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The Sunday Salon: Vacation Reading

The Sunday Salon.comI packed a ton of books for my vacation last week, expecting that I’d read a lot on the plane rides. But both flights left around 6:00 in the morning, so I ended up sleeping more than reading on the planes. Sister and I did take a lot of public transportation in San Francisco, so I tackled a few different books while we were out and about. I had hoped to finish four books, but only ended up getting through about two-and-a-half.

The first book I finished on vacation was The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup, by Susan Orlean.  This book is a collection of Orlean’s profiles from various magazines like The New Yorker and Rolling Stone. I got this at a used bookstore just before I left on vacation for $6, which is a great bargain for how much is packed into the book.  It’s 292 pages, but the book is larger than most paperbacks, so it took a long time to read.  Expect a review up sometime this week.

The second book I finished was The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders. At first I wasn’t a fan of his essays; after the first one I was afraid the rest were going to get progressively more mean-spirited, but I actually liked the collection a lot.  I’m looking forward to writing this review too because I think I can plot how I started to warm up to the book through the different essays. I think that will be fun to write about.

The last book I started, but haven’t quite finished, was I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloan Crosley.  I’d heard a ton of good things about this book before I read it, but didn’t really have too many expectations until I read the blurb on the cover that compared Crosley to David Sedaris, one of my favorite essayists. While she’s not quite a Sedaris, Crosley does have a funny take on being a twenty-something woman trying to get your life together. I relate to that, which is I think why I’m enjoying the collection.  I’m hoping to finish this one up sometime this week.

Wow, now that I write that down I realized that all I read while I was away was essay collections.  Apparently I have a thing for literary nonfiction.  Anyway, that’s what I got to read on vacation, which was awesome.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Eva March 23, 2009, 8:20 am

    I love the cover for the Bullfighter book! Looking forward to your review-I need to start reading more essays. 🙂

  • bermudaonion March 23, 2009, 9:23 am

    All of those books look interesting – I can’t wait for your reviews.

  • Debi March 23, 2009, 11:31 am

    Okay, you’ve probably heard this dozens of times before, but since I’ve never been here before I can’t help it…I just have to say it…you have the coolest name for a blog ever!!!
    And now that I’ve been here, I’ll certainly be back. I’m already looking forward to your reviews on all three of these…each one of them looks extremely tempting! (Actually, I’ve read the first essay in Crosley’s book, but I shouldn’t admit that since I read it in the bookstore but then didn’t buy the book. I will get around to buying it one of these days though so hopefully they’ll forgive me.)
    Okay, sheesh…I better shut up and leave before you have me barred from ever coming back again. 🙂

  • chartroose March 23, 2009, 2:12 pm

    Hey, you won the Twilight DVD! Hooray!

    Email your address to me: chartroose@yahoo.com, and I’ll have Amazon send it directly to you.

    Congrats, cutie-pie! I’m glad it was you.

  • marie March 29, 2009, 2:28 pm

    i love your blog! how is it that i’ve never been here before? anyhoo, how did you enjoy san francisco? i can read on planes but when i was there last summer & took public transport a lot, i just wanted to people watch. what a fun city!

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