June 16 Book Porn...and Squirrel Porn

Here are the latest books that have arrived over the past week or so:

Left: Ildefonso Falcones, La mano de Fátima (will be reviewing this in a week or two); Rafael Ábalos, Grimpow y la bruja de la estirpe (second volume in this international bestselling YA series. Liked the first and after reading this one, liked it even better. Probably will wait until the English translation appears next year before I review it, however); James Thurber, Writings and Drawings (Thurber is a must-read for short fiction fans. "He said puppy buscuit!"); Javier Negrete, La gran aventura de los griegos (non-fiction, professional historical work by Negrete about the ancient Greeks from the Minoan collapse onwards. Very well-researched and highly readable); Javier Negrete, Amada de los dioses (Negrete's worn many hats; here he writes erotica/classic mythology tale involving Pan, among others. Pretty good, since he's a talented writer, although this isn't my preferred reading genre, to say the least...); Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (early Pynchon is still quite good); Fritz Leiber, The First Book of Lankhmar(pulp fiction done right); Indro Montanelli, Historia de la edad media (Spanish translation of a very influential Italian work from 1965 that tells the narrative history of the early Middle Ages. Very readable and even I, who've had some classes in the period, am learning a few things); Marjorie M. Liu, Darkness Calls (second volume in an urban fantasy series. I've heard good things about her, but as is usually the case with these review copies, I don't have the first volume, so...).

And now, a little something that I bought for my office cubicle and to annoy my boss just a little bit more, as he doesn't get the history of the in-joke involving this lovable creature that I and a certain young lady have had over the past four years...

I present to you...

Squirrel porn, in the form of a 2009 wall calendar. Enjoy?