I read only one book at a time. i just finished an ARC of Ellen Baker's KEEPING THE HOUSE which I loved, loved, loved. Currently, I'm riveted by Susan Schulmann's A DAY AT THE BEACH which is about a couple in NYC on 9/11 who watch the towers, and their life as they've known it disintegrate.

I'm a one-booker as well. I just finished No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July (it was wonderful) as well as A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (brutal, unrelenting, but still wonderful.) Currently I'm hitting up an oldie: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami.

Before I dive into the pile of ARCs, I'm cleaning up my prior reading list. I'm currently enjoying "The Spellman Files" by Lisa Lutz and "Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die" by Chip and Dan Heath.

Just finished re-reading "Love In the Time of Cholera," and am now deep into the latest Jack Reacher thriller. After that, I'm going to dip into "Of Human Bondage," whch I read when I was a teen, and never really understood. Tme to give it another sho.

I am just finishing "Finn" and "The Yiddish Policeman;s Union". I will then start "Divisedero" and the JFK Assasination book by Bughlisi. I thought Finn and the Chabon book were both excellent.

I recently read ARCs of new books by Alice Sebold and Ann Packer. Both were terrific but the Sebold really rocked me. Now I'm reading "The Assistant" by Bernard Malamud for my book group, then back to read some more books by Octavia E. Butler, whose work I measure out so there is still some to read for the first time.

Just finished some wonderful BEA ARCs: "The Pig Did It" by Joseph Caldwell and NYRB's "Novels in Three Lines." Also finished Kingsley Amis's "One Fat Englishman." In the midst: "Cellophane" and "Unforgiveable Blackness."

Three things, at least: I'm reading a galley of "Spud" by John van de Ruit. Very good, contemporary South Afria-set coming of age school story reminiscent of Salinger. "Surviving the Applewhites" "Pride and Prejudice"

Bethanne, My mouth just dropped open after reading your post. Just yesterday I commented to someone in the same way that “I have a problem” in regards to never sticking to one book at a time. I don’t even how someone can do it. My husband marvels daily at the pile of books on my nightstand. He even dared to suggest I get rid of some! Well, just a few on my nightstand (as of today) include one I can’t believe took me this long to get to 1. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, also 2. The Children of Men by P.D. James and 3. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. I’m staying away from the Sebold book. Her last one still haunts me to this day.

I just finished re-reading one of my favorite books, "Critical Choices That Change Lives" by Daniel R Castro. This is a great book when I need motivating! Before that I read "The Secret" (I believe!), "The Good Guy" (I've read better Koontz), "The 6th Target"(by one of my favorite authors), and "Nineteen Minutes"(Is there a "bad guy" in this book?). So many books, so little time!

I'm also working my way through some ARCs that I picked up at BEA. Just finished "Sorcery and the Single Girl" by Mindy Klasky - a fun beach read, and am currently in the middle of "Gods Behaving Badly" by Marie Phillips. Next up will be "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho - I've wanted to read it for a while but just haven't quite gotten to it yet.

I just finished and enjoyed "Foreskin's Lament" by Shalom Auslander and just started Ann Packer's new book. At bat: "Loving Frank" and "Run" by Ann Patchett.

I'm reading three books right now: Isaacson's biography of Einstein, "Girl With Curious Hair," short stories by David Foster Wallace, and "What is the What" by Dave Eggers. Einstein is actually really entertaining. Isaacson, though he may be an egotistical arse, really has easy, accessible style. Is "A Thousand Splendid Suns" as good as everyone is saying?

I got this short but amusing humor book from BEA called "Mama Peavy says, 'Women, It's OK to Marry an Ugly Man"-5 Good Reasons Why It's OK" by Mary R.Butler. There are some very funny parts and some very "oh-no she didn't parts. I think it'll be accepted by most but hated by some. I love DRAMA.

It's going to take another mug of Mr. Bethanne's excellent coffee for me to make all the responses I want to... but reading these comments is like Christmas for me. BTW, I finished 'The Blood of Flowers' yesterday (look for a new Recommended Reading on Monday) and decided that I had to take a complete break from my list -- so I'm skimming 'The Revolution Will Be Accessorized: BlackBook Presents Dispatches from the New Counterculture.'

I'm reading two nonfiction and a mystery right now. I usually have a couple going at a time unless something really grabs me. The nonfiction are Can I Keep My Jersey? by Paul Shirley, his account of his years as a "Basketball Vagabond." I'm reading The Short Bus by Jonathan Mooney. And I'm trying Sofie Metropolis, the first in a series by Tori Carrington. www.lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com

Meg, I am about to get Sebold's book and after reading your comment, cannot wait to read it. Currently, I am reading Half of a Yellow Sun and finding it compelling (I do, however, wish that the author had left the word "of" out of her title). And prior to seeing the movie Evening, with its incredible female cast, I am reading the book, which I somehow missed when it was first published. J

Divisadero is wonderful! I've just polished off Kelley Eskridge's excellent short story collection Dangerous Space, and am at various places in (deep breath...) Hick, by Andrea Portes Alentejo Blue, by Monica Ali The Tenderness of Wolves, by Stef Penney Solitaire, by Kelley Eskridge and have just added Ken Macleod's Execution Channel and Penelope Lively's Consequences to the stack. I can never limit myself to just one book.