i can't really sing, so

I think I read a lot more than usual this semester? My Goodreads "progress" doesn't indicate this for a few reasons-- some books I read don't have Goodreads entries, three books I read are registered on there as one book, since I downloaded it as one on my Kindle, etc. But yeah: books read so far in 2014, according to my Goodreads account: 43/52 OCTOBER The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery I read this at kind of the same time as my friend Kathleen, and we both felt similarly about it. She was more excited about it at first and then her attention waned. My attention felt lackluster at the beginning, but as I am a "patient completist" I powered through. The ending of this book is one of those wait-I-take-it-back-now-I-want-more sorts of phenomenal. Barbery's ability to make you feel for and connect with her characters is unbearably good in the second half of this novel. I only wish I hadn't read an explanation of what the book is about...

I've been doing social media for the upcoming art/lit/small press/poetry extravaganza PHILALALIA, where Gigantic Sequins will be tabling AND co-hosting an on-site event as well as kicking off the first "official" off-site event of the event at Tattooed Moms along with Philadelphia Review of Books and The Head & the Hand Press.  The on-site events' schedule is on the official PHILALALIA site , and each and every one of them is FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. So please come out to the book fair and make some time to stop by one or more of the great on-site events. I am of course partial to the GS/Apiary reading, looking forward to the Temple Contemporary Publication Studio Presentation and their event Thursday night featuring the Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate of Philly, and how can you go wrong with Eileen Myles Potluck Brunch? You just can't. There's so much great lit-ness happening during the 3-day period of the whole shabang, though, that I wa...