A few books arrived today that I paid for - it does happen, even for book reviewers! After watching My Family and Other Animals last week on Masterpiece Theater I fell in love with Gerald Durrell all over again. The movie was very true to the book I thought and I'm certainly going to get it on DVD so I can wallow in it everytime I get lonely for Corfu.

Powells had a used copy of Durrell's Amateur Naturalist. My son is only four so this is a bit ahead for him but he loves the pictures and the idea of it and he's always looking for bugs and what not like young Gerald, so I wanted to get a copy while I could. They also had on sale Birds, Beasts and Relatives so that couldn't be passed up either.

I'm a fan of Jenny D's blog in a big way and when I was wandering around the Soft Skull site a week or so ago I got a chance to read a great description of her first book, Heredity. The idea behind this story intrigues me a lot and I looked at Powells when I was ordering the Durrells and managed to get a used copy of it for such an amazing price - well - I won't even tell you. So Jenny I'll be reading your book soon! I'm looking forward to it.

Then today I had to head over to the local bookstore because they were holding an ARC for me from Unbridled Books. I picked up Song of the Crow which sounds like it has an unusual natural history angle to it and then got to the main reason for stopping by - an American Heritage Picture Dictionary for the little man. He wants to read and he has all the letter sounds pretty much figured out, so I thought I would go for this next (along with the basic story books). I remember my first dictionary and I loved it - all those words that finally made sense! So it was fun to buy this for him.

On the way out I was looking at the big display table they have at Watermark Books (it's an independent and you never know what you might find) and saw My Sister, Guard Your Veil; My Brother, Guard Your Eyes!: Uncensored Iranian Voices. I was all over it - Marjane Satrapi, Azar Nafesi and Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog) immediately jumped out at me. But mostly I just want to know more about that country. I am so frutrated by the insanity that their leaders and ours are willing to bring down on the rest of us just because of their arrogance and need for power. Sometimes I just wish they would all drop their pants, make their comparisons and be done with it.

No more senseless posturing, okay?

Anyway, the collection looks fascinating and there will be more on that later. Last night I read the YA biography Stompin' at the Savoy: The Story of Norma Miller and it left me with a smile on my face. Her childhood was amazing - her life has been amazing - and all because she loved to dance. How cool is that - a life spent in wild, happy dancing? That's the way to live, you know, dancing your heart out is the best way to live.

I'll be reviewing Savoy for Eclectica this summer, now back to working on the new website!