Once and Future Books

I placed an order with Powell’s Books last Wednesday. On Friday the books left the warehouse and are speeding towards me. I’ll tell you when they get here, just so you can see what it’s like. I’m dying for:

Everyday Fashions of the Thirties as Pictured in Sears Catalogs a Dover book
Rosie’s Walk, a picture book for Stefan
30 Heirloom Projects with Complete How-To-Knit Instructions by Melanie Falick, I love, love, love her Weekend Knitting, in spite of it’s problems,I can’t wait to lay my hands on this.
Around the Year by Elsa Beskow, can’t believe we don’t already have this, and they had a used copy!
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. Anybody read this?
The King in the Window by Adam Gopnik, recommended to Camille by the charming 12-year-old Dev, who we met in Rome. It’s about an American boy living in France, and written by the guy who wrote the delightful Paris to the Moon.

I picked up a copy of Pinocchio in Rome (but the book’s in English, c’mon) and started reading it aloud to kids while we were there. It’s great to read a book about a naughty, naughty marrionette, who then feels bad, only to be terribly naughty again. Stefan loves hearing about someone who is so badly behaved. “Read another chapter,” he says. All the chapters are really short, and have spoilers as chapter headings: “Pinocchio weeps upon learning that the Lovely Maiden with Azure Hair is dead. He meets a Pigeon, who carries him to the seashore. He throws himself into the sea to go to the aid of his father.” As Pinocchio says, “Mamma mia.”