"There is creative reading as well as creative writing." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

A few books I've picked up lately that I couldn't put down, that mesmerized, that impressed, or that I just thoroughly enjoyed:

1. Miguel Syjuco's Ilustrado

2. Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union

3. Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad

4. Michael Parker's The Watery Part of the World

5. Ann Patchett's Bel Canto

If I had to narrow down my top ten favorites, I'd say (in no particular order):

1. Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist

2. Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina

3. Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind

4. Dorothy Parker's Here Lies: Collected Stores

5. Katherine Neville's The Eight

6. Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo

7. Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest"

8. Truman Capote's "Breakfast at Tiffany's"

9. E.M. Forester's A Room With a View

10. Lois Lowry's The Giver