I Heart Putumayo Music.

And this is why. I’ve had Italian Cafe and French Cafe for a while now and they’re fantastic. But my boss recently met one of the owners/producers/head honcho guys on his trip to the New York, and came back with a stash of CDs for me. (Well…I’m sure they were for him, but he didn’t even have them taken out of his bag before they were in my hands and out the door.)

This is cover of Toto’s Africa, only it’s like no other cover I’ve heard. It’s amazing. A French rap version with Senegalese beats. Could you have even imagined something so magical?

And that’s just the start. I have Swing Around the World, Afro-Latin Party, Louisiana Gumbo, Music from the Coffee Lands, a bunch of samplers…  It was super funny because when my boss mentioned the world music I kind of laughed and said, “Oh, you mean like all those free ones that they give away on Amazon?” And not that I’m knocking those free ones they give away–most of those are pretty amazing, too.

But the Putumayo collections are phenomenal. They will make you so happy.  I promise.

 

I Heart Putumayo Music.

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More Literary Arts and the Arts and Lectures series.

First of all, my boyfriend is coming for the Portland Arts and Lectures series.

Sebastian Junger may not know he’s my boyfriend… All right. I admit it. He doesn’t even know I exist. But he’s the perfect rugged journalist/writer/James Bond type. He’s the one who wrote The Perfect Storm. I suppose that’s what he’s best known for, although it wasn’t my favorite… But I really love War.

That sounded bad. But you know what I mean.

It’s an amazing book. When his Hummer is nearly hit by a bomb, the writing is so raw you can tell how messed up his emotions are afterwards. The action scenes feel a little contrived and I don’t always agree with what his opinions and philosophy, but his portrayal of the soldiers and what they’re thinking and feeling is really well done.

I just think he would be an amazing speaker. I’m really looking forward to it.

And then there are some other people coming. Some lady named Annie Proulx will be there…? I think she must be famous or something. Tee hee…
 

More Cherie Priest! It’s like Christmas.

As much as I haven’t been writing on my own novel, I’ve at least been doing a bunch of reading.  YA books like Rick Riordan’s The Red Pyramid, Lilli Thal’s Mimus (just to get into the whole jester thing again), and some of Cherie Priest’s mysteries.

And then I found out about Clementine.

Another Clockwork Century novel, this goes into more depth about Captain Croggon from Boneshaker, and involves a spy who is too well-known to be a spy anymore.  I find out it was published last year, so I go merrily to Amazon thinking I’ll just pick myself up a copy and– WHY is it $58!?!? How is that possible? I understand completely that it’s not out in paperback yet, but WOW!

Not being able to resist the mystery of it all (which means that I naturally have to solve said mystery), I do a little research. And I do mean little. Because Cherie Priest keeps her blog seriously up to date. (Unlike some of us that I won’t mention…) And she’s on it. Like nine months ago on it. Which means that I am completely out of the loop. But in all fairness, I didn’t even know about Cherie Priest nine months ago.

Anyway, after I’ve Googled the whole business and read the blog entry about it and find out that it was a limited printing and a bunch of them were signed (because she works for the small publishing company that published the book in the first place), I discover that eventually there will be a paperback version “next year.” (So soon, right? Aren’t we close to “next year?”)

What really made me laugh is that the Kindle version is only $5. Which would be fine, but this is one of those books that I want to have a real copy of. And I don’t mind paperback at all. But then there’s the real problem. I do really want to read the book!

Behold, the beauty of the Multnomah County Library. The magical place where you can ask for a book, they put it on the shelf for you with your name on it and everything, and you get to take it home and keep it (sometimes for over a year… Yes, yes, I know. I really should return that copy of Catherine de Medici, Renaissance Queen of France, but I swear I’m going to read it very soon).

So in the matter of a few days, there was joy that there was another Clockwork Century book, then despair over the price, then joy again once the library comes through for me.

I love happy endings. And the blog and writing may suffer still while I sit down and read.