Belated Malarkey

I haven't done a Monday Malarkey post for so long (nearly 2 months) that I almost forgot the concept entirely. But, yesterday I was at least thinking about it. I just didn't feel like sitting down to write a post. There will be a few skipped books because I've been using my local library more and don't always think to pose the books I check out, but here's Friday's library haul:

Top to bottom:

• Where Robot Mice and Robot Men Run Round in Robot Towns by Ray Bradbury
• House of Light by Mary Oliver
• Nine Horses by Billy Collins
• On the Bus with Rosa Parks by Rita Dove
• There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do by Michael Ondaatje
• Aimless Love by Billy Collins
• Orphan Trains by Stephen O'Connor

All but Orphan Trains are poetry books that I found while checking out the Eudora Welty Library, which is one of the 11 libraries in the county we moved to, a couple years ago. I love the library as it's large enough to happily wander around making serendipitous finds but I specifically wanted poetry to read before National Poetry Month ends and had to get help finding that. The poetry is tucked away in a dark little corner. I've read the top two titles. The Bradbury was horrendous, the Oliver lovely. I'm now reading On the Bus with Rosa Parks and enjoying it, so far.

Not pictured is a library book I got from my local branch and just finished, last night: The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey. I also checked out Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid by Nikki Giovanni locally.

Recent arrivals:

Top to bottom:

• Find the Good by Heather Lende - from Algonquin Books for review, unsolicited. I love Heather Lende's books, so I sat down and read this one immediately.
• The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith - purchased
• Notes by K. B. Dixon - from the author for review
• New and Selected Poems, Vol. 1 by Mary Oliver - purchased
• An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir - sent by friend

Not pictured:

Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi and 

Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945 by Max Hastings, both purchased at Off-Square Books when we went up to Oxford, MS to visit youngest son, this weekend.

Posts since last malarkey:

• Even if the Sky Falls Down by Susan Jackson Bybee, A DNF, and an Internet-Free Month (review and chatter)
• ABC Universe by the American Museum of Natural History and Lazy Cats (review and cat photos)
• Mademoiselle Chanel by C. W. Gortner (review)
• First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen (review)
• A few words only: The Glass Menagerie by Williams, Still Alice by Genova, Pure Drivel by Martin (mini reviews)
• Mixed feelings about these: A Reunion of Ghosts by Judith C. Mitchell and Homemakers by Brit Morin (reviews)
• The arrivals you've longed to see on Mondays (book photos)
• April reads, so far - Falls Like Lightning, The Here and Now, Phenomenal Woman, The Boy on the Wooden Box, The Rescue (mini reviews)
• Fiona Friday - If it fits . . . and even if it doesn't quite (cat photo)

Currently reading:

• The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (library check-out, also not pictured above)
• On the Bus with Rosa Parks by Rita Dove 
• For the Term of His Natural Life by Marcus Clarke (hacking away at this slowly via a free Australian lit site -- husband often runs off with my iPad and winds down the battery before I can get to it in the evening)

In other news:

It turns out Huzzybuns knows someone who has goats and makes his own cheese, but the spouse is not willing to ask if we can borrow a goat (out of fear of the homeowner's association). So, I'm trying to slowly get a grip on the poison ivy. At the moment, I'm just clipping it back, which is a bigger job than you might imagine. There's even some growing up through the middle of our camelias and twisting its way through the gigantic shrubs below our deck. When I went after the poison ivy in the camelias, a red wasp gave me 3 warning buzzes and I got the hint. I'll skip that area, for now. After I get it clipped back, I'm going to try to suffocate it out by covering it with cardboard and mulch. Wish me luck. It's probably an all-week job.

What's up in your world?


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