I haven’t checked in at the Sunday Salon for a few weeks now, other than that time I talked about why this reader writes, and it looks like I won’t get there this weekend either (a houseguest through Sunday night, and a day off with Tall Paul on Monday), so I thought I’d do a little Bookkeeping here today.
Reading I’m performing a potentially dangerous bit of book juggling right now–I’ve got three print books underway. I’m pushing through some November literary fiction to review for Shelf Awareness, alternating with Patty Chang Anker’s Some Nerve: Lessons Learned While Becoming Brave. I usually shy away from self-help, but Anker blends it with memoir in this born-on-a-blog book project, and it’s striking some nerves (pun mostly intended) with me. I started both of them on the same day I opened the one book I deliberately picked out to read during this Halloween month, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman…and soon decided I would save that one for last. I have a feeling I’m going to want to give it more exclusive attention. (And yes, you know all this book-reading means that my blog-reading is slacking.)
By the way, the Book Review Archive is up to date through this week, and can now be sorted on author name and review year in addition to title and classification.
Listening I’m about ⅔ through the audiobook version of Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, Sheri Fink’s account of the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina at New Orleans’ former Baptist Hospital. It’s by turns infuriating and heartbreaking, incorporating issues of ethics, class, and race into a complex story of terrible conditions and impossible decisions. It’s absolutely fascinating and very thought-provoking. Kim recently finished reading it too, and I’m hoping for a little cross-blog book talk about it with her!
Watching The only new TV show that’s gotten much attention around my house is Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D….and in truth, I’m only mildly attached to it at this point (and more excited about the return of Arrow for its second season). Otherwise, it’s mostly sitcoms, including the stockpiling of new Parks and Recreation episodes on the DVR until we finish watching the previous season on Netflix. Right now, I strongly suspect that the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who is going to be the highlight of my autumn, TV-wise.
Writing I’m in the third week of my online writing workshop, and the only member of our small group who isn’t in the midst of trying to write Something Major (one’s just started a book, one’s been at it for a while, and one’s branching into fiction). Each of us is supposed to be working one-on-one with our coach on our personal WIP, in addition to our weekly writing assignments (some of which I’ll share here) and video meetings via Google Hangout–and since I don’t have one, I’m stressing a bit over it! On the other hand, this certainly gives me a goal, doesn’t it? “A Writing Project That Isn’t My Blog.” I’m in the prewriting phase on that now.
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