In Which I Reveal Us To The World!

I had an interview at some point this year in which the interviewer, potential boss, asked me if I had any personal blogs or sites that I maintained. Did I lie and say “no” like a reasonable person? No. No. I did not. I said “er, yes. I have a photo blog and a book blog.” Ears perked up, posture corrected, pen ready to write: “Book Blog? What’s it called?” Did I come to my senses and say something like, “Books that I like and other things?” No, I, apparently am incapable of lying and said, “um, booksforhotties?” in a questioning, hushed tone. He repeated it, laughed, and wrote it down on his already 25 page dossier he had going on me. This was one of those epic interviews that went on for 2 hours. I tried to breeze back into normal interview talk about my web skills, etc., but I do believe I’ve revealed this hardly-updated blog to a potential employer. So, um, hi Scott! What books do you like?

In other news: HAI! I haven’t updated since MARCH! That’s a long time. But, I actually love this blog and books and writing and talking about books so I couldn’t bring myself to delete it. I’m way behind on reading too. I’ve been reading more lately, but I went through a whole long period where I wasn’t doing much, but looking at the internets. I HEART Etsy, and making Treasury Lists, and I am waiting impatiently for my invitation to Pinterest! SO, as always, what are you reading? What do you recommend?

I finished Wildwood by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis not very long ago. Which I liked, and so did The Kid. Adventure, talking animals, bad queens, and bandits, what’s not to like?

And, I just finished Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan (of The Strain fame), but to be honest I wasn’t into it. It’s all about jacked up Boston boys who rob banks and when one of them decides to leave the neighborhood and his friends to start a new life with a person he so happened to kidnap in a bank robbery, things start to fall apart. I read the whole thing, but I just didn’t love it. It was fantastically written in parts, especially from the point of view of the protagonist, but the female characters were so cliche: the absent mother, the whore, the victim, the saintly teacher. Barf.

So, come back hotties! Tell me what you’re up to!

In Which All Is Lost and Found Again

I’ve not finished any of the books I listed in my last post. I told you I am experiencing a bit of ADD when it comes to reading so far in 2011, right? I did manage to finish a book, but it’s not on the list. It was the 3rd book in the Flavia De Luce series by Alan Bradley A Red Herring Without Mustard, which was just as good as the first two in the series. Flavia is still precociously solving mysteries and loving chemistry. She’s still 11.  That said, Red Herring and the rest are lovely cozy mysteries with a heroine you can root for. I had pre-ordered that book months ago, and forgot about it and then it showed up in the mail. Which, as we know, is AWESOME! Who doesn’t love getting stuff in the mail that you forgot about? It’s like sending yourself a present. Really.

And now that I’m done with Flavia, I am not reading any of those books listed below either, instead I’ve got a book called The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley. Which came used from abebooks.com and (The Book Man). And speaking of surprise presents that you get in the mail, The Winter Sea was wrapped in a page from a magazine with an image of Prince Charles kissing Princess Diana. Lovely touch. The Winter Sea came recommended on a number of lists. So, thanks  Book Man. You can’t get that kind of awesome in an electronic format.  No sir. Please keep your Kindle over there, mmmkay.

The Book Man also has Bookstore Dogs which makes me want to road trip it to Canadia.

Birdie in the Bokstore

Birdie in the bookstore

Originally uploaded by Steven & Monica

Favorite local, independent bookstore: Valley Booksellers in Stillwater, MN. They have birds, and if you ask nicely they’ll run the train that’s on the ceiling! What’s your favorite indie book shop?