Tag Archives: Books in the Pie-Cooling Cupboard

An Imaginary Curriculum: Which it’s Part the First of Kate’s Wild and Crazy Summer Reading Thoughts

A couple of days a week I work at my favorite bookstore, and last week I started one of my favorite projects: building the summer reads table for kids and teens. This got me thinking about all the research reading I’ve done over the last couple of years, the things I’ve learned since that weren’t part of my middle and high school education–discoveries of history, science, math, information theory, literature that I was lead to by people and projects I’ve [...]

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The Informed Voter Project Returns: The Andre Norton Award Finalists

When last I posted in this series it was a little over a month ago, the day before the voting deadline for the Nebula, Bradbury and Andre Norton awards.  At the time I still had the two full-length novel categories left to review–and, er, two books left to read. It was a close thing. All I have to say is, thank goodness for my two hours of daily subway time and my shocking ability to function on zero sleep. You [...]

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Subway Literature: Ian McDonald’s Desolation Road

Nathan attempted to have me stop what I was doing to read the first chapter, in which Dr. Alimantando, while riding his wind-board across a great desert, is visited for three consecutive nights by a greenperson who claims he is there to lead Alimantando to his destiny. That’s how I knew this one was going to be good. I read the first few pages and gave it back. I was pretty sure if I finished the chapter, I wasn’t going [...]

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Subway Literature: Shaun Tan’s Tales from Outer Suburbia

This book is going on my special bookcase, the one that used to be a pie-cooling cupboard and has chickenwire screens in front of each shelf. Only my very favorites go in the pie cupboard. Fortunately Tales from Outer Suburbia is very narrow, because there’s not much space left in there. If I can manage it, I will file it next to Barry Yourgrau’s Wearing Dad’s Head, because Outer Suburbia reminded me a lot of reading Yourgrau. Both books are [...]

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