February 24 - Russell Books

Now, it looks like I spent some cash today at Russell Books, but in fact it's a swap, because really I just used up the remainder of my outstanding credit when I handed over some books that I wasn't going to miss having around. (This raises, obviously, some questions about whether I'd genuinely miss any of the thousands that, or possibly who, survived the recent purge, but it's best if I just don't think about that. New to the menagerie, then:
  • Chris Bruce et al., Myth of the West ($12.99, a dandy book of essays and images from a major 1990 show by the U of Washington's Henry Art Gallery)
  • Harold Coward, ed., Traditional and Modern Approaches to the Environment on the Pacific Rim: Tensions and Values ($5.99 for frankly a terrific volume of essays, by writers like Stephen Owen, Rosemary Radford Reuther, and Nancy Turner)
  • Larissa Lai, Salt Fish Girl ($9.99 for what I hear's a brilliant pre-modern AND post-apocalyptic novel, blending two different time periods: "a remarkable novel about gender, love, honour, intrigue, and fighting against the dark forces of biotechnology," says the blurb)
  • John McPhee, Basin and Range ($7.99: apparently I'm gradually collecting McPhee books, and I sure did enjoy his The Pine Barrens, even though I seem unaccountably NOT to have posted any notes on it)
  • Gary Paul Nabhan, The Desert Smells Like Rain: A Naturalist in Papago Indian Country ($4.99, I have to say for no clear reason, given the utterly fascinating subject and approach, though admittedly I'm a giant nerd for this sort of thing), and
  • Heather Rogers, Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage ($9.99 for the book, not the movie, and I'm already having trouble not reading it rather than marking papers the way I should).

Comments

naomi said…
Salt Fish Girl! Excellent. Looking forward to your review, as @micsob, @beegare, and I are all very interested in this text, and have proposed a panel around it and a fewe others texts by Lai and Hiromi Goto.
richard said…
Proposed a panel where and about what?

And yes, I'm looking forward to reading it this summer. Too much to get through for immediate work reasons before I can dive in, but I'll get there.
naomi said…
A few iterations in different places, looking at (respectively) gender, multilingualism, and the mutual fluidity of language and identity. I think I'll be using it in my Major Research Paper as well, and drawing much of my theoretical framework from it.

Looking forward to hearing your impressions!
richard said…
Don't hold your breath, but it should be on the roster for this summer. Just finished Dune today, still thinking about it.
naomi said…
That's one I have yet to read, much to the chagrin of most SFers I talk to...
richard said…
Well, all I can say is that it's a good thing you don't try to identify as an SFer yourself, if you haven't read Dune!

And it's very open to eco readings and politics, too.
Janni Aragon said…
Oh, I haven't read Dune in several years. Should re-read it and have my teen read it. I think she would like it.

On a different note--I just love Russell Books. I love their credit policy. We are always bringing in books and it's a great to "swap."

Cheers~
Janni

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