Mailbox Monday

I have two exciting new books to share this week. One of them is entitled No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod. It won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (as did Colum McCann who won it for his novel Let The Great World Spin in 2011). The other is Island: The Complete Stories, also by MacLeod.

Look at what these outstanding authors are saying about him:

Alistair MacLeod is a wonderfully talented writer.

~Margaret Atwood

It's hard to think of anyone else who can cast a spell the way Alistair MacLeod can.

~Alice Munro

Alistair MacLeod is one of the great undiscovered writers of our times.

~Michael Ondaatje

I'm so excited to read his work, and I thank W. W. Norton publishers for sending these two books to my mailbox this week. What exciting things arrived in your mailbox?

Find other Mailbox Monday posts at Savvy Verse and Wit.

I'll Never Order From Amazon.com Again

I pre-ordered my copy of Murakami's 1Q84 in April. (I've been waiting for it since 2009, but it's hardly a bookstore's fault that the book wasn't available in America until October 25, 2011.) I woke up on Tuesday, the morning of its release date, like a little kid on Christmas Day. "Today!" I thought. "My book is coming today! When I get home from school it will be there, wrapped in all its brown paper glory, waiting for me to cut the clear cellophane tape and be the first one to gently crack its binding!"

Mid-morning I received an email from amazon.com telling me that my book was shipped that day. Tuesday, October 25, was the day it was to be shipped, not the day it was to arrive.

Silly me. In my haste, I had assumed the release date was synonymous with the I'll-actually-get-to-hold-it-in-my-hands date.

So, anxiously, I waited. I waited Tuesday. I waited Wednesday. I waited Thursday. On Friday, there was a box by my front door. A big box. A really big box which was far wider and longer than I knew the edition of Murakami's new book to be. Puzzled, I opened it up to discover 1Q84. But not in the shape I'd expected.

Was it shrink wrapped? No.

Was it in a box within which it snugly fit? No.

Was the semi-transparent book jacket all mangled and torn and bunched at the bottom of the book? Yes.

But, even those reasons aren't sufficient enough to cause my distress.

The reason comes as a genuine shock to me. I've finally reached the point in my life where 925 pages are too cumbersome to hold. Having accustomed myself to reading on my NOOK, with pages which easily turn at the flick of my thumb, and fonts which easily enlarge to the size I need with or without my glasses, I suspect I have left the days of thick, hardcover books behind.

Which saddens me in a way.

Until I think that from now on, I can order e-books from Barnes and Noble which will come to me immediately, not to mention unscathed. Or, I can read ones which have already been mangled by the public library.

I no longer need to wait for, nor pay, amazon.com to do it for me.

What Are You Listening To Wednesday

With the release of Haruki Murakami's book 1Q84, I'm listening to Janáceck's Sinfonietta which can be found here. Apparently this is the music with which the first of Murakami's three part novel opens. Booktunes says, " Janácek's Sinfonietta marks the beginning of a book in which the dream world is a malevolent and powerful force that can be both inconvenient and supercede reality." Already, the music gives me shivers of anticipation for what's to come.

What are you listening to? Tell us, if you will.

Preparing for Tuesday. When IQ84 Is Finally Released!

Read what Knopf has on their site about Haruki Murakami's new book, including:

• teaser quote graphics
• a collection of songs and artists mentioned in 1Q84
• the first chapter

Also, find the New York Times story on Haruki Murakami here.

I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. I'm not even going to join in any read-alongs for it; I have to take 1Q84 on my own time, at my own pace, unrestrained by anyone else's schedule or opinion.

Love you, Haruki, favorite author of mine.

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

Stu wrote a post yesterday, which he has since taken down, with the following words: "As much as I like web and have met some great people part me hates it information overload and sometimes I just want a simple life I can’t remember last time I brought a cd and listen to it with out i pod then listening or read a book with think I ll have to blog this..."

It totally resonated with me. I hope that he's not offended I've repeated his thoughts here because they reiterate a thought I often experience. Am I controlling the information I have access to, or is it controlling me?

Third grade is the year that most children in America are taught to write in cursive. If they're taught at all. "Boys and girls," I said last week. "There are two opinions on this. One is that you will never need cursive as you will only be texting with your two thumbs or word processing with both hands. The other opinion is mine: there's nothing like a personal letter written in one's own handwriting. It's a lost skill, one you're not going to leave my classroom without knowing. You don't have to use it. But, you do have to know it so that you can make the choice if you want to use it in your own life."

How much I love finding the notes from my grandfather, written in a fountain pen, in a leather bound notebook, to my grandmother. How much I love the cards from my own father, mother, husband and son which express their thoughts in their writing.

But, I digress. Cursive is only one tiny piece of the conundrum. 

Blogging has enriched my life in a thousand ways. It's brought literature to me that I would never have read, let alone heard of, had someone I respect not suggested it to me. Not written about it an engaging way that makes me find the book as soon as possible. At the same time, it's also somewhat of a compulsion. I check my blog frequently for comments so that I can see how what I've written is being received. I thrill at an email from an author or publisher requesting a review. I rework my template a thousand times a year to get it just right. (Whatever that means. ;)

When Stu said he can't remember the last time he read a book without thinking he'd have to blog about it, this is what I thought: "!" Can I read anymore for the simple sake of reading? Can I just enjoy what the author is showing me without needing to mark a page or make a note or compose a draft as I read? Ummmm, no. I've lost some of that spontaneity for what is bordering on compulsion.

This is not an "I'm quitting blogging" post. Nor is it an "I'm not posting for a few weeks" post. It is a "Let's assess the situation" post to see if I can't achieve a greater balance between what is my pleasure and what is my compulsion.

Because nothing's worse than turning one's joy into a job. 

because of mr. terupt

because of a teacher.

because of a snowball.

because of a diverse class of fifth graders.

love and forgiveness are taught,

because of mr. terupt.


It's a book for students.

It's a book for teachers.

It's a book for anyone who's ever had that special teacher who changed his life.

The Days of Abandonment

When Diane of Bibliophile By The Sea wrote a Tuesday introduction about The Days of Abandonment, I had to read it for myself. I have a morbid fascination, I guess, with the whole issue of abandonment. I'll spare you the grittier details, but suffice it to say how well I remember the days when I was first alone...the weekends which would stretch forever, particularly Sunday whose hours I could never fill.

Elena Ferrante, an Italian writer, relates such an experience with the raw fervor one might expect from the Italians. This is a story from the gut of one woman's experience through being abandoned by her husband. It tells, very intensely, how she copes with the apartment, the dog, her children, her own emotions as she begins to balance her life anew. Without him.

An excerpt, from an evening in which her friends try to set her up with another man:

I arrived at the Farracos' too early. The tried to entertain me and I forced myself to be cordial. at a certain point I glanced at the set table, mechanically I counted the places, the chairs. There were six. I stiffened: two couples, then me, then a sixth person. I understood that Lea had decided to look after me, she had planned a meeting that might lead to an adventure, a temporary relationship, a permanent arrangement, who knows. Confirmation of this came when the Torreris arrived, a couple I had met at a dinner the year before in the role of Mario's wife, and the vet, Dr. Morelli, whom I had asked about Otto's (her dog's) death. Morelli, who was a good friend of Lea's husband, congenial, up to date on the gossip of the Polytechnic, had clearly been invited to keep me amused.

The whole thing depressed me. This is what awaits me, I thought. Evenings like this. Appearing at the house of strangers, marked as a woman waiting to remake her life. At the mercy of other women who, unhappily married, struggle to propose to me men they consider fascinating. Having to accept the game, not to be able to confess that those men arouse only uneasiness in me, for their explicit goal, known to all present, is to seek contact with my cold body, to warm themselves by warming me, and then to crush me with their role of born seducers, men alone like me, like me frightened by strangers, worn out by failures and by empty years, separated, divorced, widowers, abandoned, betrayed.  

You will not read this novel unscathed. If you have been abandoned by someone you once loved, you will relate to the heroine completely. If you have been fortunate enough to escape such treatment, you will have a new sympathy for those who haven't. It is a profound novel of visceral emotion.

Winners Announced for the Literary Give-Away Blog Hop

Dewey's Nine Lives goes to Sam Still Reading!

Her Fearful Symmetry goes to Nan!

The Lake goes to Parrish Lantern!

Congratulations to all three winners, and thanks to everyone who participated in the Literary Give-away Blog Hop hosted by Leeswammes.

What Are You Listening To Wednesday

This week I'm listening to a new CD my husband bought, and one which shocked my son I hadn't heard before. The particular song which we've been playing over and over is Someone Like You from Adele.

What are you listening to? (It does't have to be music...it could be an interesting conversation, or a book on tape, or something else you overheard.) Tell us, we'd love to hear! 

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

photo credit of Highgate Cemetery here

"Welcome to Highgate Cemetery," Jessica said. "Robert will be your guide. He is one of our most Learned Guides, an historian of the Victorian Era, and is writing a book about this cemetery. All of our work is done on a voluntary basis, and every year we must raise over three hundred and fifty thousand pounds just to keep the cemetery open." Jessica flirted with them as she spoke, and exhibited the green box. "As you leave, a volunteer will be stationed at the gate with this green box, and any help you can give will be Much Appreciated." Robert watched the tourists fidget. Jessica wished them a Pleasant Tour and went back to the office. She felt a flutter of excitement. Why? She stood at the office window and watched Robert gather his group in front of the Colonnade steps. He stood two steps up and spoke to them, looking down, gesturing. From where they stood, the tourists could not see anything but greenery and the steps. Those girls look extraordinarily like Elsepth. How amazing life is. I hope he'll be all right. He looked a bit pale.

Robert tried to clear his mind. He felt as though he were watching himself, as though he had separated into two Roberts, one of whom was calmly giving a tour; the other mute with nerves, trying to think what he might say to the twins. Bloody hell, you'd think you were seventeen. You don't have to talk to them. They'll talk to you. Wait.

This is what Robert was thinking as he began to lead the tour group through Highgate Cemetery in London. It is his job to be a tour guide while he works on his dissertation, but he has never expected that two members of his group would be twins. Would be, in fact, the nieces of his newly deceased lover, Elspeth.

Elspeth has left her home in London to her nieces, under the condition that they live in it for one full year. And, that they never let her sister, the twin's mother, inside. There has been a terrible rift between the two, one which divided them while Elspeth was alive and continues on into her death. Because with Audrey's writing, time is never as we know it. Even death becomes a novelty, a concept which Audrey pounces on like a little kitty as she bats it back and forth across our consciousness.

I loved how she played with my mind, bringing the twins Julia and Valentina to London where they meet Elspeth's lover, Robert. Where they live under Martin who suffers so horribly with OCD that his wife has finally left him, returned to Amsterdam where she doesn't have to live under the constraints which Martin imposes on his life. Marijke's letter to Martin includes this eloquent explanation:

I don't know if you can understand, but I will try to explain. I need to live my life without being always vigilant to calm your fears. I am tired, Martin. You have worn me out. I know that I will be lonely without you, but I will be more free. I will find myself a little apartment and open the windows and let the sun and the air come in. Everything will be painted white, and I will have flowers in all the rooms. I will not have to always enter the rooms with my right foot first, or smell bleach on my skin, on everything I touch. My things will be in their cupboards and drawers, not in Tupperware, not wrapped in cling film. My furniture will not wear out from being scrubbed too much. Maybe I will have a cat.

Perhaps she finds a cat. I don't really remember. The cat that I do remember is the Little Kitten of Death. That particular kitten is found by the twins; she comes in her ghostly attire into their home with ghastly consequences. Elspeth, not really dead as we would understand her to be, discovers certain skills she has. Certain abilities which could be construed as gifts. Until they are used for malice rather than kindness.

Her Fearful Symmetry is the symmetry between twins, to be sure, but also between mothers and daughters. Aunts and nieces. The line between the living and the dead.

(Thus ends my final read for the RIP VI. It was quite an interesting one, a truly haunting story which I won't soon forget.)

The Literary Give-Away Blog Hop: October 15-19

Welcome to the Literary Hop Give-Away hosted by Leeswammes! I am giving away three books this time, one to each of three winners. (I will mail internationally.) Please leave a comment letting me know which book you'd like to win, along with your email address. If you become a follower that would be much appreciated.

The first book in the give-away is Dewey's Nine Lives by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter:

This particular book is a follow-up to the #1 New York Times beststeller of Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched The World. "These stories and more--including two featuring Dewey the Small-Town Library Cat himself--will touch your heart and remind you that even in the toughest times, love has nine lives." (back cover)

The second book is Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger: 

Because I was absolutely crazy about The Time Traveler's Wife, and The Night Bookmobile, also by Niffenegger, I had to read Her Fearful Symmetry. As only Audrey can create, this novel is a mind game of epic proportions and a perfect autumnal read.

Finally, I have one more copy of The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto:

The Lake is Banana Yoshimoto's latest novel. This copy is a hard cover, first edition, which would be perfect if you're reading for my Japanese Literature Challenge 5 in particular, or if you have a passion for Japanese literature in general. Perhaps you'd simply like to try this genre for the first time? Yoshimoto's work will not disappoint you.

Here is a list of other participants for the Literary Give-awayBlog Hop hosted by Leeswammes. After you leave your comment telling me which book you'd most like to win, be sure to stop by the other blogs for more exciting opportunities to win a piece of literature. (Give-away closes midnight of October 19. Winners will be declared on Friday, October 21.)

Leeswammes Devouring Texts The Book Whisperer Seaside Book Nook The Scarlet Letter (US only) Rikki's Teleidoscope Bibliosue Curled Up With a Good Book and a Cup of Tea The Book Diva's Reads Gaskella Lucybird's Book Blog Kim's Bookish Place The Book Garden Under My Apple Tree Helen Smith Sam Still Reading Nishita's Rants and Raves Ephemeral Digest Bookworm with a View The Parrish Lantern Dolce Bellezza Lena Sledge Blog Book Clutter I Am A Reader, Not A Writer (US only) The Blue Bookcase Book Journey (US only) The House of the Seven Tails (US only) In One Eye, Out the Other (US only) Read, Write & Live Fresh Ink Books

Living, Learning, and Loving Life (US only) Bibliophile By the Sea Laurie Here Reading & Writing Reviews Amy's Book World (US only) Teadevotee Joy's Book Blog Word Crushes (US only) Thinking About Loud! Kinna Reads Sweeping Me Minding Spot (US only) Babies, Books, and Signs (US only) Lisa Beth Darling Tony's Reading List SusieBookworm (US only) Tell Me A Story Close Encounters with the Night Kind Nerfreader Mevrouw Kinderboek (Netherlands, Belgium) Boekblogger (Netherlands) In Spring it is the Dawn No Page Left Behind Elle Lit

Give-away entries are now closed; winners will be announced on Friday, October 21.

What Are You Listening To Wednesday

This week I'm listening to folk singer Carrie Newcomer. I only know of her because of Kevin, whom I met at Interlochen National Music Camp the summer of 1977. He has always enriched my world, from introducing me to such books as Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate, a novel written entirely in sonnet form, to artists such as Carrie Newcomer. Her music is quite wonderful. Click on the link above to find her website (which automatically plays her music), or click on the album below for more songs:

Tell us, what are you listening to? And remember, it doesn't have to music. It could be a book, a movie, a conversation in the airport...anything you hear that you want to share with us!

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday

Diane of Bibliophile by the Sea has a wonderful idea to catch a quick glimpse into a book and see if it's one over which we'll linger: read the first paragraph or the first chapter and see if you want to go any farther.

The book which I've been itching to read, focusing on teaching this month as I am, is 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny  by Phillip Done. Here's the first paragraph  (or so):

I read Charlotte's Web and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory every year, and every year when Charlie finds the golden ticket and Charlotte dies, I cry.

I take slivers out of fingers and bad sports out of steal the bacon. I know when a child has gum in his mouth even when he is not chewing. I have sung "Happy Birthday" 657 times. I hand over scissors with the handles up.

My copies of The Velveteen Rabbit and Treasure Island are falling apart. I can listen to one child talk about his birthday party and another talk about her sleepover and another talk about getting his stomach pumped last night--all at the same time.

Phillip Done won the Schwab Foundation Distinguished Teacher Award. Nominated for the Disney Teacher of the Year Award, he has taught elementary school for twenty years.

And he's written a book that I want to read. How about you?

Wherever You Go by Joan Leegant

And so he lay there on the hard cot, his eyes closed, unable to know the time, whether it was day or night, how long he'd been there, what was going to happen to him, Sleep standing on the periphery, mocking: Look. See. Listen...And always this: Here is the sound of the blast, that moment that split your life in two. Before and After. Hear it again and again and again, the instant when you knew it was all a terrible mistake and there was nothing you could do about it. Absolutely nothing. Listen. Listen and listen and listen. (p. 205)

I have read books of religious violence before but not many of them from the Israeli perspective. There have been a tiresome amount, to me, of books regarding Islam. (The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns come immediately to mind.) Wherever You Go by Joan Leegant is a gripping account from several different perspectives on what it means to be Jewish, whether living in Israel or America.

Joan's writing pierced me when I was faced with my own American point of view, especially from a Christian position:

Aaron stared out at the monochrome bleached-out yellow---yellow buildings, yellow fields, yellow sky---plumes of copper dust rising up from the rutted road. A peanut farmer. A lock-jawed Georgia peanut farmer. He couldn't believe the guy was still alive. He hated Jimmy Carter and his phony Golden Rules, his smug Christian charity. They were so naive at home in America; they had no idea who they were dealing with. You didn't make concessions here. You didn't give back to play nice. The Americans, the Europeans, they thought it was like some giant sandbox argument. Now, children, you must learn to share. (p.39)

I've thought that! I have thought, "Please. For the love of God, just get along all you people in the Middle East." As though it was easy. As though anyone can compromise on his belief system painlessly. But it is precisely for the 'love of God' that each side holds firm.

I've understood Yona, searching for forgiveness from her sister Dena, while at the same time trying to be understanding:

Yona pulled down the sleeves of her blouse, trying to keep them at her elbows, be respectful, meet Dena half-way: it wasn't the time to raise the feminist flag, dredge up the old argument about who owns women's bodies and why Middle Eastern female dress codes always seemed to operate on the assumption that men have no self-control. (p. 67)

And I understand Shroeder's vehemence as I understand the Old Testament's promises:

He had no doubt...that the land, all of it, from Litani in the north to Sharm in the south, would eventually be in the hands of the Jewish people. Because it had been covenanted to them by God. It was as simple as that, Shroeder said, his face ghostly in the flickering light, his beard ragged as a prophet's, the jagged pink mountains looming behind him like Mars, and if anyone claimed otherwise, they were afraid of the truth...it was their inheritance. Their right. It was a privilege to fight, Shroeder told them in the flutter half-dark. For millennia Jews didn't have that privilege, barred like Moses from entering the land. How lucky they were. How good are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel. (p. 83)

What Joan brings to our attention is how we live with our beliefs, our families, and our country. How is that we can we love our parents, friends or lovers, and fight against them at the same time? How can we balance what we consider to be our rights with the rights of those around us?

Like I find in every book I especially treasure, there is hope, there is redemption, there is a lesson of truth at the end of the story. In Wherever You Go, for me it is this: "Saving a soul. The highest value. It's in the Talmud. Avot: Whoever saves one life, it's as if he's saved an entire world." (p. 242)

Amen.

p.s. Joan tells me that there is a read-along and discussion of Whever You Go hosted by she reads and reads. Click on the link to find more information; also look there for Joan's guest post later in October and an interview in early November.

A Lovely Day at TownHouse Books in St. Charles

Here are a few photographs I took today of one of my favorite indie shops:

and a random shot of my friend Carol and I at the pumpkin farm afterward:

Wish you could have joined us, fellow bibliophiles, on this perfect October day.

If You're Looking For My Vitriolic Post On Education

you're going to be disappointed.

I was encouraged to take it down, by people far more sensible than I, who were concerned about my future. As in staying employed.

And so my thoughts, as well as the plethora of comments so supportively left here, are MIA. Because I cannot write anywhere near as well as dooce, who once lost her job by expressing her opinion about her employment.

While she can write an immensely entertaining blog, and several books to boot, in the absence of a 9-to-5 job I'd be selling Big Macs at the local McDonald's. So, my post is gone.

But, thanks anyway to those of you who read it. And agreed.

What Are You Listening To Wednesday

I'm offering a new meme today.

After the responses to my post on Norah Jones, and dear Les saying, "I love to see what you're listening to!" I thought I'd suggest What Are You Listening To Wednesday.

It doesn't have to be music. It could be conversations you overheard during coffee at Starbucks. It could be the children in your home (or classroom). It could be the things you're telling yourself with a small, still voice inside. It could be an audio book or a movie. Just tell us, what are you listening to?

As for me, this week I'm listening to Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark album. One of my favorite songs on this album is Free Man in Paris which you can find on her web site here.

The way I see it he said
You just can't win it
Everybody's in it for their own gain
You can't please 'em all
There's always somebody calling you down
I do my best
And I do good business
There's a lot of people asking for my time
They're trying to get ahead
They're trying to be a good friend of mine

I was a free man in Paris
I felt unfettered and alive
There was nobody calling me up for favors
And no one's future to decide
You know I'd go back there tomorrow
But for the work I've taken on
Stoking the star maker machinery
Behind the popular song

I deal in dreamers
And telephone screamers
Lately I wonder what I do it for
If l had my way
I'd just walk through those doors
And wander
Down the Champs Elysées *
Going cafe to cabaret
Thinking how I'll feel when I find
That very good friend of mine

I was a free man in Paris
I felt unfettered and alive
Nobody was calling me up for favors
No one's future to decide
You know I'd go back there tomorrow
But for the work I've taken on
Stoking the star maker machinery
Behind the popular song.

Love this song, perhaps because it reminds me of my dear friend Jean who walked with me down the Champs Elysees when we were in our twenties. Who walked with me down the streets of Milano where the red Maseratis would stop in the early evening to ask us for dates; who held on tight while an old man named Stokes drove us over the rocky fields of Ireland. This Wednesday I'm listening to Joni for you, Jean. Faithful friend of my youth.

What are you listening to?

Mailbox Monday

So fun to receive the newly released paperback edition of Dewey's Nine Lives which will appear again in a later post,

as well as a package from Penguin Books in London containing the sequel to Hothouse Flower entitled The Girl On The Cliff.

Find more Mailbox Monday posts here at Savvy Verse and Wit.

Sunday Salon: Au revoir, Septembre. Bonjour Octobre!

I've been so involved in my autumnal reading that I've already completed The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Strangers, Under The Dome, The Haunting of Hill House, Don't Look Now, and The House on The Strand. My favorite of these was definitely Don't Look Now, so much so that I hope to see the film before the end of October. I was all ready to sing more of Daphne du Maurier's praises until I finished The House on The Strand last night. It was a weird time travel thing, not at all as impressive as the likes of Rebecca or Don't Look Now in my opinion. I was sorely disappointed at the ending.

Looking forward to the 24 hour read-a-thon beginning at noon on October 22  for which, as usual, I have plans. No matter how hard I try to keep the date open something occurs; this time, it is the memorial for my husband's beloved aunt who died in August. We, the Chicago side of the family, are gathering to honor her memory on October 22 and for this one can hardly complain that one can't read. All day.

But, you? You can sign up! You can be a cheerleader, or host a mini-challenge, or give away a prize. Speaking of giving away prizes, Leeswammes is hosting another Literary Give-Away Blog Hop October 15-19. Should you wish to give, or receive, be sure to check out her blog for all the details.

In other news, can I give a shout out to my class? Last year, I was all about getting Jerod out from under the table so that he could join us in whatever lesson I'd planned on teaching. This year, we are having a learning fest Every Single Day. In fact, last Friday my kids asked, "Mrs. Bellezza, could we have an hour to read? Just read?" And so we did. From 2:30 until 3:30 we read, my eight year olds and I, undisturbed until the bell rang for dismissal. Such a joy to my heart, these children who want to learn. Who feast at reading just as I do. In fact, they're teaching me as so often happens in an optimal learning environment.

When Michael brought his book to the table for our weekly conference, I was amazed he'd chosen a book with an endorsement by John Irving. An eight year old, with this book: because of mr. terupt. I immediately bought it for my Nook at lunch unable to wait to have it in hardcover a few hours later when school got out.

Also, October 25 brings us the long anticipated 1Q84 from Haruki Murakami. I've pre-ordered it in hardcover, and for my Nook, just in case it takes awhile for the mailman to actually bring it to my door. Those silly mailmen, making us wait even longer for what we can't stand to arrive! October 25 also brings us Parallel Stories, by Péter Nádas, with such accolades as this: "A once-in-a-generation literary event: the monumental masterwork being hailed as a “twenty-first-century War and Peace” (Magyar Nemzet). Of course, I'll have to begin Murakami's first, but Nadas' will be next, taking me well into November with what will probably be my two favorite books of 2011. 

So, the apples are crisp, the leaves are golden, and the air is fresh. My class is the best I've had in twenty years, and every day is a new opportunity to read more books. Life is good.