I suspect you have all already heard the news that Zadie Smith has won the Orange Prize? Having only read one of the titles (and in the process of reading a second) from the shortlist, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I have not yet read any of Smith's books, but White Teeth is on my TBR pile. I gave On Beauty a brief try earlier this year, but to be honest my heart wasn't really in it. I love Howard's End by E.M. Forster, and the contemporary retelling of the story just wasn't appealing to me at the time. Perhaps I will give it a try later, but I think I will do better with her other books. I am looking forward to reading some of the other books that were nominated for the prize though.
I really love The Guardian's Book Section. I tend to not go there daily, and I really need to change that. I dropped in today to see the story on the Orange Prize, but then I saw this article on Mary Wesley, whose work I absolutely love. She didn't start writing until late in life and then she seemed to write up a storm. She recently passed away sadly. You can read this write-up by Victoria Glendinning (another author who I have read and enjoyed) about Wesley's novel, The Camomile Lawn, which I greatly enjoyed. Perhaps it is time to start rereading her novels.
I received notice that one of the books I had checked out from my library had been recalled. I think this is the first time that has happened to me. What I suspected was true--a faculty member wanted the copy of Phillip Lopate's The Art of the Personal Essay, and just when I was starting to get into it! I don't expect to see it back on the shelf now before the fall semester. Faculty get this massively long check out period. You can always tell when a book is checked out in the catalog by a faculty member as the due date might be months down the road! I guess this just gives me an excuse to buy my own copy, which I had been considering doing anyway.
I have been reading about essays a lot over at So Many Books (lots of Montaigne!) as well as over at Of Books and Bikes and likely other places in my wanderings, which has made me very curious about this literary form. Honestly I rarely read essays, and not so many short stories (and we won't even mention poetry), and I feel like I am really missing out. So off I went to do a litle searching and I came away with Mary McCarthy's A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays. I have always found Mary McCarthy to be immensely fascinating, but I have only read her fiction. I am not sure I will read all these essays or in a linear manner, but this should be a nice replacement for the Lopate book. And I welcome any other suggestions of essay anthologies or books of essays by one author, since this is sort of new to me! I also had a book waiting for me at the public library--Susan Richard Shreve's A Student of Living Things. I was drawn to the book by its cover...it is a bit different than what I normally read, but I am open to different kinds of books.
One last thing. I picked up a book of these postage stamps today. It is about time that they got someone literary on them again!