January Books Bought

Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

My library co-worker T. convinced me that I should read some Thomas Hardy. T. started this conversation by asking me if I'd seen Tess of the d'Urbervilles. I said, "The one with Nastassja Kinski?" and T. said "Who?" I had to explain who Nastassja Kinski was/is and that the only reason I watched it then was because I thought Kinski was so hot.

"Well, you have to read Thomas Hardy," T. said.

"I don't know," I said. "Other than Kinski, Tess seemed pretty boring."

"Okay," T. said, "then you've got to read Jude the Obscure. It was Hardy's last novel and it was scandalous! He could never write anything after it."

Okay. What the heck.

Mass Market Paperback; Price = $.25

Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain

Okay, I'll admit I've never read a syllable of Proust, but when I saw this book advertised on Amazon a couple of years ago, I knew I'd want to at least give it a glance. Author Maryanne Wolf, a professor of child development, examines how we visually and intellectually convert all those little lines and squiggles into actual ideas and how we comprehend them.

I'm concerned that Washington Post writer Michael Dirda experienced frustrations with the book, but found it interesting. If Dirda has trouble with it, it'll probably look like Sanskrit to me. But for the price, I figured it was worth a shot.

Hardcover; Price = $1.99

Deep Justice in a Broken World: Helping Your Kids Serve Others and Right the Wrongs around Them - Chap Clark and Kara Powell

Clark's Hurt: Inside the World of Today's Teenagers was such an incredible book, it didn't take much convincing for me to pick up this one.

Trade Paperback; Price = $5.99





An Abundance of Katherines - John Green

I recently attended a seminar on YA literature that mentioned this book. I'd seen Green's Looking for Alaska and had heard good things about it, but this one stirred my interest: a guy who has been dumped by nineteen different girls, all named Katherine. I think I was dumped by a few girls named Susan, but not nineteen of them. At least I don't think so....

Hardcover; Price = $3.99



Total Book Expenditures for January = $12.22