i got it at the library

This weekend is our library's semi-annual book sale so I stopped in to see what I might find to read now and then donate to the Cuyutlán library. Tomorrow is the "all you can read" sale; fill up a paper shopping bag with anything that's left and it will cost $5. Good deal. I browsed through 5 or 6 tables of books and came away with these nuggets.

• 1. "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junto Diaz. This novel won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Award in 2007, and more. I've had it on my list for a couple of years.
• 2. "Depths" by Henning Mankell. He brought us Kurt Wallender, although this is not in that series.
• 3. "Elizabeth Costello" by J. M. Coetzee. He's always good for a depressing read. A previous novel, "The Life and Times of Michael K", is one of my favorite books.
• 4. " Nice Work" by David Lodge. His academic send-up novels are the best!
• 5. "Prague" by Arthur Phillips. I bought this one because I really enjoyed another of his books, "The Egyptologist." I still think it is one of the most cleverly conceived and delivered stories ever.

I also finished "The Girl Who Played With Fire" by Steig Larsson, the second in his "The Girl . . ." series. Next and final book will be out in a year or so. This one is every bit as good, intricate, contrived but ultimately satisfying as was "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo."

Along with all these literary efforts, we are packing up to head out tomorrow to San Diego for a few days to visit with my sister ~ who is back in the hospital but this time in California ~ and then to Long Beach to see daughter Alex. I am taking the LapMac with me; if I can connect I will file. If not, I'll do it when I get home. We'll bring granddaughter Emily back with us for a few days' visit before she heads off to Thacher in late August. Meanwhile, grandson Andrew has left Shanghai to begin school in Singapore. He'll be there for the fall semester, then return to Claremont McKenna for the spring.

Overheard in the market parking lot, small boy (4 yr. old?) to his mother, as he eyed Dorothy: "Mom, it that a real car?"

You bet'cha!

Last but not least of the day's events, congratulations to Sonia Sotomayor, the newest Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. I hope you give those "gold standard boys" a lesson they won't forget.