Sunday Salon

Good morning! Right now the sun is up, the birds are making a lot of noise, and I’m sitting at my desk drinking coffee. I decided to come up for air from my reading to write this post. I’m currently reading Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee. It’s the story of Case Han, the daughter of Korean immigrants. She’s just graduated from Princeton and has no job and no idea what to do with her life. I’m almost a hundred pages into the book and I can tell you that this is the story about race, class, our desires, and reliving the past. This is Min Jin Lee’s debut novel and it’s a polished work of art.

I read three books this week but the sad thing is that I can only remember the last two: Mouseguard: Fall 1152 by David Petersen and Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell. I have no idea what the first book was and I didn’t write the title down or add it to my Goodreads account. I’m behind in writing reviews (who isn’t?), so look out this week for a review about Beat the Reaper.

Here are a few article and blog links from last week that I think are great:

• Rob Around the Books posted an in teresting interview with Frances from Nonsuch Book for his Reader of the Week feature.

• Ali over at Worducopia is the host of Diversity Roll call. Every two weeks there’s a new topic for her readers to post about. This is the last week for the Gay Pride Month topic. I plan on writing a post about many of my favorite books that have to do with GLBTQ issues.

• The other day I was teasing Natasha over at Maw Books while we were on Twitter. She had just found out about the blog, Terrible Yellow Eyes. The blog is a collection of pieces by artists dedicated to and inspired by Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are. The pieces are beautiful and very touching.

• Last week Nymeth wrote a great post called “On Fantasy and Why I Read It.”

• One thing I really hate is when people underestimate the power of libraries. If it wasn’t for libraries, most of us wouldn’t have the access to books and other materials that we have now. I personally would be homeless  because of all the books I would have had to buy instead of checking out from my local library. As a library science student I’m understanding more how much libraries do for our society. Too bad Ohio governor, Ted Strickland refuses to listen. Strickland is proposing a 30% budget cut for Ohio public libraries. He’s already cut 20% from the library’s budget earlier this year. Now is not the time to reduced library funding. We’re in the middle of a recession and libraries across the country are seeing attendance hikes and Strickland doesn’t care. If the budget cuts go through, many of Ohio libraries will have to close. In support of your own public library whether you use it or not, are you a friend of your local  library? Friends of the Library memberships are as low as $25 a year and goes to furnish materials and support programs that our libraries host. For more information, go to your library’s website to see how you can help.

• Amy over at My Friend Amy is having a book drive to get author Beth Kephart’s newest book, Nothing but Ghosts into the hands of more readers. Amy has not received a free book or even encouragement from Harper Teen, the publisher.  She’s just doing this in support of Kephart, one of her favorite authors. The goal is to get at least 200 books sold by Friday, July 3rd. Amy is also giving away prizes to readers who buy the book. Have you lent your support to the Nothing but Ghosts Book Drive yet?

So that’s it for today. Have a great week and happy reading.