Category Archives: bookish things

Awesome Fall Book Releases

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Fall is my favorite season for many reasons, and the fact that it’s also the most exciting time of the year for book releases is a definite reason to get giddy! Here are the books I’m looking forward to this fall.

SEPTEMBER


Ape House by Sara Gruen: I’ve never heard of anyone who read Gruen’s mega-bestseller, Water for Elephants, and didn’t love it, so her next book has been eagerly awaited. I got an ARC of it at Book Expo, and it was one of my most treasured finds of the day. (Sept 7)

Earth (The Book): A Visitor’s Guide to the Human Race by Jon Stewart: Does this one even need an explanation? Very excited for the latest humor book from The Daily Show team. (Sept 21)

A Week at the Airport by Alain de Botton: I like Alain de Botton’s books, and this one has a fascinating background:

Given unprecedented access to one of the world’s busiest airports as a “writer-in-residence,” Alain de Botton found it to be a showcase for many of the major crosscurrents of the modern world—from our faith in technology to our destruction of nature, from our global interconnectedness to our romanticizing of the exotic. He met travelers from all over and spoke with everyone from baggage handlers to pilots to the airport chaplain. Weaving together these conversations and his own observations—of everything from the poetry of room service menus to the eerie silence in the middle of the runway at midnight—de Botton has produced an extraordinary meditation on a place that most of us never slow down enough to see clearly. Lavishly illustrated in color by renowned photographer Richard Baker, A Week at the Airport reveals the airport in all its turbulence and soullessness and—yes—even beauty. (Sept 21)

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary by David Sedaris: Unlike most of David Sedaris’s other books, this one is fiction. Which makes it very intriguing. (Sept 28)

The Best American Comics 2010 edited by Neil Gaiman: I always look forward to the Best American Comics collections, they highlight a lot of great work, and I often go out and read the full pieces of the things they’ve excerpted. The BAC 2010 edition is super exciting, since Neil Gaiman is editing. (Sept 28)

Knuffle Bunny Free by Mo Willems: The third of the Knuffle Bunny books (excellent children’s books by the awesome Mo Willems) – and I’ve heard this one is a tear-jerker. (Sept 28)

OCTOBER

The America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook: A New, Healthier Way to Cook Everything from America’s Most Trusted Test Kitchen: America’s Test Kitchen can do no wrong, in my opinion. Their recipes start as experiments, where they try different techniques, equipment, and ingredients to find out what recipe will turn out the best, every time. Their latest book is a spiral bound family cookbook, this time focusing on healthy recipes. I’ve made many of the light recipes published in their magazines, and they manage to cut fat and calories from comfort foods, while still keeping an amazing taste. I can’t wait to get this cookbook and start testing recipes! (Oct 1)

At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson: One of my favorite things I bought in Ireland was the British edition of this book, which came out a few months ago. :) Bill Bryson is one of my favorite authors, and this book is spectacular. I will post a review for the US release. (Oct 5)

Great House by Nicole Krauss: The History of Love is one of my top ten favorite books, and Great House is Nicole Krauss’s latest novel. Another spectacular BEA 2010 score (thanks to Michelle’s eagle-eyes); I’m looking forward to starting this one soon. (Oct 12)

And the Pursuit of Happiness by Maira Kalman: Maira Kalman is my favorite artist, and her beautiful and whimsical columns on nytimes.com are stunning. This is the second collection of her columns, and I’m excited to own her beautiful work in print. (Oct 14)

NOVEMBER

Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People by Amy Sedaris: I Like You, Hospitality Under the Influence, Amy Sedaris’s first book, was one of the most fun books to come out in 2006. Four years is too long to have to wait for another fabulous how-to book from Amy, but at least it’s almost here now! (Nov 2)

I Remember Nothing: and Other Reflections by Nora Ephron: Nora’s other books, both fiction and non-fiction, have been sharp and funny and easy to relate to. It’s likely this one will be too. (Nov 9)

The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol 1 by Mark Twain: There are no words to describe how exciting this book release is. (Twain instructed that it could not be published in full until 100 years after his death.) The early reviews have been spectacular, and I’m so excited to read it! (Nov 15)

DECEMBER


Children and the Tundra (HOW) by Dr. Doris Haggis-on-Whey & Benny Haggis-on-Whey: Dave Eggers and his brother write these spectacular, humorous encyclopedias as Dr. and Mr. Haggis-on-Whey. This is the latest volume. The HOW series is hilarious, and Doris and Benny’s characters come through in full quirkiness. (Dec 1)

What books are you looking forward to this Fall?

Teaser Tuesday

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Reading Myself To Sleep
Billy Collins

The house is all in darkness except for this corner bedroom
where the lighthouse of a table lamp is guiding
my eyes through the narrow channels of print,

and the only movement in the night is the slight
swirl of curtains, the easy lift and fall of my breathing,
and the flap of pages as they turn in the wind of my hand.

Is there a more gentle way to go into the night
than to follow an endless rope of sentences
and then to slip drowsily under the surface of a page

into the first tentative flicker of a dream,
passing out of the bright precincts of attention
like cigarette smoke passing through a window screen?

All late readers know this sinking feeling of falling
into the liquid of sleep and then rising again
to the call of a voice that you are holding in your hands,

as if pulled from the sea back into a boat
where a discussion is raging on some subject or other,
on Patagonia or Thoroughbreds or the nature of war.

Is there a better method of departure by night
than this quiet bon voyage with an open book,
the sole companion who has come to see you off,

to wave you into the dark waters beyond language?
I can hear the rush and sweep of fallen leaves outside
where the world lies unconscious, and I can feel myself

dissolving, drifting into a story that will never be written,
letting the book slip to the floor where I will find it
in the morning when I surface, wet and streaked with
daylight.

-from Questions About Angels, poems by Billy Collins

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Teaser Tuesdays is a fun weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. I change the rules a little bit to suit my own purposes: I hand pick the teaser, rather than choose one randomly. I also very frequently post more than two sentences. :)

Teaser Tuesday

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Nobody knows how many whales were killed during the great age of whaling, but one estimate suggests that about 300,000 were slaughtered in the four decades or so to 1870. That may not seem an especially vast number, but then whale numbers were not vast to begin with. In any case, the hunting was enough to drive many species to the edge of extinction. As whale numbers dwindled, whaling voyages grew longer and longer – up to four years became common and five years not unknown – and whalers were driven to search the loneliest corners of the most distant seas. All this translated into greatly increased costs. By the 1850s a gallon of whale oil sold for $2.50 – half an average worker’s weekly wage – yet still the remorseless hunt continued. Many species of whale – possibly all – would have vanished for ever but for a sequence of unlikely events that began in Nova Scotia in 1846 when a man named Abraham Gesner invented what for some time would be the most valuable product on earth.

-From At Home by Bill Bryson, page 129

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Teaser Tuesdays is a fun weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. I change the rules a little bit to suit my own purposes: I hand pick the teaser, rather than choose one randomly. I also very frequently post more than two sentences. :)

Etsy Finds: Bookplates

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I absolutely love bookplates, and looking for them on Etsy is one of my favorite routine “Etsy-checks.”

Today, since it seems like a lovely lazy Sunday afternoon activity, I thought I’d share a few favorites I’ve found lately. I will advise you to proceed with caution though… while compiling this post I bought three different sets. Many bookplates are too cute to consider resisting.

VINTAGE: $15.00 for 30-40, at RetroNorth

HANDMADE: $15.75 for 24 bookplates, blank or personalized, at The Oddest Owl

HANDMADE: $4.00 for 8 bookplates, at adorapop

VINTAGE: $8.00 for 25 bookplates, at Vintageworks

HANDMADE: $15.00 for custom Rubber Stamp, at AsspocketProductions

HANDMADE: $6.00 for 10 bookplates, at phoebe1

VINTAGE: $19.00 for 25 bookplates, at finiHome

VINTAGE: $16.00 for 30 bookplates, at mushroom and moss vintage

VINTAGE: $3.50 for 4 bookplates, from cOveTableCuriOsitIEs

Teaser Tuesday

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What kind of woman has a saffron quilt on her bed? Wears a white linen dressing gown? Keeps beside her bed a stack of gardening books? Stores all her clothes in a shabby antique wardrobe, with a mirror built into its door? Who is she when she is in this room, alone and unobserved, and in what way does that differ from the person she is when she is in a restaurant with friends or in rehearsal or engaging with members of the public? Who, in short, is Molly Fox?

From Molly Fox’s Birthday by Deirdre Madden, pages 8-9

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Teaser Tuesdays is a fun weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. I change the rules a little bit to suit my own purposes: I hand pick the teaser, rather than choose one randomly. I also very frequently post more than two sentences. :)

Library Loot 7.18.10

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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!

Library Loot July 17, 2010

I got many treats at the library yesterday – mainly due to their recently expanded Graphic Novels section, which made me incredibly happy to discover.

From top to bottom:

Circle of Friends DVD (Starring Chris O’Donnell and Minnie Driver) – Recommended to me by a friend, a must watch in prep/excitement for my trip to Ireland.

Carnet de Voyage by Craig Thompson – a graphic Travel Journal by the author of one of my favorite graphic novels, Blankets.

Someone Will Be With You Shortly by Lisa Kogan – Impulse grab, short memoir that looks endearing and funny.

Molly Fox’s Birthday by Deirdre Madden – This is the only book that I actually planned on looking for and checking out. It’s included in Barnes and Noble’s summer Discover New Authors selection, and captured my interest.

The Beats: A Graphic History edited by Paul Buhle – A good find in newly expanded Graphic Novels section.

Pride & Prejudice (graphic novel) adapted by Nancy Butler – Another good find in the Graphic Novels section.

Ghost World by Daniel Clowes – Spotted this and realized it didn’t make sense that I haven’t read it, given how much I enjoy Graphic Novels.

Since a lot of these are graphic novels*, and the ones that aren’t are fairly short, I’m hoping to read (and watch, in the case of the DVD) all of these before they’re due – something that is rarely possible with most of the stacks I bring home from the library.

*I think this post now holds the record for the number of times I’ve mentioned graphic novels in one blog post. I’ll add it to the tags just to be sure. :)

Teaser Tuesday

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To figure out how best to prevent motion sickness, you first need to figure out how best to bring it on. Aerospace research has excelled at the latter, if not the former, and perhaps nowhere more triumphantly than at the U.S. Naval Aerospace Medical Institute in Pensacola, Florida: the birthplace of the human disorientation device. In a 1962 NASA-funded study, twenty cadets agreed to be harnessed to a chair mounted on its side on a horizontal pole. Thus affixed, the men were rotated, rotisserie style, at up to thirty revolutions per minute. As a reference point, a chicken on a motorized spit typically turns at five revolutions per minute. Only eight of the twenty made it to the end of the experiment.

From Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach, page 108

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Teaser Tuesdays is a fun weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. I change the rules a little bit to suit my own purposes: I hand pick the teaser, rather than choose one randomly. I also very frequently post more than two sentences. :)

Teaser Tuesday

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In 1943, when Ireland was officially in Emergency mode, an American B-17 Flying Fortress en route from Marrakesh to England got lost and went off course. Almost out of fuel, the crew of the T’ain’t-a-Bird made a forced, unscheduled landing in White’s Marsh, outside Clonakilty. Looking out, the crew of ten thought they were in Norway, until curious locals started arriving on bicycles and enlightened them. By all accounts, they were giving a sustained and rousing welcome. Interned in O’Donovan’s Hotel in Clonakilty, the crew made merry while efforts were made to build a makeshift runway.

A Secret Map of Ireland by Rosita Boland, page 59

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Teaser Tuesdays is a fun weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. I change the rules a little bit to suit my own purposes: I hand pick the teaser, rather than choose one randomly. I also very frequently post more than two sentences. :)

Teaser Tuesday

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All immediate hints of purpose went out of the rooms themselves. Showers in kitchens, toilets in living rooms, sinks in bedrooms. It was as if Picasso were born a slumlord instead of a painter. Nothing was where you thought it would be, which would be eccentric in a mansion but was disarming in an apartment. Once, at a party, I opened a door expecting to find a toilet but found a stove instead. Just a closet with a stove in it. And a bare bulb hanging, as if to say, “Here is where we roast the children.”

-(On NYC college grad first apartments) from How Did You Get This Number by Sloane Crosley. (page 44)

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Teaser Tuesdays is a fun weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. I change the rules a little bit to suit my own purposes: I hand pick the teaser, rather than choose one randomly. I also very frequently post more than two sentences. :)