I'm in the middle of Reading Lolita in Tehran, and it's just fabulous. It's subtitled "A Memoir in Books," and it's basically about the author running a book club in Tehran after the Revolution. But it's also about her life, and the lives of the women in the class -- she was a professor, and the group is made up of her students, so it's really more private class than book club. It's also about the books, but about the way the books relate to her life, the lives of the other women, and Iran in general. Really good.

I actually tried to read Lolita in preparation, which turns out not to be necessary, but I was traveling and Lolita turned out not to be a good plane book for me, and then it was due back at the library. I couldn't concentrate on it at the time, but should give it another shot.

After my best friend hounded me for at least a year, I finally read Good in Bed. (I have a real grudge against "fat girl" books. What? Projection? Me?)

It wasn't the best writing in the world, and the author admits the heavily Mary-Sue-ing of her own life. (I despise the Mary Sue aspects of the book because they are SO over the top. Interview a hot Hollywood actress and become best friends with her? Sure! Give your screenplay to the actress and get it sold to be produced? You bet!)

However. It was sweet, and there were a lot of parts I liked. Overall, I liked the protagonist when she wasn't all Mary Sue-d. I didn't mind the "fat girl" aspects of it....much.

I read that last year, Tep. It is disposable and highly Mary Sue-ish, and the crisis late in the book feels manufactured. But it is a very sweet book, and Cannie was at least a little more human than a lot of chick lit heroines.

I'm in the middle of Reading Lolita in Tehran, and it's just fabulous.

My wife just finished that and has recommended it to most of her favorite people. She's never read any Nabokov, either, although I've given her the Cliff's Notes version of his style and plots.

The book is divided into quarters: Lolita, Gatsby, James, Austen. So lack of Nabokov isn't deadly.

I'm in the middle of Reading Lolita in Tehran, and it's just fabulous.

My mom is reading it right now & loving it. I've just got to wait until dad gets it read and then it will be in my greedy hands!

Fuuny thing? She recently just read The Hemingway Bookclub of Kosovo and Bookseller of Kabul. It's like she's got a theme or something.

This was re-posted to a librarians' community on LJ this morning:

As you know, Paula Danziger, an icon in children's literature, died today, July 8, 2004 at 6:20 pm EST in New York. Hearts across America are grieving this premature loss. And there's not much we can do to ease the burn of it. But we can pay tribute.

SmartWriters.com has posted a Danziger Tribute page featuring an article, a booklist and -- with your help -- fond memories of the woman who touched so many lives, young and not so young. Go to Smartwriters.com and click on the button labeled "Danziger Tribute" to see the modest beginnings.

If you'd like to add to that page, please send your best Danziger moment to editor @ smartwriters.com. We'll get it posted with immediacy.

Of course, we'd need probably a whole other house to live in, then. But I'm comfortable with that.

That's how the Adams family did it. Not the Wednesday one, the John Quincey one. They had a lovely house over in Braintree, MA, and next to it is a two-story, stone building housing their library. It's delightful -- my folks had to drag me out of it. When I'm rich and famous I won't put all my money into fast cars and pool boys (well, maybe a bit for the latter), I'll put it into my personal library, building and all.

I love John Adams' library. I once did this exercise in which you put together pictures of the things you want to accomplish, and I included a picture of that library.

I have nine large (3-4 feet x 6 feet) bookcases. They do not hold all of my books. At least if I were addicted to cocaine, I wouldn't have to figure out a place to keep it.

Alas, I have not coffee on my monitor, but oatmeal.

I dream of a having real library with built-in shelves the way some people dream of Jaguars and diamonds.

I heart Ginger. IJS.