Right now I'm "re-reading" an audiobook of High Five in the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. I'm also reading Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. Last week I finished Thereby Hangs a Tale; A Chet and Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quin. Chet is a dog; Bernie is his detective human. The first book in the series was Dog On It Both books are great. http://www.amazon.com/Thereby-Hangs-Tail-Bernie-Mystery/dp/1416585850 I'm anxiously waiting for the new Stephanie Plum, Hamish Macbeth, Agatha Raisin, and Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood on HBO) books to come out. I'm reading all these series; I find each of them wonderful and entertaining in they're own ways. Hamish Macbeth books in order... http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_7?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=hamish+macbeth+series+in+order&sprefix=Hamish+ Agatha Raisin series in order... http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_9?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=agatha+raisin+series+in+order&sprefix=Agatha+Ra Sookie Stackhouse; Southern Vampire Mysteries series http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_6?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=sookie+stackhouse&sprefix=Sookie

Thanks for the review of The Friday Night Knitting Club. I had thought I might enjoy it as I love to read female friendship stories. (I am so close to my friends!) I had heard mixed reviews about this book. Some like it and others don't. I do think I'll try it. Another good book along that line is The Persian Pickle Club. Can't remember the author. I read The Glass Castle a year or so ago. It was interesting!

I just finished No-Man's Land: One Man's Odyssey Through the Odyssey by Scott Huler. The author has been fascinated by The Odyssey for years and decided to try to follow in Odysseus's footstep as he travelled home from the Trojan War. I found it quite interesting and read it in two evenings. Much less interesting was The Quilter's Kitchen by Jennifer Chiaverini. I've read most of the other books in this series and thought this one might be a "bonbon" read. My thoughts upon finishing it were...Why bother? Out of the 200+ pages, most were recipes and maybe 1/4 were story. I certianly wouldn't go out and buy the book, not even for the recipes (a few of which did look tasty).

For some reason I ended up buying both hard cover and paperback copies of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night and never read it until now. Loved it. I know little about the main character's special needs, but enjoyed the way the plot surprised me. I guessed the "murderer" early on, but that was such a small element of the story that I didn't care. I also came away thinking that dealing with those special needs was very much like computer programming. Unless one gets it exactly right communication doesn't happen. Which in the context of the story seems to be a major subtext for those of us who've spent a lot of time programming. Been doing some re-reading of Zelazny. Jack of Shadows I didn't remember at all. Mythic and lyrical, his is a world where one side of the earth always faces the sun and is ruled by science, the other side is always in darkness and magic reigns. Much as I love Gaiman, he just misses, except in Sandman, the charm of Zelazny.