Teaser Tuesday: Supreme Courtship

Senator Mitchell’s Judiciary Committee staff investigators were known on Capitol Hill as the Wraith Riders, after the relentless, spectral, horse-mounted pursuers of hobbits in The Lord of the Rings. It was said in hushed tones on Capitol Hill that the Wraith Riders could find something on anyone: could make it look like Mother Teresa had run a whorehouse in Calcutta; that St. Thomas More had been having it off with Catherine of Aragon; or that Dr. Albert Schweitzer had conducted ghastly live medical experiments on helpless, unanesthetized African children on behalf of Belgian drug companies.

-- Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley.

Satire is probably the most difficult form fiction can take. No one does it better than Christopher Buckley, and this book is no exception.  Pepper Cartwright -- a sexy, Texan version of Judge Judy -- gets nominated to the US Supreme Court. Hilarity ensues. 

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday & GIVEAWAY WINNER

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

The Bluestocking Guide is hosting in June. Please visit her wonderful blog,which is jam-packed with reviews, essays, and other bookish features.

I got four books last week:

The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America's Emerging Battle Over Food Rights by David E. Gumpert.  I bought this because it is an issue I am becoming more and more interested in.

I've been writing about raw milk and other Food Freedom issues on my law firm's blog: Here is my post concerning the recent arrest of an Amish farmer; and here is my post about buying raw milk in Germany.



Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front by Joel Salatin.  I bought this for the same reason.  And because the cover made me laugh.




The Hair of Harold Roux]by Thomas Williams. This is a re-issue of the 1975 National Book Award winner.  I got it through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program. 



Spinning the Law: Trying Cases in the Court of Public Opinion by Kendall Coffey. I got this from the Internet Review of books to do a review ASAP.

GIVEAWAY WINNER

Many thanks to all those who participated in my recent book giveaway. It was heartening to see this nonfiction book generate that kind of enthusiasm.

Congratulations go to Gwendolyn B. of A Sea of Books who won the giveaway of Murder in the High Himalaya: Loyalty, Tragedy, and Escape from Tibet by Jonathan Green.

This looks like a really interesting book. What's more, because this is a leapfrog giveaway, Gwendolyn will also get to do a giveaway of her own for another copy of the book.

Thanks go to Mary Bisbee-Beek for making the giveaway possible. Mary is a dedicated and truly remarkable book publicist.

More Blog Spring Cleaning

I did a little more tidying up today. My list of lists over there on the right side was getting to be too long, so I broke it into two lists: Prize Winners and Must Reads.

The Prize Winner category is self-explanatory.  Literary prizes abound, but these are the few, mostly the big ones, that I am working on.  I hope to read all of them some day.

The Must Reads category includes all kinds of "recommended reading" lists, from the big one's that got a lot of buzz, to my own personal lists. 

I started this blog after finishing all the books on the Modern Library's Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century, because finishing that list focused my attention on all the other book lists that were out there.  That explains the inclusion of Radcliffe's rival list, for example. And Erica Jong's list of top 100 books by women.

My personal lists include my Top 10, my cookbook library, the books my book club has read, my dreaded Guilt List, and my LibraryThing Early Reviewer list.  It also includes some lists I created, such as lists of books set in France or books set in Venice.

What books lists do you work on? Do you make your own? Share links please!

List of the Day: LibraryThing Early Reviewers Books

The LibraryThing Early Reviewer program is an amazing resource for readers and publishers. Each month, LibraryThing distributes well over 1,000 books to readers with the idea that participants will review the books, thereby generating interest and, the authors and publishers hope, sales.

Recently, LibraryThing added a feature to the Early Review program that gives participants access to a personalized page listing the books they received through the program. This page lets participants keep track of which books arrived and which books they have reviewed.  I try not to let this page nag at me. 

This is my progress list. Those I have read are in red, with links to reviews.

Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch by Sally Bedell Smith

Improbable Patriot: The Secret History of Monsieur de Beaumarchais by Harlow Giles Unger

Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie

Wicked Autumn by G. M. Malliet

Nat Tate: An American Artist: 1928-1960 by William Boyd (reviewed here)

The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams (reviewed here)

The Reluctant Detective by Martha Ockley (reviewed here)

One Was a Soldier by Julia Spencer-Fleming (reviewed here)

Shipwrecks, Monsters, and Mysteries of the Great Lakes by Ed Butts (reviewed here)

Just Enough Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse (reviewed on LibraryThing)

American Terroir by Rowan Jacobsen (reviewed here)

Peaceful Places: Los Angeles by Laura Randall (reviewed here)

Burmese Lessons: A True Love Story by Karen Connelly (reviewed here)

Beautiful Maria of My Soul by Oscar Hijuelos

A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks  (reviewed here)

The New York Stories by Elizabeth Hardwick

Short Stories, Book I by Anton Chekhov (reviewed here)

A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood (audiobook) (reviewed here)

The Wall in My Head: Words and Images from the Fall of the Iron Curtain, published by Words Without Borders Anthologies (reviewed here)

Homer and Langley by E. L. Doctorow (reviewed here)

American Lion by Jon Meacham (reviewed here)

American Rust by Philipp Meyer (reviewed here)

Au Revoir to All That by Michael Steinberger (reviewed here)

Forbidden Bread by Erica Johnson Debeljak (reviewed here)

The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley (reviewed here)

The Stettheimer Dollhouse by Sheila W. Clark (reviewed here)

Maimonides: and the Biblical Prophets by Israel Drazin

Joker One by Donovan Campbell (reviewed here)

The Amish Cook at Home by Lovina Eicher (reviewed here)

Blackbird, Farewell by Robert Greer (reviewed here)

The Fire by Katherine Neville (reviewed here)

Foreigners by Caryl Phillips (reviewed here)

Resistance Fighter by Jørgen Kieler (reviewed here)

Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes: How Grassroots Activism Led to the Rescue of the Ethiopian Jews by Howard M. Lenhoff (reviewed here)

Abbeville by Jack Fuller (reviewed here)

The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson (reviewed here)

Gifted by Nikita Lalwani (reviewed here)

Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell (reviewed here)

Franklin and Lucy by Joseph Persico (reviewed here)

America America by Ethan Canin (reviewed here)

How to Find Morels by Milan Pelouch (reviewed here)

The Size of the World by Joan Silber (reviewed here)


NOTE
Updated last on March 4, 2012.

OTHER EARLY REVIEWERS
If anyone else is keeping track of their Early Reviewer books on their blogs, please leave a link to your progress report in a comment and I will add it here.

If you have reviewed any of the books I have, please leave a link to your review on my review post for that book and I will add it.

.

Bookstore Review: Second Glance Books in Portland

Second Glance Books is a terrific used bookstore and a real gem in a city that prides itself on independent bookstores. Owner Rachelle couldn’t be friendlier and is always available to give recommendations, engage in some bookish chit chat, or just leave you alone to browse.

She has an excellent selection of books, all clean and neatly organized. I go in mostly looking for literary fiction and classics, and never go away empty handed. Rachelle keeps a good mix of popular literature – like the latest Orange Prize winner – and out-of-print, older novels that show up on the “must read” lists I’m working on.

She also keeps an eclectic and enticing collection of non-fiction books. I once found a pop-up book of dinosaurs and once, even better, a hand printed book of seasonal cocktail recipes with a hand painted cover.

Second Glance is not big enough to be a “city of books,” but it is a charming village. If you live in Portland or come for a visit, go there and shop like a local.

Second Glance Books

4500 NE Sandy Blvd.

Portland, OR 97213

sgbooks@qwestoffice.net

503.249.0344