Sunday Salon- Russo-Biblio-Extravaganza and Bookish Events

So far my month of Russian books is going swimmingly. I've finished a handful of smaller books:

• The Shadows of Berlin, by Dovid Bergelson,
• The Ladies from St. Petersburg, by Nina Berberova,
• There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby, by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, and
• The Dacha Husband, by Ivan Shcheglov.

Most of these were tiny. Today I'm reading The Sacred Book of the Werewolf, by Victor Pelevin, which I'm loving and which I already think would be a great choice for scifi/fantasy and urban fiction readers. If you are familiar with Sergei Lukyanenko's Night Watch, it's like that only grittier, sexier and more violent. Anyway. I'm also working my way through the first section of Doctor Zhivago for Frances's group read at Nonsuchbook. And I'm eyeing my stack of books and deciding what to read next, because I'll be done with Werewolf soon. But I don't want to be!

There's still time to enter my giveaway of Russian Winter. I haven't read this yet but I've heard great things. The giveaway post has some links to reviews. In December and January I'll be reading 2010 releases I haven't yet read and I'm planning to read it then. I'd read it this month but with Zhivago I didn't want a second chunkster.

In bookish events in the week coming up there are two major readings taking place- Paul Auster and David Sedaris. I won't go into the sad story of my failed quest for a decent seat at the Sedaris reading. There are tickets for seats where you can see him, and tickets for seats where you can't. Guess which one I got? And I'm lucky to have that. But not for lack of effort, believe me. Oh well. I've only been looking forward to this for ages, so, you know, it's not like I'm bitterly disappointed or anything. At least I got in & can get my books signed.

What are you reading today? I hope you all have a great day. More Sunday Salon here.