This morning I got hit by a bicyclist going the wrong way down a one-way street. I'm fine - it was a glancing blow that rocked him more than me, I think - I was half-asleep, having once again woken up 90 minutes before my alarm and not gotten back to sleep - but a startling one. I don't even think my arm will bruise (it hasn't yet), but I guess we'll see.
ANYWAY.
The Wednesday "What I'm Reading" meme:
What I'm Reading
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, which is about a young actress who ends up in a tiny village in Italy in the early 60s, and a young woman in the present who works for a movie producer and what the connection between them is. And also Richard Burton shows up.
I don't dislike it? But it doesn't have me reaching for the kindle at every opportunity either.
I also just discovered a paperback copy of Michael Chabon's Wonder Boys, which I've never actually read, squirreled away in my desk, so I started that on the subway going home last night.
And I'm still meandering through a reread of Foucault's Pendulum, which is what I turn to when nothing else seems interesting.
What I just finished
Girl Overboard by Justina Chen Headley, which I really loved. It's the story of 15 year old Syrah Cheng, daughter of billionaire Ethan Cheng and his trophy wife Betty, and at first I rolled my eyes at Syrah's poor little rich girl schtick, but then it really delves into her family life, and their secrets, and while it never excuses her parents' behavior, it does explain it, and it's not that they change all that much, but that Syrah gets to see new sides of them (well, mostly her mother). And oh, it made me tear up a number of times. It's about the relationships between mothers and daughters, between sisters, and between girls who are friends (there's also a bit of romance, but I like that it wasn't the defining feature
and that the romantic issue doesn't really ever get resolved; Syrah and Age reaffirm their friendship, but he's still with Natalia at the end. So if you like YA coming of age stories about young women, you will probably like this book.
Last week, I also read Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu, discussed
here by
![](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
skygiants, which is basically everything
![](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
skygiants says in that post. Beautiful and truthful and heartbreaking and also hopeful, the way the best fairy tale retellings are.
And I did a reread of Georgette Heyer's The Talisman Ring, which is mostly as enjoyable as ever - the anti-Semitism isn't as all-pervasive as in The Grand Sophy, and the classism is slightly less blatant than in Devil's Cub, and Sarah and Eustacie are such a joy in action.
What I'm Reading Next
I don't know! Too many books on the to-read pile! Though I guess the immediate "read next" stuff is whatever comics come out today (Winter Soldier? Hawkeye?), which I'll get when I go home tonight.
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