popplers

July Book Club

Most recently read:

• Erik Larson: The Devil in the White City. I read this while up at Twin Trees. I enjoyed it (apparently far more than Poz did), and it has so many elements that I love: Gilded Age! Serial killer! High society! Incredible feats of engineering! Phenomenal meals! World's Fair! This Pittsburgh Post-Gazette review picks [up] on some of the elements that I suspect Poz found irritating. Excerpts are available at randomhouse.com and amazon.com.
  
• Alison Bechdel: Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Excellent memoir in graphic novel form from the creator of Dykes to Watch Out For. If you don't mind [mostly minor] spoilers, check out the Powells.com review and the NYT review.
  
• Wendy McClure: I'm Not the New Me. This is the first novel/ memoir from the author of The Amazing Mackerel Pudding Plan. This would have been a good beach read— entertaining, snarky, and low in calories. The Powells.com review is fairly generic, but the SF Chronicle reviewer really liked it.

Still in the queue:

• Christopher Priest: The Prestige. So far, I've brought this to Philadelphia (business trip), Twin Trees, and the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. I have yet to actually start reading it. But I'd better get cracking— it's being made into a movie with Christopher Nolan (Memento) directing. They've got quite the cast, including David Bowie as Nikolai Tesla (and Andy Serkis as his assistant).
  
• Erik Larson: Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History. Because I love all that Into Thin Air/ Perfect Storm/ disaster shit. Currently on order from Minuteman Library Network.