From One Book Lover

I have a crowded nightstand. And that's not the half of it.  Hello, Goodbye, Hello — Truman Capote meets Peggy Lee, Peggy Lee meets Richard Nixon, Richard Nixon meets Elvis Presley... it's a chain of 101 meetings.  The book blends from one encounter to the next seamlessly with well-recorded conversations and comments from reliable resources: published accounts, diaries, third-party accounts, all verifiable, all more honest than one would expect. Winds of Marble Arch — A not-easily found collection of Connie Willis' short stories. (Well, some not terribly short. In fact, most I've read have been rather long. Not quite a novella, but certainly a long tale.) I like her, and I like her stories. I can't wait to see what bite-sized nugget (or substantial snack) comes next. Wolf Hall — I have both of Hilary Mantel's books in this trilogy. (The third one is in production.) I really like them: a little rambling, but one wants to be in the heads of her chracters...

You know when you must read a particular type of book and you grab one like it, but it's not right? I went through that this week. It took a few books, but I persevered. I wanted Fluff 'n Trash™— but a certain kind. I wanted Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich. I wanted it bad. Alas, I didn't have it. After stopping reading nearly everything on my nightstand, I took action: I went for Plum. I looked in two libraries and three thrift shops. I even went to Barnes and Noble. No Nineteen to be found. I was Stephanie Plum-less. I have two other Evanoviches of the Wicked kind, but I didn't want those. I wanted Stephanie. I put my name on the "hold" list at the library for both the printed and e-versions of the book. I was somewhere around number 521 on the list of one or either. Seems this is a popular book. Who knew? I could have ordered it on the Web, had it delivered to me. And yet... I didn't want to keep it. I have one copy of her books, a si...