True Confessions of a Binge Reader

Okay, so this is just between us, but I accidentally read the entire Hunger Games trilogy over the last three days. Totally embarrased, but also totally in love with the whole young-adult-romantic-dystopian thing. Eek!

Bargain Book Binge, Part One

As some of you might already know, I've spent the majority of this summer in a small town in southwestern Georgia, being oh so proud of my brand new husb. for his awesome internship. An internship so awesome that I try not to mind living in a hotel in Nowheresville, GA, which happens to boast a BBQ joint as its main attraction. While BBQ is undeniably delicious, there are still a few things this particular town happens to lack, including, but not limited to, a Borders. In fact, the closest Borders is nearly 100 miles away, making it very difficult for me to follow my own advice and get myself to a Borders to take advantage of their mega-going-out-of-business sale.

Luckily, a recent development in my man's work schedule has landed us in our hometown of Athens for the rest of this week (cue hoorahs!), where there happens to be a Borders in walking distance. I, however--being the planner that I am--knew better than to walk to the B-sters this particular morning, and it's a good thing I drove, because I had quite the haul of paperbacks to bring home, including:

1. Ghostwritten, by David Mitchell

I have read Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autums of Jacob de Zoet, (mentioned here and here) and found them both to be stunningly luminous and utterly original, so I was thrilled to scoop up this talent's debut novel, which received the 1999 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for British Literature.

2. Swan Thieves, by Elizabeth Kostova

This one has been on my radar for a while. I read and enjoyed The Historian, Kostova's 2005 solid debut novel about Vlad the Impaler (aka, Count Dracula), and I'm hopeful that her follow-up will blend history, fiction, and a healthy dash of victorian mystery just as well.

3. The Sea, by John Banville

Winner of the 2005 Man Booker Prize, this novel is apparently written entirely as a reflective journal from the perspective of Max Morden, a retired art historian grieving the death of his wife. I have actually never read Banville (oops!), so I'm really looking forward to taking him out for a test-drive with this one.

4. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford

I chose this one because it was on sale (obvi.) and because lately, whenever I enter in a new book of the week to my Shelfari account, Shelfari responds with, "If you liked Book X, then you might also like, 'Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.' After getting this same message more than half a dozen times, I figured it was worth a read. If nothing else, hopefully I'll get some different recommendations from Shelfari next time!

5. Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

Okay, this one's a little embarrassing, and I actually had to walk into the Young Adult section to grab it (cringe!), but believe it or not I have heard good things about this sci-fi series for tweens, and from reputable sources, too--I promise! Besides, everyone needs a little guilty pleasure beach reading during the summer, right?

6. Sense & Sensibility, by Jane Austen

Obviously, being the Austen-lover that I am, I have read S&S quite a few times, but I don't have my own copy. Since I don't plan on quitting my favorite authoress anytime soon, I thought I'd save myself another twenty-plus future library trips and pick up a copy, for a mere four dollars. Steal of the day!

Goodbye Borders

Maybe you have already heard, but after more than forty years in the book business, Borders is closing its doors. As a card-carrying member of the Borders rewards program (bragged about here), I got an email saying as much this past Friday from Mike Edwards, the CEO of Borders. Sad!

While this is definitely a bummer for book-buyers everywhere, at least there are some fantastical deals being offered for the next few weeks, including 40% off many of their regular-priced books. So get thee to a Borders (or Borders Express and Walden Books) and stock up before all the good ones go!

A Few More Book Blurbs

Hello there dear readers. Today, I thought I'd catch you up on a few of the latest books to cozy up to my nightstand, since I know many of you might be looking for some sweet summer reads.

1. Sweetness in the Belly, Camilla Gibb

The second book I've read this month to be set in Ethiopia, SITB was a slow starter, but after hanging tough for the first 75 pages or so I finally got hooked. While the plot revolves around an orphaned Irish girl who grows up Muslim in Morocco and Ethiopia, escaping to London when civil unrest breaks out in northern Africa, I think what this book is really about is belonging. What are the metrics we choose to define ourselves, and what happens when those metrics are complicated or challenged or even overthrown? And what does it mean to call a place "home?"

2. Room, by Emma Donoghue

Absolutely incredible! I read the whole book on a flight from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, so utterly consumed that even the snoring man seated directly to my right could not stop me from racing through Donoghue's disturbing portrayal of a mother and child being held captive in a 121 square foot room. Wisely, Donoghue decided to have five-year-old Jack narrate the whole story, and his brilliant innocence allows us to probe horrific circumstances without losing hope--and even a little bit of levity (think Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, both of which I also highly recommend).

3. Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese

This is the other Ethiopia-based book I've read in July, and it was an utterly fantastic read, one of those books that just reaches its arms out and envelops you, so that when you turn the last page you're sad, so very sad, it's over. It is an epic tale of twin brothers that mixes medicine and magic to explore the power of fate and the unbreakable bonds of family. Read it! Now!

You Get What You Wish For

I'm on Pinterest (finally)!

Let me know if you're interested in joining, too and I'll make sure to send you an invite.

I Want to Pinterist!

Have you all heard of the super-fabulous Pinterist? As far as I can tell, it is basically a site that allows you to create multiple visual bibliographies in the form of virtual bulletin boards. Totally awesome, no? You create different "boards" based on whatever themes you want--say "Potential Bedroom Design Ideas" or "Recipes I Love" or "Typography"--and the site catalogs the images you choose to save with your captions as well as the embedded links. This way not only can you organize and easily re-access sources of personal inspiration, but you can also connect with other users, follow their boards, and re-pin their images, thereby falling down a rabbit hole of incredible eye candy. YUM.

The only obstacle keeping me from being a Pin-Star is that you have to get invited to Pinterest (darn exclusivity), and since I don't know of any friends who use the site yet, I had to request membership from the site's generic invitation form. Sadly, I'm not really sure how long of a waiting list there is, but believe you me I'm checking daily to see if I'm "in." Now, if any of you lucky ducks want to Pinterest with me, once I do gain access I'll make sure to send you an invite, so just let me know! I am offering this because (A) I am super nice; (B) all of my friends and family have incredible taste and so I imagine that I would really like their pinboards; and (C) I've read that Pinterest allows you to collaborate on boards with other members, which I think would be totally fun.

Part of why I am so interested in engaging with this site has to with an interior design studio I took back in grad school. Our professor had us collect images that resonated with us over a two-week period--no rules or predetermined theme required. We then mapped those pictures, organizing them on a bulletin board and tracing connections with thread (literally) as a means for teasing out underlying concepts and organically generating meaningful inspiration. I. loved. that. project. It was totally amazing to see meaning emerge out of a seemingly random array of images, deep patterns arise from visual chaos. That's why once I do get on Pinterest, some of my boards will be organized by category, but at least one will simply be a catalog of random favorites--everyday eye candy, if you will. Can't wait!!

Happy Fourth of July!

I hope your holiday is filled with friends, fireworks, and yummy food!

Blog Recommendation: A Book by its Cover

Hopefully you all have oodles of fun plans for the upcoming holiday! For those of you counting down the minutes until your long weekend commences, I thought I'd share an addicting site I recently discovered to help you while away the next few hours. You may remember last year's post about judging books by their covers, or maybe this one about super-cute Penguin classic covers.

Well, Julia Rothman's blog, Book By Its Cover, completely runs circles around those posts. It provides daily reviews of art-related publications, but you can also search through several subcategories, including design, handmade, sketchbooks, etc. One of my favorite features of the site is its simple layout: image-title-category; if that combination of teasers catches your eye, you can click to read on, learning more about the book and seeing a nice compilation of images. Since the books featured are artsy, I think a lot of the titles would make spectacular gifts for some of my designerly friends. Some entries that caught my eye include: Mike Perry's Pulled: a Collection of Screen Printing; Nadine Nakanishi's Formal Addictive Programs; Charlotte Rivers' Reinventing Letterpress; and Harriet Russell's Sixty Impossible Things Before Lunch, just to name a few. Enjoy!