Thrifty Saturday #2: Oyster & Chorus of Mushrooms

Ok, so obviously this is supposed to be Thrifty Thursday, because Thrifty Saturday doesn't sound nearly as good. But I've been absent for almost a week and I missed Thursday, so here I am doing what I want. I swear I'm still reading and stuff. It's just really hard to get a moment to myself when a bunch of people are living in my apartment and I have to entertain them. I will be a solitary creature again on Tuesday, thank god.

Thrifty Thursday is a meme started by my friend Sal over at Motion Sick Lit, which is a phenomenal book blog.

The idea of Thrifty Thursday: each week you link up a used book you get for (preferably) under $5. Grabbing a book you've never heard of is encouraged. It's a cool way to support local shops and maybe find a new favorite book. Since I love judging books by their covers, this is just the activity for me.


THE BOOKSTORE: Myopic Books

If you live in Chicago, you're probably well aware of Myopic Books in Wicker Park. It's an absolutely enormous used bookstore with winding shelves and three floors. And they're open until 11pm every night, so it's kind of catered to my lifestyle. It's so much fun to get lost in, and there are a bunch of great stores, restaurants, and bars nearby.

Normally when I go into used bookstores, I kind of have a list of books in my head that I'm looking for. This time, I wasn't really finding anything. So I just grabbed two books based on their names and covers. I have never ever heard of either of these books. And they ended up being perfect for me (as far as I can tell based on the descriptions and reviews on goodreads). I need to do this more often.


THE BOOK(s): 

Oyster by Janette Turner Hospital 

Outer Maroo, a small, opal mining town in the Australian outback, is stewing in heat, drought, and guilty anxiety. Some ghastly cataclysm has occurred on the opal fields, but this is a taboo subject. At the heart of the mystery is the cult messiah, Oyster, dressed in white, sexually compelling, and preaching the end of time.

Small town! Harsh Australian outback! Cult! An ideal trifecta, honestly. According to the goodreads reviews that I skimmed, the writing is beautiful and it gets really dark. I want to start this one RIGHT NOW.

Chorus of Mushrooms by Hiromi Goto

"Chorus of Mushrooms" heralds the debut of a young Japanese Canadian feminist, Hiromi Goto. Until the publication of "Chorus of Mushrooms" in 1994, the primary voice heard from Japanese Canadians was that of the people interned during World War II. Hiromi Goto examines the immigration experience of the Japanese Canadian beyond war and into present day Alberta. Celebrating cultural differences as a privilege, Chorus of Mushrooms explores the shifts and collisions of culture through the lives of three generations of women in a Japanese family living in a small prairie town.

You had me at "Japanese Canadian feminist." I grabbed this one solely for the title, and that was a good choice. Apparently the protagonist is absolutely amazing. And the writing is lyrical. So I'm very excited.

TOTAL PRICE: $15

Not the least expensive, but I do what I want.

Thanks for hosting this, Sal!


What cheap books have you picked up recently? Tell me about your favorite used bookstore!

January Book Haul

Hey, everyone! This is my last few days in Minnesota before I move back to Chicago, so things have been a little crazy. I meant to post this on Sunday, but things got in the way. So here's my January book haul video (part 2)!

Shout out to Zachary Quinto for having a ZQ name. I was being too harsh. All the books I got are listed in the youtube description with links!

Thanks for watching!

Christmas/Birthday Book Haul (Video!)

Hey, gang. I tried something different today. Specifically, I delved into the world of booktube. I have a bunch of books that I got for Christmas/my birthday and then bought some, but I didn't really want to write about all of them. So I figured it would be more fun to make a couple videos. Here's the first of an eventual two videos.

Be warned, there's swearing, an intrusive cat, and a weird look into what kind of creepy I am. If you set it to 720 HD, it'll look like I tried harder than the default makes it look.

All of the books I talk about are linked in the video description on Youtube! Thanks for watching, I hope you liked it!


Let me know if you think my voice is dumb. There's nothing I can do about it, though.

Summer Vacation Book Haul!

A couple weeks ago I moved back to my home in Minnesota for the summer. Now that I don't have to pay for my own food for a while, I have a surplus of unused money and nothing to feel guilty about. So, naturally, I bought a ton of books.

I probably shouldn't have. My bookshelf has no more space. I have enough things I need to read. My surplus isn't a REAL surplus in the eyes of anybody else. But Half Price Books had a Memorial Day Weekend 20% sale and, you know, I had to go to that once. Or maybe three times. To three different stores. I don't want to talk about it.

1. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera - I've obviously seen parts of the movie, because I go to film school. But I had no idea it was a book first!
2. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf - I need to read everything by Virginia Woolf. I want to marry her ghost.
3. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko - I've heard good things and only $3!
4. Choke by Chuck Palahniuk - I've only ever read Fight Club and a few short stories. Only $2 and in such good condition!
5. Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk - Also only $2 and this plot sounds really really funny.
6. Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro - I really need to have read Munro by now.

 

6. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie - I love hearing Adichie talk about feminism and Nigeria. It was about time I checked out one of her novels.

7. The Sea by John Banville - I don't know anything about this book, but I trust Man Booker Prize winners.

8. Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs - Late on this boat. $2, so WHY NOT.

9. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz - How was this one also $2? My body's ready to be won over by Junot Diaz. No, I've never read him before.

10. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides - I'm uncertain how I feel about Eugenides after reading Middlesex, but... do I need to mention the price again?

Here are the books that I DIDN'T get at that life ruining sale.


11. The Frangipani Hotel by Violet Kupersmith - Won this from the Daily Mayo blog! Thanks again!
12. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell - I'm always hearing about this from one of my favorite podcasters, so I had to.
13. Threats by Amelia Gray - Ok, I definitely bought this at Half Price Books, but at $7. Because my friend told me to and I'm suggestible.
14. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursala K. Le Guin - Finally read something of Le Guin's (a short story) and felt inclined to support my favorite used scifi bookstore in Chicago. Even though I went to that part of time to get boxes. For the books I was sending home. Because I wasn't supposed to have any more books in my apartment...
15. Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto - My brother and I are huge fans of True Detective, so he bought the book written by the creator of it. Now he won't leave me alone until I read it! I am excited, though.
16. Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple - My friend gave me her World Book Night leftover for free!
17. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris - Nabbed this at a garage sale. I've only read part of this Sedaris book, but I'm a fan.


Yikes, I didn't realize how many it was until I wrote it all out. Anybody else grab too many books for summer?

Winter Break Haul

Winter break was an amazing time for hoarding books. Well, it was amazing until I spent thirty minutes tearfully trying to shove them all in my suitcase, ten minutes trying (almost successfully) to convince myself that I don't really need to keep any of my pants, and five minutes deciding to quit school and move back in here. Then I remembered that my mom has recently taken up playing the drums and I shuffled quickly over to the post office. I'm not complaining, though. Here are the beautiful things I got over the holidays when I went home to Minnesota.

This book is beautiful and it was a totally unexpected gift from my mom, who usually has some issues buying me things. If you don't know this about me, I'm obsessed with Lord of the Rings. I will readily admit that The Hobbit isn't really comparable in movie or in book, but I still cry every time I watch either of them because I'm so excited to be back in Middle-Earth. And it can't be denied that the art, design, and CG is beautiful in The Hobbit. This book shows a bunch of preliminary concept art and modeling. And the back has a poster of Stephen Fry as the mayor of Lake Town that I need to frame immediately.

The two on the left I've read before (one reviewed, one about to be) and the one on the right is about writing. Ok the one on the left is kind of hard to read. It's Selected Unpublished Blog Posts of a Mexican Panda Express Employee by Megan Boyle. The book (or collection of poems, I guess?) was just as good as the title. Anyway, I tend to only actually purchase books that I've already read and loved. Or put them on my wishlist. These were gifts.

Cameo appearance from Legs of my Cat. Glad I coincidentally got Middlesex right when Unputdownables is doing a read-a-long.

Grabbed these four at Half Price Books. The bottom two were inspired by my Fiction I class. I read my first Toni Morrison book, The Bluest Eye, there last semester and it was so beautiful, I needed to read everything else of hers. Reading xeroxed passages of Moby Dick for class led me to get the whole thing in one coherent and conveniently bound pile.

 

These are two books that were posted about on one of my favorite blogs, This is How She Fight Start. I basically just want to read everything that he reads, so I begin my quest slowly with these two that looked interesting.

And now for the crème de la crème...

Amazing. Beautiful. A masterpiece. This is a real book that was really written and really published. And illustrated! When I saw it, I knew that I had to buy it for my roommate. Still waiting for her to do all of my dishes all the time and compliment me daily. Not really sure why that hasn't started.

I will end with a not book from my brother for my 21st birthday last month. A bat skeleton (WHAT). Isn't it sort of adorable? Its parts are so tiny. I get to include it, because I put it next to books. It's so fucking cool, I can't handle it. I'm almost hyperventilating just thinking about it. Bats are my favorite. Skeletons are my favorite. My family knows me so well. Probably too well.