This week is Book Blogger Appreciation Week, a truly awesome celebration of book bloggers and book blogging that comes around every September. I missed signing up for today’s blogging topic, the annual interview swap, so instead I’m answering some of the alternative questions for a self interview.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?

I’m not at all horrified by the idea of writing in books, but I don’t do it that often anymore. About a year ago I started writing my thoughts on books in a notebook that I refer back to when writing reviews, which is easier than going back through a book to find my notes.

Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time?

I usually have a couple of books going at the same time, generally one fiction and one nonfiction, although once I get about half way through a book I tend to read it exclusively since I want to finish it.

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Title: The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued Their Bosses and Changed the Workplace
Author: Lynn Povich
Genre: Nonfiction
Year: 2012
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Acquired: Book Expo American 2012
Rating:

Review: If you were a woman hired at Newsweek magazine in the 1960s, you had a limited career path. Most women were hired as researchers, working to provide background and information to male writers who received all the bylines and credit for each of the magazine’s stories. Women had almost no chance to move up from researcher to writer, and an even smaller possibility of ever becoming an editor or among the top brass at the magazine.

On March 16, 1970, a group of women filed a sex discrimination lawsuit to try and change that. In The Good Girls Revolt, author Lynn Povich, who was a member of the lawsuit and one of the women to eventually benefit most from the changes it helped bring about, profiles the people involved with the suit and puts the challenge at Newsweek in the context of the 1970s feminist movement and what this time period can offer for young women today.

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This week is Book Blogger Appreciation Week, a truly awesome celebration of book bloggers and book blogging that comes around every September. I’m not sure how many post I’ll be putting up this week to participate, but expect at least a few this week. I’m especially excited for today’s blogging topic, which is appreciation:

Appreciation! There are no awards this year, but it can still be hard to navigate the huge universe of book blogging. Share with your readers some of the blogs you enjoy reading daily and why.

If I counted correctly, I’m currently subscribed to more than 200 book blogs, everything from personal blogs like this one to more industry and publishing specific blogs like NPR Books. I don’t get to read each of them every day, but I try to skim over posts during the week and comment if I can. Of those, there are quite a few that I make sure to read every post. Here are a few (in no particular order):

Book Pairing (Nikki) — Book Pairing is a relatively new blog, but it’s great. Nikki likes to pair books in her reviews, or pair books with recipes, events, or experiences, which is really fun to read.

Julz Reads (Julie) — Julie’s blog is another relatively new-to-me-blog, but I’m already hooked. I really loved the variety of books Julie reads and the way she mixes in personal and other fun posts.

The 3R’s Blog (Florinda) — Florinda is one of my favorite bloggers (and a super great roommate, if you ever need one). I love how smartly she writes about books and issues that come up for book bloggers; I can always count on her as a voice of reason when drama arises.

Regular Rumination (Lu) — I love Lu, so much. She writes so well about poetry, which I admire since I never know what to say when I read poems.

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It’s the first Sunday of football season and I am, sadly, not watching any games today. Our cable isn’t hooked up at our new house yet (don’t even get me started on that…), so I’m spending my afternoon getting text updates from friends and obsessively checking my fantasy football scores online. It’s less than ideal.

Unfortunately, even with all my time without the Internet and cable this week, I haven’t gotten much reading done. There’s been a lot of cleaning and organizing and furniture-building, but not much reading. I’m hoping that will change this week, however, because there are a couple of books I want to finish before the weekend in order to participate in few events being held locally in conjunction with an author visit on September 19.

Each year, the English department at the college in the town where I live hosts a lecture in the fall for a visit author. This year, the lecturer is Jay Parini, perhaps most well-known for his 1990 book The Last Station, which was made into a movie in 2009. The Last Station is a “biographical novel” about the last year of Leo Tolstoy’s life. His most recent novel came out in 2010 — The Passages of H.M., another biographical novel, this time about Herman Mellville. In anticipation of Parini’s visit, the English department has organized a series of reading groups for Parini’s books and some movie showings of The Last Station to get the community talking about Parini and the issues his books raise.

As a nonfiction reader, I think the topic of Parini’s lecture — “The Imagination of Truth: How Fiction Shines a Light into the Dark Corners of History” — is going to be especially fascinating. Can fiction offer insight into people and their lives in a way that nonfiction cannot? Does fictionalizing some of the facts we don’t know about a historical figure diminish their story or give us more to think about?

My plan, if I get motivated and find some time to read this week, is to try and finish both The Last Station and The Passages of H.M.  They’re not long, so I think it’s achievable if I put my mind too it (and, if Hannah gets off my lap so I can go grab the book from my bedroom).

What are you reading this fine Sunday?