Apologies for the hiatus; busy is as apt a descriptor I can think of without sounding whiny. So, for your reading pleasure I’m going to post the reading lists for two of the three literature courses I’m taking in the spring.  I’m not sure how I’ll actually get all the reading done (not to mention all the inevitable papers, etc) but I am looking forward to reading all of these books.  I used to be able to study any subject, read anything at all, without disliking it, but as my schedule has become more hectic over the last couple of years I’ve become more picky. For example, I might die if I have to sit through an entire course on Milton, or Chaucer.  A few years ago I would have done it cheerily.  Not anymore!  This is what I’m looking forward to:

Contemporary Fiction (focus: the role of history)

• Robert Penn Warren, _All the King’s Men_ (1946)
• Thomas Pynchon, _V._ (1963)
• Ishmael Reed, _Mumbo Jumbo_ (1972)
• Louise Erdrich, _Tracks_ (1988)
• Toni Morrison, _Beloved_ (1988)
• Julia Alvarez, _In the Time of the Butterflies_ (1995)
• William T. Vollman, _Europe Central_ (2005)

The Craft of Contemporary Fiction

• The Ecstatic, LaValle
• Motherless Brooklyn, Lethem
• Dangerous Husband, Shapiro
• Jimmy Corrigan, Ware
• The Devil’s Larder, Crace
• Magic for Beginners, Link
• Home Land, Lipsyte
• The Intuitionist, Whitehead
• Best Seats in the House, Morris
• The Virgin Suicides, Eugenides

I’m also taking a single author study on Eudora Welty. I started Europe Central and am sufficiently intimidated. I have no idea what’s going on, and it might be the longest novel I’ve ever attempted to read. If you have any opinions about any of these books, please send them over.