bibliosue's bibliotherapy

So I've been off of the radar for about a week but I'm back! (did you miss me?)

My day job has been driving me (more) crazy the last month or so and unfortunately it has meant that the last thing I want to do when I get home is sit in front of the computer.  And I've missed it, which is I think a good sign. 

Now that things at work have calmed down (a bit) and I've returned from an mood-lifting weekend in Toronto with my 2 year old nieces and 8 week old nephew I'm ready to get back in the saddle.  While in Toronto, I took some time out to visit The World's Biggest Bookstore and, well, damage was done.  This is the pile I came home with:

Canadian Pie by Will Ferguson
1000 Years of Annoying the French by Stephen Clarke
How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less by Sarah Glidden (graphic novel)
Winter:  Five Windows on the Season by Adam Gopnik
Madame Proust and the Kosher Kitchen by Kate Taylor
Why I Hate Canadians by Will Ferguson (full disclosure:  I am Canadian, eh?)
Concerto to the Memory of an Angel by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Ulysse from Bagdad by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Odette Toulemonde et autres histoires by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

Ok yes, I did load up on the Schmitt titles, but two of these are in French and given my improving though basic ability in the language will take me a while to read; Odette Toulemonde is the original French version of The Most Beautiful Book in the World which was one of my favorites of 2011 (reviewed here).  And only some of these were impulse purchases -- I did actually go into the store with a list of what I wanted to purchase, the others just "found" their way onto the stack.

I am about halfway through Madame Proust and am loving it -- if you are able to find it please do pick it up because I would love to discuss it with someone.  When I'm done I'll definitely be writing about it if you need an extra push to hunt it down (really, it is a tricky book to find).

I'm ba-ack!

  I just spent a wonderful week with my two nieces in Toronto and two nieces and nephew in Winnipeg.  They are all getting so big so fast (they range in age from 20 months to almost 10 years) and I love that they still enjoy doing stuff with their ol' Auntie, even if it's just hanging out and playing cribbage (my nephew just learned the game this summer and though it has been many years since I played it my memory was refreshed quickly and we played it a few times each day).

  Of course I took some time out for myself and - ahem - may have visited the bookstores.  Here is what I picked up:

  
 
  The four novels  - Practical Jean, Irma Voth, Stanley Park and Far to Go - were all on my to-read list.  Mordecai:  The Life & Times  is a biography of one of my favorite writers, Mordecai Richler; so when I saw it in the store I "had" to have it.  The last book - Defiant Spirits - is about The Group of Seven, a Canadian artist movement, which I am ashamed to say that I know very little about; however in a visit to The Art Gallery of Ontario I viewed several paintings of the Group and enjoyed them very much, and since I've read and enjoyed other books by Ross King (The Judgement of Paris and Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling) I wanted to have this book to learn more about this art.

  Sadly, though, I must return to work tomorrow and will not have time to dig into most of these right away (though I did start Practical Jean on the flight home -- a very quirky story!).  Where is that reading sabbatical when you need it?

Losing Interest in Authors

  Have you ever had the realization that an author you've once enjoyed - even adored - is no longer interesting to you?

  After a particularly rough day at the office, I was doing some shopping at Target (my favorite non-bookstore store) and felt the need to browse their (surprisingly good) book section to perhaps pick up something to elevate my mood.  I noticed that a new release by Jen Lancaster - her first novel - was available, so I took a look at the jacket copy - and put the book back on the shelf.

  I read Lancaster's memoir Bright Lights, Big Ass, a few years ago on a day when I was running to a bunch of medical appointments (you know you are getting old when you take a vacation day to go to the doctor!) and it was the perfect book for that situation:  Short essay-like chapters told in a conversational style and very very funny.  After that I read her first book, Bitter is the New Black, and thought it was just ok, but her next release, Such a Pretty Fat was another winner for me, and since then I've picked up her new releases not long after publication. 

  But her last few books, just haven't clicked with me.  It could be that my tastes have changed and that I've (ahem) matured somewhat where I don't find certain topics as funny or as relatable as I once did.  I just realized today that when I had her novel in my hands I truly thought about the reasoning behind purchasing a book I wasn't overly thrilled about "just because" I've purchased the rest of the author's work and decided that my money would be better spent on a book I truly wanted to read (yes, given my bookaholic tendencies I realize this is a bit hypocritical, but it's a start, right?).  There's some guilt there, but I've no doubt there will be plenty of others who will purchase and enjoy her book.
 
  I can think of a few other authors who I'm "tiring" of:  Jennifer Weiner comes to mind (I was so disappointed with her last novel, Fly Away Home), and (though I can't believe I'm saying this) Margaret Atwood doesn't thrill me with her dystopic work (Oryx & Crake, and The Year of the Flood).  Where I once would automatically buy their new books in hardcover (ok with Atwood I likely will -- she is a literary goddess after all) I might seriously look at the book and think before making the purchase.

More books!

    My name is Suzanne and I'm a bookaholic.

    So in the last two days 13 new books have come into my house.

    On Friday my shipment of books arrived from the Northshire Bookstore, site of the Books on the Nightstand Readers' Retreat last weekend:

 
  Three of these (The Blasphemer, The Kitchen House, and A Soldier of the Great War) were books recommended by other readers at the retreat.  The other two, Gertruda's Oath and The World is a Ball, were impulse purchases found while browsing that amazing bookstore (I know, how I limited myself to only two impulse purchases is beyond my comprehension too).

  Then yesterday I returned to the closing Borders store near my home.  I totally blame my husband for these purchases:

We were out running errands and were going into a store near the Borders, when my husband noticed the sign saying everything was now 80% off and would I like to have a look.  DUH.  So I ventured in and after I got over the shock of seeing the store so empty (it looks like this was the last weekend for them) I browsed through what was left and picked up these gems.  Total purchase:  $19.40  (the cover price of To The End of The Land alone was $26.95).

  I am now running out of shelf space and hope that someday soon my request for a reading sabbatical will be approved.....

I'm a Borders Scavenger

.... and I'm not entirely proud of it, but look at what I picked up at a nearby closing Borders location at 50% off (plus an additional 10% with my Borders Rewards card):

Fiction seems to be the only section with any significant inventory left, which is probably why it has been marked down further.  There were a number of titles with many copies that obviously couldn't sell even at half price (Lisa Rinna wrote a novel?), but there many gems that bibliophiles and moderate book snobs like me can appreciate (I was especially excited about the new Doctor Zhivago translation)

My name is Suzanne and I'm a bookaholic, but I just couldn't pass up on such a good deal.