Ok finished that lot of books! (except the John Cheever) he's got a heap of stories in there and almost all of them are brilliant so i'm just taking my time to finish it. heck even if it means paying the 50cent renewal fee at the library!
also just picked up The Music Room by Dennis Macfarland. haven't really begun it yet but it seems to open with the suicide of the main character's brother. depressing? hardly!

it's not as if i haven't been reading. i just haven't been posting. currently attacking three books and wondering if i can get them back to the library on time! Stories Of John Cheever, COme And Go Molly Snow, The Fourth Hand
Definitely relishing the John Cheever. He is so brilliant! I savour each word, each description that i'm reading so slowly. And it is quite a thick book. I guess it's good in some way that it is a collection of short stories cos if i really can't finish i can return it and let it be. it won't be as if i didn't find out the ending of the book.
and The Fourth Hand is more of Irving's really strange ideas. i guess he was inspired by that guy who got the hand transplant in ....Austr? NZ? and it turns out he was a convict. well the book isn't like that but it does mention that. and interestingly, it does not have a bear in the book, only a lion.