The Latest Titles

My reading continues unabated. Someone at work said something about how much I read, and I commented that I had several things going for me. First, I don't have children (with their accompanying activities). Second, neither Warren nor I watch television. Ever. Third, I usually shut down my computer by early evening, and I don't have a smart phone or even data access on my cell, so once the computer goes dark, I don't spend time on Facebook or YouTube or in other time sinks.

And fourth, and probably the most important point, I read very, very fast.

So while it is mind boggling to some that I read as much as I do, for me it is as much a part of my being as wearing glasses from the time I get up to the time I go to sleep. It's just me.

For those of you who are wondering about Warren and what he does while I read, trust me, he is not neglected. Warren's personal and professional schedules make me look like a piker. So while he is usually home while I am reading away, he is not drumming his fingers and wondering when if ever I will look up and give him attention. (In fact, while I am writing this, he is in the living room writing a grant proposal due next week.)

So what titles have I added to my list? These titles:

40. American Rust by Philipp Meyer (another working class novel I turned up at the same site as #34)
41. Travels in Siberia by Ian Frazier (this was tucked into a bag of reading material from my friend Corroto and is a non-fiction work about, wait for it, traveling in Siberia, which the author did several times in the early 2000s. A combination history, travelogue, and political commentary, it has a great opening line: "Officially, there is no such place as Siberia.")
42. Boy by Roald Dahl (the first of two memoirs that Dahl wrote in the 1980s, this takes him from childhood to adulthood, and contains his memory of the candy store that served as the takeoff point for Charlie and The Chocolate Factory)
43. Going Solo by Roald Dahl (Dahl's second memoir covers his war (WWII) years, when he was an RAF pilot until he was too severely injured and mustered out. Dahl stopped writing the chronological memoirs and went back to his children's work. Dahl did write a memoir, My Year, during the last year of his life; I have it on request at the library)
44. The Twits by Roald Dahl (this is such a bad, bad work that I would have bet money it was Dahl's last, but it right there in the middle of the 19 children's novels he wrote)
45. New and Selected Poems, Volume One by Mary Oliver (back after Christmas, I wrote that I had received this "just out" paperback from Warren, only to find when I sat down and read it through that the collection actually came out in 1992 and this edition came out in 2004. Never mind: Oliver's poems are stunning)
46. Fallingwater Rising: Frank Lloyd Wright, E. J. Kaufmann, and America's Most Extraordinary House by Franklin Toker (for someone who fell in love with Fallingwater decades before I ever saw it, this was a fascinating read, despite my irritation more than once at the author's style)
47. The Friend by Sigrid Nunez (a novel about suicide, about love, about grief, about what if, and about a Great Dane)
48. Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly (I read this novel, with strong roots in historical fact, because my friend and editor Maike Haile wrote me about it, both praising it and saying it hurt to read. It is not for the fainthearted; a significant piece of this novel centers on the concentration camp at Ravensbrΰk (all women), the sulfa experiments conducted there on the internees, and the aftermath, including bringing all the "Rabbits" to America in the 1950s for treatment.

I noted at the start of the year that I am reading down a list of new titles by women of color and that continues. Recently, serious allegations have come to light about Native American author Sherman Alexie, and in response Native American author and co-founder of Longhouse Press Tracy Rector wrote an article in which she reminds us of the contemporary Native American women authors who are often overlooked. Some of them appear on the women of color list, but there are names on Rector's list that I will be adding to the "to be read" list.

Our local library continues to transition to the new consortium but as of Thursday, the search function (within the consortium, not within the larger Search Ohio database) went live. At last! On the way home from Aldi this morning, we stopped at the library and Warren brought me the latest books that I have reserved. Truly an onward and upward moment.