twogerbils reading in 2014

Books read in 2014

The Valley of Amazement - China, novel
Bellman & Black - a sort of ghost story
The American Way of Poverty - social commentary
Independent People - classic Icelandic lit
The Best Ghost Stories of J.S. LeFanu - classic ghost stories
The New Gypsies - photo essay
Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors - photo essay
The Bridal Wreath - classic Scan lit
Dracula - classic genre lit
Madam Crowl's Ghost and Other Tales of Mystery - classic ghost stories
Gothic Tales - classic genre
The Mistress of Husaby - classic Scan lit
Growth of the Soil - classic Scan lit
Kristin Lavransdatter - classic Scan lit
Independent People - classic Scan lit
Speak Daggers to Her - Wiccan cozy
Book of Moons - Wiccan cozy
The Bowl of Night - Wiccan cozy
Does My Head Look Big In This? - Muslim YA
Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - world religions
If I Should Speak - Muslim fiction
Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories - classic period
Of Gods & Holidays: The Baltic Heritage - Baltic paganism
Was Pflanzen Wissen - Botany
Beyond Religion: A Personal Program for Building a Spiritual Life Outside the Walls of Traditional Religion - religion for non-religious folk
The Northern Crusades - history
City Magick: Spells, Rituals, and Symbols for the Urban Witch - Wiccan mostly
Saving Face: The Art and History of the Goalie Mask - hockey
You Are Your Own Gym: The Bible of Bodyweight Exercises - Fitness
Witchcraft: A History - Witchcraft
Ottomania - Cultural history
Between the Pipes: A Revealing Look at Legendary Goalies - hockey
Fragile Things - Gaiman short stories
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter - fantasy; alternate history
The Small Hand and Dolly - ghost stories
A Practical Heathen's Guide to Asatru - heathenism
Essential Asatru: Walking the Path of Norse Paganism - heathenism
Heathenry: A Study of Asatru in the Modern World - heathenism
The Litter of the Law - cozy mystery
The Diva Haunts the House - cozy mystery
Blackberry Pie Murder - cozy mystery
The Summer Book - Scan lit
Purge - Estonian lit
Death by Darjeeling - cozy mystery
Smoke and Mirrors - Gaiman short stories
A Vampire's Saving Embrace - Supernatural romance, local author
Sea Ridge - Local author, self published, fantasy
The Big Book of Ohio Ghost Stories - Local ghost stories, local author
The Haunted Looking Glass: Ghost Stories Chosen and Illustrated by Edward Gorey - Classic ghost stories
It Takes a Witch - cozy mystery
Wicked Witch Murder - cozy mystery
The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library - cozy mystery
Home for the Haunting - cozy mystery
A Potion to Die For - cozy mystery
The Good, the Bad, and the Witchy - cozy mystery
Lady of Ashes - historical mystery
Pigeon Pie Mystery - historical mystery
Stolen Remains - historical mystery
Delicious! - a food novel
I Am Malala - autobiography
Assaulted Pretzel - cozy set in Amish country
Sweet Tea Revenge - tea shop cozy
Steeped in Evil - tea shop cozy
Midnight in Siberia - non-fiction
Clouds of Witness - classic British mystery
The Organized Mind - non-fiction, psychology, neuroscience
Shunned and Dangerous - cozy set in Amish country
Lair of the White Worm - gothic / horror
The Wishing Thread - chick lit, magical realism
Fallen Asleep While Young - Nobel Prize Scan lit

Some Scandinavian authors I'd like to read this year -

Frans Eemil Sillanpää
Tove Jansson
Halldór Laxness
Sigrid Undset
Knut Hamsun
Gunnar Gunnarsson

Finished reading Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield and am a few pages away from finishing The American Way of Poverty by Sasha Abramsky. So technically finished in 2013, not 2014.

I'm not one for writing 'book reviews' much, so I doubt my thoughts on finished books will be that inspiring.

Bellman & Black - Rooks, Victorian funerary culture, the color black, death, the stories of our lives. I firmly believe our lives are stories, and this was that type of book.

The American Way of Poverty - realistic, introspective. The first half related the "voices of poverty," so more personal stories of individuals, the second half offered the author's policy suggestions. Overall good, but the individual stories could have been more compellingly told. Being a realist myself, unfortunately I think income inequality will only continue to grow in the US.

Spent some more quiet time reading Independent People - sheep, sheep, pagan pre-Christian undertones, dogs, tapeworms, coffee, sheep, more sheep, and did I mention TAPEWORMS?

Amy - Did you enjoy Bellman & Black? I loved The Thirteenth Tale and was excited to find Setterfield had another book out this year, but I found myself somewhat disappointed with Bellman & Black - lots of atmosphere, lots of description of the store/business aspects, but something was missing for me.

ETA: We share a love of ghost stories, so I'll be curious to see what you get up to!

Enjoy your week of quiet relaxation!

Fanny - Yes, I did enjoy Bellman & Black, although I guess I thought there would be more of a direct ghost story aspect to it. I'd like to read The Thirteenth Tale. Nice to hear that you're a ghost story fan, too!

RidgewayGirl - Thanks! Hoping for a big snow storm to shut down my work, then I can get even more quiet reading in ;)

Great selection of Scandinavian writers there! I love Tove Jansson. Is Halldor Laxness enjoyable to read, tapeworms aside? I studied Icelandic at uni but still haven't read any Laxness, either in translation or in the original. I used to read fairly fluently in Norwegian, but my God Icelandic is difficult >.

Erratic_Charmer - Wow! I'd love to study Icelandic. I'd love to visit there, too. Have you been? I studied German at uni. Laxness has been very enjoyable, I'm about half way through Independent People. I'm thinking Iceland's Bell will be next.

Time to catch up.

We had a snow day this past week, or rather a cold day, with wind chills at -20. That day I finished reading Best Ghost Stories of J.S. LeFanu. Two still stick out most in my mind.

Green Tea is roughly about a man who drinks too much green tea and ends up having visions of an evil monkey with red eyes who eggs him on to do bad things. The story cracked me up, because I'm a tea drinker, and my husband is always blaming everything on "too much tea." So this is the too much tea story, and I guess there really is such a thing as too much tea. I'll know things are bad if I start seeing a monkey following me around.

Carmilla is a story about a lesbian vampire. It is a story that supposedly influenced Bram Stoker when he wrote Dracula. A lot of the most familiar motifs are there in the story - decapitation, driving through with a stake, two needle like marks on the neck, unaccounted for disappearances from a bedroom, disdain for Christian symbols. It was a good creepy story.

Today finished the text (there wasn't too much text, it was more photographs) of an absolutely fascinating book -- Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors. It's based on an actual ethnoarchaeological study of 32 American families and their stuff.

The book is organized by parts of the home, or function in the home. So there's a chapter on food, and one on the kitchen, master bedroom, bathroom, etc. It has lots and lots of pictures documenting how these people live their lives in their own homes. All of the families are dual income, middle class, live in Los Angeles, and all of them have at least on child between the ages of 7-12.

Basically, it's a documentary of hyper-consumerism in 21st century American. It documents the mountains of mountains of stuff that crowd out our lives.

It was a very inspiring book for me. I'm not much of a stuff person, and after reading this book, I'm apparently really not much of a stuff person compared to the average American. Nevertheless, I've downsized -- as in just plain gotten rid of -- even more stuff from our 1400 foot condo in the course of reading this book. The fact that we don't have kids helps exponentially with managing clutter.

Wow Life at Home in the Twenty-first Century: 32 Families Open their Doors sounds like a brilliant contemporary document.

Does collecting books and CD's count against my little battle against consumerism I wonder.

Kids = constantly buying more stuff. But I would like the wider perspective. I think I might find Life at home in the Twenty-first Century fascinating.

Great selection of Scandinavian authors - I will be curious to see what you end up reading...

Based on the study done in Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century, CDs and books count towards overconsumerism and clutter. Personal opinions may vary.

>9 twogerbils: Nope, never been to Iceland, but it's on the dream list! Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century sounds really interesting and definitely like it would be a spur to declutter. I have a love/hate relationship with 'stuff'....

I realized I never wrote up anything about The New Gypsies: Iain McKell, and it was on my original list of books for the new year. It is a collection of photographs with three very short essays. The photographer traveled with a group of Irish Travellers for 10 years. The Travellers are sometimes called 'white gypsies' or 'pikies' but those are pejorative terms. I have kind of a fascination with gypsies that goes back to when I was in law school and wrote two seminar papers on them. I admire their culture that seems so free to go against the grain of modern 21st century life. This particular group of Travellers has given up the use of cars and travel by horse and wagon. They travel to festivals, raise their kids, pick up odd jobs, sell homemade items. It seems like quite a romantic life. The photographs in the book -- mostly portraits --- are stunning.

Amy, with regards to the Scandinavian lit you hope to read, just wondering if you are familiar with Norvik Press? http://www.norvikpress.com/new-publications.php I read a couple of classics from this list (Wagner, Lagerlof), which I enjoyed (and there's a few I ought to put on my wishlist!)

The New Gypsies sounds curious. Also intrigued by your curiosity about gypsies. I don't know much about them.

I'm kind of surprised someone doing a special project thing about them would label their book "gypsies," which is indeed a derogatory term for the Romani people, among some other traveling peoples. Seems very much the opposite of what one would want to do, that it would encourage people to continue using that word and keep the ignorance of how negative it is.

>19 .Monkey.:

Depends on the perspective really. Bulgaria has a big gypsy population. The PC word for them in the last 2 decades or so is Romani (translated into Bulgarian of course) and a lot of the younger ones use it - but somehow it has a negative connotation - most of the people that call themselves that are actually criminal and scream of discrimination daily (because for example their power just got cut because they did not pay their bill again -- it had got to a point where it never happens anymore because it leads to lawsuits immediately - while the non-Romani population cannot even sue when they do not pay their bills and loose power). The older ones and the ones that grew up the old way refer to themselves as gypsies (in translation but the Bulgarian word has the same connotation as the English one). Both terms have negative connotations but the PC one is worse in a way...

>17 avaland: I hadn't heard of Norvik Press. I will check it out. Thanks for the tip!

>18 dchaikin: >19 .Monkey.: >20 AnnieMod: I like your thoughts on the gypsies/Romani/Travellers - they're a hard group to pin down, I guess, even as to what to call them.

Hi Amy! Just catching up with your thread, and wanted to say that I'm also very interested by your review of The New Gypsies.

I wanted to mention that about this time I last year I was staying with my photographer brother and enjoying going through his collection of photo-books. Gypsies by Joseph Koudelka really stood out for me. It's a beautiful work with page after page of stunning photographs of Roma from across Europe in the 1960s and early '70s (Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, France and Spain). There's also a very interesting essay in it on the history of the Roma.

Definitely one of my 2013 favourites and one of the most powerful collection of photographs I've ever seen.

Hi Polaris! I just ordered the book through Search Ohio. I've really been into photography collections lately, so I can't wait to see Gypsies! Thanks for the tip.

I finished The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan. The main character is a half American half Chinese woman who becomes a courtesan in Shanghai like her mother. It has a tear-jerker ending like The Joy Luck Club. I thought the first 200 pages were kind of tedious, but it improved along the way. It was good, not great overall. Did a great job of exploring the complexities of human relationships, especially mother-daughter.

Now I have Independent People to finish and I'll be the whole way through my start of the year reading list. Time's flying already.

Also finished The Bridal Wreath by Sigrid Undset. It's the first book of the Kristin Lavransdatter series, which takes place in Norway in the Middle Ages. I read most of the book on the Kindle app on my iphone, but I switched to a real book to finish it up. I've ditched my cell phone, and I don't have a regular Kindle or other ebook devise, so all my reading will be in paper from now on. Guess I'm old fashioned like that.

Unfortunately I read The Bridal Wreath in fits and starts, which I think detracted from my enjoyment of the book as a whole. But I already have the second book lined up - The Mistress of Husaby (I'm reading the original translations by Charles Archer; in later translation this book is called The Wife.

My next group of books is --

Dracula by Bram Stoker
Madam Crowl's Ghost and Other Tales of Mystery by J.S. Le Fanu
Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Mistress of Husaby by Sigrid Undset
Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun

That should be enough gothic/ghost stories and Scandinavian lit to take me into the spring.

I just read Kristin Lavransdatter last year and loved it. I read the Tina Nunnally translation which is the only complete English translation.

>26 rebeccanyc: Oh know, you mean the earlier translation by Archer isn't complete? :0

>25 twogerbils: Ditched your cell phone? Good for you :) I've kept mine (a very old hand-me-down that everyone describes as 'cute' and 'retro' *barf*) but ditched Facebook....

Enjoy the Kristin Lavransdatter series. It's one of my favourites.

#27 That's what the Translator's note to my copy of KL says. Specifically:

"The three volumes of Kristin Lavransdatter were translated into English in the 1920s, but the translators chose to impose an artificially archaic style on the text which completely misrepresented Undset's beautifully clear prose. They filled the text with stilted dialogue (using words such as 'tis, 'twas, I trow, thee, thou, hath, and doth) and they insisted on a convoluted syntax. . . .

"Misunderstandings and omissions also marred the English translation from the 1920s. One crucial passage in The Wreath was even censored, perhaps thought to be too sexually explicit for readers at the time. Most serious of all, certain sections of The Wife, scattered throughout the novel and totaling approximately eighteen pages, were deleted. Many are key passages, such as Kristin's lengthy dialogue with Saint Olav in Christ Church, Gunnulf's meditation on the mixture of jealousy and love he has always felt toward Erlend, and Ragnfrid's anguished memory of her betrothal to Lavrans. I have restored all of these passages, which offer the reader essential insight into the underlying spiritual and psychological turmoil of the story. The Penguin Classics edition is thus the first unabridged English translation of Undset's trilogy."

>28 Erratic_Charmer: Yup, I've gone back to 100% no cell phone. Good for you with no Facebook! I'd ditch fb, too, but I think my in-laws would disinherit me.

>29 rebeccanyc: Oh my!! I had been reading the earlier translation, checked out from the university library here. That sounds like some scary omissions / poor translating. Since I haven't started the second book yet, I think I'll skip over to the Penguin edition. Thanks so much for the tip. And yes, the I trows, haths and doths in the version I read was a little annoying.

>11 baswood:, bas, I like to think of books and music as collections, so you really only have two objects there and that means each object can have as many pieces as you want. How's that for rationalizing?

>31 twogerbils: do skip to the Penguin and even reread Volume I. You won't believe the difference.

Finished reading Independent People, which could be called Pig Headed People. The ending was sad and touching. The whole time I was guessing exactly in what time it was set - I figured in the 20th century, but wasn't exactly sure when. Then WWI broke out, to the advantage of the Icelandic people, and I finally knew for sure. I think Iceland's Bell will be up next for Icelandic literature at some point this year yet.

Back to reading Dracula. --

"I pray you, be seated and sup how you please. You will, I trust, excuse me that I do not join you; but I have dined already, and I do not sup."

Somehow I loved that line, and laughed that in the edition I'm reading, it required a footnote explaining that in the Victorian era, one dined in the afternoon and ate supper in the evening. I always say "supper" for my evening meal, unless I'm eating out at a fancy restaurant.

>33 twogerbils: In Yorkshire, people still have 'dinner' in the afternoon but the evening meal is 'tea.' Still not something the Count would partake of, I suppose.

>34 Erratic_Charmer:, Huh, I would have guessed that 'tea' would have been the meal around 11, or maybe 3.

Time for something less serious than serious literature, or even serious vampires.

Just requested three books from the Bast Mystery series by Rosemary Edghill -- about a Wiccan amateur sleuth.
Speak Daggers to Her
Book of Moons
The Bowl of Night

Learned that Rosemary Edghill co-wrote with Marion Zimmer Bradley on Ghostlight, Witchlight, Gravelight and Heartlight.

Hi - Very much enjoyed catching up on your thread! The Gypsies books interest me. I picked up one last year about their music but haven't read it yet. I went back and watched the movie King of the Gypsies recently. Do you know anything, have any comments about that story?

Time to catch up. I needed a break from the 19th century, so last weekend I finished up Bell, Book, and Murder by Rosemary Edghill -- it combines three books - Speak Daggers to Her, Book of Moons, and The Bowl of Night. It's a fun cozy mystery series, with a Wiccan amateur sleuth from NYC. All three books take place in the 1990s, so it's a fun blast from the past. Super quick read - read the majority of the three books in one lazy afternoon in bed.

With the Olympics on, I've been spending a little less time with my nose in a book than I normally would. But, I finished up Does My Head Look Big In This? on the train this morning. It's a YA book, and I can't say the last time I've read a YA book, probably a Harry Potter book, and I gave up on those about three books in.

I picked up Does My Head Look Big In This? through my searching for ideas around the idea of modesty in dress. I'm not a religious person in a mainstream sense, but I'm nevertheless attracted to the concept of modest dress, especially for women. Now I'm not dressing like I'm Amish or anything, but I've been wearing pants or very long skirts, long sleeves, and about half the time even something on my head in public.

Anyhow, that's how I came up with this book, which is about a Muslim teenager in Australia who decides to wear the hijab full time. It's a cute book, kind of preachy with the way we should all respect each others differences and cultures, but fun regardless. And I learned a little about Muslim culture, too. I work on a college campus, and I'm always admiring the women students who wear the hijab - they look so refined, elegant, and put together.

Finished up Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell. Gaskell is one of the main writers of ghost stories from the Victorian era, although this particular book wasn't really about ghosts, but rather typical Gothic topics like death, family curses, old castles, that kind of fun stuff.

The story I liked best was Lois the Witch, which incorporates historical characters and events with fiction into a story about the Salem witch hunt. On the historical side, there's figures like Cotton Mather, and the guy accused of witchcraft who wouldn't plead 'guilty' or 'not guilty', so he was pressed to death.

The main fictional character is Lois, an orphan from England who gets sent to Massachusetts to live with her relatives, and eventually dies accused as a witch. It's a good study of the social and psychological pressures that likely contributed to the witch hunt craze.

Lately I've been reading Dracula - the classic version -- and a book on ethnic Euro-American pagan religions that could be used a textbook for a comparative religions class.

Elizabeth Gaskell is one of those writers I keep meaning to get around to. I love Gothic stuff, so maybe this is the place to start.

I think Elizabeth Gaskell was a very fine writer indeed, based on my reading of North and South comparable to Charles Dickens and so I was pleased to read your thoughts on Gothic tales. One for the wish list.

I've like everything I've read by Gaskell, but I wasn't aware of the Gothic Tales. They go on the wish list!

Think I'll check out the Does My Head Look Big. and Yay my library has it!

>41 fannyprice: fannyprice: >42 baswood: baswood: >43 japaul22: japaul22: Glad to see that Elizabeth Gaskell has a small following!

>44 mkboylan: mkboylan: Hope you like it!

The other week I finished up Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives. I picked it up because I was interested in reading more about Romuva, which is Lithuanian reconstructionist paganism, and there's not a whole lot written about it. I had never heard of Romuva until about two months ago, although I've always been proud of my Lithuanian heritage on my dad's side, and of the fact that Lithuania didn't officially convert to Christianity until 1387, the last European nation to do so. The Romuva chapter talks about the Lithuanian gods and goddesses and how people in Lithuania and the U.S. today celebrate various holidays.

The other chapters were also mostly on other ethnically based reconstructionist pagan religions - like Druidry, Asatru and Stregheria, and there was a chapter on pagans in the U.S. military.

As a follow up, I've borrowed two more books on Lithuanian dainos (folksongs) and mythology and traditional culture. And this weekend I read another big chunk of Dracula.

With the weather shutting down the university yet again this winter (we have a president from Florida, yay!), I got to finish up Dracula while curled up with a cat and a blanket. Given my genre tastes, I'm surprised I hadn't read Dracula before, but I hadn't, so there it is. I think I loved every little thing about it, from the 19th century technology, to the proto neuroscience, the folk superstitions, to the unnecessary footnotes - yes, I know that Bucharest is the capital of Romania, but thanks for reminding me. Now I'll need to read Frankenstein.

Then I went over to Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun, and about fifty pages into it, I realized that I've read it before. And I think I remember specifically when - in 1999, the year my dad died. I don't know why I read it then, but I do remember thinking at the time what an amazing work of literature it is. Even though the title obviously didn't stick with me, I'm glad to be rereading it. I think I must be part Scandinavian, even though my folks have only ever claimed German, Irish and Lithuanian.

"Lithuania didn't officially convert to Christianity until 1387"

That is my trivia for the day. (Although you posted it a few days ago) I'm so curious why, now.

>49 dchaikin: dchaikin: Lithuania was being threatened by the Teutonic Knights, with their Baltic crusades, and the Lithuanian king Jogaila wanted an alliance with Poland, so he married a Polish princess and converted. So it was a political move.

Thanks for the explanation. What was Lithuania at the time before conversion? From your post in 47 (>47 twogerbils:) I would suspect they had some kind of unique-to-Lithuania paganism.

Finished reading Madam Crowl's Ghost and other Tales of Mystery by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Le Fanu is an Irish writer of French Huguenot descent who was most famous for writing Victorian era ghost stories. This volume repeated some of the stories I had read earlier (like about the creepy Madam Crowl), and introduced me to a few new ones. There were plenty of fairies, curses, castles, moors, ghosts, banshees and the like - just the type of stuff I like in a good collection of ghost stories. There was also plenty of 19th century Irish dialect, which isn't always easy to decipher, but I'm getting better at it as I read more in the genre.

Seems like this year in terms of my planned reading, I've been reading groups of about five books at a time, with a couple others thrown in unplanned along the way. My unplanneds recently have been about Lithuania.

From the current preplanned group I'm working on, I'm reading Kristin Lavransdatter II: The Wife and Growth of the Soil, so firmly in Scandinavia and loving it.

Looking forward to warmer weather has got me thinking about my next group of books, and I think I have them pinned down and requested through the right library channels -

Iceland's Bell by Halldor Laxness - sticking to my Scandinavian reads in 2014 plan

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne - going along with the Dracula theme of classic genre novels that I actually haven't read yet

The Haunted Looking Glass: Ghost Stories Chosen and Illustrated by Edward Gorey - because there's never enough ghost stories

If I Should Speak by Umm Zakiyyah - this is the book chosen for a campus-wide reading event sponsored by our multicultural affairs office

Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories - Volume II - this is the only one of the bunch that I actually own myself. I used to have the first volume, but I lost it, I think on a train, or maybe a plane.

>48 twogerbils: - President from Florida - LOL - good one

>53 twogerbils: Excellent selection

Finished reading Of Gods & Holidays: The Baltic Heritage, another of the relatively few books in English about Baltic mythology and reconstructionist ethnic religions. Aside from the purely factual aspects of the book, it was a annoyingly difficult book to get through because the editing, translating and just plain old proof reading was so bad. But the book explains the names and natures of the old Lithuanian pantheon, and gives an idea of how people celebrated the seasonal holidays. The reconstuctionist Lithuanian pagan religion is called Romuva.

Spent more time reading Kristin Lavransdatter and If I Should Speak.

Been in the mood to brush up on German, so I thought I'd check out what Project Gutenberg had to offer. I'm a big fan of Project Gutenberg - I discovered Elizabeth Gaskell through the site, and have read several great Poe stories.

I feel like I've hit the jackpot with Gutenberg today, considering my recent Dracula kick, and my general love of the supernatural genre. I found "Vampyrismus von Herrn Baron Gerhard van-Swieten verfasset, aus dem Franzoesischen ins Deutsche uebersetzet, und als ein Anhang der Abhandlung des Dasyens der Gespenster beigeruecket." So it's a short chapter on vampires, and it was published in Augsburg in 1768, putting it well before Herrn Dracula.

There are three parts -

"Vom Vampyrismus ueberhaupt"
"Ob die Koerper der Vampyren faulen?"
"Ob die Vampyren die Lebendigen durch Erscheinungen beunruhigen?"

Here's the full text - http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30886/30886-h/30886-h.htm

So, I will be snuggling up with some 18th century vampyres this afternoon! :) And the kids reading the Twilight books thought they had it good...

I've read the chapter (it was really short). The author applies some good Enlightenment common sense to debunk the superstitions surrounding vampires, and even offers some heartfelt sympathy for those wrongly accused of being vampires.

I was mostly interested in the folk beliefs about vampires, and there were some good tidbits in the text.

The method of killing one is what's expected: "Man stossete dem Vampyre einen sehr spitzigen Pfahl durch die Brust, und durch den ganzen Koerper. Hierauf wurde ihm der Kopf abgehauen. Alles wurde verbrannt, und die Asche in die Grube zusammen gescharret."

People believed that the bodies of vampires don't rot in the grave: "die Koerper der Todtenzauberer oder Vampyren nicht faulen, sondern ganz, und beisammen bleiben."

And people are visited by vampires in various animal forms: "Andere haben geglaubt, sie sehen oder hoeren einen Hund, ein Kalb, ein Schwein, ein Kalbskopf &c."

And finally, the belief in vampires only persists in certain places, certainly not in Enlightened Germany: "Nur in Ungarn, Maehren, Pohlen und Schlesien findet sie ihre Anhaenger." Figures.

How lovely! I wish I still remembered any of my German, but it's been almost 20 years (OMG) at this point.

>58 fannyprice: I try to keep up with reading German, but often in fits and starts. I need to be more consistent with it.

Finished up two books over the weekend. One was a nice little collection of classic ghost stories -- The Haunted Looking Glass: Ghost Stories Chosen by Edward Gorey. One of the memorable ones was The Judge's House written by Bram Stoker, which featured lots of tea and rats -- two things dear to my heart (I have pet rats and a pantry packed with tea).

The other book I finished up is on a reading list for a campus diversity inclusion event that's coming up on campus later this month. It's If I Should Speak. It's the story of an African American college student who ends up rooming with two Muslims and ultimately converts herself. The writing was adequate at best, but at least I learned a little more about Islam than I did before reading it. I'll be curious to see how the book discussion goes.

>60 twogerbils: and I hope you will let us know about that discussion.

Recently finished Kristin Lavransdatter II: The Wife, was surprised that the heroine's husband was tortured on the rack at the end. But then again, the novel does take place in the 13th century. Will be reading the third book of the trilogy sometime yet this year, I hope.

And the other day I went to the book discussion on campus for If I Should Speak, which is about the African-American college student who becomes Muslim. I had absolutely no idea what to expect. It was held in this fun multicultural meeting place, and the discussion was geared to helping undergrad students gain self-confidence. As far as I could tell, there were no Muslim students there, so no insider insights. But there were a lot of African-American students, and a couple Asian students. It was a great experience. And I got the impression that that organizers of the event might hit me up for some volunteering -- one of the services provided at the multicultural center is a mentoring program for transfer students.

Loved all of Kristin Lavransdatter, and fascinating about the book discussion and the possiblity of your volunteering.

I have a bit of Library Thing catching up to do. I think I've finished four books since I've last posted anything.

Was Pflanzen Wissen (What a Plant Knows) - I read this in German just as a little practice in the language. I go back and forth with keeping up with reading in German. It's a popular science book about how plants sense their surroundings, as in do they hear, feel, see, etc. It was pretty cool, I like plants, at least to the extent I can say that I have a condo full of houseplants and a membership to the botanical garden.

Beyond Religion: A Personal Program for Building a Spiritual Life Outside the Walls of Traditional Religion - When people say "I'm spiritual, but not religious" - this book is what they mean. It's written by an ex-minister become psychologist, and the main part covers chapters on different non-religion paths to spirituality. Things like art, myth, nature, relationships, even therapy or counseling.

The Northern Crusades - I've been on a bit of a Northern Europe kick this year, and this book follows right along with that. It's about the Teutonic Knights and the conversion to Christianity of various northern European tribes. I felt like I had a special "in" with this book, since I've actually been to Malbork Castle in Poland (Marienburg), the headquarters of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia. Even though the castle was partially destroyed in WWII and has since been rebuilt, it's still the largest brick building in Europe.

City Magick: Spells, Rituals, and Symbols for the Urban Witch - This was one of the books recommended on non-Wiccan witchcraft on a blog I read. Beyond Religion was another. In some parts, this one was exceptionally hokey. But some of the chapters were meaningful for me - like the ones about animal totems, modern runes, and using word associations or sigils. I really like the idea of finding the sacred in the mundane (and modern) world, and in a couple parts this book picked up on that concept.

Going forward - I have shoulder surgery scheduled in June and the surgeon told me people who get this surgery are usually off work for a month. So, I'm lining up the books! I have a few classics already at home (Iceland's Bell, The House of Seven Gables, and Growth of the Soil). Yesterday I requested three books on hockey - one of them is on the art of hockey goalie masks. This year I became a born again hockey fan, and only now am I starting to read about the sport. Really looking forward to those. Plus, by then the Stanley Cup will be over, and I'll be missing hockey (but there's always baseball).

>64 twogerbils: Beyond Religion sounds interesting! On the TBR it goes! :) Good luck with surgery. What is the book about the hockey masks? I have a friend that is a die hard hockey fan.

>65 lesmel: The goalie mask book is Saving Face: The Art and History of the Goalie Mask. I'm totally excited to get it in. You'll really like Beyond Religion.

You Are Your Own Gym: The Bible of Bodyweight Exercises - I'm a regular gym rat, and along with the pool, the weight room is for me what church, synagogue, or mosque is to many people. But my gym shuts down for a week every spring for maintenance and cleaning. Hence this book. I know other diehards would have taken a week's gym membership somewhere else, but there was nowhere really convenient for me, plus I like the idea of bodyweight exercises. This is a very complete and creative book when it comes to getting a strength workout with no weights. Of course the obvious like sit ups or burpees are in it, but there are also some pretty creative ways ways to hit triceps, lats, and other parts. Other bonus with this one for me - I'm scheduled for shoulder surgery, and I'm told I can't lift more than a coffee cup with that arm for three months! So, I'll probably be doing plenty of bodyweight exercises for several months (minus my left arm). If you're into this type of thing, I couldn't imagine that you'd need much more than this one book, or something similar for a thorough workout.
Other bonus - the author has a beautiful body which is photographed doing the majority of the exercises, so there's motivation right there to pick up the book.

Wow. Just checked out Saving Face, which I'd always meant to get, and see that amazon's least expensive used is $98. Jacques Plante, the first goalie to wear one has his own book out, but I hope if you're starting to read about hockey you get The Game by Ken Dryden, not only one of the best goalies, but also probably the smartest.
Go Habs.

>68 SassyLassy: I'm so new to hockey, I confess I had to look up who the Habs are. Sorry they're out. With the Bluejackets eliminated early on, they were my pick.

Witchcraft: A History - A short, academic treatment of witchcraft from ancient times to today, ending with Wiccans. Author tried a little too hard to be erudite - used 'gallimaufry' four times in the text. Illustrations were fun.

Sherlock Holmes The Complete Novels and Stories: Volume II - I used to have volume I along with this one, but I lost it somewhere on public transit. This volume has Hound and Valley of Fear, and some good stories like The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger and The Adventure of the Creeping Man. I like to keep track of new words I encounter in the books I read (like gallimaufry). From this Holmes, I got ones like barouche, antimacassar, and scorbutic. My rule of thumb is, if I couldn't use the word myself with ease in my own writing, then I need to mark it down to learn. Not that I see that many chances of my using antimacassar.

>70 twogerbils: I'm currently reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and I'm planning to read the Complete Works this year. I love your idea of keeping track of new words. But I agree, not too many opportunities to use antimacassar. It might be fun using it, though.

I had shoulder surgery on Tuesday, so now I'm five days into a month off work. For the first couple days, I got very little reading in, with the general discomfort and the oxycodone pills looping me out. But since I've kicked the narcotic habit and moved on to milder ibuprofen, I've been able to start up my month long reading adventure. I've clocked two books in two days, granted they were short ones.

The Man in the Picture and The Mist in the Mirror are both ghost stories written by Susan Hill, who's probably my favorite modern ghost story writer. Mist was the creepier of the two, the story of a family curse, partly set on the moors in Scotland. Man in the Picture is about jealousy and dead people popping up in a depiction of the carnival in Venice. Susan Hill has a gorgeous writing style. She's also the author of The Woman in Black, which was made into a film starring Harry Potter.

I was planning a very quiet uneventful month of reading, but ends up I'll be packing my books and my bags for a week long cruise to Florida and the Bahamas with my oldest sister and my mom. My sister is married with four kids, but everyone will be away for a week, so she decided she wanted to go on a trip. And I'm just laid up here with a bum shoulder and a stack of books, so I thought what the heck. And my mom is elderly with all the time in the world. So we'll be setting out together.

I'll have to decide yet what books to take on a big boat to the Bahamas. Growth of the Soil, Iceland's Bell and The House of Seven Gables are probably all too serious. Might try Anansi Boys or Girl With a Pearl Earring from the shelves. Or buy something trashy on board or at the airport.

Being home from work certainly gives you a lot of time to read. This morning I finished up Ottomania: The Romantics and the Myth of the Islamic Orient. It's a pretty academic book, a cultural/intellectual history of the Ottoman Empire in the minds of mostly 19th century Europeans. So it wasn't a history of the Ottoman Empire itself, but had chapters on Ottoman influence on European writers, poets, painters and composers. People like Byron, Sir Walter Scott, Rossini, and Disraeli. It was a little high brow, but still readable. I liked how the author threw in Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter references every now and then to lighten things up. I'd like to read more about the Ottoman Empire itself, but also more (as in more than just ghost stories) from the Victorian era.

In keeping with my little tradition of noting down the definitions of new words that I wouldn't use in my own writing, from this book I learned words like cafard, fissiparous, sybarites, escutcheon, and matutinal. Sometimes I wonder why I should even try foreign languages, half the time I feel like I don't even know a fraction of my native tongue. But that's part of why I read.

So, on your cruise, will you have to carry your own suitcase? Because that might affect the number of books you bring! Baby that shoulder and get well!

>74 RidgewayGirl: I plan to pack one smallish suitcase on wheels and with a long handle that I can schlepp with my right arm. So I don't think I'll be too limited on books. My sling and support pad on my left arm will be my carry on.

Spent the best afternoon on the DL yet, reading Saving Face: The Art and History of the Goalie Mask. I only became a hockey fan this year, so late in life as far as sports affections go. But I come by the love honestly, having grown up in Johnstown, PA, where Slap Shot was filmed. My mom claims that she accidentally walked on the set of the movie in a scene that Paul Newman was in while going to the train station on Walnut Street.

I love goalies. I also love catchers. I love tough guys who wear masks and block speeding projectiles with their bodies. More importantly, I hate running (or if I skated, skating), so I couldn't imagine identifying with forwards. Too much running/skating. If I played in the NHL, I'd be a goalie, in the MLB, a catcher.

Saving Face is a fascinating book covering the history of the hockey mask, from a few strips of leather, through fiberglass, pretzels, birdcages, mages, and combos. And their paint jobs. From the guy drawing stitches on his mask with a magic marker every time he took a puck to the face, to today's awesome pieces of airbrushed mastery. The book also documents the attention to, or disregard for safety, with details of goalies' stitches, broken noses, fractured cheek bones, and eyes popped out of sockets. That part wasn't for the faint-hearted. This is the first hockey book I've ever read. It won't be the last.

>73 twogerbils:, Ottomania sounds really great, I will definitely look for that one. I hope you're recovering well and have an excellent time cruising!

>77 fannyprice: doubt there would be too many people excited about Ottomania, so that's pretty cool that you are. Hope you like it if you do read it. Thanks for the kind thoughts - I'm looking forward to leisurely reading in the Caribbean!

>78 twogerbils:, I did my undergrad and grad work on the Middle East, so this is right up my alley. :)

I'll have to look for a copy of Saving Face for my brother. We grew up in Edmonton.

And Slap Shot is a fantastic movie, from the Hansen brothers to Paul Newman in that vinyl suit.

Another day on the DL, another goalie book read. Between the Pipes: A Revealing Look at Legendary Goalies by Randi Druzin documents the lives and careers of a dozen great netminders - 11 from Canada and 1 from Czechy. I'm new to hockey, but I'm assuming that the U.S. has produced at least one or two decent goaltenders, I hope. The book starts with Terry Sawchuk, who seems like such a tormented and tragic figure and moves through Martin Brodeur who was born five months before I was and continues to play for the Devils. I have one more hockey book in the wings. I hope it lives up to these last two.

Got back from my spur of the moment cruise vacation to Florida and the Bahamas - beautiful weather, lots of sunshine, lots of food. And plenty of time to read on the ship during the "sea days" when we didn't go ashore.

I finished Fragile Things, a short story and poetry collection from Neil Gaiman. Some stories were cute and sweet, some were quite racy, some were pretty gruesome, and some just made you go "huh?". Loved it, not surprisingly. I'm about done now with Smoke and Mirrors, another very similar collection.

The other book I read on board was Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. I had seen the movie, which was pretty good. The book was wonderfully clever. And I can't remember if Edgar Allen Poe was in the movie or not. The only thing lacking in the book, I thought, was that at the end it didn't circle back around to the shop keeper who was given the Lincoln dairies and told (presumably by a vampire) to tell the story. Now I really want to read Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Yesterday I read the story Dolly from The Small Hand and Dolly by Susan Hill. I had read The Small Hand earlier, so I skipped right to the second story. It was fabulous. It's a Picture of Dorian Grey story, but with two creepy dolls. It has a wonderful atmosphere, with winds, storms, graveyards, fens, old houses, old toys, and family secrets. I love everything Susan Hill writes, and I hope she writes more.

Today is a local neighborhood festival, and the bookstore is hosting an Author Alley, with all NE Ohio authors, so I might pick up something local. I'm not too much of a buy my own books person, since I work in a library, but I might change my mind today. One book I want to check out is It Came from Ohio, which is apparently a collection of stories and supernaturals from Ohio. There's also a local Amish fiction author or two. I've never read Amish fiction, but have always been curious.

Had the best time at the Author Alley event at Loganberry Books and the Larchmere Festival overall. Yay for local & indie writers! Aside from the hockey book, I went in for the supernatural, go figure. Here's a run down --

Hockey in Cleveland by Jon Sladek -- from the International Hockey League's Cleveland Indians (that's hockey, remember), to our current Lake Erie Monsters. And I had a nice conversation with the author about hockey and about my home town of Johnstown, PA

The Big Book of Ohio Ghost Stories by James A. Willis - Chronicles the haunted history and supernatural mysteries of Ohio. Author runs a paranormal org, and does haunted house overnighters.

In the Spirit of Revenge by Lynn Borderie - "a supernatural thriller that follows the love story of Katherine and James, a young couple from the 1940s, into the afterlife when their self-portraits are reunited by two newlyweds"

Sea Ridge by Casandra Leventry - a Medieval adventure story with pirates. The author is only 18.

Voices in Crystal by Mary R. Woldering "using a combination of history, ancient literature, legend, mythology, classic archetypes, and personal inspiration, Woldering takes the reader on a speculative and emotional journey through the ancient world, and worlds beyond conventional space and time." Author say's there's going to be seven in a series.

A Vampire's Saving Embrace and A Wolf's Savage Embrace both by Darlene Kuncytes - vampire / supernatural romance, the author says they're not like Twilight.

Now where to start?

Great idea supporting your local authors

>85 baswood: prompted me to start an "Ohio Writers" tag for my LibraryThing books. :)

Finished rereading Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun as part of the year's Scandinavian lit kick. I have to admit, it was a little hard not to mix it up with Independent People, especially at the end, where I was thinking that the main character dies, but he doesn't. But I think that's understandable, because both books are about hard working farmers, settling the land, building their own houses, taking care of their animals, having their families, all in a harsh environment. And there's also the idea of the modern world, or progress, which is encroaching on their green lifestyle. It's a wonder that more people don't read books like these today, they really are very "green".

To continue the Scandinavian lit kick, I've requested three more titles, two classics and one contemporary -

Fallen Asleep While Young by F.E. Sillanpää - Finnish Nobel laureate

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

Purge by Sofi Oksanen - this is the contemporary one. The author was born in 1977.

I go back to work post-shoulder surgery on Wednesday, and my carefree reading days are coming to an end. So I felt like I needed to pick up the pace. I finished two books today, both ones I got this weekend at a local authors event -

Sea Ridge - The first book by an 18-year-old, it's a tale of adventure, and pirates, and fighting for freedom. At first, my natural editor antennae were on high alert and all I could seem to do was pick up on misspellings or unfortunate word choices. But once I toned that down in myself, I started to enjoy the story. Nice choice of heroines.

The Big Book of Ohio Ghost Stories - As far as I can tell, most ghost stories can be grouped into two categories - literary ghost stories and 'true' ghost stories. I like reading either one, but generally speaking the literary ones are better from a prose point of view, since they're actually trying to be literary as opposed to just reporting local history. This book is the 'true' ghost story variety. These types of books are much more fun to read if you or someone you know has a personal connection to at least one or two of the stories. I'm not originally from Ohio, but I've been here long enough to have something of a personal connection to a couple of them, and my husband is Ohio born and bred, and had a strong connection to one of them, as it happened near where he grew up and is part of the local lore. I like learning local history from 'true' ghost stories (and ghost tours) as much as I like seeing how again and again, people will devise stories to explain or commemorate the unexpected, unexplained, tragic, or horrific. That's what makes ghost stories relevant, even today, and what's made them an essential part of human culture for millennia. So yeah, I dig ghost stories, for the scary story part, but also as a part of what makes us human.

Catching up here. I'm glad your shoulder surgery and cruise went well. I was a bit alarmed at the thought of reading Iceland's Bell on a cruise, but it looks like you didn't take it. I read Independent People and haven't worked up the courage to read Iceland's Bell yet, but suspect it's best saved for the depths of winter.
The Summer Book on the other hand needs long slow days when you can imagine yourself wandering through the woods and meadows.

Thinking of American goaltenders, Tim Thomas, formerly of the Bruins, sprang to mind instantly, followed by Jonathan Quick and Ryan Miller. It seems to me that goaltenders seem to go in runs depending on training methods, so that the long run of francophone Canadian goalies (and Roberto Luongo) is now being replaced by a group of amazing Scandinavians due to their training methods: Tuuka Rask, Hendrik Lundqvist and Jonas Gustavsson among others. Then for Canadian content there's Carey Price of the Canadiens, ranked 10th over all in all time save percentages and still playing. http://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/records/nhl-goalies-all-time-save-percentage-lead...

Back to books; I haven't read any Knut Hamsun yet, but Growth of the Soil sounds promising, another one for my ever growing pile of books on and about food and farmers.

It's been an age since I've LibraryThing'ed.

Just about done reading The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, one of the books I had picked out for my Scandinavian lit kick. If you're big into plot, skip it. I'm not apparently, because I adore this little book about a grandmother and her six-year-old granddaughter spending the summer on a remote island in the Gulf of Finland. There's something almost magical about it.

Have read, or am almost done reading three books on heathenism, or Asatru as it's also called. It's a reconstructionist paganism that draws from the god/goddesses and sagas of the Germanic/Norse peoples. I was raised Roman Catholic, but I've been squarely pagan for well over 15 years, although I've been something of a nondenominational type. Wicca just doesn't really do it for me. Heathenry, however seems to have more oomph behind it. So I'll probably read more. Also works well with my ancestry. The books I've read now are:

A Practical Heathen's Guide to Asatru
Essential Asatru: Walking the Path of Norse Paganism
Heathenry: A Study of Asatru in the Modern World

Finally, I need a cozy mystery fix. Cozy mysteries are like sugar, literally. I can try to tone down my sugar intake for a while, but eventually I crack and scarf down like three bags of chocolate. They're also the types of books that I suspect readers of 'serious' books wouldn't touch or fess up to liking. I'm not ashamed. I read my fair share of 'serious' literature -- hello, I'm reading Iceland's Bell -- but I love a quaint cozy mystery for the sheer entertainment value. Nothing challenging, just pure fun. And I usually read them in groups of three or so, then I have a stomach ache and lay off them for a while. The ones I've requested are -

The Litter of the Law
The Diva Haunts the House
Blackberry Pie Murder

Plus, isn't Halloween right around the corner? Cozies are perfect for Halloween.

I finished two books today, one on the commute to work, and the other on the way back. One's a classic, and the other's a local author, and both are ultimately about love.
The classic one is The House of the Seven Gables, which I figure everyone's already read at some point in school, but somehow I didn't, so I felt the need to catch up. Definitely one of those books that I guarantee I enjoyed more in my forties than I would have in high school.
The other one is called A Vampire's Saving Embrace and it's by a local author. I got the book at a street festival this summer at our local bookstore. It's a combo romance and supernatural. I can't say I've every read a romance before in my life that I can remember. I picked it up for the supernatural part. I could have done with more vampire and less 'ooo, his body is sooo perfect', but that's the romance part, I guess. The second book, which I also bought, is about a werewolf. Started that one today.

My stack of books that will take me through the dog days of summer and into the fall:

The Diva Haunts the House - a Halloween-themed cozy mystery
Smoke and Mirrors - Gaiman short stories
Purge - written by a young Estonian author, about a woman who is sex trafficked
A Bromfield Galaxy - three novels by Louis Bromfield
The Litter of the Law - another Halloween-themed cozy mystery
Blackberry Pie Murder - another cozy
Fallen Asleep While Young - written by a Finnish Novel prize winner
A Wolf's Savage Embrace - a supernatural romance written by a local author
Iceland's Bell - Icelandic Nobel prize winner
Death by Darjeeling - a tea-themed cozy

Library borrowed vs. owned count: 8 to 2.

I'll be interested iin what you think of Purge; I was disappointed in it.

We're still in August, but I've finished The Diva Haunts the House, a Halloween-themed cozy mystery where the killer poses as a vampire. It takes place in Old Town Alexandria, VA. I used to live in Alexandria for a couple of years (not Old Town, too pricey), but still fun that I know the book's setting quite well. Gets me all in the Halloween spirit. Never too early, right?

I'm not a particularly critical reader, but I can't say too much good about Blackberry Pie Murder. Dialogue too simple, maybe. Overall too hokey, even for a cozy, maybe. And then I can't help thinking how ironic it is that Blackberry Pie features a pimp and his runaway prostitute, and I'm also reading Purge which is about a girl who's sex trafficked and escapes (an entirely not cozy book, at that). But then there's Death by Darjeeling which saves the day for the cozy genre for me.

Finished Death by Darjeeling, an enjoyable cozy mystery about, you guessed it, a woman who runs a tea shop. I love tea, I love cozies, so this was a perfect fit.
I'm excited to start reading Delicious A Novel by the editor of Gourmet magazine. It was recommended to me by my cats' vet.

I've taken a page from the clever folks in this group and started a post up at the top that lists, roughly in order for the most part, the books that I've read so far in 2014. Some of them I'm still reading, but I'm confident enough that I'll finish them before Jan. 1 so that they belong on the list.

Finished up --

Smoke and Mirrors - a collection of Gaiman short stories that I had started while on vacation this summer
Purge - set in Estonia, interwoven stories about a woman who is sex trafficked in the 1990s and that woman's great aunt ans her experiences in WWII and Soviet Estonia
Litter of the Law - a cozy mystery with a Halloween theme

Finished up The Ghost the Dead Man's Library - reminded me a lot of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which I used to watch as a kid. It's a cozy mystery with a literary Edgar Allan Poe theme, so can't go wrong there. A little odd though, with the ghost character talking to the main character in her head, and helping her solve the mystery, but that basically worked for the book. Funniest part of reading the book - I got it from the public library, and some previous reader had penciled in corrections to the text where she thought there were typos. Once she (I'm assuming the reader was a she) caught a legit typo.

Recently borrowed Dreaming the Eagle, which is a historical novel about Boudica. I think it's part of a series, and I'm looking forward to reading it.

Today I finally got around to requesting I Am Malala. Figured today was the day with the announcement of Malala Yousafzai as co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Finished reading I Am Malala, which gave a lot fuller picture of the teenager who won the Nobel Prize than what I had remembered from the news. Also plenty of interesting details about a part of the world that I know little about.

Also finished Delicious!, which came highly recommended by our vet. It's written by the former editor of Gourmet. I can't say I liked it as much as our vet seemed to, but the Cleveland/Akron area references were fun -- West Side Market, Cleveland Public Library, even Greenhouse Tavern. The characters, though, pretty much got on my nerves occasionally.

Finished Assaulted Pretzel, a cozy mystery set in a fictitious Amish community in Pennsylvania. It was surprisingly good, even with the romance element thrown in. Also about done with Sweet Tea Revenge, a cozy set in Charleston, SC. Has lots of tea references, which is right up my alley.

Yesterday I finished Midnight in Siberia, a travel account by NPR Morning Edition's David Greene that just came out. The material was originally collected for radio and later made into a book. I'm a sucker for all things Russia, especially Siberia, so I knew I'd breeze through it. Once again confirmed that somewhere in my genetic makeup I'm probably Russian (not necessarily in a good way), or at least I'm squarely not American.
I'm on to The Organized Mind, a cognitive psychologist's look at information overload. Fits in with my librarian profession. May be winding up my recent cozy mystery binge and I have a hankering for ghost stories for the Yule/Christmas season.

...I'm probably Russian (not necessarily in a good way)

I'm curious now! Do you mean that you are overly fond of both caviar and vodka? That you think Putin is a hottie? How could being Russian be a bad thing?

>103 twogerbils: Have you read Travels in Siberia by Ian Frazier and Dersu the Trapper by V. K. Arseniev? They both are wonderful and got me interested in Siberia, and so I'll look for Midnight in Siberia too. And I along with Kay wonder what you mean by that! I've developed a real tasted for Russian fiction and history too.

>104 RidgewayGirl: Was thinking about how I drink excessive amounts of tea, tend to think there's nothing much that can be done about late buses, corruption, injustice, poor government, or human rights violations, how I usually follow authority and don't ask too many questions and would just rather be reading a book, how I live in a modest condo that's (I hope) well tended, how I think we're stuck in history, and how I love Russian scarves and hockey. So probably in not necessarily in a good way in that I think I lack American optimism and go-getter fix the world attitude.

>105 rebeccanyc: I have read Travels in Siberia and loved it - Midnight in Siberia is actually pretty similar. I haven't read Dersu the Trapper, but I'm about to OhioLINK it now.

Finished The Organized Mind. Think it's going to get my vote for the best non-fiction book I've read this year. It looks at how the mind works, as in neuroscience, and applies it to organizing parts of our lives - our time, our homes, our social life, businesses, health decisions, etc. And the author has lovely things to say about librarians' roles in the age of information overload - warmed my librarian heart. It's totally accessible to non-science trained folks like me, but it still makes clear how the chemicals in our brains work or don't work to help or hinder us in getting organized. And then there's the random facts that I learned - like about squirrels locating their nuts, the weather balloon experiment that the DoD did, or that you can estimate the weight of the Empire State Building. And I've drastically cut back on email after reading it. Not to mention never tweeting or FBing, but I was on to that even before I read the book.

>108 twogerbils: Ha! YOU I had me at "lovely things to say about librarians' roles"

ETA: I should not be allowed to type some nights.

Good to know about The organized mind. I might have dismissed it as a self help book, but it sounds interesting...wait...should i not be on LT right now?

The Organized Mind sounds intriguing.

Finished The Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker. A LT reviewer sums up her feelings about it as:
"It explained a lot when I found out The Lair of the White Worm was written after Stoker had a a number of strokes in the midst of tertiary syphilis, and he died not long after finishing it."

That does say a lot about it. That, and the ridiculously blatant racism that surrounds the character of Oolanga, the African servant.

The story's based on the legend of the Lambton Worm (a dragon) from north east England, and is typical in the gothic / horror elements, pretty gory actually at the end. Then there's the oddities with the kite, the mongoose, dynamite and mesmerism -- I liked the mongooses (mongeese?) and wish they had played more of a role - they were the good guys. The whole worm to woman concept of an ancient monster developing over centuries into a different type of creature was pretty interesting.

An odd book overall.

Last books of the year -

The Wishing Thread - a feel good, chick lit novel about a family business of knitting spells into knitting projects. Light and heart warming.
Fallen Asleep While Young - published in Finland in 1931, author later won the Nobel Prize. Incredibly tragic epic story of an orphan peasant girl who works for a series of farm households, has an unrequited love affair, barely escapes being raped during WWI, and finally dies of tuberculosis at age 22. Cheery New Year, everyone!

Happy New Year...