i can't really sing, so

As Goodreads keeps track of my "2015 Book Challenge", I won't be doing so here. Instead, I'll just be writing about the books I read each month. Note that I don't really consider what I write here to be "reviews" on what I've read, but more like notes and thoughts. Anyway, I spent most of the month reading a novel that I am still not done with: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. It's excellent, and I can't wait to tell you more about it when I'm through. Though I am so enveloped in its world, I am not necessarily looking forward to being finished with it. That's how I know I am really loving a book. Here's what I DID finish reading last month: BOOKS READ JANUARY 2015 The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Little Brown, 2002) I was nearly done with this towards the end of December, but the holidays kind of got in the way with  finishing. I didn't want to rush just to finish it by a specific calendar date. I loved the narrator in this b...

A squirrel and a bird are having a conversation outside of my window. They don't sound too angry yet, it hasn't escalated, but they don't sound happy, either. Now, they stopped. Here are the books I read, and a little bit about them, in May and June 2013: Double Game by Sophie Calle I had this shelved under "fiction" because I received it during my Birthday Book Club in 2012 from a fiction writer, LaTanya McQueen. It's a beautiful object of a book, with ribbon to tie its illustrated hardcover binding together, semi-glossed pages, and pictures galore. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I chose "fiction". In reality, I need a sort of "art book" section on my shelves-- though art books tend to be taller and more "cofeetablebook"-like, this would definitely classify itself as an art book. The "double game" is Sophie Calle removing herself sharing the reality of a fiction written about her and then reinventing hers...

I slowed down a bit in March. I would need to read 5/month to reach my goal, and I only read 4 in March. I had to read along with my Experiencing Lit class, so I reread a number of short stories and much of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, though only books I read cover to cover count. Rereads do not count, so even if I had read Huck Finn cover to cover, it wouldn't have been added to the goal. Mission:  to read 52 books in 2012 Status : 17/52 Books Read, March:  4 Notes on Books Read: If I Falter at the Gallows by Edward Mullany This book of poetry put out by Publising Genius is amazing and you should buy it right now. Seriously. It's on sale for $10.00. I got it at AWP and had it signed, and I opened it randomly while sitting at the GS table and started reading. Well, I kept reading it. I in fact finished it while I was in Chicago. A number of its pages are dog-eared, and though the poems are powerful on their own, I think that this collection as a whol...

I drove to Chicago and back for the AWP conference in late February through to earlier this month. Here are some notes on the states that I drove through. Pennsylvania is full of old dilapidated barns. People can actually drive in PA as long as you are not near a major city (Philly/Pittsburgh); if you are near a major city, they don't understand the "keep to the right/pass on the left" thing that makes highway driving amazing. I drove through four mountains, one back to back. I don't think I had ever driven through a mountain before.  On the road again! in PA Ohio has the best rest stops. They are clean and bright and very modern and make you feel welcome. I stayed overnight in Ohio and went through a drive-through for the first time in, like, forever? Since high school maybe? The food was actually good. Then I took a bath. That was nice. Red Roof Inn, mofos! Free wi-fi! Indiana was very windy on the way there, and not as windy on the way back. But it...