i've been speeding through some books lately - because it's summer, or at the very least, because summer is soon ending....

i know it's practically over because my research term here is done, i'm starting to fret a bit about the dental seminars i haven't yet planned, my friends are planning my birthday dinner (they're so sweet! reese's e-mail included the terms "get ready to eat!") and soon after that, reese will be going to france, kids returning to school and work...

anyway, i've just read alva and irva by edward carey, and it's one of the more interesting, more touching books i've read this summer. of course i read harry pottery, but that's a different kind of enjoyment - it's such an easy read, and everything - the emotions, are so plainly cut and explained to you so directly, which is why it's so easy to digest. that's okay, but you can't exist on that kind of stuff. after being hopeful about barbara gowdy's The Romantic (read the inner leaflet! that made me go crazy trying to locate the book for two days!) - it turned out to be more red, more jarring than i had wanted. her previous books, although jarring, were more understated, and elegant. i did not quite enjoy this one. i tried reading sappho's leap (erica jong), and it was too...outrightly imagined....for me. weaved with obscure poetry and involving figures of old, but steeped in harlequin furor...ick.

couldn't even get started on this other recently written book, muddled around with past issues of harper's i didn't get to read (i really really like reading harper's)...

i haven't gone to weldon this entire summer (this is a good thing) but today i went to read alva and irva, because i left work so early. when i read page 85, containing a passage about libraries (well, the sexuality of libraries), i knew i wished i had written that passage.

aaaaanyway. bye bye.