The delightful books that came my way this holiday

A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia and the Making of American Science (Great big huge coffee table book in all of its glory!)

Wendy & The Lost Boys: The Uncommon Life of Wendy Wasserstein by Julie Salamon

Journey Into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Semyonovna Ginzburg ("A courageous woman's memoir of her harrowing eighteen-year odyssey through the Soviet Union's prisons and labor camps".)

Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins (short stories) and Errantry by Elizabeth Hand ("strange stories")

Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds by Lyndall Gordon

Murder Casts a Shadow by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl (A Hawaii mystery set in 1934)

The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay (A classic novel published by the NY Review of Books) and The Fire by Katherine Neville (A sequel to her novel The Eight which I loved)

The Hummingbird Cabinet: A Rare and Curious History of Romantic Collectors by Judith Pascoe

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, the new edition which includes alternative endings, early drafts and 1948 introduction

Soundings: The Story of the Remarkable Woman Who Mapped the Ocean Floor by Hali Felt and Grace: A Memoir by VOGUE Creative Director Grace Coddington

The Last Phantom Vol 2 - a trade paperback collection of one of my favorite superheroes!

And also three long out of print titles on Alaska aviation which I look forward to mining for information on my current book.

I've just finished the bio of Wendy Wasserstein and it made me cry - what an interesting life that was cut so horribly short. For all that we had barely anything in common, I found her work to be very familiar to me - especially her drive to prove herself, to cling to her creative ambitions, and to demand a life in the arts. Those strong feelings of being a failure during college and immediately afterwards - those really hit home. This is just truly a wonderful read, highly recommended.