September 2011 Update

I have no idea where August, went, but we are entering the second week of September and I’m not ready to say goodbye to summer. Although I love fall, and winter is my all time favorite season, there’s just something sad about saying goodbye to summer. Perhaps this is a remainder of the many years I spent working at summer camps, or the time I now get to spend on an island during the summer, but it’s just sad to see it go. But on with the update!

On the blog front, I’ve started making a few minor changes. I’ve finally completed the About Me section with a section about Me and a section about The Oddness of Moving Things. I also purchased a domain (my first!) so if you visit the blog it’s now geoffwhaley.com instead of geoffwhaley.com! And if you actually read the blog on the site rather than a reader or subscription you’ll notice when I’ve finished a book because of the currently reading section at the top of the right column (thanks to Rob at 101 Books for having the idea first).

Over the past few weeks I’d made a real dent in reading the books I’ve collected over the past two years, but have now completely nullified that progress by stockpiling books for the upcoming fall/winter from various sources. Check them out below, neatly categorized into three sections, and the very last thing is an update on the cool Goodreads graphic found last month.

Gender/Sexuality

One problem, if you can call it a problem, about being an avid reader is people always suggesting books or loaning you books without asking. My boss went on vacation for a week and upon her return, she brought seven books back for me to read from her collection. I’d read one so another coworker took that one, but I ‘m excited about these. I’ve read works by Emma Donoghue and Michael Cunningham before, but the others will be new, and the subject matter ranges from liberal gender identities in 1920s Paris, Catholic school girls and Filipino post-war culture. The books she brought for me to read are:

• Two Serious Ladies – Jane Bowles
• Flesh and Blood – Michael Cunningham
• Hood – Emma Donoghue
• Dogeaters – Jessica Hagedorn
• After Delores – Sarah Schulman
• People in Trouble – Sarah Schulman

The second set and third set of books come from an impromptu trip to the mall this past Saturday.

Jane Austen/Period Fiction

Tom and I went to the mall and somehow ended up parking by Borders (gee I wonder who was driving). We only went to get a quick-lunch and I stumbled across two Austen fan fiction books and had to buy them, with the previous encouragement and example of Jennifer at Retrograde Learning.

Well I bought the two books, we got lunch and I took Tom to class, and came back to Borders to hunt down any other Austen Fan Fiction I could find having enjoyed reading the Austenauthors.net site over the past few weeks and I struck gold! I found quite a few more but decided against 4-5 of them as they were either a serialization or didn’t strike me quite like these:

I bought one biography and five fan fiction books:

• Jane’s Fame – Claire Harman
• The Phantom of Pemberley – Regina Jeffers
• Becoming Jane Eyre – Sheila Kohler
• Jane and the Damned – Janet Mullany
• Willoughby’s Return – Jane Odiwe
• Lady Vernon and Her Daughter – Jane Rubino and Caitlen Rubino-Bradway
• Dancing with Mr. Darcy – Sarah Waters (ed.)

I’m not so sure about Jane and the Damned, as I prefer zombies to vampires (or at least Sea Monsters :-D), and I put another Jane Austen Fan Fiction book back because of vampires, but oh well. The rest I’m excited about, especially Becoming Jane Eyre (I couldn’t find Becoming Jane Austen, but I will eventually), Dancing with Mr. Darcy (I’ve really enjoyed short stories/collections of essays recently as they’re easy to break up to read, if a pain to review) and Jane’s Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World (A Biography).

Politics

But then, to either balance out the crazy – or send me even further down that road, I purchased these:

• Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin – Frank Bailey
• Going Rogue: An American Life – Sarah Palin

Now I had no interest what-so-ever in helping fill the coffers of Sarah Palin, but the fact that I only paid $0.60 makes me feel better about it. I wasn’t going to purchase it, but when I found Frank Bailey’s book I figured I should read both as they are on a separate list (yes I have multiple lists of books to read). Considering I only paid $3.00 for both of them and they’re hardback, I’m okay with owning them at least until I can finish them and pass them on or donate them to the library to resell. Hopefully between the two I’ll get a better idea of who Sarah Palin is and what she means for the country (if that’s even possible).

And the very last thing for this very long update is my cool reading update from Goodreads. Since last month, according to Goodreads I have read 1, 838 pages and according to my lists that’s seven books (or so). Below is the graphic if you don’t believe me 😀