Hindsight this week
It’s been kind of a crazy few weeks. Food poisoning threw me off my game. Then the sub-supervisor under me went into labor six weeks early, doubling my work load six weeks earlier than anticipated (she and baby are fine). I thought I’d get a chance to write more while I was visiting my parents this week but, thanks to early baby, wound up working more than I would have liked and didn’t get to bank any posts.
I did, however, buy an absolute ton of books, as per usual when I visit my parents. I specifically timed my visit with the Green Valley Book Fair, which is wonderful if you’ve never been. Between the usual Goodwill hopping, the book fair, and a visit to the Midlothian Book Exchange I picked up Refuge (Terry Tempest Williams), Unaccustomed Earth, A Visit from the Goon Squad, two Joshilyn Jacksons, Behold the Dreamers, The Bean Trees, NW (Zadie Smith), The Circle, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Among the Ten Thousand Things, Carry On Warrior, a Gloria Naylor, two Laini Taylors, Cloud Atlas, and A Brief History of Seven Killings. I also went through my mother’s eight hundred books (I come by my book hoarding honestly) and picked out several to borrow. Of course, those wouldn’t fit in my suitcase so my mother is shipping them–I think we are literally going to have to buy another book case before they arrive. Oops?
While home I did get to get some reading in, finishing The Power, American Fire, and The Floating World. I also finished Hum If You Don’t Know the Words and Forward by Abby Wambach on audio. I started but abandoned Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang. I got through the first two stories but couldn’t push any farther. Zhang’s stories had details that seemed only to shock–while I can do gross when it adds to the story, the fecal matter and vaginal explorations here were pointless except to show that millennial women can apparently be edgy too. I can see why Lena Dunham thought it was great and wanted it on her imprint–that probably should have tipped me off that it wasn’t for me.
Foresight for the coming week
The next several weeks are going to be nuts at work, so we’ll see how that goes for my reading. I’m currently in the middle of The Music of the Ghosts for Diverse Book Club and not sure I’ll manage to do more than finish that this week. It’s good, but slow going. If I do, I’ve got So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed for MMD Book Club discussion next week to finish so that’s probably next. I read and really enjoyed The Power and Forward so one of those will be on the blog this week along with The Floating World.
Are you reading anything good? I’d love to hear in the comments.