I was feeling a bit low…

I was feeling a bit low (it's grey and snowing hard outside, and cold in here), so I decided it was time to cash in the Amazon gift certificate that Kevin's sister got me for Christmas. Through the miracles of used books, I was able to claim quite a stash, along with a gorgeous little OXO ice cream scoop that I've had my eye on for a while. I got:

• Diplomatic Immunity, Lois Bujold (yes, I've read it, but I didn't own it)
• The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Michael Chabon
• The Wooden Sea, Jonathan Carroll
• Outside the Gates, Molly Gloss
• The New Girls, Beth Gutcheon (a novel about my high school, apparently)
• Weight Watchers: Great Cooking Every Day (recommended by Meriko)

A good mix of comfortable stuff with other interesting good writing, and the combination of a diet cookbook and an ice cream scoop I find particularly delightful. :-)

I also received two books in the mail recently, from journal readers who thought I might like them -- Ali Ghalem's A Wife for My Son, and Milan Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. I'm not going to get to them right away (or probably any of the others I ordered, for that matter), but it comforts me, knowing they're there on the shelf, waiting to be read.

Intermittently in the last few days I've been working my way through Jane Yolen's short story collection, Sister Emily's Lightship, which is just absolutely delightful. A terrific mix of Yiddish stories, fairy tale retellings, Austen-ish-toned archness, and just lots of fun, inventive stuff. I loved Yolen's stuff when I was younger, and somehow I've gone a very long time without reading any. Clearly a mistake I must rectify.