For my birthday, my mom sent me a check and told me to go wild buying books on Amazon. I haven’t exactly gone wild, but I did buy two books that I’ve been wanting for a long time, and they arrived a few days ago.
The first: Maira Kalman‘s The Principles of Uncertainty. I love Maira Kalman. I love her art. I love what she writes and how she writes it. It has taken every ounce of moral strength I have to only read a little bit of this book every day, instead of rushing through it in one gulp like I want to.
Second: Memories of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar, by Emily Ruete. Yeah, for real. Published in 1886. And where is Zanzibar, you ask? It’s here, off the coast of Tanzania:
All I knew of Zanzibar before this was based on that line in Muppets Treasure Island where they’re dreaming about where to sail to and someone shouts, “To Zanzibar! To meet the Zanzibarbarians!” Now it’s a little more real. The book is fascinating.
