A serialized novel, Happyland by J. Robert Lennon, starts in this month's Harper's. It's great. I can't wait for Part II. If you don't have a subscription to Harper's--come on, man.
Books bought or checked out of library in the last few weeks:
-The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky by Ken Dornstein. Eerie. More on this.
-Bukowski: A Life by Neelie Cherkovski. Research. Not as terrible as the reviews on Amazon would have you think, but pretty redundant.
-A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. Research, I swear. Has anyone actually read it? Why doesn't he indent?
-Physical, An American Checkup by James McManus
-Eichmann and the Holocaust by Hannah Arendt. Part of Penguin's new "Great Ideas" series. I still have a crush on Hannah. And I may have to re-think some thoughts on Nazis.
-Fitzgerald and Hemingway: A Dangerous Friendship by Matthew J. Bruccoli. Nobody writes letters anymore. Is that bad? Not sure.
-A Good School by Richard Yates. Been re-reading all his books, and I'm not a re-reader.
-JPod by Douglas Coupland. Found an advance reading copy for a buck at the Strand. Have stayed away from his last five or so. Over 20 pages are occupied by the first hundred thousand digits of pi (w/ one incorrect digit). Good gag.
-Remote Feed by David Gilbert. Funny stories. Had this book before.
-Straight Man by Richard Russo. If, like me, you're a sucker for misadventures in academia novels, this looks good. Only on P. 25. Great paragraphs. "I don't see how you could not kid about love and still claim to have a sense of humor."