Back to Reality

Whoa, remember that whole post I made a week ago about what I was going to bring with me on my vacation to read? Well PSYCH, I didn't read ANY of those! I read the Lorrie Moore a little, I tried to read the Bechdel but I completely underestimated its density; it's not the easy read I expected a graphic novel to be. It's by no means bad, just contains a lot of information and a lot of congruent time lines; it's something I am going to have to read as if it were a novel, not something I can sample here and there every once in a while. What turned out to be the winning horse re: things to read on vacation was "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison.

I've read this novel before, but it was in high school, and, as with many novels I was assigned to read, I was so distracted by the bubbling primordial ooze of my own angst and ennui that I found it difficult to focus on things that weren't directly about me, such as this novel. As you all know, I also take issue with being told what to read. Fellow book maven and all-round Gal Friday Natasha and I have a rule; if some form of media surfaces three times or more, seemingly randomly, in our day to day escapades, it bears further investigation. That was how I stumbled across Joan Didion's "Blue Nights", because the book just kept catching my eye, or being mentioned in articles, or by friends, etcetera, that I eventually was forced to read it.

The same thing happened with "Song of Solomon", and so I was compelled to reread it. Morrison's prose is so indescribably wonderful to me, it's straightforward and poetic at the same time. Her subtle use of magical realism is interesting, almost nonexistant, but every once in a while she will inject a passage with unexpected interference from a natural and mystical world. Plants with explode with growth suddenly, ghosts will appear as naturally as if they were expected. This turned out to be a perfect summer novel, and, to that end, my idea of a perfect "beach read". "Song of Solomon" has everything you would want out of some forgettable trade paperback you'd find abandoned in a summer home: scandal, family drama, murder attempts, sex, magic, a little perversion. Yet, unlike a flimsy dime store narrative, "Song of Solomon" has actual girth to its plot and characters, and leaves a lasting impression.

So I'm happy with how that turned out. Other updates include: turns out I do like lobster salad, I've just never had it made properly before, apparently, my sister got accepted to UMASS Amherst (YAY EMMA)and, possibly most importantly, I am taking my drivers test on monday in Watertown at 11 am. Wimps get off the road! But besides that, until we meet again, Brookline, I remain, as ever, your humble servant. Keep me in your prayers on Monday. I'm gonna bring it so hard there's gonna be an obvious surplus. Of  "it". That's right. Boom. 

The Violent Bear it Away

I'm pretty sure it's in response to the Bruins denial of the Stanley Cup this year, but for some reason, a bear wandered from central Mass, to the Cape, and finally to our neck of the woods here in Brookline. He was caught and he's going to go live in a just-right cottage in the Berkshires (pretty sure) but what about those of us robbed of a chance to really get to know a bear? Legend has it that the bear was looking for love, or that his breeding instincts were what sent him on his epic quest. If that isn't romantic enough for you, I've rounded up some choice bear-related finds in the UBC to satisfy your wild cravings.

First up: The Bear by William Faulkner. Oh man. This novella is so rich, so wild, so gritty. I can't do it justice. Just read it, you'll be done in an hour and messed up for LIFE.

Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel. Technically the bear of the title bears little resemblance to actual bears. But, this is a saucy read for the prehistorically inclined on the Fifty Shades tip.

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. A novel-length retelling of the Grimm fairy tale Snow White and Rose Red, this is a harsh, lush novel with incredibly imaginative language and a lot of complicated sexual politics to parse out. Published abroad as grown-up, it's published as YA in the States, but I think anybody over the age of 15 should have to read this book.

Obviously there are lots of great kids book bears: Winnie the Pooh, Paddington, Corduroy. And there are authors and characters in grown up books that have ties to the ursine kingdom. Here's Gary Shteyngart with a bear:

You could check Ursula K. LeGuin. Or The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence, in which the main character is Ursula. The end of The Howling Miller by Arto Paasilinna has a pretty epic bear chase. If none of these interest you, I'd recommend grabbing a big jar of honey and camping out in front of a marathon of Bear Grylls. Or, share your favorite bookish bears in the comments.

A Little Dose of Nostalgia

Recently, I was at the register and a customer purchased a Presto Chango color pencil. Do you remember these? I do. I had a few as a kid, the thicker kind, without an eraser, that I used for special projects. I'm not sure why I loved it so much; I think because carrying around a single pencil felt more grown-up than carrying around a box of crayons or color pencils. I love when I stumble across something in our store that reminds me of childhood. I sent one of these by mail to a close friend and she got a kick out of it, and posted this picture on Instagram.

In that spirit, here are some pictures of a few of my favorite Booksmith finds that remind me of being a kid, and a few other doses of nostalgia.

Up until the age of thirteen, I lived in the Bay Area in California. My mom had an extensive fruit and vegetable garden and a honeysuckle plant that lined the kitchen window. We bought mesh bags of ladybugs at the store and let them loose on the garden so that they could kill the aphids, and even though there were ladybugs everywhere, I still loved trying to catch them in my insect-friendly Bug Bottle. I was pretty excited to see that nearly 20 years later, they still make The Bug Bottle.

Balmy summer nights on the east coast are the best. Though, living in in the city, I miss seeing stars. I had this exact chart, and stars up on the ceiling above my top-bunk bed. Spend a late night outside of the city this summer and take one of these star charts with you, or, and if you're a city dweller, make your own night sky.

We went on a lot of road trips up and down the California coast. When the trips got long, my parents would sometimes make us play the "quiet" game. When we weren't pestering our parents or trying to play quiet, we quizzed each other from Brain Quest. There are so many questions packed into this deck, and I loved that the questions went beyond the academic.  It looks like they make one now specifically for car trips. Maybe my parents were on to something.

Whenever we went into San Francisco's Chinatown I always came home with a different fold-up fan. We just got these in, in blue, purple and red for only $1 apiece. Here's a picture of my co-worker and fellow blogger, Natasha, posing with one in the Used Book Cellar.

I saw the spine of this book poking out of our children's nonfiction section and was so excited. I thought this was one of those random picture books that only I read. PEOPLE by Peter Spier is full of illustrations of people from around the world. My favorite is the beginning, where sections are devoted to the vast variety of of eyes, noses, body shapes, hair, etc. 

Speaking of books, I can't help but bring up this one. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes won the Booker this past year, and is about the power of nostalgia, and the crazy things it makes us do.

And finally, I highly recommend the new Wes Anderson film, Moonrise Kingdom, now playing at the Coolidge Corner Theater. It captures childhood beautifully

As Heard On NPR

You may have heard our new Globe Corner Travel Annex mentioned on your local NPR station recently. We're excited to be part of your summer plans, bringing you the latest and best in travel guidebooks and maps.

Read more about our selection of trail maps from National Geographic, our Moon Handbooks to North, Central, and South American destinations, and the new Lonely Planet Not For Parents guidebooks series on our blog at globecorner.com.

Wilder



Check out our wide array
of hiking maps
at globecorner.com

When I was ten, I decided I would never run a marathon. This may sound like a no-brainer for most people, but most people didn't grow up in a family whose parents had medals and race posters from their four or five 26.2-milers a piece decorating the walls of their house. I eschewed the expectation that I would follow in their 26.2-mile-long footsteps for almost as long as I can remember. Somehow, I knew I would have to find my own ways to be brave. 

My older sister is different. She'd run her first marathon by the time she was 25. And when she and her husband turned 30 last year, they decided that to celebrate, they would hike the Appalachian Trail.   

The pleasures of armchair travel are many. Reading can not only take you to the places you long to go, but into experiences you never in your life would try outside of the covers of a book. Perhaps it’s the nature of the middle child to live vicariously through a more adventuresome older sibling. Maybe this ability to imagine myself into my sister’s shoes is what made me into such an avid armchair traveler...

Read the rest of this post at globecorner.com.

What I'm Taking on My Summer Vacation.

Hey friends. I'm writing this blog post ahead of schedule because by Saturday, I will be in Rhode Island for a week with my family. We go annually; what began as a retreat in order to partake in the festivities of my youngest aunt's wedding (over a decade ago) became a general yearly family reunion, which slowly was eaten away by entropy until now it is just my sole family unit: sister, father, step mom, and me. Even my Dad secretly hates it, but the rest of us are so in love with going every year that he plays along. The reason why everyone else, including my Dad, has lost interest in the annual Rhode Island vacation is because there's really nothing to do there. I mean, there was when we started going as a family, lo these many years ago. People went on hikes, went to various beaches, explored the outlying flora and/or fauna. I am related to more than a few birdwatchers, so that held them for a little while. Eventually, however, one by one, Rhode Island became boring, and my dear relatives stopped using up their vacation time just to sit around and talk to other Hydes about whatever is going on at work currently.

The reason that myself, my sister, and my step mom all still like it is because we are boring.

So boring. We're indoor folk by nature, meaning for us, vacation means a mostly sedentary existence. We watch a lot of movies, we read a lot of books, there's a lot of beer and ice cream involved. I walk to the beach almost daily, but I feel no real urge to go to any other beaches. I'm happy with the beach I go to. This is probably related to the fact that I have poor directional sense, and like to avoid any kind of activity wherein I could get lost. I've tried to fight this whole homebody nature, and I do love nature and being outside, but what I really want from a vacation is the freedom to do, or not to do, as I please.

And here we arrive at the nature of this blog post: what am I bringing to Rhode Island?

Obviously, since this is a graphic novel, (by a notoriously amazing graphic novelist) I reckon it will take me less than an afternoon to get through it. I realized the other day that, while I love Alison Bechdel, and while Graphica is one of my sections here at the store, I still have not read this guy. So I went crazy and bought it - yeah, I bought a hardcover, like some kind of fancypants Richy McRicherton - and, later this week, will delicately tuck it into my luggage (smash cut to: me throwing t-shirts, dog-eared trade paperbacks and bath items into a duffel while my family honks a horn repeatedly from the car outside) where I will enjoy it on a deck, I'd wager.

I'm also going to bring James Joyce's "Ulysses", because I haven't read it yet and I am intrigued by it. I probably won't get very far into it before I pass out in a bowl of potato salad. I don't really know what else to say here except that I have lofty reading expectations but usually do not meet my own goals. And if you have a problem with that, our life together is going to be really long and unsatisfying.

Oh look, another massive, ambitious novel that I have no hope of finishing. This kind of happens every year, I bring several heavy, difficult tomes with me and then I end up watching basic cable and playing video games with my sister. I'm still going to bring this guy though. I bought "Children's Hospital" when it was on remainder about a year ago, because Katie, a bookseller here with a penchant similar to mine for all things weird and funny, recommended it to me. I also find the premise promising.

I have no reason for bringing this slim little collection, except that it is on remainder right now and I started reading it and I like it, it's easy to read, it has some poetical chops that I enjoy, and it's less than 600 pages. I guarantee you, this will be the only book I want to read while I am there.

I'll tell you how things go. Until we read again, sweet gentles.

Take a Chill Pill

The recent unrelenting heat may be near its end, instead of wallowing in it, why don't you come inside, bask in our magical air conditioner, and better yet, come into the cool subterranean UBC and shop and chill.

I'll get you started:

See! It's helping already!

 So stop in and cool down. Find a book that takes place in the dead of a Swedish winter and escape all this. Or, sell us your used books for cash during buying hours Wednesday - Saturday, 10 AM - 4 PM and buy an AC. Or some frozen yogurt.