I have been in heaven because I keep receiving little chunks of reading time. A flood of books has arrived and there's no way I can read all of them, which profoundly saddens me.

The Christian Science Monitor had an interesting article about the new genre "matron lit." Please, gag a little into your teacups. The Hot Flash Club by Nancy Thayer is one of them, as is The Red Hat Club by Haywood Smith. I suppose I should be generous and grant that they're harmless. After all, they give "gals" (oh, how I loathe that word) between the ages of 48-62 a few role models of women who have finally given themselves permission to live. Well, good for them. I've seen both books at the library--how trite and insipid can novels be?

I should never diss books. Never! I may have readers who loved both of these books. My apologies! The CSM article is intriguing, however, from the perspective of cultural oddities.

Philip Roth's The Plot against America has arrived. It's on tape. My idea was that Ken and I could listen to it in the evenings. I know he'll love it, but it's hard to pull him away from 24, House, West Wing, and Boston Legal. I'll see how far I can get.