Margaret Atwood is one of my favorite authors. I don’t remember exactly when I first read The Handmaid’s Tale, probably in a high school English class, but I remember that reading that book changed my life. It was one of those books that helped me understand something fundamental about what literature can do (use an extreme premise or situation to comment on contemporary political issues). Looking back, I also love the way The Handmaid’s Tale is a book that sits between the two subjects that Atwood writes about best — political dystopia and female friendship.

When I go to used bookstores, I always check the “A” section to see if there are any Atwood books that I haven’t purchased yet. I’m trying to collect them all (book nerd Pokémon?) and I have quite a few, but I tend to dole them out slowly — one or two a year, at most. I like saving them because when I pick one up I know it’s going to be wonderful, and I want the wonderful to last as long as it possibly can.

However, my careful Atwood rationing fell apart over the last month. I read four of her books between the end of August and the end of September, and it was just as amazing as I hoped that it would be.

The Atwood binge started when I decided to take some time to read Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood in anticipation of the third book in that trilogy, Maddaddam, which came out in September. The premise of the series is relatively simple, although it takes several books to really flesh out. I’ll just give you the summary of Oryx and Crake to try and avoid some spoilers:

Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey–with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake–through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride.

The structure of Oryx and Crake — a structure that gets echoed in all three books of the trilogy — is so great. The book jumps back and forth between the time after the plague and the events leading up to the plague, and you get a very slow reveal of how everything went down. I was completely surprised about how this book turned out and it was wonderful even on a second read. The book is also really disconcerting because so much of what is going on — genetic modifications, environmental destruction, separation of rich and poor in protected compounds — doesn’t seem too far outside the realm of possibility given what is happening in the world today.

The Year of the Flood is one of the rare cases when the a second in a trilogy book is even better than the first. Atwood has called The Year of the Flood a companion to Oryx and Crake — the events take place over the same time period, just in a different place and different characters. In this case, the main characters are Ren (a trapeze dancer at a high-end sex club) and Toby (a manager at a luxury spa with a mysterious past), two women who have connections to Jimmy and Crake and who also survived the plague.

What was remarkable about The Year of the Flood, to me, is the way that Atwood is able to open up the world these stories are set in. The first book is centered entirely on Jimmy’s limited perspective, while the second goes outside the protected compounds and away from scientists to show how their decisions affected people out in the real world. It’s so smart and interesting.

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that the third book in a trilogy, Maddaddam, brings the two story threads together and expands the story out in several more directions. I won’t say more about it than that, other than that I thought it was a deeply satisfying conclusion to the story that Atwood set up at the beginning of the trilogy, but left enough open to leave the world a little mysterious. I loved it to death and absolutely recommend taking time to read all three books.

My fourth Margaret Atwood book for the month was Cat’s Eye, which I selected for a book club I suggested when a group of high school girlfriends and I got together for a long weekend at a cabin in Wisconsin. Cat’s Eye is, I think, a book along the other spectrum of stories that Atwood writes — explorations of female friendship and issues in feminism:

Cat’s Eye is the story of Elaine Risley, a controversial painter who returns to Toronto, the city of her youth, for a retrospective of her art. Engulfed by vivid images of the past, she reminisces about a trio of girls who initiated her into the fierce politics of childhood and its secret world of friendship, longing, and betrayal. Elaine must come to terms with her own identity as a daughter, a lover, an artist, and a woman–but above all she must seek release from her haunting memories.

While I’m not sure if I liked Cat’s Eye as much as I enjoyed the Maddaddam trilogy — it got a little meandering in the middle and I didn’t find the conclusion entirely satisfying — it was still a remarkable book, and perfect for the situation we read it. Elaine is a flawed and complicated narrator, and it’s interesting to look at how her memories (or lack of memories) affect how we see her and the girls that bullied her as a child. It’s a book about complicated friendships that I loved digging into with some of my oldest friends.

Given how much I’ve enjoyed all of the books in my Margaret Atwood binge, I’m tempted to keep the streak going and read several more of her books before the end of the year. But I also want to keep hording them, just to know that I have more amazing books to read for the first time when I need a literary pick-me-up. I love Margaret Atwood!

Do you have a favorite author you’re deliberately reading slowly? A favorite Atwood book? Share your thoughts in the comments!

On Sunday morning, my sister Jenny and I were getting ready to go out and grab breakfast when she noticed an announcement for Half Price Books’ yearly clearance sale — all books $3 or under. We’re both big fans of Half Price Books (a buy and sell used books chain), so adjusting our plans to go to a sale big enough to be held in the Grandstand at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds was a no-brainer.

After a couple of wrong turns, we arrived at the sale at about 11 a.m. on Sunday, the second day of the event. We weren’t sure what to expect; would all of the good books be gone? Would it be insanely busy? As we walked in we saw some customers coming out of the building with shopping carts full of books, which we laughed at and confidently said we wouldn’t grab that many.

How wrong we were.

It’s hard to give a sense of how big the sale actually was. Even this picture I took of Jenny browsing only captures about a third of the space. It was insane. The books were separated out generally into nonfiction, fiction, young adult and children’s sections, but within those categories it was pretty disorganized (which was definitely expected given how many books there were to choose from). Jenny and I bought a tote bag and just started wandering, pulling books from the tables that we were interested in or thought the other one would like.

After getting through about three rows of tables, we discovered that our tote bag was entirely full. Jenny headed back up to the front and bought another tote bag, which we filled up in no time at all. In the end, we left with 36 books for about $36… amazing! Here’s the photo we took when we got home (my books are on the left, Jenny’s are on the right):

Since the titles are small, here’s what’s on my pile:

• Working by Studs Terkle
• Best American Essays 2010, edited by Christopher Hitchens
• The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
• The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
• American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
• Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
• Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
• Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
• My Antonia by Willa Cather
• The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
• The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
• The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud
• When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
• The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
• Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Most of Jenny’s titles are chick lit or historical fiction, but if you have questions about what any of them are leave them in the comments and I’ll try to figure it out.

One of my favorite things about clearance book sales is checking out which books are most common. I saw a strangely high number of copies of The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb and, to no surprise, many copies of the Twilight series and Nicholas Sparks’ novels. There were also a lot of copies of The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman (I found a nice copy of that one).

Now that I’ve added 15 more books to my towering TBR shelves, I need to go on a book buying diet for the rest of the year… the books are starting to take over my house!

I missed checking in last Sunday and yesterday because I’ve been traveling every weekend and sometimes it just doesn’t make sense to try and come up with a post when I’m off doing something else. Last weekend I was up at a cabin with five of my best friends from high school which was just amazing and reinvigorating. It’s nice to spend time with people who really know you and love you anyway. Yesterday I was out having clearance book sale adventures with my sister in the Twin Cities (more information on that later this week), then driving home. I am traveling again next weekend, then I have a weekend at home. Woo!

Time // 7:25 a.m.

Place // My office

Eating // Chobani Greek Yogurt

Drinking // Blood Orange Cinnamon Tea

Reading // Since my last update two weeks ago I’ve finished a grand total of… two books! The first was Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood and the second was Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink. They were both amazing in their own ways and really do represent the different genres that I love to read. I’m hoping I get my review-writing mojo back soon so I can tell you about Fink’s book, especially.

Since I just finished a book last night, I’m really not sure what I will pick up next. I’m leaning towards starting a few November releases to decide which one I want to read completely for Bloggers Recommend next month. At the moment I’m considering Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie and Anything That Moves by Dana Goodyear.

Watching // I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve let myself get sucked into Dancing With the Stars. I’m not embarrassed to admit that I’m loving a ton of network sitcoms: Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine Nine, New Girl and The Mindy Project, especially.

Blogging // Last Friday I posted about my reading in September and some plans for October. Since I finished Five Days at Memorial yesterday night, I’m one-third of the way through my listed reading plans for the month!

Surveying // Are you a current or former book blogger? If the answer is yes, please take a minute to fill out the book blogging survey that Shannon (River City Reading), Jennifer (Literate Housewife) and I put together. I’ll be open until this Friday. We’re already at almost 300 responses, but we want to keep going and get as many as we can.

Wanting // I could really use another bookshelf, but our house really isn’t big enough for one. #bookaddictproblems

Loving // We got a hand-me-down bedroom set from my grandma, that we finally got moved in and organized last week (for awhile it was all sitting downstairs in my office…). It feels weirdly grown up to have furniture that matches. I also recently rediscovered a favorite pair of gray shoes that I forgot I owned. I also had a story I wrote picked up in a pretty big publication, which was exciting!

Hating // The weather took a definite fall-like turn this week. While I’m excited for boots and sweaters weather, seeing pictures of feet of snow just west of where I live was very distressing.

Anticipating // My sister and I have tickets to go see Wicked next Sunday night. I can’t wait!

Friends, I can’t seem to write a book review to save my life. I’m not sure what the deal is, but in the spirit of low-stress blogging I’m trying to not let it bug me too much and just go with the flow (easier said than done… but whatever).

September felt like a pretty slow reading month, but I ended up finishing six books (only slightly below average for me). I think the reason it felt so slow is that I finished four books* in the first week, then only two books for the entire rest of the month. Here’s how it broke down:

• Atwood, Margaret: MaddAddam (fiction)
• Valenti, Jessica: Why Have Kids? (nonfiction)
• Rowling, J.K.: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (YA fiction)
• Sandberg, Sheryl: Lean In (nonfiction)
• Atwood, Margaret: Cat’s Eye (fiction)

Reading a bunch of Margaret Atwood books in a row has been really fun. I decided to read all three books in the Maddaddam Trilogy back-to-back (two were finished in August), and then I did a “book club” style discussion about Cat’s Eye with some friends of mine last weekend. I don’t have any specific plans for more Atwood through the end of the year, but I have a ton of her books on my shelves that I could choose from if the mood strikes.

I also really enjoyed Why Have Kids? and Lean In, which get at a lot of similar issues in two very different ways. I know there’s been some criticism of Lean In, but reading it really made me think harder about my career and the choices I have and will continue to have to make.

A Look to October

I haven’t spent a lot of time looking ahead to October books, but I know that my shelves are really full of galley to choose from (I mentioned a few of them last week). Here are some other reading options:

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling — My sister and I have been slowly working our way through the entire Harry Potter series this summer, but we stalled out after book six. I think we’re both just sad the project will be ending, so we’re procrastinating. But procrastinate no more, I want to finish this out in October.
• Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink — This is cheating a little bit, since I’m about ⅔ of the way done with this book… but if I finish it that will be good. It’s crazy awesome and also crazy infuriating so far.
• How to Watch Television by Ethan Thompson and Jason Mittell — This is a NYU Press book looking at different styles of television criticism. The Literary Omnivore had a great review of it this week, which made me excited to give it a whirl.
• The Preservationist by Justin Kramon — I met Justin Kramon at my first Book Expo America all the way back in 2010. He was really nice to talk with, and I enjoyed reading his first book, Finny. The Preservationist is a shift in style from Finny (from coming-of-age story to psychological thriller), but I’m excited to try it out.

What books are you excited to read this month?

* Finishing four books in a week sounds crazy, but two of them were books I started in August and just got around to finishing at the beginning of September.

PHOTO CREDIT: ROB WARDE VIA FLICKR