Bookgirl's Nightstand | When I'm not reading books, I'm making them.

Spring Words

iliana Nightstand March 20, 2007

Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere)arranging
a window,into which people look(while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here)and

changing everything carefully…

Excerpt from Spring is like a perhaps hand by E.E. Cummings

While I was reading some poetry on Poets.org tonight I ran across a nifty article compiling Poems on Film. Isn’t that great? I swear if I ever make it on Jeopardy I’m studying that. Heh. Actually I’ve seen a lot of these movies and I’m having a hard time remembering there was even a poem mentioned in some of them! One of my favorite movies, Il Postino, made it on the list of course. Any of your favorites on the list?

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Monday Stuff

iliana Nightstand March 19, 2007

You won’t believe this, I had to go to the library again today. I totally didn’t plan on doing that but I had returned a DVD my mom had borrowed and she forgot to put the disk back in the case when I returned it. Darn. But, I was a good bookgirl and only stopped by to drop it off. No peeking at the new books!

And no trips to Half Price Books this week after all. The sale starts next week. I guess I was just so excited about coupons that I didn’t even bother reading the dates. Ah well, more time for me to plan which books I will look for.

In other book news if you read The Myth of You & Me, don’t forget that discussion of the book has started over at The Written Word. I wasn’t too keen on the book, here’s my review, but that’s the best part about a book discussion, you get to hear why others loved it, what moved them, what didn’t work, etc.

I’m giving up on Comfort Woman which is the book for the Reading Matters book group. I’ve read about 70 pages but I still can’t warm up to it. I will drop in on the book discussion to see what others say and perhaps I’ll be motivated to finish it then. That has happened to me before.

Finally, The Orange longlist is out. I’ve heard of several of the books, some are on my TBR list, but I’ve only read one, The Girls by Lori Lansens. I loved it so I’ll root for it. Have you read any of these? Any you want to recommend?

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Library Books & Coupons

iliana Nightstand March 18, 2007

I stopped at the library on Saturday and I picked up my three holds and read a couple of magazines while I was there. The only thing that marred my stop was that I didn’t find any poetry books that I couldn’t leave without.

My library is really a great source for fiction, non-fiction, etc. We have comfy couches, free wireless connections, lots of computers, and we even have a cafe! Yes, drinks and food are allowed in my library. But one thing had to give I guess and that would be the poetry section. It is miniscule. Only two shelves devoted to poetry and the books look like they’ve been there for ages. Still, I won’t complain because I know my library is a good one. Hopefully though some rich patron will donate some poetry books.

Anyway here’s what I got on my visit:

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu. From Kirkus Review: Mengestu skirts immigrant-literature cliches and paints a beautiful portrait of a complex, conflicted man struggling with questions of love and loyalty… A nuanced slice of immigrant life.

Hide & Seek by Clare Sambrook. From Publishers Weekly: This taut, suspenseful debut novel narrated by a young boy takes as its premise the unthinkable and its aftermath: the disappearance of a child during a school field trip.

Consequences of Sin by Clare Langley-Hawthorne. From Publishers Weekly: Langley-Hawthorne’s debut, billed as the first in a new Edwardian series, introduces an aspiring journalist and an Oxford-educated heiress, Ursula Marlow, who has a lot to learn about good detective work.

Don’t all of these sound good? I wish I could read them all right now. To make matters worse guess what I got in the mail? Coupons for Half Price Books. Coupons for all of this week. Oh yes, I will be making trips to Half Price Books.

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