July Reading List

I have been meaning to start this feature on my blog for some time now. It is inspired by Anna and Miriam over at Maidens of Worth who keep track of what books they read each month and post mini-reviews for each one.

Since the past year and a half or so has been filled with wedding planning and for a chunk of time teaching eight grade mathematics, I have not read nearly as much as I would have like to for quite a while. 3 weeks ago, Ish and I were married, and shortly thereafter I was able to finish 2 books.

My July reading list:


The Air Between Us by Deborah Johnson
This novel takes place in a small town in Mississippi during the height of the civil rights movement. The book was a captivating in-depth character study. It did not have a very driving plot but instead several micro-plots expertly woven together. I would recommend this book for readers over the age of 16 as it deals with some disturbing subject matter that may not be appropriate for younger readers.

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
A mixture of both historical and contemporary fiction, this novel is set in modern day France as well as during WWII. Sarah's Key intertwines the story of Sarah, a young Jewish girl who was part of the Vel d'Hiv roundup in Paris on July 16th, 1942, and the story of Julia, an expatriot journalist writing an article on the 60th anniversary of the horrific Vel d'Hiv. This skillfully crafted novel will bring you to tears--it is by no means a light read. I would not recommend this book to anyone under the age of 16, as it deals with many heavy topics. If you are an adult, this book is a must read. Just don't forget your box of tissues.

Currently Reading:

The Art of Civilized Conversation by Margaret Shephard with Sharon Hogan.

Productive day!

Yesterday was a very productive day.  Ishmael helped me to organize the majority of my book stock.  There are only about 90 books left to sort out of over 400.  This will hopefully make a big difference in how smoothly my business can run--excitement!

How Dungeons and Dragons is going to pay for our honeymoon...

As many of you may already know, my wonderful fiance Ishmael is a big Dungeons & Dragons nerd.  He his no longer playing D&D, but he does play other role-playing games.   As a way to finance our honey moon he has graciously decided to sell a lot of his old D&D books.  When he visited in mid April we listed them on Amazon at my bookstore, and today we had our first honeymoon funding sale.  So for all of you who think D&D is not worth your time, remember that one day it may pay for your honeymoon.  Thanks Gary Gygax!

Bookworm business.....

I made the decision to sell books as part of my income.  Check out The Bantering Bookworm storefront. I also added it as a link on the side of my main blog page.

If we throw these books do you think they will fly?

This whole book purge is going quite well.  I am slightly annoyed that the post office is such a trek, but I am thankful for a reason to get out even though I am sick.  If I had known selling my books on amazon was so easy, I probably would have done that instead of selling my textbooks back to UD.  I am all for breaking the monopoly on college text books that campus bookstores seem to be striving for.  

Purge...

I finally decided that I should purge a large portion of my book collection.  I am attempting to sell them on amazon.com.  I figure it could be a good way to minimize my book collection an make a few extra dollars at the same time. I am not sure how many of them will sell (if any), but there is no harm in trying.