Currently Reading

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What Was She Thinking? {Notes on a Scandal} by Zoe Heller -  Sheba has an affair with an underage student.  Barbara, her co-worker and friend, takes her in when everyone else rejects her.  Barbara keeps a journal of the events leading up to and including the affair, as well as the aftermath.  While Sheba seems like the villain from this standpoint, it is Barbara's cold and calculating manner that is truly disturbing.  A biting, intelligent look at loneliness and the lengths some will go to to avoid it.  (Now I have to watch the movie!)

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins -  Tom Robbins is absurd.  I mean that in the best way possible.  This novel is the story of Sissy Hanshaw, born with gigantic, humongous, incredible thumbs.  Rather than let those thumbs render her disabled, Sissy uses them to the best of the ability as the tools for hitch-hiking.  She becomes the best hitch-hiker in all of America.  Kerouac is in awe of her hitching abilities.  Through a series of random events, Sissy finds herself on a Dakota ranch, run by cowgirls.  This book is pure fun and hilarity.

On Writing by Stephen King - Part memoir, part "how-to", Stephen King deconstructs his own career, what he's learned about his craft, and gives useful tips to aspiring writers.  It's smart, it's funny, it's everything you'd expect from the horror master.  He touches on his childhood writings, his struggles with drugs and alcohol, and the writing procedures that work best for him.  A must read for someone who wants to write (or just know more about King's life).

The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst -  I came really, really close to not finishing this book.  That is something I do not do.  For the life of me, I just could not get into the story or the style or the writing or anything else.  It wasn't bad, but I just could not bring myself to be interested.  Maybe next time?