Sunday Salon: Hurricane Edition

Like much of the east coast, we're hunkering down for Hurricane Irene. We got slammed with rain yesterday and the winds will start up this morning. Our windows started to leak, so we improvised a solution that will get us through the day but we'll need some fairly costly repairs to our siding in the spring. At least we know now, so we can start budgeting for it.

Yes, those are Littermaid receptacles taped to my window to collect rain. We have another one on third window!

Public transportation in Massachusetts has been shut down and because of the damage to the house and the bad weather we can't really leave, so I guess that means a lot of reading. I got a good start on it yesterday and made significant progress in The Talk-Funny Girl by Roland Merullo, a really heartbreakingly wonderful novel about abuse and rural isolation that I urge you to buy right now. Merullo is one of the most underappreciated writers in this country and his new book is just staggering.

This week I finished The Prestige, by Christopher Priest, in a couple of days; it was awesome. If you've seen the movie, you still need to read this book. There's a whole storyline the movie left out and an ending that knocked my socks off. I then proceeded to lose my copy, along with my copy of Carte Blanche, by Carlo Lucarelli, at a movie theater. Carte Blanche is a crime novel and a Europa title I was reading for the challenge so I started reading Minotaur by Benjamin Tammuz in its place. It's also very good, about a young woman who becomes the center of several erotic obsessions.

The whole world is telling me to read The Night Circus, so my husband is going to read it and then tell me if he thinks I should, too. I've agreed to accept his judgement. I did start it a while back but then I misplaced my copy. I got a second one at a Night Circus party I was honored to attend this past week, thrown by Random House and attended by booksellers and bloggers from around the area. It was fun to meet author Erin Morgenstern and the party included a mime, a juggler and a psychic as well as great food and lots of my friends. I feel really blessed sometimes to have found this community of booklovers.

Well I'm going back to watching my windows for leaks. I hope everyone in the hurricane's path this weekend takes care of themselves and stays safe and dry.

More Sunday Salon here.