First, Joia made me read The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.  When she described it to me, it sounded like Slaughterhouse 5 for chicks.  And that's pretty much what it was, but I'm not just going to discount this book so easily.  I have to admit, I was totally drawn in by Henry and Clare.  It's not very common for an author to get me to care this deeply for their characters, but I was very moved by this book.

Second, since I read Slaughterhouse 5 for chicks, I thought that next, I should read the actual Slaughterhouse 5 again.  It's my forth or fifth time, but you really can't read this book too much.  Vonnegut is so unique in that he may be the only fatalist I can think of who is just so damn cheerful.  

Next, I read Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie.  I've been meaning to pick up something of Rushdie's for quite some time and I have to say that I was not disappointed.  For a story with such a sweeping backdrop that ranged from the French Resistance during World War II to the India/Pakistani conflict over Kashmir in the mid '60s right up to the rise of modern Islamic terrorism into the early 90s, this is an intensely personal work.  It starts with an assassination which seems at first to be political, but turns out to be nothing more than a vendetta of a jealous husband.  This typifies the tone of this story.  Every political struggle, every part of history revolves around very small, often petty individuals.  Rushdie asks if one can be a great man and a bad person at the same time.  

And next came the one half book.  It's a graphic novel, so I'm not sure it fully counts.  It's Wanted by Mark Millar & J.G. Jones.  Basically, the super villains have knocked off the superheroes and are now pretty much in charge of things.  It's brutally violent and very funny.  I highly recommend this and can't wait for the film to come out.  Any literary piece that includes phrases like "Holy two idiots getting eaten by an octopus!" and "Calling all Superfucks!  Calling all Superfucks!" automatically gets a certain measure of affection from me.  

So, I realize that I'm behind schedule if I'm to get to 50 books this year, so I'm on to reread book one of The Abarat by Clive Barker, since I just bought book 2 last week..