Got a lot of reading done over the holiday season. I'll start with the most daunting (in size) Stephen King's 1000+ page Under the Dome. Without warning a transparent, dome shaped shield descends over Chester's Mill, Maine, shutting it off from the world. The story is officially labeled sci-fi, but overall is a compelling, engaging study of human nature. Think Lord of the Flies or, more currently, Survivor. I wasn't as in love with Audrey Niffeneger's Her Fearful Symmetry as I thought I would be. In fact, some of it was just plain weird and I found the end very confusing. Charlie and I both liked Shutter Island by Dennis LeHane. A psychological thriller in the fifties pulp vein with an ending that will leaving you going 'wha???' Look for it on the big screen soon. Our household is also counting down the days to the President's Day (Feb.) release of the movie version of Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief.

Just finished Beth Hoffman's debut novel, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, for a review. Good read for the beginning of a new year- 12 year old girl, crazy mother, absent father, eccentric Aunt, doting Southern cook, spanish moss draped Savannah, GA backdrop with an early '60s setting. Look for my review and interview with Hoffman later this month at bookreporter.com.

The Duck's Cottage Reading Group had a good healthy dose of NPR contributor David Sedaris last month with his latest essay collection When You Are Engulfed In Flames. Sedaris is hysterically adept at identifying and analyzing the LCD's found amidst his daily travails, travels and hi-jinx. I've read several of his other books- Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day- and always enjoy my time with him. This month we turn our attention to best-seller The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Other local book group picks for January include Molokai, In the Company of the Courtesan and The Pig Did It. Seemed every '2009 Best of" list I saw  included Alice Munro's Too Much Happiness. This collection of stories also won the 2009 Mann Booker International Prize and I'm calling the library today to put it on 'my list'. Michael Pollan keeps up his campaign to get us to eat better with his handy sized Food Rules: An Eater's Manual. Here's one I liked: It's not food if it arrived through the window of your car. Uh, duh? This guide comes on the heels of the paperback release of Pollan's Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating.

Also just out in paper is T.C. Boyle's hit The Women. Boyle's novel, which focuses on Frank Lloyd Wright and the four women who loved him, was a big hit in hardback and I expect it to make the book club rounds in paper. Its not a big publishing season but a few new titles have hit the shelves- Anne Tyler, Queen of Baltimore suburbanite tales, is out with Noah's Compass (I have to confess, Tyler is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine). Barbara Delinsky has Not My Daughter with a note on the back for reading groups interested in a possible visit from Delinsky. Vanity Fair is still mourning the loss of Dominick Dunne and recently ran an excerpt from his final novel, Too Much Money. I read it and found an incredibly up-to-date (think Madoff and TARP and Astor) snark session on people in high places with, you guessed it, too much money. One last book to mention is Greg Mortenson's Stones Into Schools the follow-up to Three Cups of Tea. The subtitle is 'Promoting Peace With Books, Not Bombs In Afghanistan and Pakistan' and he pretty much picks up where Three Cups left off in 2003.

Have a great month delving into all those books you (hopefully) found under the tree!

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