2010

Ever feel that you may have set your expectations too high?

Gentle readers, take note: I have bought two books this year, One Day (Vintage Contemporaries Original) and The Lonely Polygamist: A Novel .  They have both been purchased from Andersons in Naperville. Both have been worth every penny, although I'm glad I bought One Day in paperback.

I'm a big fan of Anne Lamott's non-fiction, from Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year to Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith .

But oh my goodness, Imperfect Birds: A Novel is dull.

You will occasionally hear book people or librarians sneer at those of us who are big Harry Potter fans, as they say, condescendingly, "well, you should really try Cornelia Funke or Phillip Pullman."

The Martian Chronicles is on the list of books I would have never read if I wasn't in a book club. The resident sci-fi fan in my book club tends to pick things that the rest of us initially groan about. But reading The Martian Chronicles is good example of why I love being in a book club - new horizons and whatnot.

If you didn't know how much of Heartburn was based on Nora Ephron's life, you wouldn't believe it.

Is there anything more enjoyable than opening your issue of the New Yorker and seeing Malcolm Gladwell's byline?

I have a complicated relationship with Jennifer Weiner that exists completely in my head.