1. "The ego has landed." LOLOLOL!

2. I met the man who bit me 50 years ago and he didn’t know who I was and I didn’t enlighten him.

3. Tis the autumn of an online friendship when both sides are reduced to sending interesting website links. Tis late autumn when one of the participants is not even interested enough to open the links.

4. October Martha Stewart Living made me laugh more than usual: 1. The cover showing toadstools made from various squashes ; 2. Martha at Joshua Trees Park in cropped pants, trainers and bobby sox...such a nerdy look! *L*

5. Ever since I’ve lived here there has always been a teenage boy learning to play the drums somewhere in the neighborhood.

6. From the "Things They Don't Tell You" file-- Everyone has hemorrhoids and that’s a good thing.

"Hemorrhoids are swollen blood vessels that line the anal opening caused by excess pressure from straining during a bowel movement, persistent diarrhea, or pregnancy. There are two types of hemorrhoids: internal and external. Internal hemorrhoids are normal structures cushioning the lower rectum and protecting it from damage by stool. When they fall down into the anus as a result of straining, they become irritated and start to bleed. Ultimately, internal hemorrhoids can fall down enough to sink or protrude out of the anus. External hemorrhoids are veins that lie just under the skin on the outside of the anus. Sometimes, after straining, the external hemorrhoidal veins burst and a blood clot forms under the skin. This very painful condition is called a pile." http://www.disabled-world.com/health/digestive/digestive-disorders.php

Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis
The Long Road Home, by Martha Raddatz
Lethal Legacy, by Linda Fairstein–Always like Fairstein’s historical facts about NY. Educational stuff.
The Other Boleyn Girl, by Phillippa Gregory
The Cherry Cheesecake Murder, by Joanne Fluke
On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
*Thirteen Moons, by Charles Frazier –Wonderful, glorious prose.
The Treasure of Khan, by Clive and Dirk Cussler–Interesting plot; terrible writing. I think it was Stephen King who said that all adverbs should be banished. This book is an example of why that is true. Cussler has his he-men scurrying and scampering and their eyes sparkling. Makes ‘em sound like hamsters.
Dear John, by Nicholas Sparks --written like a man who thinks he is writing like a woman would like him to write. Zzzzz-
Rutherford B. Hayes; Warrior & President, by Ari Hoogenboom
Phantom Prey, by John Sanford
The Adventures of Buffalo Bill Cody, by Col William F. Cody, 1904
Visions of Sugar Plums, by Janet Evanovich
The North Pole Employee Handbook, by James Napoli
Rutherford B. Hayes, by Hans L. Trefousse–Didn’t finish–too brief
Just After Sunset, by Stephen King–It’s not Different Seasons (which, contrary to the industry review is exceptional), but some very good bits, nonetheless.
What is the What, by Dave Eggers
Three Bags Full, by Leonie Swann
(Just goes to show how low I will go. *L*)
First Impressions, by Jude Deveraux
Scarpetta, by Patricia Cornwell
Murder Inside the Beltway, by Margaret Truman
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy–Like a Stephen King book without the zombies. I kept hoping someone would catch the father and son and eat them. Zzzzzzzzzzzz
They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions, by Paul F. Boller Jr. and John George.
Half of Paradise, by James Lee Burke
Night Kills, by John Lutz
*Peace Not Apartheid, by Jimmy Carter
Cross Country, by James Patterson
Ines of My Soul, by Isabel Allende
Heat Lightning, by John Sandford
*Grant, by Jean Edward Smith
Against the Day, by Thomas Pynchon–unreadable
Nature Girl, by Carl Hiassen
*The Innocent Man, by John Grisham
*Next, by Michael Crichton–Would make a fun thriller flick.
White Doves at Morning, by James Lee Burke
Andrew Johnson, A Biography, by Hans L. Trefousse
*Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman
Murder She Wrote: A Slaying in Savannah, by Donald Bain
The Gate House, by Nelson DeMille--Another book I didn't finish. Just couldn't take the main character talking one more time about his wife having been fucked by the Mafia don and then killing him, her lover.
*State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III by Bob Woodward
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro–Interesting concept; excruciatingly boring execution
*A Faint Cold Fear, by Karin Slaughter
The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events), by Lemony Snicket
The Hummingbird’s Daughter, by Luis Alberto Urrea
The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss
The Rocky Road to Romance, by Janet Evanovich
All Aunt Hagar’s Children, by Edward P. Jones
*The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly
The Hot Kid, by Elmore Leonard
Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald
The Paper Doorway, by Dean Koontz

The Other Boleyn Girl, by Phillippa Gregory
The Cherry Cheesecake Murder, by Joanne Fluke
On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
*Thirteen Moons, by Charles Frazier –Wonderful, glorious prose.
The Treasure of Khan, by Clive and Dirk Cussler–Interesting plot; terrible writing. I think it was Stephen King who said that all adverbs should be banished. This book is an example of why that is true. Cussler has his he-men scurrying and scampering and their eyes sparkling. Makes ‘em sound like hamsters.
Dear John, by Nicholas Sparks --written like a man who thinks he is writing like a woman would like him to write. Zzzzz-
Rutherford B. Hayes; Warrior & President, by Ari Hoogenboom
Phantom Prey, by John Sanford
The Adventures of Buffalo Bill Cody, by Col William F. Cody, 1904
Visions of Sugar Plums, by Janet Evanovich
The North Pole Employee Handbook, by James Napoli
Rutherford B. Hayes, by Hans L. Trefousse–Didn’t finish–too brief
Just After Sunset, by Stephen King–It’s not Different Seasons (which, contrary to the industry review is exceptional), but some very good bits, nonetheless.
What is the What, by Dave Eggers
Three Bags Full, by Leonie Swann
(Just goes to show how low I will go. *L*)
First Impressions, by Jude Deveraux
Scarpetta, by Patricia Cornwell
Murder Inside the Beltway, by Margaret Truman
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy–Like a Stephen King book without the zombies. I kept hoping someone would catch the father and son and eat them. Zzzzzzzzzzzz
They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions, by Paul F. Boller Jr. and John George.
Half of Paradise, by James Lee Burke
Night Kills, by John Lutz
*Peace Not Apartheid, by Jimmy Carter
Cross Country, by James Patterson
Ines of My Soul, by Isabel Allende
Heat Lightning, by John Sandford
*Grant, by Jean Edward Smith
Against the Day, by Thomas Pynchon–unreadable
Nature Girl, by Carl Hiassen
*The Innocent Man, by John Grisham
*Next, by Michael Crichton–Would make a fun thriller flick.
White Doves at Morning, by James Lee Burke
Andrew Johnson, A Biography, by Hans L. Trefousse
*Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman
Murder She Wrote: A Slaying in Savannah, by Donald Bain
The Gate House, by Nelson DeMille--Another book I didn't finish. Just couldn't take the main character talking one more time about his wife having been fucked by the Mafia don and then killing him, her lover.
*State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III by Bob Woodward
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro–Interesting concept; excruciatingly boring execution
*A Faint Cold Fear, by Karin Slaughter
The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events), by Lemony Snicket
The Hummingbird’s Daughter, by Luis Alberto Urrea
The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss
The Rocky Road to Romance, by Janet Evanovich
All Aunt Hagar’s Children, by Edward P. Jones
*The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly
The Hot Kid, by Elmore Leonard
Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald
The Paper Doorway, by Dean Koontz

1.  Major annoyance: The newest occupant of one of the five houses that border my back yard is a smoker. And he spends a lot of time outside on his patio, smoking. I am accosted by his smoke every time I open my back door and/or work in my back garden. As I said, major annoyance.

2. Sign: "If you have a reservation, you’re in the wrong restaurant."

3. GM got the big bucks bailout and now they’re expanding their operations...in Japan?

4. Watching Dumbledore being forced to drink the contents of the font in HP&TH_BP, I wondered if Rowling had ever done the prep for a colonoscopy.

5. Remembering hate does nothing but foment more hate.

6. Unacceptable?: Telling St.O that he lies. Acceptable?: St.O calling Kanye West a jackass.

7. St. O is as much "white" as he is "black", so why does he not acknowledge that?

8. In On the Road, Kerouac mentions the rainy season in SF starting in September. I’ve lived in the SF Bay Area since 1954 and I know the weather has changed, but I do not recall the rainy season ever starting in September. That’s always been the month of some of the best weather of the year. Makes me go hmmm...?

9. I swear, the other day, Paula Deen said, "...our low country bowels..."

10. I had never heard of these until I saw an ad for them in the current issue of Vogue.

 11. Of all the weird things, I’m allergic to sunflowers!

12. Oh, sure, let’s go live on the moon. Let’s see if we can make as a big a mess of it as we have our home planet.

13. Hahahahaha!

Sunday Dinner

Shrimp cocktails

Cocktails of choice

Tilapia/lime* butter sauce/on bed of arugula*

Rice

Corn on the cob

CNW Chenin Blanc, 2007

Sugar cookies

Decaf

Cedar Mountain Chardonnay de Sol port 　

Dear John, by Nicholas Sparks
Rutherford B. Hayes; Warrior & President, by Ari Hoogenboom
Phantom Prey, by John Sanford
The Adventures of Buffalo Bill Cody, by Col William F. Cody, 1904
Visions of Sugar Plums, by Janet Evanovich
The North Pole Employee Handbook, by James Napoli
Rutherford B. Hayes, by Hans L. Trefousse–Didn’t finish–too brief
Just After Sunset, by Stephen King–It’s not Different Seasons (which, contrary to the industry review is exceptional), but some very good bits, nonetheless.
What is the What, by Dave Eggers
Three Bags Full, by Leonie Swann
(Just goes to show how low I will go. *L*)
First Impressions, by Jude Deveraux
Scarpetta, by Patricia Cornwell
Murder Inside the Beltway, by Margaret Truman
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy–Like a Stephen King book without the zombies. I kept hoping someone would catch the father and son and eat them. Zzzzzzzzzzzz
They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions, by Paul F. Boller Jr. and John George.
Half of Paradise, by James Lee Burke
Night Kills, by John Lutz
*Peace Not Apartheid, by Jimmy Carter
Cross Country, by James Patterson
Ines of My Soul, by Isabel Allende
Heat Lightning, by John Sandford
*Grant, by Jean Edward Smith
Against the Day, by Thomas Pynchon–unreadable
Nature Girl, by Carl Hiassen
*The Innocent Man, by John Grisham
*Next, by Michael Crichton–Would make a fun thriller flick.
White Doves at Morning, by James Lee Burke
Andrew Johnson, A Biography, by Hans L. Trefousse
*Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman
Murder She Wrote: A Slaying in Savannah, by Donald Bain
The Gate House, by Nelson DeMille--Another book I didn't finish. Just couldn't take the main character talking one more time about his wife having been fucked by the Mafia don and then killing him, her lover.
*State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III by Bob Woodward
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro–Interesting concept; excruciatingly boring execution
*A Faint Cold Fear, by Karin Slaughter
The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events), by Lemony Snicket
The Hummingbird’s Daughter, by Luis Alberto Urrea
The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss
The Rocky Road to Romance, by Janet Evanovich
All Aunt Hagar’s Children, by Edward P. Jones
*The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly
The Hot Kid, by Elmore Leonard
Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald
The Paper Doorway, by Dean Koontz

 

What is the What, by Dave Eggers
Three Bags Full, by Leonie Swann (Just goes to show how low I will go. *L*)
First Impressions, by Jude Deveraux
Scarpetta, by Patricia Cornwell
Murder Inside the Beltway, by Margaret Truman
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy–Like a Stephen King book without the zombies. I kept hoping someone would catch the father and son and eat them. Zzzzzzzzzzzz
They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions, by Paul F. Boller Jr. and John George.
Half of Paradise, by James Lee Burke
Night Kills, by John Lutz
*Peace Not Apartheid, by Jimmy Carter
Cross Country, by James Patterson
Ines of My Soul, by Isabel Allende
Heat Lightning, by John Sandford
*Grant, by Jean Edward Smith
Against the Day, by Thomas Pynchon–unreadable
Nature Girl, by Carl Hiassen
*The Innocent Man, by John Grisham
*Next, by Michael Crichton–Would make a fun thriller flick.
White Doves at Morning, by James Lee Burke
Andrew Johnson, A Biography, by Hans L. Trefousse
*Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman
Murder She Wrote: A Slaying in Savannah, by Donald Bain
The Gate House, by Nelson DeMille--Another book I didn't finish. Just couldn't take the main character talking one more time about his wife having been fucked by the Mafia don and then killing him, her lover.
*State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III by Bob Woodward
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro–Interesting concept; excruciatingly boring execution
*A Faint Cold Fear, by Karin Slaughter
The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events), by Lemony Snicket
The Hummingbird’s Daughter, by Luis Alberto Urrea
The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss
The Rocky Road to Romance, by Janet Evanovich
All Aunt Hagar’s Children, by Edward P. Jones
*The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly
The Hot Kid, by Elmore Leonard
Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald
The Paper Doorway, by Dean Koontz
 

1.A word I consistently misspell– propaganda.

2. The Beatles are higly over-rated. As a matter of fact, most modern music is highly over-rated. Give someone a guitar and some trippy lyrics and they can compose a highly over-rated piece of drivel.

3. My child/pet would never....

4. I am a radical peacemonger.

5. Equations:

More Blades=Fewer Shaves

More Blades + Fewer Shaves = Higher Profits

6. Oops-a Daisy!

7. What percentage of fireworks is set off by women?

8. Priceless!

Biden was asked whether Netanyahu was taking the right approach by indicating that Israel would take matters into its own hands if Iran did not show a willingness to negotiate by the end of the year.

"Look, Israel can determine for itself — it's a sovereign nation — what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else," Biden replied. He added that this was the case, "whether we agree or not" with the Israeli view.

Biden was then asked more pointedly whether the U.S. would stand in the way if the Israelis, viewing the prospect of an Iranian nuclear bomb as a threat to the existence of the Jewish state, decided to launch a military attack against Iranian nuclear facilities.

"Look, we cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do," he said.

9. Are people who stomp grapes for wine barefooted prone to athlete’s foot?

10. It’s funny to watch how wine corks expand in the compost pile.

11. Do Little People think the name of midget pickles should be changed?

12. Help is just a radio call away.

13. And: More help is on the way. We are going to be there until the dinosaurs come home.

14. I have never known a teenager who didn’t think lust was love.

1. There is something StarWarsian about oil refineries at sunset.

2. Too many modern bathrooms look institutional–aseptic and cold.

3. "All he needs is some big pointy ears and furry feet and he could pass for a troll doll." *snicker*

4. How can you trust a book that purports to debunk commonly held misconceptions when the authors can’t even get their own editing correct? p. 23 (emphasis mine) "In 1987, Sam Donaldson, AGC’s aggressive White House correspondent...."

5. I dreamt that Arnold Schwarzawhosits was living at my house. He wanted to pay for his food and offered $75. I turned down his offer, so he gave me a small bunch of organic baby carrots (as opposed to those nasty inorganic carrots–those thangs made out of rock are really difficult to eat ), which I prepared for him three ways–raw, steamed, and pickled.

6. Hooray for Billy Elliot!

7. Oh, Princess Leia, where did you go?

8. Why do some people keep their toilet brushes in those cutsey little holders right by the porcelain appliance? Do they really clean it that often?

9.. Nothing like drying off with a nice, fluffy bath towel and then a big ole spider crawls out of it as you’re hanging it up.

10. What the H.....?

Hooker in a red dress.

Hobbler in a Masonic jacket

Hobo in a trench coat

Honeys in an embrace.

11. I haven’t seen any of those annoying, nasty ads for "feminine hygiene" products on TV in ages.

12. Drought conditions require fairly intense water use restriction, so the shower and tub water is now being used to flush the toilets in my household.

13. If Rush Limbaugh had said that all other factors being equal, a white male judge might be better able to rule on a sex-race discrimination case than a Latina judge, would there not be a great hue and cry from the so-called "liberals"?

14. I know this will probably be a terrible movie, but when I saw the poster I just roared out loud.

15. Good.

16. Bad.

17. I have recently had the immense pleasure of finding out that a long lost classmate is neither dead nor long lost.

18. Been waiting for this! Mark Twain’s unexpurgated autobiography will be released sometime in 2010/11.

19. Anyone who can feed a pet instead of eating it is not truly poor.

20. The mayor of Juarez, Mexico, lives in El Paso Texas, USA.

21. WhooHoo! Cumming to a city near you (maybe)!

22. We have become a culture that lives to eat instead of eating to live. One meal is barely finished when we are contemplating the next. Gluttony used to be a sin; now it is quickly becoming the norm.

Scarpetta, by Patricia Cornwell

Murder Inside the Beltway, by Margaret Truman

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy–Like a Stephen King book without the zombies. I kept hoping someone would catch the father and son and eat them. Zzzzzzzzzzzz

They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions, by Paul F. Boller Jr. and John George.

Half of Paradise, by James Lee Burke

Night Kills, by John Lutz

*Peace Not Apartheid, by Jimmy Carter

Cross Country, by James Patterson

Ines of My Soul, by Isabel Allende

Heat Lightning, by John Sandford
*Grant, by Jean Edward Smith
Against the Day, by Thomas Pynchon–unreadable
Nature Girl, by Carl Hiassen
*The Innocent Man, by John Grisham
*Next, by Michael Crichton–Would make a fun thriller flick.
White Doves at Morning, by James Lee Burke
Andrew Johnson, A Biography, by Hans L. Trefousse
*Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman
Murder She Wrote: A Slaying in Savannah, by Donald Bain
The Gate House, by Nelson DeMille--Another book I didn't finish. Just couldn't take the main character talking one more time about his wife having been fucked by the Mafia don and then killing him, her lover.
*State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III by Bob Woodward
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro–Interesting concept; excruciatingly boring execution
*A Faint Cold Fear, by Karin Slaughter
The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events), by Lemony Snicket
The Hummingbird’s Daughter, by Luis Alberto Urrea
The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss
The Rocky Road to Romance, by Janet Evanovich
All Aunt Hagar’s Children, by Edward P. Jones
*The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly
The Hot Kid, by Elmore Leonard
Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald
The Paper Doorway, by Dean Koontz

  *Highly recommended

1. War is a war crime.

2. Is a hitman relieved of all moral/ethical/legal responsibility because he is not the one who issued the order to kill? Is the intermediary between the boss and the hitman also innocent? Of course not. Why do the same rules not apply to the military?

3. The Twinkie Offense

By the holy right bestowed upon me by myself, I declare that

We can have Twinkies; our neighbors can’t.

We can have pitbulls; our neighbors can’t.

We can have AK47s; our neighbors can’t.

We can have a military; our neighbors can’t.

We can nuclear weapons; our neighbors can’t.

.Uh...wait...what?

4. Oops! Sorry!

5. "The generals must be found some work to do
The medals must be bought by me and you, yeah."

6. Anyone who sends others off to war is a domestic terrorist.

7. Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, and Michael Jackson died.

1. Whenever I hear/read "You’re comparing apples and oranges" I know that opinionated bullshit is about to make an entrance.

2. Why do people post pictures of their gardens with all sorts of crap in the background and sometimes even in the foreground–broken pots, old hoses, plastic bags of who wants to know what, dead mechanicals, shards of concrete? I could rant on and on,but I’ll stop now.

3. Circa 5:30 PM, 5/7/09, :-(

4. The Swine Flu is now the Kill the Pig with a Dull Knife Flu. Swine Flu -> H1N1->Hone None. ;-)

5. Marilyn Monroe was California’s 1948 Artichoke Queen.

6. As St. Obama mires himself deeper and deeper in the BushMuck swamp, there is silence from those who canonized him.

7. There’s something rather 50's/60's dead about the photography in Food and Wine magazine.

8. I like voting in elections where there is low turnout. My vote counts for more.

9. Willie Brown sez: If we had a simple majority vote in the CA Legislature, instead of the 2/3, the state wouldn’t be in such a mess.

10. I doubt that there is any other country that holds such reverence for their flag as the US does.

11. Letter to the Editor: "Photo query–-In Sunday’s newspaper there was a photo taken by a wildlife photographer, of a herd of wildebeests. There seemed to be quite a few of them crammed into that small photo. Would this be an example of ‘all the gnus that’s fit to print?’"

12. Kovsh

13. Marvelous project

Half of Paradise, by James Lee Burke
Night Kills, by John Lutz
*Peace Not Apartheid, by Jimmy Carter
Cross Country, by James Patterson
Ines of My Soul, by Isabel Allende
Heat Lightning, by John Sandford
The Paper Doorway, by Dean Koontz
Grant, by Jean Edward Smith--not finished, 5/30/09, but can't turn off the strikethrough
Against the Day, by Thomas Pychon–unreadable
Nature Girl, by Carl Hiassen
*The Innocent Man, by John Grisham
*Next, by Michael Crichton–Would make a fun thriller flick.
White Doves at Morning, by James Lee Burke
Andrew Johnson, A Biography, by Hans L. Trefousse
*Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman
Murder She Wrote: A Slaying in Savannah, by Donald Bain
The Gate House, by Nelson DeMille--Another book I didn't finish. Just couldn't take the main character talking one more time about his wife having been fucked by the Mafia don and then killing him, her lover.
*State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III by Bob Woodward
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro–Interesting concept; excruciatingly boring execution
*A Faint Cold Fear, by Karin Slaughter
The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events), by Lemony Snicket
The Hummingbird’s Daughter, by Luis Alberto Urrea
The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss
The Rocky Road to Romance, by Janet Evanovich
All Aunt Hagar’s Children, by Edward P. Jones
*The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly
The Hot Kid, by Elmore Leonard
Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald

*Highly recommended

1. I dreamt about Isaiah Washington three nights in a row. I think we’re dating. *L* In the most recent dream, he bought me a hot fudge sundae.

2. Whales are just fuckugly.

4. How many patrons would a restaurant devoted to the use of liver, sweetbreads, etc., named "Offal" get?

5. A classic (Yeehah!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWymXNPaU7g

6. Snow on the mountain in April? Insane!

7. The Seminole Indians have never signed a peace treaty with the US.

8. Words I’d not be unhappy to never hear again: "Obama", "swine flu".

9. You either love or hate this "artist's" work.  Guess which category I fall into.

Heat Lightning, by John Sandford
The Paper Doorway, by Dean Koontz
Grant, by Jean Edward Smith
Against the Day, by Thomas Pychon–unreadable
Nature Girl, by Carl Hiassen
*The Innocent Man, by John Grisham
*Next, by Michael Crichton–Would make a fun thriller flick.
White Doves at Morning, by James Lee Burke
Andrew Johnson, A Biography, by Hans L. Trefousse
*Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman
Murder She Wrote: A Slaying in Savannah, by Donald Bain
The Gate House, by Nelson DeMille--Another book I didn't finish.  Just couldn't take the main character talking one more time about his wife having been fucked by the Mafia don and then killing him, her lover.
*State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III by Bob Woodward
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro–Interesting concept; excruciatingly boring execution
*A Faint Cold Fear, by Karin Slaughter
The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events), by Lemony Snicket
The Hummingbird’s Daughter, by Luis Alberto Urrea
The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss
The Rocky Road to Romance, by Janet Evanovich
All Aunt Hagar’s Children, by Edward P. Jones
*The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly
The Hot Kid, by Elmore Leonard
Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald

*Highly recommended