Two books down in the last week (and fortunately both from the list. Pascale Le Draoulec's American Pie is part travel journal, part discussion of food, part cookbook and is quite good. I'd had it recommended a year and a half ago and finally got around to reading it. I've since bought two copies as Christmas presents, and even tried the Lemon Pecan Pie recipe out of it for Thanksgiving.

Richard Russo's Nobody's Fool is a novel with really quirky interesting characters set in a not as interesting town in upstate New York. Worth a read.
posted by kristin at 3:53 PM

I finished two books over the weekend. Peter Carey's My Life as a Fake and Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others. I'm not sure the Carey book was as good as some of his others, but it was well worth reading.

Ted Chiang's book of short stories was excellent. I see why so many people had recommended it. Hopefully the next collection won't be too far off.
posted by kristin at 10:08 AM

I really liked The Red Couch with photos by Kevin Clarke and Horst Wackerbarth and text by William Least Heat Moon. All of the photos contain the same red couch in some fashion, but are really about what's on the couch (or what the couch is on).

Jeff Noon creates future worlds I wouldn't want to live in. It's been long enough since I've read Vurt that I don't know if it's my imagination or not but Pollen seemed to have a very different feel. It was a fun read, but like I said, I wouldn't want to live there.

Last night I started Peter Carey's My Life as a Fake.

63 down, 37 to go. I doubt I'll make it before the end of the year, but you never know.
posted by kristin at 10:50 AM

Monday night I finished 3 books. I'd been reading Vladimir Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading as my commuting book and polished it off. I liked it better than Lolita, though wonder how much of it I really understood. Later in the evening I finished Nicholas Christopher's Franklin Flyer which was a really fun (and much less confusing) read.

The part that was a bit of a mistake was picking up Orson Scott Card's Shadow Puppets just before bed. It's not nearly as good as the early books in the series, but it was still gripping enough to have me accidently stay up until I finished it.

Last night I started Jeff Noon's Pollen.
posted by kristin at 10:38 AM

I had been a bit reluctant to read Haruki Murakami's After the Quake only because I was expecting something like Underground which is my least favorite of his books. After the Quake was much fiction though, and much more loosely linked to the earthquake of the title. It's a series of short stories that are only linked by the fact that all mention the earthquake. Good stuff.

I'm working on Nicholas Christopher's Franklin Flyer right now. I have a feeling I'll be seeking out more of his books.
posted by kristin at 4:12 PM

I finished Roth's Portnoy's Complaint last weekend. I'll check out more of his books.

Last night I finished Terry Pratchett's Jingo to distract myself from listening to election returns. Oddly topical actually (Ankh-Morpork goes to war against some "towel-heads").

Now in the middle of Haruki Murakami's After the Quake.

Earlier this week I picked up Orhan Pamuk's Snow.
posted by kristin at 11:27 AM