Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts

Memory of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Of course I was excited to see a new novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This slim little book made me sad though. The aging narrator did not have the color of Marquez earlier characters.

Tooth and Claw by T.C. Boyle

What an amazing writer. I was blown away by some of the stories in this book. His command of language and narrative voice really hook you in to the bizarre plots he creates. The story "Swept Away" was my favorite for the fairy tale quality. I enjoyed it so much I'm sorry that it was a library book.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safraon Foer

Almost as soon as we got home from seeing the new movie version of Everything is Illuminated at the Shaker Cinema, I started reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I am convinced Jonathan Safron Foer is the literary offspring of Joyce Carol Oates, who he studied with at Princeton. The book, which is full of photos, and illustrations and colored scribblings, is a masterpiece in story telling. He foreshadows with visual images. It is amazing and worth buying in hard back.

Wickett's Remedy by Myla Goldberg

Since I loved Bee Season by this author so much, I was anxious to read this new novel. I won't say I was disappointed, but it was pretty dense. The story of the plague of 1918 was intriguing ( and maybe even relevant with all of this bird flu scare going around) but the margins of each page are filled with a parallel plot that comments on the page you are readig and I found this pretty distracting.

The English Teacher by Lily King

How could I not read this book? I am glad to say, I did not identify that much with this English teacher who remarries and tries make her son fit into a new famiy without knowing the truth about his birth father. I found the story compelling, especially for the connections to the literature she was teaching. I enjoyed the book very much.