I'm about to set off on book tour (check out the schedule and come see me!), and wanted to get this posted before I left. Lots of very very different kinds of books this time.

Joshua Then and Now by Mordecai Richler
Once again I picked up a Richler for research purposes only to find myself absolutely enamored. I have one quibble, however. Why are men of this generation so damn obsessed with sex? Is it because they got so little of it when they were young?

Now You See It by Cornelia Nixon
She is a marvelous writer, and this story is devastating.

Charming Billy by Alice McDermott
This may be one of my favorite books. I read it again to see what I could steal from her.

St. Urbain's Horseman by Mordecai Richler
Another book for the Bloom Girls. As good as his others, better, certainly, than some.

The Light of Day by Graham Swift
This book didn't really work for me. I didn't care much about what happened to the characters.

The King of America by Samantha Gillison
She is a delectable writer, precise, lovely. Dare I say, luminous? Don't read the book if you like happy endings.

The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell
I howled my way through this essay collection.

A Few Short Notes On Tropical Butterflies by John Murray
Some of these stories are truly wonderful. Delightful and sort of creepy.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
I loved this book. It was slow, and languid, and marvelous.

Any Human Heart by William Boyd
My favorite book this time around. A man's entire life. Brilliantly told.

The Semi-Attached Couple & The Semi-Detached House by Emily Eden
Anyone who, like me, is made miserable by the failure of Jane Austin to live forever, should read these charming novels.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I don't need to tell you that this is one of the best novels of all time.

Keeping Watch by Laurie R. King
A mystery writer at the top of her form.

The Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald
I can't believe I didn't read these until now. I feel like such an idiot.

Please let me explain my failure to update, as well as the paucity of books in the log. Abe, the baby, WON'T NURSE. I spend hours every day pumping milk for the little monster, and don't get me started on how much we've spent on lactation consultants.

Mazel by Rebecca Goldstein
You want to hear something depressing? This author won a MacArthur Genius Grant, and her book is published by a university press. That said, I loved The Mind/Body Problem, so I expected to love this, and didn't. I can't pin my finger on what's missing - it just seems a bit, well, dull.

The Gangster We Are All Looking for by le thi diem thuy
The author's name is spelled wrong because I can't figure out where any of the accents are on the keyboard. Sorry. Thuy can write, she really can, but she seems so disconnected from the emotion of the story that it's hard to enjoy this book.

Women About Town by Laura Jacobs
This book is small, and promises to be little more than "chick lit," but it ends up being oddly poignant. What's with the high heels on the cover, though? I've seen way too much of that, lately.

Men and Other Mammals by Jim Keeble
I would never have bothered with this novel, but a bookseller recommended it. It's okay.

Lucky Girls by Nell Freudenberger
Lord, did I want to hate this collection. The author is about eleven years old, she got a massive advance based on a single short story, and I wanted it to suck. Because that's how nice I am. It was marvelous. Truly.

Getting Mother's Body by Suzan-Lori Parks
This book was enjoyable, but given the buzz, I expected a whole lot more.

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
Been there, done that. The first was enough.

Easter Island by Jennifer Vanderbes
She's a lovely writer, but the ending of the book seemed to kind of fizz out.

The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Letham
Well, this is the one. If you only read one book this year, read this one. It's devastating, brilliant, all those things the blurbs say it is.

And Now You Can Go by Vendela Vida
A lovely, slim book. Idiosyncratic, and touching.

How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
This woman truly nails childhood. It made me so incredibly happy I am no longer a girl.

Your Mouth is Lovely by Nancy Richler
My father was wrong. This woman can write.

The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
Okay, I'm not quite sure why this is such a huge hit. I liked it, I did. But "The Lovely Dog Bones?" I don't get it.

Midsummer by Marcelle Clements
A bookseller made me buy this in hardcover, and I'm a bit irritated with him.

It's been a while since I updated the book log, but since I had a baby about five weeks ago, I'm sure you'll forgive me.

The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
This 1956 novel is delightful and entertaining. I wasn't quite as sucked in as I expected to be, but it was nonetheless fun to read.

The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen
You can see I've been on something of an old novel kick. This one is from 1935 and is really remarkable. Sad, and sweet, and beautifully written.

The Midwife's Tale by Gretchen Moran Laskas
Full disclosure - I know Gretchen, or at least we've met over the ether on Readerville. I truly enjoyed this glimpse into the lives of Appalachian women.

The Chateau by William Maxwell
Every single word in this long novel is perfectly placed. Maxwell is remarkable.

Only Yesterday by Frederick Lewis Allen
This is a nonfiction book about the 1920s that I read as research for my next novel. It was wildly entertaining, and I got tons of great stuff from it.

Hunger by Elise Blackwell
I enjoyed this book very much, but it's not a novel. It's barely a novella. It's really a lovely short story in a nice little package.

Shadow Without a Name by Ignacio Padilla
What does it say about me that I found it so difficult to remain engaged with this novel? It's interesting; the writing is wonderful. Perhaps it is because there are so few scenes - it's mostly description.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
A bookseller recommended this to me as light reading for Vicodin-fogged postpartum days. It was perfect. Tremendously enjoyable, and just what I needed.

Angels Go Naked by Cornelia Nixon
Okay, once again, I must disclose my friendship with the author. You should read this book anyway. She's a wonderful writer.

The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
People are buying this book despite the blurb calling it "The Miss Marple of Botswana." That's a good thing. It's terrific. It isn't, however, a traditional murder mystery, but rather a series of vignettes.

Wintering by Kate Moses
This book is fabulous. By the end, I felt such an incredible kinship with Sylvia Plath - as a mother, really, more than as a writer.

The Book of Dead Birds by Gayle Brandeis
Okay, once again. I know the author. But still. A delightful, poignant novel.

Little Big by John Crowley
This is a HUGE fairy story. I loved it.

Great Neck by Jay Cantor
This was my Hawaii beach reading, and it's a nice thick tome. I like to bring a big book with me on vacation. All I do is read, so I'd rather bring one or two huge books than schlep a suitcase full. There are some hysterically funny lines in this book, and he does a great job of showing us this world.

Desirable Daughters by Bharati Mukherjee
Yes, once again. I know the author. And this is part of my India mania. She's a wonderful writer, and I feel like the veil has been lifted a bit on Bengali culture.

Sorry it has been so long since my last update. I've been desperately trying both to finish Murder Plays House, and to get a good start on my next literary novel, The Bloom Girls, before March 31. Why, you ask? Because Abraham Wolf Waldman Chabon is due to make his appearance on that date via scheduled c-section. Think of me at 7:30 AM, California time.

This month I did a lot of preparatory reading for The Bloom Girls which is set in Montreal in the 1920s. Thus, my recommendations might seem a bit strange to some of you.

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler
Not my favorite of his novels, but nonetheless an entertaining read.

The Rise of David Levinsky by Abraham Cahan
This novel was wonderful, but it's of a very particular kind. It's a tale of business -- the garment business to be exact.

Solomon Gursky Was Here by Mordecai Richler
This is my favorite Richler novel. It's delightfully crazy, wonderfully written. Fun and frightening and an altogether great read.

The Folded Leaf by William Maxwell
Maxwell is a fine writer, one of the best I've read. So confident, so assured. Of an entirely different world than contemporary novelists, many of whom, even if they write beautifully, seem to suffer from a kind of tentativeness. This novel is particularly compelling.

So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
This is a masterpiece. Truly. It should be read by everyone.

Time Will Darken it by William Maxwell
Probably the slowest of the three, but still lovely.

A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
Okay, I'll be honest. I'd never read Naipaul before he won the Nobel. If all his work is like this book Øm searing and at the same time full of a remarkable empathy - then those Swedes certainly knew what they were doing.

A Death In The Family by James Agee
This had me weeping. Lovely, beautiful period novel.

Blood of Victory by Alan Furst
Another terrific read by the absolute master of the rueful spy novel.

The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri
This book was both painful and enchanting. One of my favorite of the many many novels by Anglo-Indians I've read in the past couple of years.

The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
There is no doubt that this writer is the real thing. Her evocations of the old women -- the aunties -- in this novel were tremendous. But it's quite clear that one day, in the middle of writing the book, she got up, went to work, and suddenly decided to just type the words, "The End," at the bottom of the page.

The Bones In The Attic by Robert Barnard
I read this because he's supposed to be a master of plot. Enough said.

My Father Dancing by Bliss Broyard
This writer has clearly inherited her father's talent.

The Main by Trevanian
This is commercial fiction??? Every serious novelist should strive for this kind of layered and nuanced detail. I can't believe I've never read him before.

Stories From a Montreal Childhood by Shulamis Yellin
This book was terrifically useful for my research, and the prologue is a hoot and a half. Note to self, never refer to own work as "a classic."

The Seduction of Water by Carol Goodman
This woman can clearly write, but mystery plotting is not her strong suit.

Montreal of Yesterday by Israel Medres
Another terrific research tool, and another note to self. Never let your own daughter be your translator.

Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s by Frederick Lewis Allen
This is a history of the 1920s, written in the early 1930s! It's a great read, and a wonderful tool for my research.

Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow
I reread this, my favorite of his novels, to give myself an example of historical fiction at its best.

The Street by Mordecai Richler
This little book of essays brings Jewish Montreal of the 1930s to life.