Ok, so it's been almost two years since my last post. At least I have the satisfaction of knowing, and my blog proves it, that I was blogging LONG before it became a household word, new word of the year, the trendiest thing to do, etc.

At the suggestion of a friend, I'm going to list here some of my (relatively) recent favorite books:

Jonathan Rosen, Joy Comes in the Morning (this is my absolute favorite among books read quite recently--it was published this year but can be hard to find, but don't give up till you get it!)

Pete Dexter, The Paperboy (I credit Nancy Pearl, model for the librarian action figure, with recommending this, both at a reading I attended and in her wonderful book of reading recommendations, Book Lust)

Zadie Smith, White Teeth (so funny and so full of piercingly true observations)

Jonathan Ames, The Extra Man (this is on my best-ever list)

Sue Miller, The World Below (there's an excellent audiobook of this with Judith Ivey reading)

Louise Erdich, Master Butchers Singing Club (the author's own reading of this on tape is divine)

anything by David Lodge, but especially Small World; Changing Places; Paradise News; also Thinks and Therapy

Richard Russo, Nobody's Fool

articles: A. M. Homes in the December 20 and 27 New Yorker: Personal History: The Mistress's Daughter; then read her book In A Country of Mothers
; today's (12/28) NYT obit of Susan Sontag by Margalit Fox

Joyce Carol Oates, Marya; Wonderland; American Appetites; We Were the Mulvaneys

Audiobooks: The very best audiobooks ever are Patrick Tull's readings of Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey and Maturin sea novels, starting with Master and Commander.

Self-help: My current favorite, and the only one you'll ever need, is The Joy Diet, by Martha Beck

I'm sure I'm forgetting some books that I've been proclaiming are the best ever to my friends, but at least I've broken nearly two years of ice and gotten back in the blog saddle.