Borrowing it from a friend of mine. Doing it since I need to read more. First forty pages creep me out. Trying to figure out why this book is so popular.

but I was so bored with her drinking.

I was about to put it down after the first forty pages (Rachel....ohhhhh boy!). Now I'm halfway done. Not usually a fan of these sorts of books but I figure I needed to expand my horizons. Its an interesting read so far.

But yeah the drinking does get tiresome.

Also, "Midwinter Blood" by Mons Kallentoft. Both very good. I'm a huge Kurtz fan, been reading her books since junior high. I actually got a few books behind in the Dernyi series, which is unthinkable for me. I need to catch up.

Last week I read The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill. I thoroughly enjoyed The Coroner's Lunch. Thank you for the recommendation, scarletwoman. Now I'm reading Galore by Michael Crummey. Galore reminds me of the other Crummey books I have read—Sweetland and River Thieves. These books make me want to visit Newfoundland.

Mrs Enthusiast read The Wreckage by Michael Crummey. She liked it just as much as the other three Crummey books she has read. After The Wreckage Mrs. Enthusiast enjoyed reading The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill. She found The Coroner's Lunch appealing in much the same way I did. Now she is reading All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot. Mrs. Enthusiast has great affection for animals so I believe this will appeal to her.

was a sad and wonderful tale, beautifully told. Anyone who likes Native American literature will enjoy this one.

Enthusiast, I hope you will give The Shipping News audio book a try. I listened to it several years ago when I was recovering from eye surgery and the reader was marvelous. I don't know if yours is the same one I listened to, but, if so, it gave me many hours of pleasure during an otherwise dreary recovery period. If you are going to do any traveling/commuting, maybe you could save it for that time.

ETA: Forgot to say that I've started on John Twelve Hawk's new book Spark.

I'm going to look for our old boom box.

I was at the library and decided to see which of Llosa's books they had in stock. Of the handful that were available, there were only two that I had not read yet, this being one of them. I didn't realize that this book was a sequel to "In Praise of the Stepmother," a book (along with "The Green House&quot which I really didn't care for; I find the sexualization of children to be repulsive, and in both the aforementioned book and this one, little Fonchito is sort of in a male Lolita role, which makes me cringe.

The musings of Don Rigoberto -- on topics as far ranging as pornography to membership in Rotary, to addressing his many phobias -- are entertaining. His yearning for his separated wife make one almost envious of the love he has for her. The book goes back and forth between the reality of their separation, and the fantasies they both harbor, both while together and apart. While certain passages did make be recoil for the reason I stated above, overall this is a deeply erotic work that doesn't cross into vulgarity (which I realize is quite subjective.)