Things I Have Been Reading Which Do Not Appear on the Modern Library List, Nor Have Any Guaranteed Value Whatsoever

Barbara Ehrenreich, BAIT AND SWITCH. It's not as good as NICKEL AND DIMED.
Stephen Carter, THE EMPEROR OF OCEAN PARK. Borrowed from my mum. I liked the part about the liberal judge mom refusing to let her son read that pro-life appologia, Horton Hears a Who.
Hilary Mantel, GIVING UP THE GHOST. Memoir of a British novelist which the New Yorker promised was full of paranormal events and eerie coincidences. And in this case, David Remnick done me wrong.
David Itzkoff, LADS. Memoir of a former editor at "Details" and "Maxim." Pretty entertaining, actually, if you like press memoirs already.
Rick Moody, THE DIVINERS. Wildly entertaining novel about the schemers behind a Hollywood miniseries. Thick and convoluted like a Tom Wolfe book, but without any of those pesky authorial moral judgements. Did I mention that Moody is an alum of my own university? He, Marilynne Robinson (GILEAD, HOUSEKEEPING) and Jeffrey Eugenides (MIDDLESEX, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES). And those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
Jon Stewart, NAKED PICTURES OF FAMOUS PEOPLE. No, Stewart doesn't have a new book out; this actually came out pre-"Daily Show," in 1998 and I tracked it down on inter-library loan out of curiosity. It's not bad, but it's not Woody Allen; not surprisingly, some of it is pretty dated. Also, I might note that there are no actual naked pictures of famous people in it.

This list isn't an excuse. Really. It's totally not. Okay, maybe a little.