Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss.

The Wall Street Journal had a nice article about it, and supposedly the London Times had a scathing review, but neither is readily available. Definitely visit the web site for the horror of the worst offenders, though.

2:22:50 PM    

Here are all of the books I've read since July. I'll append opinions later. I was finishing up Mortals when I lost my blog--or actually, I think it was before that, and I was being lazy. I haven't been doing much reading, though, so this is a shamefully small list.

• Mortals, Norman Rush
• Lost in a Good Book, Jasper Fforde
• Bangkok 8, John Burdett
• Bibliophilia, Michael Griffith
• The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done, Sandra Newman
• The Whore's Child, Richard Russo
• Monsters of St. Helena, Brooks Hansen
• The Wife, Meg Wolitzer
• The Quality of Life Report, Meghan Daum
• Who's Who in Hell, Robert Chalmers
• The Curious Case of the Dog in Night-Time, Mark Haddon
• Brick Lane, Monica Ali
• Fortress of Solitude, Jonathan Lethem
• Good Omens, Gaiman & Pratchett
• Angels, Marian Keyes
• Saul & Patsy, Charles Baxter
• Chasing Shakespeares, Sarah Smith

The ones in orange I recommend wholeheartedly, although they're mainly just amusing reads, not groundbreaking works or anything.

And two definitely non-recommended titles, unless you're really into grown men getting it on with adolescents:

• Built in a Day, Steven Rinehart
• One Pill Makes You Larger, Lisa Dierbeck

Getting it on with them, no less, in such a way that the girls seem somehow complicit and it's all made to seem not so unseemly, somehow.

4:43:07 PM