Book Give Away: Round 2

Round two of the great shelf clean-off continues with two of my favorite categories, Contemporary Fiction and Fantasy/Speculative Fiction. This time I got kind of excited and put little annotations next to the titles below the photos because I have loved all these books at one time or another and don't really want to shut up about them even though I want the shelf space back. 

Locals, let me know if you want any of these and we'll work out how to get them to you. If a title has been crossed off, it has been claimed.

Contemporary Fiction
Top to bottom:
The Greenlanders by Jane Smiley: a Scandanavian-style epic written in clean, clear prose; you can lose yourself in this world
Hard Laughter by Anne Lamott: I think this was Lamott's first novel, semi-autobiographical, definitely before she was sober/found Jesus
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson: possibly one of the most beautiful books I've read about a father
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields; a compelling story of one woman's life from 1905-the late 1980s with surprising lightness and bursts of humor
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich; the book where so many of Erdrich's recurring cast of amazing characters were introduced, on the North Dakota reservation where many of her books are set
Postcards by E. Annie Proulx; a sad but exquisite story of two brothers in New England
The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro; a collection by one of the best short-story writers, most set in Canada
The Hill Bachelors by William Trevor; a collection by one of the other best short-story writers, most set in Ireland or UK
The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter; a retelling of Midsummer Night's Dream set in Ann Arbor
Changing My Mind by Zadie Smith; not fiction, but essays by the whip-smart novelist, and many of the essays are about fiction

Fantasy/Speculative Fiction
Top to bottom:
Dreamdark: Blackbringer by Laini Taylor: probably technically YA, fierce fairies and talking crows, together battling an invading evil darkness
Foundling by D.M. Cornish: Fantastic world-building, the first book in a series, the kind of book that has an 100+ page "explicarium" with a dictionary of terms, maps, and drawings which you either love or hate; I love that kind of stuff
Ghostwritten by David Mitchell: Mitchell's first book with linked narratives; if you liked Cloud Atlas, you will probably like this
Number 9 Dream by David Mitchell: a little more intimate (one character, rather than linked stories) but still weird in a beautiful Mitchell way
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell: a head-spinning plot, both witty and strange
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie: a fantasy novel by one of my favorite Science Fiction authors, excellent world building

Book Give Away: Round 1

With the libraries closed and plenty of people I know facing financial stress, I'm starting the book re-distribution project. Today we have some food-related books and YA fiction. All of these were good enough to take up residence on a shelf in my home for a period of time, but I don't plan to reread them.

Here's the deal: if you are local, let me know if you want a book or books, either in the comments or via the contact me in the right side bar. I will try to update this post with the books that have been claimed crossed off so you know what is still available. Anything no one wants will go into a bin to be delivered to the Friends of the AADL Bookshop once it is safe to donate again.

No, I won't mail these to you. I walk (a lot; don't assume you live too far away. I once decided to walk home to Evanston from the Art Institute of Chicago which is something like 13+ miles. It was a great walk) and can drop them off at your residence and then you should either set them somewhere for 3+ days or wipe them down with disinfectant. If you want a lot of books (fine with me, I want to liberate my space for more new books) then I'll find a time when I'm driving to run an errand and am in your vicinity and will drop them off. If I know you and am comfortable giving out my address to you, I can leave them on my porch for you to pick up.

And if you are feeling really guilty about getting books for free (don't. There's enough shit to feel bad about right now, free books should not be one of them) and have the means, please support one of our local bookstores by buying yourself a gift certificate to use at a later date. Here's the link to Literati and here's the link for Bookbound. See, you're giving yourself something to look forward to!

Food Related Books

From top to bottom:
The Michigan Gardner's Companion by Rita C. Henehan
The Moosewood Restaurant Kitchen Garden by David Hirsch
Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads by Bernard Clayton, Jr.
Field of Greens by Annie Somerville
Put 'Em Up: A Comprehensive Home Preserving Guide for the Creative Cook by Sherri Brooks Vinton
A Well-Seasoned Appetite by Molly O'Neill
Tasty: Get Great Food on the Table Every Day by Roy Finamore

YA Fiction:

From top to bottom:
Let it Snow (3 novellas) by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
Enna Burning by Shannon Hale
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Paper Towns by John Green
Chime by Franny Billingsley
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Blood Red Road by Moira Young

A Project

Now that we're in shelter-in-place mode, I need a project to keep me from driving everyone and myself crazy. I've been practicing the restricted movement/social distancing behavior for the week before the governor's declaration without a significant project and mostly it was going ok: I like the challenge of the stash-busting the freezer, the pantry and my yarn. I let the kids sleep in. I took lots of long walks (the dog is very tired.) But then on Sunday something snapped, I got really squirrelly and agitated and I couldn't get myself to stop checking the news every ten minutes. Even a 4.5 mile walk, time with the Tudors, knitting, tea and making gluten-free pecan sandies (decent, but not earthshaking) did little to dent how I was feeling. So yesterday I decided I need a project to direct my energy towards and decided that I will paint my office.

My office is blue and I am sick of it. I have about 3/4 of a gallon of cream paint leftover from when I painted the living room last year. It's probably not enough for two coats so I'll be scrounging around in the basement, looking for primer/other light colored paint to use for a first coat. The cream stuff has good coverage so hopefully, once I've prepped the walls, one coat will do it.

But before I can get to painting, I'm tackling the bookshelves which have long been a disorganized dumping ground. I'm going through, shelf by shelf, and culling the books that we don't want to read again. The big bonus of this is I have a LOT of books to give away and many of them are excellent reads (just not books I/we plan to read again.) So I'll be posting those and if you would like some of them and are local, I'll try to get them to you. Anything that isn't requested will go to the Friends of the Library bookshop once it is safe to donate materials again.

Here are three of the ten shelves in my office that I culled and dusted and are ready to be tarped for painting.  Look! On the middle shelf there is even room for NEW books!

 And here are two that still need some (ahem) significant attention. Lots of crap to wade through, organize and recycle.

I already cleared my desk which has never been so clean:

But the real challenge in getting this room ready to be painted is the fact that I share this office with my youngest child whose desk looks like this:

There are layers of crap/treasures to be excavated and organized and it is going to take some serious nagging and threats to torch the whole damn pile to get child-participation to happen. There used to be a little cleared space in the middle where computer work could take place, but since we had to purchase a laptop for the kid to be able to complete schoolwork this year, the desktop is mostly neglected and the whole space has devolved into a shit-hole dumping ground.

Wish me luck.

Eat the damn salad

This is my favorite salad. You should eat it.

I kind of feel like stopping there because it has been an exhausting day full of the void of no one knowing what they should do (other than stay home) and so wandering from space to space, starting one thing, putting it down, picking something else up and then feeling restless after 15 minutes, turning the tv on, turning it off. You get the idea.

The dog has been on four long walks today. The dog is tired.

It's not that I didn't have the time to make something interesting and elaborate for dinner tonight. I didn't have the brain.

Back to the salad: it's crunchy, salty, sweet, has a little protein from the walnuts and feta and is made with stuff that is available year-round in Michigan so no reliance on perfect produce. It makes me happy every time I eat it.

Guess what I'm having for dinner tonight?

Kate's favorite salad
in per person quantities

about 1/2 a small apple, Pink Lady is my favorite
1 scallion, sliced
1 stalk of celery, sliced
about 1/4 C of walnuts
about 2 T crumbled feta
some lettuce (you can use whatever you've got. I've made it with everything under the sun including arugula and iceberg lettuce. Because of the sweetness of the apples, punchy greens are pretty nice here.)
optional--some shredded cabbage, green or red, doesn't matter
optional--a few sliced radishes
optional--some chopped parsley

Pile it all on a plate and drizzle on your favorite vinaigrette, or really whatever you like on your salads.