What have you read recently that you particularly enjoyed? Loosing My Espanish by H G Carillo The Dark Valley: a panorama of the thirties Wired magazine The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce The Last of Her Kind by Sigrid Nunez, Sailing My Shoe to Timbuktu by Joyce Thompson, Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap Dreams from My Father ­ Barack Obama Digging into America ­ Anne Tyler Thisbe Nissen’s Osprey Island The Reluctant Fundamentalist­­­Moshin Hamid Life Of PI­­­Yann Martel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan­­­ Lisa See A Single Shard­­­Linda Sue Park Broken­William Cope Moyers 'Cod' 'My Life as a Fake' 'Atonement' Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown Eduardo Galeano's 'Voices of Time: A Life in Stories' translated by Mark Fried, The entire Narnia series (finally got around to it!) by C.S.Lewis 'Being Geniuses Together' by Robert McAlmon & Kay Boyle 'Untold Stories' by Alan Bennett 'Airports and Other Wasted Days (poetry) by Kevin Ireland 'Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes' (poetry) by Billy Collins All of Carl Hiassen's books and most of Tim Dorsey, last one Hurrican Punch. The Biology of Cancer by Robert Weinberg (non fiction) High Lonesome by Joyce Carol Oates The Story Behind the Story, 26 Stories by Contemporary Writers and How They Work Forever Summer by Ray Bradbury Resolution by Denise Mina The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks 'The Prestige'; 'The Tenth Circle'; 'The Kite Runner'; 'Year of Wonders' I'm re­reading some Maeve Binchy and Debbie Macombre books. Also I listen to books on tape (a lot since I live very rural and every place I want to go is at least 1/2 hour of driving.) On tape I'm reading/listening to THE GODFATHER­II. Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, Any Human Heart by William Boyd, Aenied by Virgil, translated by Fagel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess The Atlas by William T. Vollmann Twilight by William Gay Lee and Bob Woodruff, IN AN INSTANT Jay Baruch, Fourteen Stories Movie review by Anthony Lane in The New Yorker The Greatest Sailing Stories Ever Told From Beirut to Jerusalem 'The Summer of Ordinary Ways' by Nicole Lea Helget 'The Insufficiency of Maps' by Nora Pierce How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona by Ryan Harty A Relative Stranger by Charles Baxter Twilight of the Superheroes by Deborah Eisenberg How Far She Went by Mary Hood The Love of the Last Tycoon, the Bruccoli edition of Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished novel. Some feel it lacks the magic of his previous work, and maybe that's true, but ol' Scottie was working at it hard. Mavis Gallant's Paris Stories, A Collection of Robert Hass' poetry columns, called Now and Then The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb. This is my second reading of this book, but I enjoyed it immensely. Mainly because at this time in my life I'm dealing with mental illness in my own family and related so much to his insights into the 'sane' twins responses. Just discovered Pam Houston's short stories. Wow! The Closing of the Western Mind Winter House by Carol O'Connel susan mcdonald, [email protected], nashville Of Mice and Men, newest issue of Wired, a Todd McFarlane's run of Spider­man Drive by James Sallis. I'd like to warn anyone who picks up this novel; either don't sit in the sun or use a strong sunscreen ­­ you won't want to put it down to move into the shade. Caren Cote, Portland, OR James Wright's collected poems 'His Lovely Wife' by Elizabeth Dewberry Teresa Tumminello Brader New Orleans John Irving's Until I Find You Jeffrey Eugenides Middlesex (reading it now) 1 The Birth House We Have To Talk About Kevin The Red Tent Two Lives by William Trevor The Sea by John Banville To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf Robt Fagles' Translation of Virgil's Aeneid Ulysses (yes, I really read it, along with a 24 lecture from The Teaching Company) Michael Cunningham, 'Specimen Days' Ryan Boudinot, 'The Littlest Hitler' Verlyn Klinkenborg, 'Timothy, or Notes of an Abject Reptile' Irene Nemirovsky, 'Chaleur du Sang' in French The Tender Bar by Moehringer, Stuffed by Patricia Volk Primo Levi's 'Se questo e' un uomo' ­ in Italian High Country by Nevada Barr Orient Express by Graham Greene The 1929 World Alamanac and Book of Facts (riveting!) The Children of Men by P.D. James I recently read Hunts in Dreams by Tom Drury, and now I am plowing through Middlemarch­­and I'm surprised by how entertaining it is! Monty Python's Flying Circus, the complete 1st season. George B. Miller, Jr. Newington, CT I loved Robert Goolrick's 'THe End of the World as We Know It' and 'Sword Bird' by Nancy Yi Fan Hannah's Gift, by Maria Housden; The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, by Terry Ryan The Good Husband of Zebra Drive; Reading Lolita in Tehran I finally read all the Harry Potter books. I'd snobbishly put it off for all these years, but in the end, I had to see what everybody was talking about. The pure depth of J.K. Rowling's imagination is astonishing. Granted, the prose isn't advanced or complex ­ she meant to target children, after all. But her talent is such that she can even draw skeptical adults into Harry's world and make them enjoy it. Now that's impressive. A Perfect Mess by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman Some Things I never Thought I'd Do by Pearl Cleage a wide variety of cook books Newspapers Sacred Texts of the Baha'i Faith the Bible things my children read including graphic novels such as Bone A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute any murder mystery, especially by Agatha Christie or Margret Trueman Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Memory Keepers Daughter, Eat, Love, Pray, At Risk, Murder in Union Station, Suite Francaise, A Year in the World the latest print issue of the paris review, the latest 'issue' of ruined music (online), the biography of frida kahlo. The Known World (Edward P. Jones) Mistress of the Art of Death (Ariana Franklin) The Hummingbird's Daughter (Luis Urrea) The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty­First Century by Thomas L. Friedman A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, eye­opening memoir, beautifully written; Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende, powerfully written, wonderful construction. 'One for the Money,' Janet Evanovich 'Two for the Dough,' Janet Evanovich 'Delores Claiborne,' Stephen King 'Gone with the Wind,' Margaret Mitchell 'Heidi,' Spyri 'Catcher in the Rye,' J.D. Salinger 'Suffer the Fall,' Doug Crandell Cassandra King's The Queen of Broken Hearts Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ­ Hunter S. Thompson Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me ­ Richard Farina Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch ­ Henry Miller Colossus of Maroussi ­ Henry Miller Gallatin Canyon ­ Tom McGuane A Bit on the Side ­ Willian Trevor This is the last three weeks reading. I'm on a bit of a nostalgia trip. Hannah Coulter, by Wendell Berry The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass The Bible According to Mark Twain Best Short Stories of the Century, edited by John Updike 'The Shipping News' I know­­I should have read it sooner. 'Here They Come' by Yannick Murphy­­should get more attention articles in 'The Villager' NYC weekly online brink.com, failbetter.com, elimae.com Orhan Pamuk's Snow. VS Naipaul Half a Life. Malcolm Gladwell. Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World Mary Otis, 'Unstuck' (from 'Yes, Yes Cherries') Holiday Reinhorn, 'Big Cats' Charles D'Ambrosio 2 CHILD OF GOD, THE ROAD, BLOOD MERIDIAN, OUTER DARK by Cormac McCarthy GLIMMER TRAIN 'Gathering Up the Little Gods' by Courtney Angela Brkic in THE MISSOURI REVIEW THE STONE FIELDS: Love and Death in the Balkans by Courtney Angela Brkic THE DISCONTINUITY OF SMALL THINGS by Kevin Haworth COME! MEET MY FAMILY by Paul Beckman RED STICK MEN by Tim Parrish WILLINGLY by Tess Gallagher TOMORROW THEY WILL KISS by Eduardo Santiago BELIEVERS by Nathan Leslie 'Grappling' by Jacob M. Appel 'Everlasting' by Che Parker CLOSE RANGE by Annie Proulx EVERYTHING DAN WICKETT WRITES ON EMERGING WRITERS NETWORK THE WRITER'S LIFE, ed. Carol Edgarian and Tom Jenks THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY by Henry James DANCE OF THE HAPPY SHADES by Alice Munro THE RED DRESS by Arlene Sanders Stain of the Berry by Anthony Bidulka The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier Joanna Scott, Everybody Loves Somebody. Alice Munro, Runaway. JR Moehringer, The Tender Bar. After This ­ Alice McDermott The Mission Song ­ John LeCarre The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud­ Julia Navarro Bleeding Hearts ­ Ian Rankin And She Was ­ Cindy Dyson Crows OVer the Wheat Fields ­ Daran Braver The Holy Road ­ Michael Blake (Dances With Wolves) The River Killings ­ Merry Jones Along Came Mary ­ Jo­Anne Mapson The Bee's Kiss ­ Barbara Cleverly A book about writing that focuses on getting the darn thing into print, titled, Your First Novel, by Ann Rittenberg and Laura Whitcomb. Ann is a literary agent in NYC and Laura is a terrific writer. The book is funny and serious, a nice combo. Plus it has a great intro/pep talk written by Dennis Lehane. If, you're feeling poorly or just need a wee boost, just read this intro and you'll be ready to face your blank pages again.