspired by the Laura Ingalls Wilder series -- really!) and I know I was just dying to get the dinner and the picture taking over with so I could go read. Now I know that the real way to kill time at a family function is to seek out pets and/or small children to entertain.

Aside from that foray, which ought to yield many fun finds, this is going to be a great weekend to stay inside and read. The pollen forecast is "medium-high to high," which I am translating in my brain to "pretty-damn-miserable to holy-cow-I'm-moving-to-the-Arctic." I know I've been a little uninspired this week, and that is why. Since every allergy drug I've tried turns me into a narcoleptic zombie, I am expending all my energy in trying not to itch my eyes and sneeze more than 30 times an hour. It's almost summer, right?

Cover Love: Bond Babe Books

Even before 2006's "rebooted" Bond franchise and new suit Daniel Craig, Penguin came out with these fun, pulp-inspired covers for the Ian Fleming Bond novels:

But those don't hold a candle to the new hardcover editions with a Bond-girl motif celebrating author Ian Fleming's birth. Here's the new cover of CASINO ROYALE:

I feel a little guilty for liking these, but I adore the distinctive colors. Many of the women have their backs turned and that '60s-style font for the titles. (Also, the Penguin lodged inside the 007? LOVE. Give that designer a big raise.) I haven't read any of the Bond novels, but my source Ryan the Outlaw Genius says the cover redesign "almost makes you forget how horrible the writing is inside."

I liked the older design of CASINO ROYALE all right, but some of those covers are less fun than downright disturbing.

"In order to solve this mystery, you must permit me to ski all over you."

You don't need eyes to appreciate a good playing-card bikini.

Masked Men Traverse Dangerous Boobs

Filmbook: "Bright Lights, Big City" (1988)

Well, I promised the most awesomely '80s Filmbook ever, and "Bright Lights, Big City" did not disappoint.

BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY, novel and film, covers a week (roughly) in the life of a young 20-something New Yorker named Jamie (played by Michael J. Fox) who works at a magazine but really wants to be a writer. Jamie is pretty miserable: His wife, a model, has left him, and he spends his nights alternately sweating over his typewriter and trying to enjoy wild nights out in clubs with his best friend, Tad Allagash (Kiefer Sutherland).

I identified with this book more than I expected to, not only because of Jamie's job woes but because I always had the impression this book was about coke and debauchery. While there is some debauchery involved, it's very much a coming-of-age story, where McInerney take a character whose life looks perfect for about 3 paragraphs and spends the rest of the book dismantling that guy and that facade. I identified with Jamie more than I had planned on when I took him for just a rich cokehead.

The book is written in a way that (club references aside) is not particularly dated, unlike the movie which is HILARIOUSLY dated. Just the casting of Fox and Sutherland as best friends with their matching high-altitude hair is enough to seal this film in the Hall of Very '80s Things forever, without even counting Phoebe Cates' appearances as Jamie's model wife.* The soundtrack, the clothes and the 'look' of '80s New York -- things that were not specifically conveyed on the page -- date this movie in a way that is enjoyable, not annoying. It serves as a time capsule for the world that McInerney's book, published just four years earlier, tried to capture. I recommend the book because of its universality but the movie because of its specificity. And as someone who knows Fox from "Back to the Future" pretty much exclusively, I was impressed by the performance he turned in and the way he really made me feel for Jamie.

Despite how deliciously '80s it was, the movie mishandled something which I thought was very well done in the book. While almost none of the book's second-person narrative made it into the film, that didn't make me quite as irritated. Roughly 170 pages into the book, you find out about a Big Traumatic Event in Jamie's past. (Not the one I reference above.) When this Big Traumatic Event comes into focus, suddenly many of his choices earlier make sense, but there is hardly any foreshadowing to that event.

The movie reveals the Big Traumatic Event about 25 minutes in, and long before that you see strange out-of-context scenes that hint at it. They aren't too common, just common enough to really grate on anyone who has any sense. And their handling of it for the rest of the movie isn't particularly subtle, either, except for one scene that knocks it completely out of the park. Oh Hollywood, must you iron your silk dresses with locomotives? Still...

Filmbook Verdict: Read the book, then see the movie.

*Other favorite cameos in this movie: Swoosie Kurtz as Jamie's only friend at work, Frances Sterngarten (AKA Trey's mom on "Sex and the City") as his boss and, for about 5 seconds, David Hyde Pierce as a bartender at a fashion show.

Filmbook Delay

This week on Filmbook, I have potentially the most '80s movie I never knew existed -- "Bright Lights, Big City" starring Michael J. Fox, Kiefer Sutherland and Phoebe Cates, based on the incredibly '80s novel of the same name by Jay McInerney (part of the New York Books Canon). But I only got it from Netflix yesterday, and I frittered away my time last night at my first ever Madison Square Garden concert.

Check back tonight for the most '80s Filmbook entry ever. Your neon scrunchies are safe here.

Can't keep a Dietgirl down!

I have been good so far this month and haven't mooched anything, but I just got a book I mooched in April in the mail -- and I'm almost tempted to say it shouldn't count, since it isn't even out in the U.S. yet! That book is THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF DIETGIRL by the health and fitness blogger of the same moniker, and it is out now in the U.K. but will be published by HarperCollins here in 2009.

I haven't started the book yet but I'm a little disappointed (naturally) by the publishing strategy which delayed it Here's why: Most of the time, it doesn't matter that the book I read today was out in, say, Switzerland or Australia six months ago. But all the readers of Dietgirl's blog, no matter their country of origin, read the same posts and see the same website. We all knew when the book was put out there, even if it wasn't for us.

Anyway, some shrewd folks have caught onto this and are selling other editions of THE AMAZING ADVENTURES... on Amazon Marketplace here in the U.S. This is good -- except that the lovely author probably isn't making a royalty on those, since they're being sold second- or even thirdhand. (Thirdhand?) At the same time, by my mooching the book I am not giving her any money either, though my copy appears to be a not-for-sale proof from the British market. The proper thing to do would be to buy it directly from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.ca. (That's right, Canada gets it before we do. Yuk it up, Canucks.)

But if HarperCollins had the option to put the book out earlier, even a few months after the UK release... why didn't they? They could be cashing in right now. I'd be happy to read around references to, oh, "biscuits" and "rubbish" and whatever else needs to be "translated" between an English and American version if I can get a book sooner. I hope the delay wasn't due to a suit by the Superman estate for that amazing cover design. Copyright law is not super sometimes.

Some Girls Are More Certain Than Others

Jennifer Weiner's new novel CERTAIN GIRLS takes place 13 years after GOOD IN BED, in which Cannie, a twentysomething newspaper reporter, finds out the boyfriend she just dumped is writing about their sex life in a national magazine, gets depressed, gets knocked up, and (eventually) gets her act together. Cannie is now a full-time fiction writer, ghostwriting a popular sci-fi series. She is married to her love interest from CERTAIN GIRLS, Peter, and they are raising her daughter Joy together in Philadelphia. Cannie and Joy take turns narrating this book, so the plot follows two different tracks: Cannie is planning Joy's bat mitzvah and trying to deal with Peter's wish that they have another baby (through a surrogate since she had a hysterectomy); Joy gets curious enough about her mother's life to read the bestselling novel her mom wrote about her pre-baby life, and has to deal with the ramifications of that and of figuring out her place in her blended family.

I haven't done this with any of the other books, but I actually want to reread CERTAIN GIRLS soon; I wanted to know what was going to happen so badly I tore through it in an evening. I'm not surprised at all that Weiner wants to write a YA book, because CERTAIN GIRLS is half that -- and I think the strongest half. Maybe I just sympathized with Joy more because I'm closer to angsty teenager than worried mom, but I found their conflict realistic and compelling. The struggle for understanding and the gulf that develops there is something I think most people can relate to, and it's not a spoiler to say that Cannie and Joy both have their moments of not being very good to each other. Two things happen at the end that I didn't like, but at the same time, I couldn't put the book down to see what was going to happen next. (As usual, those will be in the comments.)

Another thing I really liked about this book were all the silly asides. This book makes fun of a lot of things -- scifi fandom, THE SECRET, the over-the-top opulence of the modern bar and bat mitzvah -- in a way that doesn't distract from the narrative, but gives you a little jab, like "Hey! I think that too!" Because Cannie is an author there's some metafictional stuff going on when she talks about her novel and her publishing company, but it doesn't distract.

I'll close this post by addressing the review which caused the most commotion around the book's release. Author Jane Smiley, writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer, criticized the book for being "pink" both in color (cover and endpapers both) and in subject (neglecting the male characters for a plot and material that would appeal only to females). I highly doubt that Weiner set out to write a book men couldn't read, and who knows how much input she had into the cover design, but I wonder if Smiley isn't pointing the finger in the wrong direction. Instead of asking, "Why is this book about a mother and daughter?" I would rather ask, "What's in our culture that a book about a mother and a daughter can't have broad appeal?"

Sure, male readers may not be able to relate to some things that happen in the book, but that shouldn't put them off. Although I'm sure Smiley didn't intend this, I find the notion that Weiner should have expanded the roles of the male characters in the book to be a little misogynistic, when children's book characters are disproportionately male and it's news when a movie starring two women takes the top spot at the box office. I didn't really notice their absence. I have another comment about this that I will leave in the spoiler pit below.

Books and the Stars: David Beckham, Brad Pitt, "Sex and the City"

Brought to you by the letter F and the number 23: Like many kids who were born in the '70s or '80s I have no doubt my love of reading was nurtured and encouraged by watching "Sesame Street." The veteran PBS kids' show still has its wacky celebrity guests -- in fact, soccer (football) star David Beckham just filmed a segment with Elmo. Of course, it will never get better than Smokey Robinson being attacked by the giant letter U. (Can I just link to this clip once a month? It is so fantastic, and by fantastic, I mean frightening.) This exhaustive list will tell you whether your favorite celebrity has appeared on "Sesame Street" yet.

No country for young authors: The next Coen Brothers movie is a heist film of sorts, but instead of a prisoner's buried treasure or a briefcase full of drug money, the sought-after prize is a memoir. Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand play a pair of gym employees who come into possession of the autobiography of a recently fired CIA agent (John Malkovich). Not only does the agent need the confidentiality-breaching document back, his estranged wife (Tilda Swinton) and one of his CIA bosses (CoBro buddy George Clooney) are also dying to get their hands on the book. The follow-up to Best Picture winner "No Country for Old Men" is called "Burn After Reading" and it will open the Venice Film Festival in late August.

Are we wearing our hair, or is our hair wearing us? In preparation for the "Sex and the City" movie I mooched Candace Bushnell's original book as well as her follow-ups FOUR BLONDES and LIPSTICK JUNGLE. But I just found out that Evan Handler, who played Charlotte's divorce lawyer and -- spoiler alert -- eventual husband on the show, has written a memoir about his battles with leukemia called IT'S ONLY TEMPORARY: THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD NEWS OF BEING ALIVE. I mention this not because I'll probably read it, but it has the funniest cover of any book I've seen this year. Go on, go ahead and click.

How do you organize your books?

It's a gloomy, cloudy day in New York and I'm staring at my bookshelves which, as usual, are a mess. While not exactly higgelty-piggelty, my system for shelving leaves a lot to be desired. Currently all the books are separated into read-versus-unread, and beyond that there's not much of rhyme or reason to it, especially when you take into account that my collection no longer fits into my two bookshelves, with a shameful cache located under my desk. (My roommate was griping the other day about how he has too many books in the apartment -- his two-foot-high shelf is all full, the horrors.)

In past weekends when I was bored I have alphabetized the books, separated hardcovers from paperbacks and (once, and most appealing if least useful) arranged all of them by color. What's your system? And may I borrow it?

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.

Unbookening Third Month Is Not The Charm

The Third Month of the Great Unbookening
8 books mooched
13 books checked out of the library
6 books received for review
Bought 6 books
Was given 1 book
Borrowed 1 book from a friend
Got 1 book back from a friend
= 36 books in.

4 books given away on BookMooch
13 books returned to the library
Sold 1 book on Amazon
Gave 6 books as gifts
Lent 2 books to a friend
Returned 1 book
= 28 books out.

Total: 8 more books in than out, a tiny, insignificant improvement over last month. Year to date: 34 more books in than out.

I read more books than last month but I'm still not getting through the stacks of books I own. So I did something drastic. Since I would have broken even with my books were it not for Bookmooch, I moved every single book on my wishlist (where the site e-mails you when a copy is available) onto my "save-for-later" list. The only reason I'll be visiting the site is to list books to give away. I'm aiming to mooch no books in May.

Adorable kitten bookend picture: baggis.

FYI, the books I read this month (italics denotes books I reviewed) were:
Chris Gainor, TO A DISTANT DAY: THE ROCKET PIONEERS
Sloane Crosley, I WAS TOLD THERE'D BE CAKE
David Simon, HOMICIDE: A YEAR ON THE KILLING STREETS
David Gilmour, THE FILM CLUB
Miranda July, NO ONE BELONGS HERE MORE THAN YOU
Kelly McMasters, WELCOME TO SHIRLEY
Adam Langer, ELLINGTON BOULEVARD
Anna Godbersen, THE LUXE
Cecil Castellucci, THE P.L.A.I.N. JANES
Kim Green, LIVE A LITTLE
Dave Ramsey, THE TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER
J.M. Coetzee, DIARY OF A BAD YEAR
Jen Lancaster, SUCH A PRETTY FAT
Jay McInerney, BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY -- future Filmbook entry!
Jennifer Weiner, CERTAIN GIRLS -- review coming tomorrow!
Angela Bowie, BACKSTAGE PASSES