Yes, Anne, thanks! He's fine, but he said it was very weird to be boarding a plane while all the families were crowded around the airport trying to find out what happened to their loved ones. I wouldn't have wanted to be there.

Have you tried anthologies, Betsy? When I get in that state, I can sometimes follow a short story or essay all the way through.

I'm a sad individual. Reading the long list for the Booker Prize, I realize I've only heard of two of them and read none.

I know none of the books, and have only heard of a couple of the authors. Bah.

I think a Brit will come along any minute now and point out that the Booker is named after some guy in Britain who had money (supermarkets?), so although it has a hoity-toity reputation, it is not The Prize Of All Books. Also, it is for British (& Commonwealth?) works, so I wouldn't be surprised if 50% of that list is not in print in the US (yet if ever).

Yup.

Now in its thirty-fifth year, the prize aims to reward the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.

I'm so tired I can't follow plot. My usual standby, really trashy novels, isn't working; I get halfway in and skim to the end.

When I'm like this I re-read books I've already read at least twice, because I can pick them up at any point in the story, and it's no biggie if I don't finish them this go-round.

I'm so tired I can't follow plot. My usual standby, really trashy novels, isn't working; I get halfway in and skim to the end.

Sometimes I'll reread poetry at this point. Especially sonnet collections -- short yet filling.

Huh. Two opposing views of the latest LKH (Incubus Dreams) arrived in my inbox today from friends. One says:

It's a big book. Lots of words. Lots of sex. Not much plot. ... Except for a very sweet and sexy scene with

, most of these sexual situations in the book are weirdly unerotic to read. Even the big

(that many of us have been looking forward to!) is a dud.

The other:

I did like the

scene. I would agree with her though that it wasn't erotic, but in fact was somewhat edgy and awkward because the characters were experiencing it as edgy and awkward. I thought that was the point, but I can see how it wouldn't work for people.

By a conservative estimate probably half the book is sex scenes or leads up to sex scenes. I regard that as a feature, not a bug, but in spite of all the sex (and you may be gathering that there is a lot of sex, with a number of men) it isn't erotica, it's something else. I'm not sure I have a name for it, but the discomfort seems to me to be part of the intended effect.

[whitefonted for the very spoiler-sensitive, though most of it is about character as opposed to plot points]

Well, I'm sure

Jean Claude

was happy with the developments, the big ho.