Revamping Wonder Woman

Oh, Wonder Woman. I dressed up as her one year for Halloween when I was six? seven? My parents made me wear clothes underneath, though; I was furious. If only her costume then had looked like it does now.

This 69-year-old superheroine, published by DC Comics, will don a new — and less revealing — costume and enjoy the publication of Issue No. 600 of her monthly series.

Via The New York Times.

Translations, aka, my reading list just grew

I still haven't read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. I was iffy about the series and a friend of mine--we have similar tastes when it comes to fiction--told me not to bother with it. But several of my coworkers have read the whole thing and keep raving about it...so I don't know.

What I do know is that I'm thrilled we're going to see more Scandinavian writers translated into English. I love it when my reading horizon spreads just a bit more.

José Saramago, Nobel Prize-Winning Writer, Dies

I read Blindness years ago for an online book club I joined. I had a hard time with it, because I wasn't quite sure how to describe how I felt about the book. I liked it, but it was something completely different from what I normally read. I always meant to read his backlist, but never found the time. Maybe this summer I'll pick up Seeing. Or, reread Blindness.

Article about his life, works, and death here at The New York Times.

Over at the NYT

"Just as a single book offers something new to your different selves over time, my library catered to the different identities I have cultivated over the years."

So very, very true.

Justin Cronin, interviewed at the NYT

While being interviewed about his upcoming new novel, The Passage, Justin Cronin had this to say about the difference between literary fiction (what he's known for) and commercial fiction:

"I think literary is shorthand for appreciated, and commercial is shorthand for sells."

Hee. That's the best description of the two that I've seen in a long time.

Summer reading

I love reading the summer reading lists; so many new books to get excited over. Like:

Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures by Robert Wittman (Crown)

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender (Doubleday)

Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross (Knopf)

The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt (Hyperion)

The Outlander by Gil Adamson (Harper Perennial)

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)

Lost Illusions by Honore de Balzac (Penguin) (OK, so this one isn't exactly new, but whatever.)

In addition to keeping track of what genre I read and whether the book is one I purchased or borrowed, I'm also going to try and keep track of what publishers I'm reading. I don't think I have any favorites, but I am curious.

*Note to self: Hey, remember how you were going to reread the Harry Potter series this year? How's that going?