Summer Reading Plans. Because It's So Close I Can Almost Taste It.

As you can see, if you've been here at all, I've made a few changes at dolce bellezza. I've loved the woman on the sofa, with her cold Coke and ruffled bosom, but I've felt the need of a change. Something simpler, cleaner. And, after eight years of blogging I decided it was time to show my face. So here we are with a new look, however long it may last.

As for books, I've taken on three challenges this Summer not counting the Angela Carter Week which starts today. For this week, I'm almost halfway through Nights at the Circus which is the most wonderfully imaginative tale of feminism you could ever dream of. I'm completely enraptured by Fevvers, the giantess with wings. A proper review will be forthcoming when I finish it. I also hope to continue with The Magical Toyshop which I bought for this week as well.

This is the left-hand corner of my shelf holding Japanese literature. It is double stacked, and quite long; too much to fit into one photograph and certainly to fit into one summer. So, I narrowed down some of my choices to these books from Tuttle publishers, all of which will be given away during the course of the Japanese Literature Challenge:
(And Then by Soseki Natsume, Botchan by Soseki Natsume, Darkness in Summer by Takeshi Kaiko, and Rashomon and Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa.)
Then, there's Paris in July for which I hope to read this short stack:
(The Most Beautiful Walk In The World by John Baxter, On Rue Tatin by Susan Herrmann Loomis, and The Secret of Chanel No. 5 by Tilar J. Mazzeo)
Finally, there's the Spanish Literature month hosted by Richard and Stu. I've been terrible with Spanish literature, failing to appreciate the great Roberto Bolano completely, so I think I'll carry on with this little pile:
(The Nautical Chart by Arturo Perez-Reverte, Women Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.)
After eight years of blogging, it doesn't even strike me the slightest bit odd how someone can dream up a challenge, and I can find the books for it in my own home. That just shows how much influence all of you have had on me (and how rotten our library is; if I want a work of translated fiction I jolly well ought to go out and buy it myself). 
Tomorrow is the last day of school. I tearfully said good-bye to the children Friday, but the state of Illinois now requires that teachers come one last day for School Improvement Meetings. So, let the reading commence in earnest Tuesday afternoon! I so hope to see you at these challenges, and certainly round the blog-o-sphere as Summer carries on. xo