The Hitler scholars assembled, wandered, ate voraciously, laughed through oversized teeth. I sat at my desk in the dark, thinking of secrets.

"Whatever exists," he said. "Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent."

The absolutely most insane depraved bloodsoaked savage novel I have ever read, Blood Meridian is about the Kid, a 14 year old boy from Tennessee who runs away from home and stumbles into the westward expansion of 1849, a nightmare of liquid black apocalypse draining towards the California ocean, dripping over wild alien expanses of desert and chaos and empty void and Indian scalps.

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

Or "REALLY MARGARET! I DARE YOU!"

Magic magic magic perfect. Although I will always be devoted to the true Margaret Atwood original story, it was just a joy and a delight to see her take on a classic myth.

I can't get enough! It's like a sickness! A wonderful, wonderful sickness! Bought The Blind Assassin today, as I haven't read it since, oh, probably sophomore year of college? All I remember is knowing that it's great enough to warrant a buy, rather than a library check out.

Get ready for more Atwood on the horizon.... I also have a hankering for a lot of Abraham Lincoln biographies. Perhaps that shall be my next kick? WHO EVEN KNOWS?!?!

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

Or "OK, Margaret. Write A Bad Book. I DARE You."

The first book I picked up after The Glass Castle was Tom Robbins's Jitterbug Perfume. I read about 120 pages of that one and then I reached a point where - true story - the very sight of the book filled me with such anger and ill wishes for the world that I couldn't stand to have it in my house anymore and I joyfully threw it back into the Return Book bunker at the Logan Square Library. Although I didn't get to add a book to my 2010-2011 book list, I did get to add a new Least Favorite Author to my Forever And Ever list, so it wasn't a total loss. I know a lot of people love this book, and love Tom Robbins. I am not one of them. I welcome discussion on this topic.

Next I read about 3/4 of the book Fever 1792 by Laurie Halse Anderson. I would recommend that one to anyone who likes historical fiction and/or young adult fiction (DOUBLE BONUS for fellow lovers of historical young adult fiction). It takes place during this huge fever epidemic in, you guessed it, 1792 in Philadelphia - an event that I hadn't known anything about prior to picking up this book. It was highly interesting and enjoyable. Then one of my friends took suddenly ill with the flu and passed away, and I haven't been able to revisit this book, whose plot contains nothing but people suddenly taking ill and passing away. I'd still recommend it for any of you interested parties out there, though. Laurie Halse Anderson is a champion young adult historical fiction writer - the kind that makes me want to take up being a young adult historical fiction writer myself.

Book number three I reached for was Alias Grace by my ladylove Margaret Atwood, who I can count on to write a stunning yarn every single time. And I'll be goddamned if she didn't blow me away again.

Alias Grace is based on the story of Grace Marks, a Canadian Lizzie Borden of sorts who became a media sensation in the mid 1800s after she and another hired hand murdered their employers. Atwood's retelling is extensively researched - the time period, the people involved, the facts about the case itself - as much as this particular event can be. There are huge gaps in the real information where Atwood has "felt free to invent," as she says in the Author's Afterward. So is it historical fiction? Fictional history? BRILLIANT?!? Yes.

I was talking to my sister about this book, and I heard myself say the sentence "If I could only read one author for the rest of my life, I would pick Margaret Atwood." And as I heard myself say it, I realized it was true. This woman is a master, and Alias Grace encompasses so much of what I love about her writing.

I'm on a kick for sure now. Just got The Penelopiad at the library, which Sanchez has been hyping up for months now. I'm 30 pages in and already in love. Get ready.

All the Pretty Horses

I wanted to like this novel. But I also wanted to stay awake while reading it. Neither one of these things happened.

Crime? Oy Vey!

This is a pretty inventive book. I'll give Chabon 6 arbitrary points for his use of the Yiddish language and 8.5 arbitrary points for the originality of his setting. However: Take the same elements of this story, drop the Jewish subtext, and make the characters unique to, say, Laredo, Texas, and this book becomes just another crime thriller. And nothing too special, at that.

The Fortress of Solitude

Dylan Ebdus is too cool for Brooklyn. But he cannot escape its hold on him. Even if he discovers a magical ring found on a dying homeless man's finger than gives him the power of flight. Something about that ring, man.