Quote de jour
"Inside every fat book is a thin book wanting to come out."

It's a holiday weekend, the sun is out, the sky is a shade of cobalt, the kind most flattering for a shirt on a man with a tan, and I'm hustling to get some sun... so this is slap dash fast.

I'm way behind on reading. You might say I'm drowning in words. An avalanche of books was waiting for me at the library. An embarrassing amount. New bestsellers I didn't expect to arrive quickly did. Here goes. To determine which gets read first, I scan the book jacket and read the first page, but magazines are first. Stunning coverage in Antiques magazine of the new American wing at the Met. Can't wait to see it. Lots of airy, outdoorsy cover colors. Newsweek had some of the best coverage on Micheal Jackson and a compelling mega-list on what to read now.




I am a fan of Alice Hoffman so the expectations are high. Her latest is The Story Sisters. The first line is: "It was April in New York City and from the window of their room at the Plaza Hotel everything looked bright and green."
I'll let the jacket copy speak for itself. Ms. Hoffman has a blockbuster of a website that fledgling writers can only dream of. http://www.alicehoffman.com 
 I choose the debut novel Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel for the title. As a former Montrealer how could I resist?  http://www.emilymandel.com The snappy short first line is: "No one stays forever."

Given the explosion of interest in all things Jane Austen in recent years, I thought this might be of interest. We'll see.

A slim book of essays with some meat is Eat, Memory. I can't wait to dig in.

I recently read and raved about  Aravind Adiga's first smash best selling novel The White Tiger. I have his highly anticipated second novel in my hot little hands and I'm praying it's half as good. I cracked open the cover with trepidation and read the first page. I'm salivating to read more. Guess which book I'll be reading first? Between the Assassinations. You betcha. I love the similar graphic style as his first book as well.