OK, I am a TOTAL goofball. And wouldn't it be nice if I'd post once in a while? Yes?
I just...um...I just wanted to show off my daemon:



He is settled. I figure even if *I* think he's wrong (er...humble?! Modest?!), he's mine. Of course, if he had been a spider named Yicky, I might not think that.

This one will be shorter, I promise, literaticat. Because it's only two books, neither of which I read last night (I didn't read last night, except a poem or two--shocking! Well, OK, I read email and the NYT online. That don't count though.) (OK, I wrote that yesterday. Last night...um...didn't read either because I taught. Argh!)
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Won't be readin' tonight either b/c of a dinner party, a trek to campus to see a prof read from her forthcoming book and probably, if the BP is up for it, the 9:25 showing of Notes on a Scandal (which I suspect will piss me off with its weird sexual politics, but we'll see). When I do have a moment to read (Friday? Saturday?), I'm starting another book for VOYA, so we'll see when I have time to post again. But hey, I'm doin' good--two posts in three days! And I've been reading my Friendslist. (No cover stories for a couple of weeks, see?)

Tags: black swan green, david mitchell, edward bloor, london calling
Current Mood: sleepy

Hello, brilliant muffinheads! I read all weekend. Oh, except when I watched movies. And went to see the UO women play Stanford. I admit it, I really wanted to see Tara Vanderveer (and Candace Wiggins). Funny thing is, I used to follow college women's bball not super-closely but with interest when I was first at Iowa, you know, a school that used to have a good basketball program. In a not unrelated move, when the UI stupidly and sexistly decided to subsume women's athletics (formerly an independent entity) under men's and give the (male) men's AD more control, the women's bball team declined. I got bored and maybe too old, and then never went back...until a couple of weeks ago, when I was convinced by a friend to go to a Ducks vs. UCLA game. And guess what? It was fun! So anyway, I went to the Stanford game. Which the Ducks lost, obviously. I mean, who wouldn't? Unfortunately, even Stanford wasn't playing pretty ball. Oh well. But blah blah blah, that's not about books.

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Whew! Finished! I think! But remind me: LONDON CALLING. Was good.

Tags: alex flinn, alfonso cuarón, boy book, children of men, diva, e. lockhart, guillermo del toro, p.d. james, pan's labyrinth, shaun of the dead, sword of shannara, terry brooks
Current Mood: curious
Current Music: Susan Werner

Been reading a lot for work. Am trying for fun to rearead The Dubliners, which I haven't read since high school. It's fascinating to take in small doses, the reality of Dublin in the early 1900s, which of course I know jack-all about but seems vividly described in the first few stories. But I got distracted by an advance copy of Eireann Corrigan's Ordinary Ghosts, on which I cannot comment here as I'm reviewing it for VOYA, but which I liked. More than that you'll have to wait for. :-)
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Can't wait to see Pan's Labyrinth. Can't wait to see Erin McKeown tomorrow night.
In other news, I am really, really sad that a drunk driver (curses on all of you idiots) killed two members of the Eugene Symphony last night. I didn't know the two women, but I have been watching them play all year, and this is horrific.

Tags: a year in the merde, almodovar, penelope cruz, stephen clarke, the unbinding, volver, walter kirn
Current Mood: sad
Current Music: Erin McKeown, "Rhode Island is Famous for You"

OK, no, it's not like I have a super-secret list I only post friends-locked entries to. I just suck at LJ right now. I would get out of the whole posting thing just as the children's literature blogs hot on up with their own awards and all. Not trendy, me.

That's OK. I still read. Sometimes. When I have a moment in between writing stories, I read like a freakin' maniac. Like I used to when I had Boring Job That I Hated. Now it's for a gasping break from the writing, which I also love doing. So nice to get to write stories about good people and fun musicians and interesting topics and plays and books and music and art. (Not that this is helping my novel-writing, I must say.)

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I must go and chill with my coworker before I hang with some teens from the new Teen Center. V. exciting!
Ta. homies. Er.

Tags: bennett madison, gregor overlander, linda sue park, lulu dark, suzanne collins, tamora pierce, terrier

I know. I'm ridiculous. But anyway, ( here are three reviews of very different books. )

In the next month, I have a lot to do at work. Let me rephrase that. In the next month, I HAVE A. LOT. TO. DO. AT. WORK. And then I get to write a YA fantasy/sf roundup for our Winter Reading issue, thanks to a certain fellow library addict and fellow blogger. So that will be cool. Meantime, I'm reading 8 zillion other books for said issue, teaching, and taking German and Spanish.

C'est amusant, non? Je peux parler français, mais j'étudies espagnol et allemand. Oui, je suis foule! Et j'enseignes anglais. J'aime ma vie, mais c'est très remplie. Comme literaticat, une vraie déesse, m'a dit l'autre jour, "le sigh."

Current Mood: NEED CHOCOLATE
Current Music: Cris Williamson. Don't ask why, people.

It's not like I haven't been reading YA books, travling to faroff places like Cucuron, France or Nuremberg, Germany, and doing a lot of writing.

But it is like, well, I'm not a good blogger anymore. OTOH, I just paid LJ for another year of my blog, so I should blog! OK, here are a few books I've read recently...
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Excited that I just got an ARC of a Nina Kiriki Hoffman book. And she lives in my town! Super cool! Rock on, sister! (OK, maybe I can't call her "sister" until I start, you know, publishing YA books. But at least she's a fellow Eugenean.)

Not similar books, really. And I know I read some others in there...the basic Suzi lament, and why I began the blog in the first place, so I'd remember what the heck I read! Oh well. About to go to Montana, where I'll read a lot more. I hope.

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Anyway, Basic Eight is much more literary and all, and I thought it was fairly tremendous, but I enjoyed reading Midnighters a whole lot more. I'm worried that this says I am Not An Intellectual, but then I reassure myself that I'm enjoying a biography of Sir Thomas Malory, the knight who wrote Le Morte Darthur, one of the main sourcebooks for Arthurian legend. And yes, I've read some to most of that, but now I'm reading a thick biography of the man, and I'm totally fascinated. Whew, Intellectualism Reassured. :-)

Ah, those one-word titles. They getcha every time.

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Reading Daniel Handler's Basic 8 now. Yikes.

Feeling kind of bored and boring. It's because the paper is finished, mostly, so the stress level from yesterday has gone way down, and I'm left with an adrenaline hangover. Better would be to start on next week's calendar etc. Right? RIGHT? OK, not convicing myself. Must have book break instead.

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OK, off to, um, do some work. I started reading Blake Nelson's Girl on the way to work, and I so want to keep reading. Hunh, guess it's a good thing I'm walking home for lunch!