From her Q&A at Powells, Samantha Hunt had this to say:

How did the last good book you read end up in your hands and why did you read it?

I was in a small town upstate where if you paid a dollar you'd be admitted into the Book Barn behind the library. It was fantastic. The barn was bursting with used books and records, organized only by genre. This is for the best as I had to look at each title instead of being able to zero in on the books I was looking for. I came across Joy Williams's Breaking and Entering. In school I'd loved Williams's stories and had not read her since. She's a lyrical, dreamy writer. She gives Florida the treatment that such a strange land deserves. I've always felt that Florida is extraordinary because it is so young geologically. I think that's what draws in all the old folks and oddballs. It makes for good reading. I love books about the far, far north and Florida.

Hunt is officially the only other person on planet Earth who enjoys both books on the "far far north" and the Sunshine State. I think she is my missing twin. (Also I just started reading The Invention of Everything Else and it is lovely thus far - 30% off at Powells!)

It is cruel of Gwenda to drop hints about the greatness of Karen Joy Fowler's Wit's End. Some of us must wait and wait and wait....! Here's the PW review:

"At the start of this quietly funny, slightly mysterious novel of discovering one's roots from bestseller Fowler (The Jane Austen Book Club), 29-year-old Rima Lanisell visits her estranged godmother, Addison Early, in Addison's house by the sea, Wit's End, in storied Santa Cruz, Calif. Addison, the wildly successful but cautiously private author of the Maxwell Lane mysteries, was once the girlfriend of Rima's recently deceased father, Bim, for whom a character in the series is named. For each novel, Addison first constructs a dollhouse diorama that depicts what will be the principal murder scene, but her upcoming novel and its dollhouse are uncharacteristically delayed. By weeding through decades-old correspondence with eccentric fans and the contemporary channels of online forums, Rima slowly discovers the truth behind Addison's novels and that Rima herself is a topic of interest among Maxwell Lane devotees. As Fowler analyzes our modern-day relationship to novels and writers' relationship to their readers, the line between fiction and reality blurs — real people become characters in another's blog as fictional characters become real to the fans that fetishize them.

Jenny D is in my house! (Or at least her book is!) I must put off reading it for at least another week or so...must finish other books for upcoming columns. But man - it sounds so so good. It's killing me not to dive in right now. (There is bizarrely no listing for it yet at Harper Collins and amazon only lists the book but no description. Jenny explains all in a sidebar on her site - it's YA, it's alt history, it sounds like NOTHING I have seen yet. Very very cool.)

The new Jacqueline Winspear Masie Dobbs mystery is out. How in the hell am I supposed to resist these books I want to read so badly?????

I will never do this in anything I write. It's unnecessary, dishonest and makes a mockery of literary intelligence. It insults all readers everywhere, regardless of age. It's one thing to mention a brand name as a pop culture reference tbut o purposely set out to solicit corporate sponsorship of a novel? I don't think so. (Cue mournful looks at RFK Stadium) To be blunt, I will never review any book that does this. Gauntlet thrown. Anyone else?

And in case you want to read a real rant - TadMack has a thing or two to say on the subject as well.