There are more books to buy! I read the New York Times Book Review this morning, with my coffee, and of course I saw a couple of books that I want to get. But I'm just going to have to wait to buy these, because I have really gone overboard lately with the book-buying.
But this caught my eye: Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression, by Mildred Armstrong Kalish. Elizabeth Gilbert, who wrote the memoir Eat, Pray, Love, writes a very nice review of this memoir of a childhood on a farm during the Depression. The book sounds lovely, and upbeat, despite the hard times of its setting. Looks interesting.
Also there's a review of Marianne Wiggins's new novel, The Shadow Catcher (the first chapter is excerpted here in the NYT Review of Books). This one interests me for many reasons. First, I've always wanted to read Wiggins since I heard stories of her life with Salman Rushdie while he was condemned under the fatwa and living in hiding. Second, she has moved to Southern California, and this book is partly about L.A., and the west, which is always interesting to me as a setting. Thirdly, the book is about the photographer Edward S. Curtis, whose pictures of American Indians in the early 20th century have always fascinated me.
The photo at the top of the post is by Curtis, of "Joseph–Nez Perce," or Hienmot Tooyalakekt (1841-1904), commonly known as Chief Joseph, who was a leader of the Wallamotkin band of Nez Perce, and it's in the Collection of the Library of Congress, which is definitely worth checking out. The book review is positive, so of course this will have to go on my list.
What to do, what to do? I'll just have to wait until I can reasonably buy more books...or I can hit the library, as Dewey so wisely points out :)
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11 comments:
Or! Get them from the library!
You're right, I need to do that, too. It's hard here in my neighborhood, because my local branch is tiny, and all the good stuff goes really quickly, so you have to put your name on the waiting list...
What I should do is trek to the downtown library, where they have EVERYTHING!
oh my gosh -- i want both of these! but i have such a huge stack already here at lopez i feel guilty buyingmore. the depression one in particular -- it goes well with that book i loved by timothy egan, the worst hard time. hope it's nice in LA!
jen--clearly, I'm feeling guilty about book-buying now, too. It's nice in LA, but HOT today, not my favorite thing. You'll have to tell me more about the timothy egan book...
My problem with getting new books from the library (especially if they are not authored by well-known bestselling authors) is that I always have to wait so long before the library adds a copy to their collection...most times I cave in and buy the book myself.
Those are some really interesting titles showcased by the NYTimes, I am making a note of them, thanks, Gentle Reader.
is it just me or was the nyt book review this week ridiculously chockfull of good books? The past few weeks, I've read my e-mail and barely mustered any interest in even one book. Then, this week, I felt like I wanted every book on the list!
lotus--that's how it is here, too. The library is behind the times, and the early birds all get the books! I cave in, too!
eva--yes, it looked the same way to me--this last week was a bonanza of interesting books, after a few weeks of zip, zero, bupkis!
I guess I'm luckier than I knew! I realized I was lucky that my library has no fine system, but they also get stuff in fast. Sometimes, when I hear of a book, I can go to their website and see that the book is "in processing" and request it, and get it brand new before anyone else.
dewey--sounds like you have a well-run library system. We have some great branches and some not-so-great branches, and unfortunately, the one that is walking distance to me is only so-so. The kids' section is good, but the adults' stuff is kinda sad. I bet if I worked the system better, I'd probably be able to get new things a little faster, though...
I'm trying to avoid the library now too, and get through some of the books I've managed to accumulate over the past couple years - that said, I have about four library books sitting on my bedside table as I write!
lesley--I love the library, but I have piles of other things to get through, too. At this point, the library is just a temptation!
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