Twilight (by Stephenie Meyer)

Yeah, you knew it would happen. In this case you can blame Jenfu for coming to Vegas and innocently passing her copy along to me so I could enjoy the cheesy, breezy, Sweet Valley Vampire fun. A really fun and compelling read---I'd heard (I think in Entertainment Weeky) Meyer described as "not a great writer, but a great storyteller." I actually don't even think she's all that bad as a writer; I kind of love the way she describes so much minutia. The sexy vampire plot is the perfect angsty, fantasy, forbidden love story for a teenage girl, and even though I'm not a teenager anymore... I mean, I watched the new NKOTB "Summertime" video. I'm not immune you know. Also, it's kind of hot. I will admit I found the sexy vampires kind of hot. Sorry, everyone. Did I meantion I read Finnegans Wake?

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (by Junot Diaz)

Read this for book club number two, although we didn't talk about the book so much at the meeting. I loved reading it, though. It won the Pulitzer for fiction in 2008 and I can see why; it's energetic, inventive, unique, and feels "important" because of its exploration of the Dominican Republic and the Dominican diaspora. (I hadn't known much about Dominican history, and the likeable characters, especially Oscar, and the humor and the style, especially the Spanish/Spanglish sprinkled throughout, were the spoonfuls of sugar that helped all that fascinating history go down. I didn't even know who Trujillo was. Thanks, Junot Diaz.) To sum up: highly recommended both as an important work of literature and as a moving tragicomedy.