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>Wishlist Wednesday: In A Biographical Frame of Mind

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Allofasudden, I have an urge to read three particular biographies.

It all began two nights ago when I went to Becka’s for “Mad Men Monday”. This week was the season finale. As the episode ended, Roy Orbison was singing Shahdaroba. (Great choice. I would’ve been more predictable and chosen It’s Over.) The song stuck in my head and now I feel like reading Dark Star, the biography about Orbison.

The next evening, I came home and found Time magazine in my mailbox. I haven’t read it all yet, but I noticed in the book reviews that a new biography about W. Somerset Maugham has just been published. It looks and sounds wonderful. Maybe I’ll run across it soon at What The Book? or Kyobo. Maugham has stayed consistently popular in Asia, probably because many of his novels are set here.

Today, I came in to the office and saw that one of my colleagues has books piled up all around his cubicle as if he’s rethinking what he’s going to keep and throw out. A 1987 biography of Ernest Hemingway snagged my eye and I promptly put a sticky note on the book asking if I could borrow it. The bio is delightfully long, a veritable doorstop of a book with lots of great photos with detailed and intelligent captions.

This week, I finished a biography of Huey Long that was written for the YA audience but older readers will appreciate the author’s lucid explanations of the political and economic history and climate that fostered Long’s rise to power. During a couple of long subway rides on Sunday, I finished Fox Girl by Nora Okja Keller which was gritty and captivating. Now I’m reading One Step From Heaven by An Na, which is a novel about the Korean immigrant experience.

You’ll notice I haven’t mentioned NaNoWriMo. Shudder. I’m only at 6,350 words. The “No” in NaNoWriMo seems to have taken on a completely different meaning.

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