Can you believe the calendar says September already? Seems like I say that every month, not that it’s September, but you know what I mean. August was a decent month for reading. I didn’t finish a huge number of books but I did start reading a huge number! Yes, yes, there is definitely an imbalance there, but I suspect that even if there were some sort of magic pill or vitamin supplement to right the imbalance, I would refuse to take it. Besides, it all works out in the end anyway and there is no reason to get ruffled about it.

What’s on tap for the month? Should I repeat myself from a few August posts? Sure, why not, you may not have read those, or maybe you have forgotten unless you are creepy weird and keep diligent track of all the titles I mention that I am reading.

Ok, so this is what’s going on:

• Rare and Commonplace Flowers: The Story of Elizabeth Bishop and Lota de Macedo Soares by Carmen L. Oliveira. Thank goodness I got this one from the university library so I don’t have to rush through it! The book goes along with my study of Elizabeth Bishop. I am also reading the Complete Poems and have made it through the first two books she published. In addition, I am reading her letters, One Art. So very good!
• The Rider by Tim Krabbé. A classic in the realm of cycling memoirs. The opening is fabulous. It begins just before a race and you can really feel the tension and excitement.
• The Republic of the Imagination by Azar Nafisi. I am about to begin on her close reading of Huckleberry Finn and I expect it will be good. Even if it isn’t, the introduction of this book is fantastic and is alone worth the price of admission. I plan on writing about that introduction soon because its themes have popped up in a few other places recently.
• Still Time by Jean Hegland. I am enjoying this one very much. It is about a Shakespeare professor who has Alzheimer’s and is slowly losing his memory. Rich with Shakespeare quotes and references, celebratory, yet sad.
• I am sorry to say I failed to finish reading The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak. I have not intentionally dragged this one out so long. Hopefully September will see me getting to the end of it!
• Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear. I am loving this book so much right now. I am reading it on my commute and at lunch and I have almost missed my stop a couple times and have been a tad late returning from lunch once or twice.
• Oscar Wilde’s Women by Eleanor Fitzsimons. This is for a Library Journal review and is about the women in Wilde’s life who influenced him.

Phew, got all that?

Now, just arrived and about to arrive from the library, a number of books that I placed hold requests on at the beginning of the summer!

• Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. I don’t remember where I came across this but it looks really good. Includes stories from the 1970s to the present and authors like Joanna Russ, Octavia Butler and Nalo Hopkinson.
• From one of the hottest indie presses around right now (Graywolf), Leaving Orbit: Notes from the Last Days of American Spaceflight by Margaret Lazarus Dean. The title pretty much says it all.
• The Ocean, the Bird, and the Scholar: Essays on Poets and Poetry by Helen Vendler. It’s new and been getting great reviews and there is at least one essay in it about Elizabeth Bishop.
• Through the Woods by Emily Carroll. Short stories. Mysterious. Spine-tingling. Perfect for the RIP Challenge! Such good timing on its arrival too.

And speaking of the RIP Challenge, it’s on! This year it is being hosted by The Estella Society. And it is the ten-year anniversary of what has become an annual event for a good many people. Given that pile of in progress books I just listed, I am not certain how much creepy reading I will get in this year, but I will manage at least one book. It runs until October 31st, so maybe I will be able to slip in something else that’s short. You just never know!