I just finished Run by Ann Patchett. It was good — a far-fetched story but I love the way she writes.

I also read Songs Without Words by Ann Packer. This story went on faaaaaar tooooo loooooong. I loved Ann Packer’s other novel (Dive From Clausen’s Pier), so this was truly disappointing.

Hmmm. Both by Ann P., both could have been better. I sense a trend.

I can’t remember what else I’ve read lately. I guess nothing that great if I can’t recall…

I read Run too! I thought it could have been tighter. After reading it I read the Magician’s Assistant also by Ann Patchett, and loved it. She’s an author who can be good or great. So, when she’s only good you get a little disappointed.

I haven’t checked in in a while, so I was reading back. I don’t know how often you go to Vegas but some fun cheap things to do are: see the free Rio sky Mardi Gras parade (or maybe they call it Carnivale) and if they still have it, Napoleon’s (in Paris) used to have a free Happy Hour “carving board” where you got free fancy breads, meats, cheeses and mustards. The best place to enjoy the sky show is from the little bar along the wall near the bathrooms. Get there a little early and you can get a table. The sky show times are probably listed on their website. And if you feel like it, chase the sky parade around like a loon waving frantically and they will throw you beads. I got beads every time! Have fun in Vegas.

I made a trip to Barnes & Noble and got “The People of the Book” by Geraldine Brooks. I thought it was an older book and I was late to the party. I just checked on Amazon and looks like it was released Jan. 1

I just love taking trips through history with an object being the common thread. Of course, I have yet to crack it open. Tonight. For sure. Can’t wait.

I’m reading “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult, but I had to take a break from it because it was making me cry. I’m almost at the end and am not looking forward to more tears.

I just finished this totally trash book called The Manny. Absolutely fun chick lit and a quick read. Next up, Twinkies Deconstructed.

I just finished ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ it was wonderful, I could not put it down, finished it in less than 2 days. It had many disturbing parts, the brutality that women suffer in Afghanistan is unbelievable, but a truly amazing story that I won’t forget any time soon.

I read Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. Not her best, but it was good. Also read Family History by Dani Shapiro (I think on recommendation from someone here) and it was very good. Just took out A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That from the library - saw someone here recommended it.

Essie — all of Dani Shapiro’s work is fabulous!

I loved My Sisters Keeper. They are making a film of it, and I can’t wait to see it. My book club is reading The Tipping Point this month. I’m looking forward to starting it.

I just read “Manhunt: The 12-Day Search for Lincoln’s Killer” by James L. Swanson. True history, but well written in story format - and appropriate for Feb. with the 12th being Lincoln’s birthday. It’s also being turned into a movie with an anticipated 2009 release, per IMDB.

Also, “American Bloomsbury” by Susan Cheever. In the mid-19th century, Ralph Waldo Emerson surrounded himself (and Concord, Mass.) with writers and Transcendental thinkers such as Thoreau, the Alcott family, Melville, and Hawthorne. This book has some flaws, but overall the author succeeded in illuminating the back history of how many of those authors came to write the books for which they are known. (Walden Pond, Little Women, Moby Dick, and The Scarlett Letter, etc.)

almost done with “consider the lobster” and I can’t wait to finish. david foster wallace drives me crazy. all the footnotes and parenthetical citations are so gimmicky - I feel like he’s giving the middle finger to his readers. so I have to finish the book so that he doesn’t win. he will not beat me.

in the middle of that I read “grace after midnight” - a memoir by one of the actors on the wire. mostly because 1. I’m obsessed with the show; 2. it was half off at the virgin sale; 3. it was co-authored by a friend’s dad. and it took 1 day.

sitting on the night table - colbert’s I Am America (another virgin purchase) and junot diaz’s ‘the brief and wonderous life of oscar wao’ for the 826LA book club.

but next up: The Go Fug Yourself Awards.

Reading World War Z by Max Brooks. It’s about a zombie epidemic. Not surprisingly, since Max is Mel Brooks’s son, the Israelis handle the crisis the most effectively and morally.

I just finished FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB-amazing. Not going to say anything but it’s like “Steel Magnolias in NY.”

I am reading The Fug Awards!! Well, not really. I’ve already read it, since I, you know, wrote it, but I’m looking at it on my coffee table and feeling pleased with myself. I hope you like it, Marisa! I’m actually reading this book about the woman who inspired the line Marchesa, the Marchesa Casati. It’s called Infinite Variety. She was a bit of a nut, walking her leopards on diamond leashes while naked.

I highly recommend Devil in the White City about the 1893 Chicago World Fair, which was fantastic - it read like a really interesting news story. And I just finished Outlander, which is the first in a series - it’s a romance novel disguised as historical fiction/time traveling fantasty. Feels like a guilty pleasure, but it was a great escapist book.

I recommend the Knitting Circle by Ann Hood…it’s a compelling and touching story and she is an amazing author. I also recently finished Keeper and Kid (lad lit) - amusing but not great and The Opposite of Love, which I couldn’t put down. My book club last read the History of Love, and anyone who hasn’t read it needs to!

Oh and as for non fiction I just read Nickel and Dimed (I know I am extremely late to the cause) but it was fascinating in a very disturbing way.

I recently came off a Jodi Picoult binge. Not sure why as I do not love all of her books and some are really the same. I will say I liked My Sister’s Keeper until the end, I HATED the end and because of it would never recommend it. Perfect Match was good and the one about the Domestic Violence was really good but I can not remember the name. I also just read The Friday Night Knitting Club, it was really great… better than expected, but I don’t remember who wrote it.

Jessica,
I find Jodi Picoult’s books better if not read in a binge. My Sister’s Keeper was my favorite with The Pact and Vanishing Acts 2nd & 3rd.

I’m reading that bio of the Marchesa Casati, too! It’s one of my all time fav books! You got to check out the website on her at http://www.marchesacasati.com to see a ton load of pics, including one of her with her leopard! Read on IMDB that Tilda Swinton, nomed for an Oscar this year, is making a movie on Casati. She’d be perfect!

Devil in the White City is a GREAT book. I read it a couple of years ago.

I just got done reading Senator Christopher Dodd’s book “Letters from Nuremberg: My Father’s Narrative of a Quest for Justice.” Senator Dodd’s father - Thomas Dodd was one of the prosecutors of the Nazi’s in the German War Crime Trials in Nuremberg. Having spent most of 2007 living in Munich and Nuremberg, I became fascinated with Nazi Germany. I got the book when I was living in Nuremberg and it was simply fascinating.