Recent Book Activity

Last Visit: 4/28/10

About Me:

I don't remember a time when I couldn't read or wasn't trying to write. I love fiction and poetry and anything that creates clear images and carefully explores the world in a way that causes me to stop and think. It's even better if it forces me to think differently about something, challenging my beliefs and ideas.


On Trades and RABCKs:

*Due to my financial circumstances, I cannot for any reason send outside of the US or Canada.
*For the same reason, I cannot entertain solicited RABCKs, which is a contradiction of terms anyway.
*I will trade books from my "Available" shelf, especially if you have something on My Wish List . Or if you live in one of the many gray states on the US map below, which indicates my books' travels.
*Books marked "Permanent Collection," are exactly that. I cannot trade, loan, or RABCK any of those books. I've listed them here only on the off chance that I decide to change their status to "Available," which I've already done to a few of them.


Wild Release Stats:

The following books were caught after I released them into the wild.
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellision
A Collection of Beauties at the Height of Their Popularity by Whitney Otto
Let the Ice Speak by Wendy Barker
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday
100 Secrets of Happy People by David Niven, Ph.D
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
More Than You Know by Beth Gutcheon
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
The Borgia Bride by Jeanne Kalogridis
After the Fortune Cookies by Ann R. Blakeslee


Bookrays I've Started:

Sex with Kings by Eleanor Herman (STALLED) Please see Sex with Kings for perryfran's continuation of this stalled ray.
Towelhead by Alicia Erian (Finished! 7/21/06 to 3/23/07)
Poison by Kathryn Harrison (STALLED with dospescados)
The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman (Finished! 6/2/06 to 7/3/06)
Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl by Kate McCafferty (Finished! 8/24/05 to 11/4/06)
One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus (Finished! 8/24/05 to 7/19/06)
The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory (Finished! 12/2/04 to 8/9/06)
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn (Finished! 11/15/04 to 7/8/05)
The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri (Finished! 10/20/04 to 4/10/05)


Bookrays I've Recently Joined:

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind (chas04) received 5/15/08; sent off 5/24/08


Favorite Book Quotes:

"If or when I do start going to an analyst, I hope to God he has the foresight to let a dermatologist sit in on the consultation. A hand specialist. I have scars on my hands from touching certain people. Once, in the park, when Franny was still in the carriage, I put my hand on the downy pate of her head and left it there too long. Another time, at Loew's Seventy-Second Street, with Zooey during a spooky movie. He was about six or seven, and he went under the seat to avoid watching a scary scene. I put my hand on his head. Certain heads, certain colors, and textures of human hair leave permanent marks on me. Other things too. Charlotte once ran away from me outside the studio, and I grabbed her dress to stop her, to keep her near me. A yellow cotton dress I loved because it was too long for her. I still have a lemon-yellow mark on the palm of my right hand. Oh, God, if I'm anything by a clinical name, I'm a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy."

"As a child...[w]henever I felt wronged or misunderstood, I would stare at my hands, the creases in my palms. I would tell myself I will always be the same person just as I will always have these same hands. I had knowledge that my body would continue to change, although in what ways I did not know precisely. But I stared at my hands and vowed to remember this day, these same hands, and the feelings of injustice I felt at being accused of wrongdoing when it had never been my intention at all. Looking at my palms today, I can see those splinters from my childhood. I can feel once again the slivers slipping under my skin, hear myself promise never to forget who and what had injured me. I think of those slivers as ingredients for stories."
The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings by Amy Tan

Book Travels:

The map indicates the states where books I have registered have traveled. This includes wild releases, RABCKs, trades, book relays, and bookrays. My books have also visited Canada (Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario), Brazil, France, Germany, Finland, Australia, and England.



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