It was fun reading all these titles, so many of which are favorites of mine. And one un-favorite: I hated Memoirs of a Geisha so much, I wanted to write to the publisher and demand my time back. I can forgive a lot of things, but not bad writing! It prompted me to send out an email to my friends and relatives asking them what book they hated to the point of outrage. (Clear winner: The Celestine Prophesy -- boy, do people hate that book!) I adore Bryson. I am just finishing A Brief History of Nearly Everything, and I love love love it. I won't repeat the ones others have mentioned. Here are a few you may not have heard of that are absolutely wonderful: A Lesson Before Dying New York Trilogy (read them as one book) The Metaphysical Club (don't let the name fool you) Defining the Wind (beautiful writing and hilarious) The first two are novels, the other two are sort of history of ideas. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Don't give up on War and Peace! It's just long, not hard, and it's terrific. He LOVES people -- if you like Ann Tyler, you'll like Tolstoy. The only tricky part is the names. One edition of W&P even comes with a bookmark that keeps them straight, or you can keep your own chart. But new translations of Tolstoy simplify the names as a matter of translation, which made Anna Karenina very easy to read. Reread Charlotte's Web now that you are an adult and can appreciate what an incredible piece of writing and philosophy it is. Some book!

Raven, could you let me know what version of the update you get when you get around to redoing it. I got the same email today. I updated mine for the 1st time yesterday. I wonder if it's the same firmware version. According to the info in my settings, the firmware I now have is S10_09_23_B_PD......... I used the PC version and thankfully got it right the 1st time. I hope it's the latest version, tho I had no problem with the update, reinstalling my WiFi is a pain, usually takes me several tries-many many numbers and letters.

I don't mind suspending disbelief. It's not the improbabilities that bother me; it's his digressions. They drive me nuts! One example I encountered yesterday: Grace (the protagonist) and a man from the Attorney General's office are looking for a store clerk who may have information they desperately need. They track him down to a Taco Bell, and spot him sitting in a booth. He's listening to music on his headphones. They rush up to him, but instead of getting into the confrontation the author launches into an internal dialogue Grace has with herself about listening to music that's too loud. When I heard, "Grace liked music....." I groaned. Here we go again. I don't know whether he feels compelled to share his views on anything and everything, or if he's simply trying to fill up pages. As for the time management, I'm surprised his editor hasn't addressed this. It's the kind of thing copy editors are supposed to pick up. Maybe they figure his books are selling so well they don't want to mess up the bottom line. :-)

I have finally caught up with all the mysteries available so far by Stephen Booth. He is an English author whose books take place in the Peak District. I really like his writing style and his characters - a local policeman Ben Cooper & a female transplant from Birmingham named Diane Fry. I use the web site Fantastic Fiction a lot and saw that he had other books available in England and found that it takes approx 2 years for his books to get over here. He has a really lovely web site with a slide show of the Peak District and I wrote to him (email) about the 2 yr delay and was delighted to get a response from him within a couple of hours-I was impressed! He said he changed publishers and this new one was still trying to catch up...so I will have to wait til sometime in 2008 to get the next one in the series. I recommend his books for those that enjoy English mysteries. Pat