While I haven’t read Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale before I was nonetheless struck by this story from Toronto.  Now, I disagree with banning books on a fundamental level, but what got me was that they assigned the kid Brave New World instead.  Obviously there’s nothing at all disturbing in Brave New World.  It is a utopia after all.

By their covers.

Though I have to admit the current batch of Vonnegut covers just depress the hell out of me.  I try to buy old editions (ie used books) whenever I can anyway, but the cover art is generally a nice bonus to the better price.

Thanks to the outstanding Carrie Brownstien (of Sleater-Kinney fame) I’ve been listening to the MySpace playlist of Garotas Suecas, a garage band from Brazil.  They’ve got a style that reminds me of Yoko Kanno’s work on Cowboy Bebop.  It’s quirky and fun.  Frankly I’m too tired to write something that does it justice, so I’ll direct you to read Carrie’s description and then just go listen.