_Cowboys Are My Weakness_ by Pam Houston. I recommend this with hesitation, because honestly I can't ever get over the feeling that all the lead female characters are Pam Houston and that this isn't a work of fiction at all, but the writing is excellent.

Errr. I have to admit I finished that collection, and thought, "Hell, I could do that!" And all the stories were about the same person, and they were all about her relationships. I wanted adventures, but I think that's another collection.

The writing was good, but in my more arrogant moments I think I could do as well.

Recommendations for classic novels? Gah. The list is too long. In the last few years my classics club has read t digs out Pilot :

• The Way of All Flesh
  
• Wise Blood
  
• Swann's Way
  
• Tale of Two Cities
  
• Hunchback of Notre Dame
  
• Tristram Shandy
  
• Barchester Towers
  
• Manhattan Transfer
  
• How Green Was My Valley
  
• The Fire Next Time
  
• Heart of the Matter
  
• Angle of Repose
  
• The Optimist's Daughter
  
• An American Tragedy
  
• Ethan Frome
  
• Bridge of San Luis Rey
  
• Winesburg, Ohio
  
• The Magnificent Ambersons
  
• Howard's End
  
• Persuasion
  
• Dr. Zhivago
  
• Their Eyes Were Watching God
  
• I, Claudius
  
• The Odyssey
  
• Candide
  
• Treasure Island
  

And more that I can't be bothered to dig out of my email archives. I really should compile a list, though.

Bridge of San Luis Rey

Oh! Oh! Love Thornton Wilder. Love this book. Thank you for reminding me about it.

P-C, did you see the note I wrote yer mom yesterday?

I did, Little Miss Taxonomically-Challenged.

That's Little Miss Can't Be Wrong, to you.

I'd like to point out that my Scout story was meant to reflect on my idiocy as a ninth grade English student and not on the merits of the book in general.

Jilli, it occurs to me I have a spare Candide floating around somewhere. Well, I think it's spare. It's my copy. I may still have Dad's in my shelves. Regardless, I'll bring it with me tomorrow.

"Grapes of Wrath" My God, I am a lefty cliche. But not as much as this one: "Catcher in The Rye" Sue me. You won't get much...

I wanted adventures, but I think that's another collection.

A Little More About Me can be a little less about the relationships (though she uses adventure as a metaphore for exploring relationships) and it has more essays that were originally assignments for travel mags. You might like it better.

All the stories in Waltzing the Cat are about the same character. Though they are still individual stories.

Also, in Cowboys, it was one of the first collection of short stories where I noticed that the arrangement of the stories themselves had a narrative arc.

I t heart Pam Houston.

Jilli, it occurs to me I have a spare Candide floating around somewhere. Well, I think it's spare. It's my copy. I may still have Dad's in my shelves. Regardless, I'll bring it with me tomorrow.

Keen!

(No really, I'm *trying* to get out of my "All Vampires, All The Time!" phase. It's just sort of my default setting.)