What, really, is the point of a website that gets updated every two months, and then only with the books I'm reading? I'm violating every rule of proper website maintenance. Oh well.

The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt

I love a good historical novel, and this one is awfully fun, even with the math.

Bridges of Sighs by Richard Russo

I liked this book until about halfway through. Then I started getting annoyed. I just didn't buy that Sarah would throw her entire life away. I didn't buy that an artist of her presumed talent would bury all that. And then the end of the book, when this whole host of new characters was introduced, I lost all semblance of interest.

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

The first time I read this I left disappointed. I wanted more. But you now what, this time it felt exactly right to me. Perfectly constructed.

When Madeline Was Young by Jane Hamilton

Terrific and terrifically creepy premise.

The Senator's Wifeby Sue Miller

Sue Miller always just nails you, right at the end. I love her.

The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnado

I wonder how many people even know about all the Jews from Arab and other middle eastern countries who ended up displaced. It's just so heartbreaking.

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo

This book was just downright delightful.

Run by Ann Patchett

I think I'm just too sour a person for this book. I'm too much of a bitch to like such nice people.

Foreskin's Lament by Shalom Auslander

Honestly, if I had a David Rakoff and an Auslander with me at all times, I would never be bored.

Matrimonye by Joshua Henkin

Despite the fact that this guy so CLEARLY has a chip on his shoulder about my husband, I still enjoyed this novel.

Yellow Cake by Ann Cummins

Ann is a marvelous writer.

The Whole World Over by Julia Glass

You know what? As much as I love my own dog, I really REALLY don't want to read about yours.

A Long Way Gone by Ishamel Beah

I avoided this book for the longest time because I figured after the brilliant What is the What that there was no point. But there was something remarkable about the way he told his story. And of course his story was remarkable itself.

I know. I know. I suck. I really do. I’ve gone so long without posting, and I’ve kept crappy track. I have had about ninety million things going on this fall. Bat Mitzvah, kid issues, traveling husband. It’s a miracle I’m even updating this book log now. But things are calming down. I'm about to begin what I hope will be no more than a six month revision process on my novel, so now's a good time to do this.

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

I did not expect to like this book. I thought it would be precious and too cool, in both senses of the word. But I loved it. It’s heartfelt, the writing is terrific, and the first person plural works beautifully.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz.

Wow! This book grabbed me by the throat and didn’t let go.

Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller

Very ingenious, and great historical details.

Evening by Susan Minot

Loved the Maine details.

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Oh right, THIS is why she won the Nobel Prize! Out of this world.

Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth

I was reading this book while trapped on a plane with 100 of my bretheren. I wanted to melt into my seat. When I wasn’t laughing I was cringing with horror -- I know your pain, Philip Roth!!

The Beans of Egypt, Maine by Carolyn Chute

Great novel, great Maine info.

Uncommon Arrangements by Katie Roiphe

Thank God I live and am married NOW rather than back then.

Away by Amy Bloom

I love her other books. Adore them, even. This one...I don’t know. I just never cared that much about the character and I felt like the people she met were types rather than real people.

Music & Silence by Rose Tremain

I learned from this book that you actually don’t need to know that much about music to write a book in which it’s a major plot and thematic device.

Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace

He’s the funniest man alive.

Songs Without Words by Ann Packer

Ann is a friend, and you must read this devastating book.

Life Class by Pat Barker

You all know how I feel about the Regeneration Trilogy, but I felt this book was something of a retreading of familiar territory.

I'm still trying to read mostly things that are useful for my novel. So it's all about Maine, classical music, particularly prodigies, and wooden boats. And then some novels that take place over the course of many years, and the odd fun read.

Family History by Dani Shapiro
I love the way Shapiro writes about families.

The Dining Room by A.R. Gurney, Jr.
A play. Which was supposed to be useful. And wasn't.

What I loved by Siri Hustvedt
I found this book so much more compelling and lovely the second time around.
I appreciated her prose much more this time around. She's very good.

Maynard and Jennicaby Rudolph Delson
Awfully fun.

In the Drivers Seat by Helen Simpson
Her stories are so marvelously bleak!

Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Fabulous. These poor women.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
More terrible treatment of Muslim women! Khaled is the nicest man alive, and I seriously hope some cretinous mullah doesn't issue a fatwa against him.

Falling Man by Don DeLillo
The first chapter of this book is great. The rest isn't.

Black Dogs by Ian McEwan
I read him to remind myself that less is more.

The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth
This is my favorite of his novels, I think. Or at least it is this week.

Any Human Heart by William Boyd
Every bit as good as the first time I read it.

The Soloist by Marc Salzman
Very useful.

Behind the Scenes at the Museumby Kate Atkinson
Very very good.

The Years by Virginia Woolf
Ah. AH. What an amazing book.

I’ve been reading a tremendous amount lately. Mostly because I keep trying to keep myself writing well and the best way for me to do that is read well. Michael’s about to head off on an incredibly long tour, so we’ll see what happens. Sometimes I just go to ground with a pile of novels, sometimes I lie in bed and watch Supernanny all night. Is it me or does that show not inspire an existential malaise?

Picturing the Wreck by Dani Shapiro
I recently met Dani Shapiro for the first time. She a delight. And gorgeous to boot.

The Mistress’s Daughter by A.M. Holmes

Some true stories are just so bizarre and incredible it’s hard to imagine how you could make them believable as fiction!

Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje
Everything out of this man’s pen is gorgeous.

The Price of Privilege by Madeline Levine
Would have been an interesting article, but a bit of a stretch as a book.

Double Visionby Pat Barker
Is it just by comparison to the trilogy that this disappoints?

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Other than the whole Mr. Turd debacle, this novel is truly marvelous.

Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill Very brutal and funny.

The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler
I picked this book apart with a magnifying glass trying to figure out how it was constructed.

On Boxing by Joyce Carol Oates
I‘m reading up on boxing for my novel.

A Family Daughter by Maile Meloy
Again, picking apart.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
I fucking hate when they put pictures of dingbats like Keira Knightley (what is WITH that underbite?) on my novels. But I needed a bigger print. Because I’m apparently getting incredibly OLD, too old to read my favorite books in pocket size.

Black and White by Dani Shapiro
This book made me use up an entire evening researching Sally Mann’s children.
Remainder by Tom McCarthy
I loved it, until it jumped the shark.
On Beautyby Zadie Smith
Does anybody still need to be told what an EXTRAORDINARY writer Zadie is?

Persuasion by Jane Austen
I just cry the whole time I read this book.

The last couple of months have been a blur of touring. Snow. Bitter cold. And you can imagine the crowds. Actually, one night it was breath-takingly cold in Pittsburgh, but 1900 people came out to hear Michael and me talk at Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures. Three nights later, guess how many people came to hear just me in Old Greenwich, Connecticut? Two.

But I read a lot.

Love Invents Us by Amy Bloom
I'm still rereading. And Amy Bloom is still marvelous.

The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker
If you haven't read the entire trilogy, then you are missing too too much. Get thee to a bookstore or library.

The Cement Garden by Ian McKuin
So delightfully creepy.

A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You by Amy Bloom
Loved it as much as the other!

Border Crossingby Pat Barker
Haven't you gotten the point yet? Read the trilogy. NOW!!

The Known World by Edward P. Jones
Now this novel was even better upon rereading, and that's saying a lot.

A Disorder Peculiar to the Country by Ken Kalfus
9/11 books are just so hard to get right.

The Road to Wellville by T.C. Boyle
This book is just so much goddamn fun!

Eat the Document by Dana Spiotta
I never expected to love this book as much as I did.

The Edge of Darkness by Mary Ellen Chase
A kind of dull Maine novel

All Aunt Hagar's Children by Edward P. Jones
Lovely, beautiful, albeit catastrophically depressing stories.

A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul
So are we surprised this book was so incredible? The guy won the Nobel after all. My grandmother, by the way, when she heard that my husband won the Pulitzer, immediately began telling people he won the Nobel. The Nobel Peace Prize, actually.

A Garden of Earthly Delights by Joyce Carol Oates
She's a beautiful writer. One of the best. My God this book is bleak.

The Evidence Against Herby Robb Forman Dew
The fact that this book isn't a best-seller tells you what's wrong with contemporary literary fiction. Used to be a book like Dew's or like Anne Tyler's, would win the National Book Award or the Pulitzer. A book about family. About, gasp, women. Now we're completely obsessed with a certain kind of prose and we dismiss all books like these -- all family dramas -- as worthless. We dismiss them as "women's fiction." As "Oprah books." As if Ursula Hegi's book Stones From the River , for example, an Oprah book, wasn't magnificent. It's just sexism, pure and simple.

The Truth of the Matter by Robb Foreman Dew
As strong as the first.

MacDowell was incredible, as usual. Read a bunch, wrote a bunch. Feeling pretty okay about my new novel. I decided to embark on a six month project - for the next six months, unless I'm reading for my novel, I plan only to reread books. The idea was that I want to read good stuff and good stuff only. What turns out to be happening, however, is that I'm finding that some books just don't hold up.

So Long See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
This may be the world's most perfect novel. Or perhaps that's not fair to say, as I haven't read all the novels in the world. It's certainly the most perfect novel I've ever read.

13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley

This book was tremendously helpful when I began the book. I kept rereading little sections of it.

Regeneration by Pat Barker

Every bit as perfect as it was the first time.

Heartburn by Nora Ephron
Fun read.

Spartinaby John Casey

I read this because I need to know about wooden boat building. I enjoyed it a lot.

Charming Billy by Alice McDermott

Still my favorite book.

Henry and Clara by Thomas Mallon

A book that DEFINITELY held up.

Grab on to Me Tightly as if I knew the Way by Bryan Charles
A fun novel by a sweet guy I met at MacDowell.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
You'll be stunned to discover that this book is nigh on perfect.

A Bigamist's Daughter by Alice McDermotte
Good but everything in the world pales in comparison to Charming Billy

The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies

The first of the trilogy is delightful. Amazing, even. Then they sort of go down hill.

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
This book was the tragedy so far of the rereading project. If you had asked me a couple of years ago what my favorite book was I'd have said this one. But upon rereading I discovered that the author has such a jaundiced view of her characters, so constricted, so ungenerous. I couldn't bear it.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Marvelous. As marvelous as the first time.

A Thousand Years of Good Prayersby Yiyun Li
Every once in a great while a linguistic genius shows up. Someone who can create beautiful prose in a foreign language. She's ours.

The Lobster Chronicles by Linda Greenlaw

Now I know a little something about lobstering.

The Lobster Coast by Colin Woodard
Now I know a lot about lobsters. And the book was well written, too.