Title: The Left Hand of Darkness
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Published: 1969
My edition: Ace Paperback 2000
Purchased From: Barnes and Noble Lincoln Square
Pages: 304

Synopsis (from Strand): Winner of HUGO and NEBULA Awards for Best Science Fiction Novel of the Year. The story of a lone human emissary’s mission to Winter, an unknown alien world whose inhabitants can choose – and change – their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters. Completely embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, the novel stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

I read this because: Ursula K. Le Guin is an author I’ve meant to read for a long time. My book club also selected this as our January book, which gave me the perfect reason to stop dilly-dallying.

My thoughts: I didn’t really go into this book knowing much about the plot or what it was like, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I think I was expecting more of a epic story, with dozens of characters and an intricate plot. I liked that the focus was on the relationship between Genly and Estraven, and on Genly’s personal challenges and growth.

Book club worthy? Yes, my book club’s discussion of this was fantastic. It’s the sort of book that you want to talk to people about after you finish it.

Follow up required: I’d like to read more of her work, most likely starting with A Wizard of Earthsea. I also own a collection of her short stories.

You might like this book if you like: I haven’t read a lot of Science Fiction, so the only thing I’ve read that I find it at all similar to is Margaret Atwood’s novels. I think it’s the style and creativity that I find comparable.

Links to purchase: Indie Bound, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Book Depository

My favorite lines & passages:

I am not trying to say that I was happy, during those weeks of hauling a sledge across an ice-sheet in the dead of winter. I was hungry, overstrained, and often anxious, and it all got worse the longer it went on. I certainly wasn’t happy. Happiness has to do with reason, and only reason earns it. What I was given was the thing you can’t earn, and can’t keep, and often don’t even recognize at the time; I mean joy. (page 241-2)

To learn which questions are unanswerable, and not to answer them: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness. (page 151)

Extras: New Yorker Interview with Ursula K. Le Guin about The Left Hand of Darkness, Communal book club discussion from NewYorker.com

Title: McCarthy’s Bar
Author: Pete McCarthy
Published: 2000
My edition: St. Martin’s Press Hardcover 2001
Borrowed from: Hoboken Public Library
Pages: 338

Synopsis (from his website): Despite the many exotic places Pete McCarthy has visited, he finds that nowhere can match the particular magic of Ireland, his mother’s homeland.  In McCarthy’s Bar, he journeys from Cork to Donegal.  Travelling through spectacular landscapes, but at all times obeying the rule, Never Pass a Bar That Has Your Name On It, he encounters McCarthy’s Bar’s up and down the land, meeting fascinating, friendly and funny people before pleading to be let out at four o’clock in the morning.

Through adventures with English crusties who have colonised a desolate mountain; roots-seeking, buffet-devouring Americans; priests for whom the word ‘father’ has a loaded meaning; enthusiastic Germans who ‘here since many years holidays are making’; and his fellow barefoot pilgrims on an island called Purgatory, Pete pursues the secrets of Ireland’s global popularity and his own confused Irish-Anglo identity.

Written by someone who is at once both insider and outsider, McCarthy’s Bar is a wonderfully funny, affectionate portrait of a rapidly-changing country.

I read this because: I’m currently obsessed with any and all things concerning Ireland.

My thoughts: I loved this book. As far as armchair traveling goes, Pete McCarthy is an excellent companion/guide. Not only does he take you along for the ride as he meanders through the west of Ireland, he also explores the experience of feeling completely at home in a place that isn’t your homeland. I learned quite a bit about Irish culture and Ireland while reading it, and laughed a lot at his dark and witty humor infused into his stories.

Sadly, when I was googling Pete McCarthy to see if I could find him on Twitter or some links to good interviews, I found out he died in 2004. He was 51. He only wrote one other book; he didn’t get the chance to write the third book he had been planning.

Book club worthy? Mostly just a fun book to read on your own, but potential for some good discussion on whether or not you can feel a stronger attachment and kinship with the country of your ancestors than the country you were raised in.

Follow up required: I’d like to go to Ireland, as soon as possible. :) I’d also like to read his only other book, The Road to McCarthy. (Not to be confused in any way with The Road by Cormac McCarthy.)

You might like this book if you like: Bill Bryson

Links to purchase: Indie Bound, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Book Depository, Strand

My favorite lines & passages:

There’s nothing like a couple of Italians staring at you to make you feel ashamed to be part of a nation that thinks polyester is a good fabric. (page 116)

Luckily I’ve trained myself over the years never to go anywhere without something to read, just in case someone turns up late, the meeting ends early, or I’m inadvertently imprisoned for 35 years and put in solitary confinement. (page 128)

The Celts believed that our world and the spirit world are very close, and that there are particular places of energy where the divide is very thin, and it’s possible to step across to the other side. (page 226)

I like reading in a pub rather than a library or study, as it’s generally much easier to get a drink. (page 258)

I think everyone has an inner voice, and we can all learn to listen to it. You don’t need to analyse where it comes from, but you can attune yourself to it. If you can learn to follow it, it will lead to fulfillment. That’s why I came here. (page 334)

Title: Inklings
Author: Jeffrey Koterba
Published: 2009
My edition: Houghton Mifflin Hardcover 2009
Borrowed From: Hoboken Public Library
Pages: 264

Synopsis (from Strand): Political cartoonist Jeffrey Koterba grew up as an awkward twitchy child, his body bursting with the same unsettling nervous tics as his father–a talented musician whose dreams of fame had faded leaving him an eccentric alcoholic who obsessively fills the house with broken electronics. To escape the instability of his home, Jeff fled to the Sunday comics, copying the strips he loved, and making his own. After his rebellious teenage years, this love of drawing would become his livelihood and salvation, as he struggled with his troubled family life and his long-undiagnosed Tourette’s syndrome. INKLINGS is a pitch-perfect memoir filled with a self-deprecating humor and a complete absence of sentimentality. The prose is pithy vivid and as full of feeling and nuance as the author’s art.

I read this because: The cover caught my eye every time I went into a bookstore, and I read a good review of it in an issue of Entertainment Weekly.

My thoughts: This is a great memoir for many different reasons. Mainly I loved it because it’s a wonderful portrait of a person working hard and devoting their life to their passions, and eventually making a career from it. It’s also fascinating to read about what it’s like to live with Tourette’s syndrome. And, not least of all, it’s a (not sappy) story of rising above an imperfect childhood/home life and other challenges without bitterness.

Book club worthy? I’ve said before: I don’t personally enjoy discussing memoirs in book groups, but this one would make for better discussion than most.

Follow up required: I want to check out the music of Jeffrey Koterba’s swing band, Prairie Cats. :) I also enjoyed browsing his editorial cartoons on his website (link below).

You might like this book if you like: A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Links to purchase: Indie Bound, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Book Depository, Strand

My favorite lines & passages:

Trying to not stare at the corner is like being thirsty on the hottest day of the school year but not being allowed to leave the room to get a drink. The more you can’t get a drink, the thirstier you become. You raise your hand and ask your teacher if you can be excused to get a drink, but she says no, you just had a drink a little while ago. You’ll have to learn patience, she says. But your mouth is so dry and you just know you’re going to die. In this moment it’s the corner that I thirst for.  (page 62-63)

I will not allow my embarrassment and fear to overshadow what hasn’t yet happened. (page 256)

Extras: Jeffrey Koterba on Twitter, Jeffrey Koterba’s Website

The bright spot in all of the sad news today about the passing of J. D. Salinger is all of the wonderful quotes from his work that people have shared today on Twitter and Facebook. It’s been a lovely tribute to a man whose writing continues to speak to readers of all ages.

In Salinger’s honor, here are a few of my favorite passages from one of my favorite authors:

Lane spotted her immediately, and despite whatever it was he was trying to do with his face, his arm that shot up into the air was the whole truth.
-Franny and Zooey, page 7 (this is one of my favorite lines in all of literature)

“You’d better get busy, though, buddy. The goddam sands run out on you every time you turn around. I know what I’m talking about. You’re lucky if you get time to sneeze in this goddam phenomenal world.”
-Franny and Zooey, page 198

A box of Louis Sherry candies – half empty, and with the unconsumed candies all more or less experimentally squeezed – was open on the coffee table, in front of the couch.
-Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour an Introduction, page 55

Anybody over the age of sixteen without an ulcer’s a goddam spy.
-Franny and Zooey, page 141

The best thing, though, about being in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south, the deers would still be drinking out of that water hole, with their pretty antlers and their pretty, skinny legs, and that squaw with the naked bosom would still be weaving that same blanket. Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.
-The Catcher in the Rye, page 121

I don’t suppose a writing man ever really gets rid of his old crocus-yellow neckties. Sooner or later, I think, they show up in prose, and there isn’t a hell of a lot he can do about it.
-Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour an Introduction, page 187

I spend a lot of time (and money!) on Etsy, so I thought it’d be fun to start putting together a few posts that group some of my favorite items and sellers into themed guides. And what more timely place to start than Valentine’s day?

Part 1 focuses on cards for bookworms. Most of the cards on Etsy are comparable in price to the generic cards at chain stores, and much cheaper than buying cards at specialty card stores. Shipping is pretty inexpensive on most of these, especially if you buy more than one card from the same seller.

I hope you enjoy them! Part 2 of Valentine’s Day Etsy Finds will feature gift ideas for bookworms.

Let’s start with my favorite card. Like the best love stories, it has it all. Extremely romantic? check. Castle? check. Horse? check. Knight in shining armor? check. (Steed Love, $4)

This card is spectacular and perfect for anyone who loves Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The inside has a foil wrapper that the receiver can pull away to view a custom message. (Custom Valentine Golden Ticket Scratch Card, $7)

For many book lovers, it doesn’t get any more romantic that Jane Austen. Here’s a good Jane quote for a fellow Janeite. (Jane Austen card – Crossed in Love, $4)

And how about this Mr. Darcy quote? (Valentines Day Card – Pride and Prejudice Quote, $3)

A date due slip card, the inside reads “I’m checking you out!” (flirty library card, $4)

For a long distance Valentine… the inside reads “like the dickens” (Miss You Like the Dickens card, $2)

Louisa May knows what’s up. (It takes two flints to make a fire – Louisa May Alcott quote – letterpress card, $4)

Another date due card Valentine – adorable! (letterpress library card – happy valentines day, $5)

Perfect for all word lovers- a set of the definition of love Valentines. (Set of Four Letterpress Valentines and Envelopes – Definition of Love, $12.50)

Well, it’s the 24th day of January, which seems a bit late to be posting New Year’s Resolutions, but that’s ok. It’s still January. :)

My biggest goal for 2010 is a fun one: I’d like to try making a new recipe every week, for a total of 52 new recipes this year. I love to cook and bake, and despite all the wonderful cookbooks I’ve collected and food magazines I subscribe to, I tend to make old favorites and standbys over and over. I’d like to get more adventurous and try recipes I’ve never made before.

So far I’ve made:
1. Buttermilk Biscuits
2. My Dad’s Pot Roast
3. Chocolate Mousse

On deck for today: Shortbread Cookies.

I will probably blog about many of these recipes, but not all of them. It would be fun to start a blog devoted to chronicling my adventures with trying out a new recipe every week, similar to Julie & Julia. However, with all my other goals (see below), I decided I didn’t need the extra pressure.

Other goals for the year:
1. Keep the apartment very tidy and organized.
2. Learn embroidery.
3. Teach myself Calligraphy.
4. Post more book reviews.
5. Pay off my credit card.
6. Watch more movies.

As you can see, most of my 2010 goals are pretty fun. That’s going to be the theme of the year. I want to waste less time and have more fun, while being more creative. Numbers 1 and 5 will help lower stress so I can focus on having more fun. :) I’ll keep you posted on the results throughout the year.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marg that encourages readers to share the goodies that they picked up at their libraries each week!

It’s an appropriate time for me to post my first Library Loot entry, since I’ve been to the library 3 times this week and taken out way more than I can possibly read before the due dates.

I adore going to the library. It’s like shopping, but without spending any money. Granted, you don’t get to own the items you “shop” for forever, but it does Hit the Shopping Spot. You leave your apartment, you go to a place with lots of choices, and you take some of it home. Triggers the shopping high with absolutely no buyer’s remorse. Even if I don’t get around to reading every book I check out, I often read the first few pages to get an idea on whether I’d like to read the book someday. Often times I’ll buy it later, or check it out again in the future.

Here’s some of the loot I collected this week:

44 Scotland Street, Espresso Tales, and Love Over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith
I’ve been wanting to try out an Alexander McCall Smith series, and I decided to start with the 44 Scotland Street series. My best friend and I are starting to plan a vacation later this year to Ireland and many other areas around it, and right now I’m sort of obsessed with all things United Kingdom. I picked up the first three books of this series, and I just finished 44 Scotland Street.

My One Hundred Adventures by Polly Horvath
I’ve heard great things about this children’s novel by Newbery Honor author Polly Horvath, and its name alone is enough to perk my interest.

House of Cards by David Ellis Dickerson
I’ve wanted to give this book a try since hearing David Dickerson read at the David Sedaris signing at Strand last year. He was a hoot and his memoir about working at Hallmark writing greeting cards sounds like a fun read.

Nation by Terry Pratchett
This won the 2009 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for fiction, and I read an essay by Terry Pratchett in the Jan/Feb 2010 Horn Book Magazine. It sounds great and it feels like it’s about time that I read a book by Terry Pratchett, he’s well loved by many of my family members.

McCarthy’s Bar: A Journey of Discovery in the West of Ireland by Pete McCarthy
A travel memoir about Ireland: resistance was futile.

I Never Knew That About Ireland by Christopher Winn
This book is packed full of interesting trivia about Ireland. A reserve that came in for me this week.

The Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane Brocket
My Mom spotted this book at a Barnes and Noble over Christmas, and I put a reserve on it at the library. It’s a gorgeous book with a lot of great photographs, recipes, and tips. “Brocket celebrates everything that is, and can be, wonderful about home life.” I think I’m going to need to buy this one.

Ireland by Frank Delaney
Spotting a theme here?

Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon
Couldn’t resist taking home Michael Chabon’s latest when I saw it in the new books section.

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
Pleased that the library had this waiting for me after seeing her stage show. I’ve already finished it, review is here.

American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson
I’ve heard good things about this memoir, and I do like Craig Ferguson.