Bookin'

When M & I go on vacation, we really like going to bookstores.  On our recent trip to the Northwest, we must have gone to at LEAST 10 bookstores, and I got a nice little pile of books.  Lately I've been thinking about writing when and where I get my books, because I usually find them at interesting places, not just Amazon or the local big box store.

Our favorite bookstore in Seattle was probably the Elliott Bay Book Co, which is a gorgeous bookstore with a fabulous cafe and really nice places to sit and read and nice folks that bring in their dogs and let you pet them.  This bookstore was really elegantly organized and I really liked how they arranged their recommended books.  We also went to a small bookstore in Pike's Place that had mostly used mysteries and sci-fi and this totally bizarre owner who sang opera at us and, yes... scared us a little.  He was partly mad-bookstore-genius and partly just wacky.  Anyway, I do like a good mystery and found a PD James and he recommended this Donna Leon person, who I've never read before.  God help me if I don't mind reading Patricia Cornwell every now and then...

Octavia Butler I haven't read before but she has some Seattle connection (maybe she's from there?)  Anywho, I picked up Fledgling at another shop and look forward to reading that soon. 

I think I got that What French Women Know at Elliott Bay.  I'm hoping it's better than What French People Like and Why French Ladies Don't Get Fat or whatever it's called...

Zadie Smith I just love.  I can't believe I haven't read that book of essays yet.  I also got Blood Red Road out there but I finished it and gave it to my friend before we left.  These all look like great books to read on vacation but unfortunately I didn't get to them all, only about half-way through the Cornwell and now I have other reading obligations that I must finish first.  Ah, there's never enough time!  Or, vacation time! 

Famous authors on zip lines

Ha! This is really funny. I Heart Conan O'Brien, but I do not Heart zip lines! I rode some once when I was on vacation in Costa Rica. It's really terrifying!

Sister

I read a compelling review for Sister in the
NY Times book review section. It's written by British author Rosamund Lupton and was apparently quite popular in England last year.

It's a story of a woman who's sister is killed (not a spoiler, happens right away) so she goes to London to find out what happened. Told mostly in 2nd person, Sister is like a letter to the dead sister, a chronology of the events told by the living.

It's a good mystery novel and really wrapped me in - Lupton does some interesting things with the narrative and the POV and writes skillfully.