Happy Columbus Day to my American friends, and Happy Thanksgiving to our neighbors to the north!  I hope you’re all having a lovely holiday weekend.  I have always loved Columbus Day because it falls right around my birthday – some years I get a three-day weekend for my big day, which is always extra fun.  (Not this year, but I’m still enjoying the holiday weekend birthday proximity, so.)  The kids and I celebrated with a trip to our local bookstore this morning (Peanut got A Pocket for Corduroy, and I grabbed 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories, which I’ve been eyeing – happy early birthday to me!).  We had sort of a roller-coaster weekend.  Saturday started off annoying – it’s a long story, but we drove to Letchworth for a family hike (my birthday wish) and ended up getting turned around and having to go home without even getting into the park.  Really annoying, and I was bumming hard.  We salvaged the day with a trip to the pumpkin patch after nap, but everyone was a bit out of sorts.  Yesterday we went for a stroll through Tifft Nature Preserve, to make up for the missed hike of the day before – but it wasn’t the same.  I’m really hoping to get to Letchworth before the leaves are all gone, but I’m not sure if it will happen – insert sad face here.

Last week was a productive one in the reading life!  I didn’t even realize how productive until I looked back at my Goodreads activity and I finished four books!  The highlight was Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi – a graphic memoir of growing up in revolutionary Iran.  It was shocking and powerful and I don’t know how I missed it when it came out a few years ago.  I read it in honor of Banned Books Week – it’s one of the most frequently challenged recent graphic novels.  (Although it’s a memoir, not a novel.)  It was hard to read in parts, but really, really wonderful.  Then I finally read Go Set a Watchman, the “new” Harper Lee novel – and as I expected, I didn’t like it.  I’ll have a whole post coming soon on why I decided to read it, and more detail about what I thought.  After that I read the new Patrick DeWitt novel, Undermajordomo Minor, which I really enjoyed, but which lost a “star” (went from four to three) because of a bizarre scene involving baked goods that made me want to gouge my eyes out.  If you’ve read it, you know what I’m talking about, and let’s agree to never speak of this again, mmmmkay?  Then, because I really needed a palate cleanser, I finished re-reading Where’d You Go, Bernadette? – one of my favorite books of recent years.  It was just as funny and charming as I remembered, and exactly what I wanted to read after a week of violent revolution, hero-besmirching and weird food… oh, right, I said I wasn’t going to talk about the Undermajordomo Minor food scene again.  Sorry.

For this week: I’m currently reading the new Margaret Atwood novel, The Heart Goes Last.  In vintage Atwood style, it started off moderately unsettling and has escalated.  I’m on about page 120 and it’s thoroughly weirding me out – but it’s well-written and engaging and so, so good.  I also have the new Salman Rushdie checked out from the library, but it’s non-renewable and due back on Wednesday and, once again, I think it will be heading back unread because I just won’t have the time to finish it.  So back on the wait list I’ll go.  And instead, while I’m waiting, I will fiiiiiiiiiiiiiinally pick up Between the World and Me, and I can’t even tell you how excited I am to read it.  I’ve read a few excerpts and they’re just beautiful and heart-rending and I can’t wait.  I can’t wait.  Oh, and speaking of buzz – I’m also in the middle of Big Magic, the new Elizabeth Gilbert book, and hopefully I’ll be able to finish that this week, too.  Oh, and Tuesday is LUMBERJANES DAY!  Which means that all this other reading is going to get tossed aside as soon as I have the new trade paperback in my hands, because FRIENDSHIP TO THE MAX!

Okay, enough babbling.  This was supposed to be a short check-in and here I’ve been rambling for three paragraphs.  What are you reading?