'I have a fear of exploding tires'

I got The Bean Trees earlier this week and having been laughing loudly in the library, the otherwise empty bedroom, and Opposite cafe. I think I detect some words substituted for the British reading audience but I'm not sure. Things like 'jumper' really could be the American word for those overall-type atrocities of the 1980s. Thankfully the Kentucky syntax and vocabulary is still intact. I didn't notice before how obsessed this book is with ethnicity, and less so with other differences like disability. From the deep depths of my mid-semester trench, I read Kingsolver for fresh air and a dose of nostalgia for Arizona. Speaking of evangelism, Julie reminded me that I haven't extended a used copy of this wonderful book (or any other book) to anyone since I left Boston. Definitely need to resume my used bookstore 

perusal habits asap. Academia does drain some joy out of the reading life. 

In other literary news, I bought tickets the other week to hear Coetzee read, (read what I don't know), in Oxford. Luckily they were only £4 a pop. I hope to have time to read something like Waiting for the Barbarians before then. 

The rest of the semester involves an exciting book by Caryl Philips, who is of Leeds, and rereadings of the nefarious Naipaul. Has anyone read Keri Hulmes' The Bone People? I am really interested in others' opinions of it.