I’m a Guest Reviewer on Black Sheep Dances! The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them

Many of you are already familiar with Black Sheep Dances, a wonderful literary blog that focuses, among other things, on translated works of literary fiction. Amy is hosting The Eastern European Reading Challenge on Black Sheep Dances this year, and I have to admit it’s been a bit tough coming up with titles for an area about which I know absolutely nothing. Then finally I read a book this spring that just screamed, “Amy” to me, plus it was about Russian literature, and Amy said I could write it up as a guest post. So if you’d like to read my review of Elif Batuman’s The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, head on over to Black Sheep Dances! Thanks, Amy, for letting me contribute! It was a lot of fun, and I am inspired to seek out some more translations this summer.

I'm Leeswammes' Guest for Book Bloggers Abroad!

Well, the end of the semester chaos has obviously kept me from my blogging "duties" for the past few weeks! But like most academics, if you give me a deadline I will do my best to meet it -- so I did manage to put together a guest blog -- on book blogging -- for Judith at Leeswammes. Judith blogs world literary fiction in the Netherlands, which is why I qualify as a "Book Blogger Abroad" over there.

With two trips to the Southwest in three weeks, I was able to read FOUR books, and blog ZERO. But I finished classes yesterday (Hip, Hip, Hooray!) and I plan to catch up in the next few days. New Year's Resolutions are looming, and finding time for more regular posts is definitely going to be at the top of my list for 2011. In the meantime, I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season -- I actually feel like my holiday season is finally beginning!

Thanks to Leeswammes for sponsoring Book Bloggers Abroad, and especially for asking this newbie to participate!