thunderstorm thunderstorm!!!!

hurray! Nothing I love more in the world than a thunderstorm, and in southern CA we don't get them very often. I'm excited because it's probably the best thing that's happened to me today (two rejection letters, being told I couldn't vote in the presidential primaries because I'm registered non-partisan and didn't know to request a ballot).

I got some more books at the library, although I have yet to finish Body Outlaws and The Blind Assassin. Err...gonna go easy on the trombone playing, I guess. :)

All of these books were recommended reading and/or an integral part of the book Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, which is invaluable for its insights into classics of Western literature (Lolita, Gatsby, Pride and Prejudice) from the viewpoint of a different culture and system of oppressions. The books I checked out are:

Baghdad Diaries: A Woman's Chronicle of War and Exile by Nuha al-Radi
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
Short Stories by Muriel Spark
More Die of Heartbreak by Saul Bellow

Speaking of Lolita, you can mosey on over to Feministe and take a "What Classic Novel Am I" quiz. I was Lolita. Before I read Nafisi's book, I would have been a little freaked out. But she takes it to a new level...not to be taken so literally as a tale about child sexual abuse but as an allegory for the abuse of persons by an oppressive government such as the Soviet Union or the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The other funny thing is, Lolita is a version of what my cousin used to call me, "Little Lo." Dude.