Deviant Dispatches

Last week, I ordered several books that are out of print on this glorious invention, the internet. This doesn't have nearly the same soothing effects of wandering about a used bookstore for several hours, though it does have better end results (if your goal is to actually get the books you want, which is not always my purpose in such heavenly realms). The nice side effect of ordering books online is the excitement to greet the mailbox at end of day. Rather than flyers that might (but never do) have coupons for things you need, piles of bills, and bribes that would turn on you later if you were dense enough to take them, there might be a package with your name on it and, within, brilliantly arranged bits of tree pulp with just the right ink upon the pages. It's even more exciting when they're books you've wanted for years. For example, the only one of five that I've received so far is Lawrence Ferlinghetti's Pictures From the Gone World . I love his unusual ...

Today's a beautiful day in the neighborhood because there are some amazing books coming out that I've been anticipating for months. Sorrow's Knot by Erin Bow Bow's first book, Plain Kate, has totally enchanted my life. It's gorgeous writing (prosetry, more like) with a dark story and great characters. One of my favorite things about it was the shadow magic that was so crucial to the plot, which dark and creepy and everything I love in a ghost story. It's also why I'm glad Sorrow's Knot is focused on shadow magic. Binders are women who tie knotted cords that are full of magic, and the goal of these cords is to hold back the uneasy dead, who dwell in shadow. Otter, whose mother was also a binder, anticipates becoming a binder until her power turns and begins to tear her apart. Read some great reviews here , and if you're not convinced yet (which you should be), read an excerpt here . Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh Hyperbole and a...

The Freedom to Read They say not to feed the trolls, but I can't help it. I've been baited, so I'm turning it into a chance to bring visibility to a subject about which I'm passionate: book banning. September 22-28 is National Banned Books Week , and I was pleased to see that a site I frequent recognized it. This site usually has some civil, intelligent discussions, but there are always a few who have to bring it down, as on any site. This particular troll started out innocuously enough, wondering why they were called "banned" if you could still get them elsewhere. A simple misunderstanding of the word is where it all began. But after several people pointed out the error of the troll's ways, he/she began to talk about book banning as if it wasn't a big deal. In shop/library displays, perusers run across books that were drilled into them in tenth-grade English class, so what's "banned" about it? You can still get a book, even if t...

There are some gorgeous things out in the world that you need to see. I follow The Creative Crochet Collective on Facebook . They are constantly posting the most creative, beautiful projects, and this morning is no different. Check out this shawl by millicurie on Ravelry. It's called Venus Transit . Perfect. A friend shared this beautiful book art with me. Elaborate paintings were discovered on the edges of 19th century book pages, visible only when the pages are fanned out. More book paintings This gorgeous vegetable medley was in the CSA box yesterday. This is how it looked after  I removed the spinach, and basil, and herbs. A rainbow of delicious. Here are the tomatoes we received. I had trouble fitting them all into the fruit bowl. Sauce is upon us. (Not literally. That would be gross.)

It's been a while since I blogged about books. Here are a few I've wanted to read recently. The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara A doctor and an anthropologist team up for a trip to a Micronesian island. The doctor discovers the secret of the long-lived inhabitants (turtle meat), and comes back to the US, proving his hypothesis to receive fame and adoration, winning a Nobel Prize. But that comes at a terrible personal price. Written as a memoir, Publishers Weekly gave this book a starred review, saying that the doctor's "e xtraordinary circumstances allow his smothered weaknesses to blossom horribly." James Tiptree, Jr. by Julie Phillips I'm absolutely fascinated by this woman's story. In the 1970s, James Tiptree Jr. burst into the scifi writing scene. Everyone was fascinated by his revolutionary ideas and fascinating way of writing stories about gender. He communicated for years with the likes of Ursela K. LeGuin and Harlan El...

Lately, I've been reading The Once and Future King by T. H. White. Much like knights of olde, I've begun a quest: to finish my in-progress knitting/crochet projects before I begin something new. I tried to start a new project recently and discovered that all the needles I could have used for it were occupied. Needles shall be my jousting spear, the projects my opponent. I've already finished a scarf and TSTUD . (Edit: I was in a rush this morning and didn't post scarf details. This is Echarpe Tranches de Melon by Louise Robert, translated by lapawlow . I used M1R/M1L instead of yarn overs. The yarn is Watermelon Patch by Universal Yarn , in their cotton supreme batik line, and I loved working with it. More pictures will be posted here shortly.) I've also finished a washcloth and a little drawstring bag (it only needed half of the drawstring finished). Those were the easy projects (excluding the sweater, of course). Four down - eight to go.

Spousal Unit and I stopped at an antiques place this weekend. It was so full of stuff that I couldn't find its name on the building, and it's not on the Googles. But it's on highway 11/14 about 10 minutes east of Janesville - it might be the General Antique Store in Emerald Grove. We found some awesome treasures there. The first date I could find in this German bible was 1714, which I knew couldn't possibly be correct, or it would be falling apart in my hands. The shop owner said it was late 1800s. Still very impressive - it had a wooden cover. I'd have bought it in a heartbeat if I had any cash. This is also the home to Ed Gein's second headstone . The room full of old books was pretty neat, and among them was a copy of Wisconsin Alumnus from 1957: "The University of Wisconsin in an Atomic Age." It was a good way to spend some time on a Sunday afternoon.

Over the weekend, I rearranged the library a bit, making room for a new bookcase and shifting subjects. I'm not sure why, but I picked up the book Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose , about Lewis of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Undaunted Courage Ambrose was a pretty famous history writer and very well respected. Among other things, he wrote Band of Brothers , on which the TV show of the same name was based. While reading the dust jacket, I flipped to the back cover and found some newspaper articles about him. There was also a letter from UW-Madison geology professor Robert H. Dott, Jr., written to Ambrose in 1996 to ask whether the Lewis and Clark expedition had tents, having spent many cold, wet nights camping himself. ... And there was a reply from Ambrose (a UW history professor at the time), saying that they had buffalo hide tepees on the journey there, but slept "a la the geologists" on the trip back. As far as I can tell, it's...

Last night, I met one of my favorite authors, and by the time I'd left for the night, I was convinced he hated me. This is likely just what my weird brain has conjured up. At most, I probably induced mild panic in someone who had already signed his name a lot that day. But here's the story. John Scalzi spoke at A Room of One's Own in Madison last night, thanks to my friend Gretchen's amazing author-getting skills. He was as funny in person as he is on the Internet, read from his new book The Human Division , and was terribly gracious when someone commented (not unkindly) that "You look much better than the last time I saw you." ("It's the slimming yellow," he responded.) So slimming, that Gamma Rabbit .   After his reading, he took questions, and I was lucky enough to be selected. So I asked him what part of the writing process makes him bang his head on the desk repeatedly. ("Starting," he said, "which is why ...

Yesterday, I painted a bookshelf I found for $7. And the paint was free, too. The shelf used to be a dark brown shade, kind of sickly, and splattered with white paint in some places for no good reason. I decided it was my job to make this thing presentable and hella cool. The paint was from a coworker who had trouble finding the right shade for her kitchen - I chose two of the nicest-looking tans and went to work. I think it turned out pretty well... Or I did until I brought it inside. To my dismay, without natural lighting, this shade looks exactly like the ugly old radiators at my former high school. High School Radiator is a terrible bookshelf color. I do have a few other paint colors that I can splash around, though in much smaller quantities. Maybe it would help to paint the front of each shelf green. My big hope, though, is that it will be salvaged once I write book quotes all over it. So far I'm planning on quotes from Lord of the Rings , the Dark Tower ...

I don't think I've ever blogged about religion, and I'm not about to start. (Despite the Buddhism book you see here.) Start Where You Are by Pema C hödrön Buddhism is a religion I associate closely with on a spiritual level, because it's about being nice to others and yourself. But I'm not Buddhist. I don't meditate, I don't believe the fables, and I don't pray to Buddha. But that doesn't mean I can't learn something from it. I've read before about people leaving little reminder notes for themselves around the house. I've seen them on bathroom mirrors - things that say, "Smile! You are beautiful." It seemed kind of cheesy to me, but after I started this book and found so many well-articulated sentiments in it, I decided to give it a try.  One of the sentiments in the early pages is, "Regard all dharmas as dreams." I always have a hard time grasping exactly what dharma is - no matter how many times I...

I found the strangest book yesterday, at Paul's Bookstore on State Street. It's an illustrated copy of  The Vicar of Wakefield  by Oliver Goldsmith. That's not the strange part - the strange part is that it's in "the style of phonography" and is completely illegible to me. Page after page just has these little squiggles instead of nice Roman letters. The cover says the book is in Pitman's shorthand (Pitman is the publisher); it's the title page that says phonography. If I remember right, the publishing date was abbreviated to the '60s, which must be the 1860s, based on the apparent age of the book and the fact that Pitman was alive then. Phonography, or Pitman's shorthand , is a phonetic version of English, written in those little squiggles, which emphasize particular sounds. Gregg shorthand is now more common (at least in the U.S.).

I know I did one of these posts recently, but this one has multiple layers to it. And it cannot wait, because I am excited, and I really hope someone out there can enjoy the hell out of this, too. I borrowed  The Happiness Project  by Gretchen Rubin from a friend, and it's taken me an astoundingly long time to get halfway through. That's not a comment on its readability, but rather the fact that with every five pages I read, I'm inspired to go do something that will make my day-to-day life a tiny bit happier. That, to me, is the mark of a good book. Rubin's book began as a decision to become a happier person over the course of a year. The book is divided by months of the year, and each month features a special focus, like vitality and organization, friendship, or romance. Reading someone else's indefatigable drive to improve, revitalize, and expand is very contagious, and her ideas are well researched and succinctly described. Her simple statements make you real...

It's been far too long since I discussed books here. Not working in a bookstore anymore, I don't have ready access to advance copies, and I don't get to be the first to trace jagged pages, hear the creak as I fold back the cover, smell the fresh ink buried within. I miss that part of my retail work. Luckily, Publishers Weekly posts the Most Anticipated Books of the season, so I at least get to see a limited selection of the wonder to come. It's better than being entirely removed from books most of the time. I saw two on that list from PW that really caught my eye. One is The Golem and the Jinni  by Helene Wecker. This is the story of immigrants to the U.S. - supernatural  immigrants. The golem comes from Yiddish folktales, and the jinni from Arabic. They wind up in New York at the turn of the century - sorry, the 20th century. (It feels weird to have to specify that.) Both are trying to avoid being discovered for what they truly are, taking commonplace...

Summer and Bird by Katherine Catmull I have this book, and am already more than halfway through it. I love it. It's a young adult fantasy (or possibly middle reader, depending how mature the middle reader is). I'm sure the author's had lots of jokes made for being named Kat Cat and writing a bird book. She does a lovely job of it. The story starts with sisters Summer and Bird at home. The setting is modern day, and the girls' mother is always telling them stories and singing songs about birds. Surprise of all surprises, Bird, 9, wants to be a bird, which irritates her big sister a little, who knows better at the ripe age of 12. Summer thinks it's silly, until they wake up one morning and their parents are gone. They learn that their mother used to be the queen of all birds, before her feather robe was stolen. The girls follow her into Down, where birds can talk and all their mother's stories come to life. Catmull has a beautiful writing style, ak...

This weekend, Spousal Unit and I went to my mom's to help pick, cut, and decorate their Christmas tree. As I rambled to him about the awesomeness of Lowes Creek Tree Farm, he stopped me and asked, "Wait, is this one of those things that was really awesome when you were a kid, but now that you're an adult it's just a shack in the middle of the woods?" Nope. I remembered it well . We got a wonderful tree and visited the cabin, where I found the adorable birds above. Another gift I got for myself was some of my old stuff. One Kitten for Kim  by Adelaide Holl I loved this book when I was little. Not only does it feature a boy named Kim, but it's a detailed counting book with a chameleon. And, of course, seven kittens. My copy of the book has crayon all over it. In the boxes I hauled back home, I also found four or five cassette tapes full of happy music (the original recordings), pictures galore, and more Star Wars stuff than I will ever ne...

This weekend, I went to the Memorial Library Book Sale with a group of friends. It's part of the Wisconsin Book Festival every year, and this was my first year attending. (Last year, when I was in the book business, I was required to work rather than go to it.) This book sale is terribly exciting because on the last day, you get to fill up as many bags as you can carry, and each one is only $4 (though some friends were charged $5 for an extra-large bag - still a great deal). At an event like this, when all the good stuff has been picked over in previous days, you don't expect to find much that you've been meaning to read, but you do always find some little treasures that make you squee in delight. Following are some of mine. Legends of the Ferengi by Quark, a.k.a. Ira Steven Behr  I'm excited about this one because I'm a geek (obviously), but especially because Spousal Unit and I have been watching lots of Deep Space Nine lately. I tried to get him to wat...

Sunday was my last day at the bookstore, which meant several things. 1. No more working with the occasional customer who is eager to hear about what you love to read and buys all three of your recommendations. 2. No more discount for working there. Luckily, I took advantage of both these items while I worked the weekend. I recommended American Gods, The Illumination, and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie to the customer; I bought these for myself. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury - I've never read this, which is shameful for a scifi fan and a Bradbury fan. I'm reading this one first. Der Vorleser by Bernhard Schlink (The Reader) - Trying to keep up my German skills. I've managed to get through the first few chapters without a dictionary, so they're doing okay. (Helps that I read the English version first.) The Italian, or The Confession of the Black Penitants by Ann Radcliffe - I wrote my senior paper on this book and haven't owned ...

I'm putting this one together as reassurance to myself, mostly. Okay, entirely. Good things are happening to me - I just need to remember that they are good and not deadly/terrifying. 1. On Monday, I start my new job. A job in the field I want to work in, doing what I've been interested in since moving back to the Dairy State. 2. This means no more new books on a daily basis, but it also means no more lifting of 40-pound boxes, no more awkward schedules, and (I'm really, really hoping) no more of retail's standby: getting screamed at during the holiday season. 3. I don't have to walk a mile and a half to work. Nor do I have to pay for parking. 4. At the end of the month, Spousal Unit and I are moving. The new area looks to have a lower crime rate, is closer to both of our jobs, and will be more compatible with leisurely walks. 5. The new apartment itself has a deck we can be selfish about (i.e. no sharing with neighbors), a bedroom we're turning into a...

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov September 30 through October 6 is the 30th annual Banned Books Week , during which we Americans recognize that censorship is bad and more than just a little weird. I've worked in a bookstore for the last three BBWs, and every year I've enjoyed making an extraordinarily bizarre display featuring things like Ulysses , Beloved , and In the Night Kitchen - books that have all been banned or challenged. But something that isn't much discussed - at least, by the American Library Association, who hosts this whole thing - is that while school districts may ban these books from the classroom and libraries may ban them from their stacks, you can still get  copies of banned books. Students prohibited from reading them for class can still soak them up in other settings, and their greatest risk is that of Mom or Dad (who requested the ban in the first place) taking the book away and grounding them. In other countries, some books are actually ille...