Less than 100 books, April and May

At this point, I am obviously not going to make it to 100 books, as I would need to read 19 books in June to get back on pace. Curse having a "real life".

32. The Crucible Arthur Miller For PSBC. Reading plays makes me want to be in a play
31. A Discovery of witches Deborah Harkness You know how before I said I don't finish books I don't like? Not true in this case. This book is awful. Don't read it. It has an interesting enough story (why I finished it). But. Is there something about vampire books that makes authors tell you things instead of show them? In regular books you are supposed to show, not tell. The characters are awful. I hate them all and wish they would die. Also, this book is about vampires. Don't read it.
30. Cutting For Stone Abraham Verghese
29. 22 Brittania Road Amanda Hodgkinson
28. The Tiger's wife Tea Obreht amazing! It's a pretty quick read and so wonderful. One of my favorites ever.
27. Swamplandia! Karen Russell also amazing! Story of a family who runs an Alligator wrestling theme park in the swampy part of Florida. I loved it. It's told from the point of view of a 13 year old, and the author does a great job of tricking your adult sensibilities into not seeing danger until she does.
26. The Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis For PSBC's continuing Devil and God series. We found CSL to be an insufferable douchebag.
25. Galore, Michael Crummey Galore is beautiful! If you've read 100 Years of Solitude, it's a similar winding family tale told with magical realism, but in a very different setting.
24. Comedy in a Minor Key, Hans Kielson
23.Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides This one is really good, but tricky. There is incest and hermaphroditism, and you have to get over any icky feelings you have about it immediately. If you do, it's a great book. Another one that goes on the all time favorite list.

Previously
22. Great House Nicole Krauss
21. The Children's Book A. S. Byatt.
20. Room Emma Donaghue
19. The Lady Matador's Hotel Cristina Garcia
18. The Lonely Polygamist, Brady Udall
17. Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee
16. The Wordy Shipmates Sarah Vowell
15. The Warmth of Other Suns: The epic story of America's great Migration, Isabelle Wilkerson
14. Little Bee Chris Cleave
13 Fool Christopher Moore
12. A Dirty Job Christopher Moore
10. Lolita Vladimir Nabakov
9. Super Sad True Love Story Gary Shteyngart
8. The Swan Thieves, Elizabeth Kostova.
7.Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood.
6. Faithful Place, Tana French.
5. The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People who Read them, Elif Batuman.
4. Purgatorio, Dante Alighieri.
3. The Scarpetta Factor, Patricia Cornwell.
2. Bite Me, Christopher Moore.
1. Devil in the White City Eric Larson.

not grown up

Elizabeth: I had bread and olive oil and grapes
me: grapes or wine?
Elizabeth: and I was like, hey! this is healthy!
and then I was like, wait. Maybe I need to not think that is healthy before I am grown-up enough to have children.
Grapes AND wine
me: ahhh!
I mean, it's not bad
are you having children soon?
Elizabeth: no.
but I mean.
it's good to remember these moments
when I get baby fever.
me: yeah
Elizabeth: it's good to be young and unattached
and very good for the potential child.
me: when I am like "I want a baby right now" I think "ok, I just took ap icture of my cat in a suitcase from a trip i returned from a week ago that is open in the middle of the living room because I have been pulling semi-clean clothes out of to wear all week. no babies"


ADDENDUM, because biffy is hilarious:

Elizabeth : I kind of want to make "Good news! I bought a box of wine! Love, biffy"
my new email signature.

Lovelovelove Adele

Sorry Internet

Well, it has been a while. Since Easter, I've been some what preoccupied. I had a surprise two-to-ten page proposal to write a for a training grant application (I ended up with six pages, heavily borrowed (with permission) from the boss's grant) with about three days notice. Good news is, I got the slot so I have a guaranteed job for two more years-a rare thing even for a postdoc in today's gross funding climate. Doesn't really quiet my growing anxiety about what I'm going to do after those two years (well, ok, probably get another grant and continue to postdoc for a few more years, but after that...???). I moved rigs, which gave me valuable experience troubleshooting noise. My old rig had a giant poster of canada, was directly below the room where they did tests on monkeys, and shared space with the morris water maze. My new rig has windows! that I can see the bay from!, no monkey sounds/smells, no behavioral equipment and is in the same room as the rest of the lab.
I also went on a too brief vacation with my family-my parents and sister and my mom's brother and his family, which I'll have pictures of soon. I will say that I love my family-we're all brainy and sarcastic and giant nerds. We had a snarky conversation name dropping propaganda films from three different eras within ten minutes of me getting off the plane. We do uncool things like puzzles and board games and build giant sandcastles and watch the tide come in and smash them and have so much fun. I love it.
Now I'm back to work and real life, looking forward to exploring more of RI now that it has thawed!