My new favorite line:

"There was a crash from upstairs that sounded a lot like an octopus breaking through the back of a dresser."

You can always tell when my wife and I have been to a book signing together (We don't share well).

Classic. Never read it before, but been a fan of Steinbeck. It's good, a humorous look at life in 1930s Monterrey.

Any anthology with Charlie Jane Anders, Ted Chiang, Maria Dahvana Headley, and *cough* Salman Rushdie *cough* has got my attention, and this didn't disappoint. The closing story (The Great Silence by Ted Chiang) in particular will stick with me for awhile.

Hung out with Goethe & Bolivar, and inspired Darwin, while traveling much of the world studying nature and climbing mountains--Alexander von Humbolt's one of my new heroes.

I didn't read much about this book before ordering, and I dove into it shortly after purchase so..... I wasn't sure, at first if this was fiction or memoir. The events in the first story are so searing I was relieved to realize they were fiction. But they have the in turns harrowing, sweet, charming, confusing feel of real life. The last story, Strange Gods, has particularly stuck with me.

I loved this book. I want to bathe in the prose. I found myself reading passages aloud just to hear them said. And the story--the life and times of Thomas Cromwell, Advisor to King Henry VIII in the years leading up to the beheading of Anne Boleyn, is compelling.

I think it's the character of Cromwell I like the most here. Mantel wrote this in the third person, but Cromwell's voice comes through clearly and distinctly.

Very weird (naturally). Felt like an art history course from a professor lit on absinthe. If you read it, don't forget the afterword. It's not part of the main narrative but adds to it well.

Calling this a pick, because it's Mieville, and I love most of his stuff, but even after reading I'm still not 100% what it's about. Decent read though.

Waiting for Michael Chabon to speak, and hopefully sign this. :)

Two chapters in and I'm loving it. The writing is incredible.

E-books aren't great for my book hoarding instincts. Can't wait to read this book, but I have a few others on my plate....

Just got this from the library; hope it's good. Looking forward to it.