Vacation Work

I spent the weekend with friends, and poor Emily made the mistake of putting me in a room that had bookshelves. I can only thank God that she is an academic, and the vast majority of her books are about advanced statistical analysis and health policy in the media age.

As it is, I have a stack here. I took Machiavelli's The Prince, which I've been meaning to read forever. (Between him and Sun Tzu, I'm planning to take over the world.) I've got something called The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman, whose work I've found hit or miss, but I liked the premise of this book. Plus The Wisdom of Crowds, because I love pop social science, and The Bomber, which is a Swedish political mystery/thriller that Emily herself actually recommended. It sounds like the plot is not bad, but the main character has a lot of practical working-mother life issues that are well drawn and interesting. Also, being all Girl With the Dragon Tattooed up, I'm all about the Swedish thrillers.

Though I have to say, I'm having a harder time getting into The Girl Who Played With Fire. I think I needed it to jump right into something, and the mystery of what Salandar is thinking when she runs off on her mystery vacation isn't quite enough. Let's get to the meat, kids, I've been listening for almost half an hour now, chop chop!

I'm supposed to hit the BPL on Wednesday with my buddy Sheila, so I need to get some serious reading in. I might have some time during Adam's nap tomorrow--I'm going to throw myself hard at Conspiracy of Kings, which I'm enjoying, and see how that goes.

Speaking of which, Em, I'm going to mail you The Thief. Watch the post!