Zafa!

I just finished reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscard Wao by Junot Diaz. It's all about the curse of history, the Domnican Republic, an obese romantic, America the great diaspora (forget melting pot!) and the blessings of story telling. According to Diaz, "fuku" is a curse in Domnican. "Zafa" is a blessing.

Business at Miss Prothero's was fukued in February. I'm saying Zafa and am hoping things will be better in March.

My back room (where I keep the new used books) did seem to have a small population explosion. Among the new arrivals are Sweet Eyes by Jonis Agee (if you like Bobbie Ann Mason, you might want to give Jonis a try), The Ha-Ha by Dave King (my sister Mary told me to read that one a long time ago...), a book on mythology and the hero's journey, Jonathan Raban's Passage to Juneau, Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie, and Confessions of an Original Sinner, an "auto"history by historian John Lukacs. Ron, my favorite electrician and book scout, brought in On Turning Eighty by Henry Miller...not exactly a rare volume, but definitely hard to find. I also have an interesting crop of books from a South African ex-pat. Some appear to be in Afrikaner. Doesn't everyone know Afrikaans? He also brought in some vintage paperbacks which I'll have to research. Anybody out there willing to educate me on the subtleties of the White Circle Crime Club?

I'm cataloging away, but most of what I've just talked about won't show up on biblio.com for another week. If you're curious, you'll just have to come into the shop or contact me directly.

May you avoid fukus and the Great American Doom. Have a Zafa day.