I've been twittering and facebooking and blogging like some kind of connection-hungry fool, so have left this poor little booklog for last. Here goes. Prospect Park West by Amy Sohn. Entertaining way to while away a hideous cold.

Try to Tell the Story by David Thomson I've always had a weird quasi-erotic fascination with English boarding schools. I blame it on those S/M floggings from Tom Brown's Schooldays.

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín A marvelous old-fashioned novel.

Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert Thank god I didn't read this book before I wrote my own Maine novel. I never would have bothered. She's so marvelous I would have thrown up my hands at the prospect of such clear failure by comparison. I love Ms. Gilbert.

Serena by Ron Rash Next time someone bitches me out for having unlikeable characters I'm going to point to this marvelous novel and tell them to suck it.

Glover's Mistake by Nick Laird I love Nick Laird. LOVE HIM.

Four Freedoms by John Crowley Not as good as Little Big.

Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson Killer.

Beautiful Boy by David Sheff Now I'm scared. Really really scared.

Sophie's Choice by William Styron The first half is the best novel ever written. The second half kind of sucks.

Happens Every Day by Isabel Gillies Compulsively readable. And terrifying.

The Survivors Club by Ben Sherwood Because I'm crazy.

The Clothes on Their backs by Linda Grant Terrific.

The Women by T.C. Boyle This book is great, and a very interesting complement to the next one in the list.

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan Neither Horan nor Boyle can have been happy about the other, but the novels were both very good. Boyle is a better writer on a sentence level, certainly, but I like this one very much, too.