The theme this cycle is NanoWrimo, in which one tries to write a full novel in a month.�� For those who know me (I call myself the founding member of the Slow Writing Movement) this notion is somewhat hilarious.�� I tend to lose myself in procrastination, as well as a fair amount of dithering, to say nothing of being the red-headed stepchild of the cybersphere.�� This last trait has resulted in today's post: a micro version of NanoWrimo.�� Normally I'd fret for at least a day or two over my blog post.�� But because of my own inability to access the new platform for scheduling, I discovered (surprise!) that my post was supposed to be up and running as of 7 pm. last night.

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So instead of writing something lovely and meaningful, I'm going to be cheap, cheerful, crass and commercial.�� Starting with 7 pm last night, I was watching The Fitzgerald Family Christmas which I loved.�� It's Ed Burns' story of a large Irish Catholic family, and it's lovely.�� You can get it On Demand on Comcast (which, when I last looked, had taken over the universe. I presume you will find it wherever you are).���� After that, I read Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior, which I'm halfway through.�� It's fascinating and beautiful, and takes us into the life of a woman transformed by something she encounters on her way to an extra-marital assignation.

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On Saturday I went to a book signing by Janis Owens, who I considered one of America's best kept secrets.�� Her new book, American Ghost is based on a montage of several of Florida's small town's best kept secrets, these kind being the ones that fester.�� As she talked about the "hanging" she'd heard of all her life, imagining it was a Western style cattle rustler getting strung up for theft, and discovering through a series of coincidental meetings that it was a lynching, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.�� I haven't read it yet, but I will say that MY BROTHER MICHAEL is one of the best books I've ever read that no one has heard of. Put out by a small southern press, this book has blurbs on the back from Harry Crews, James Dickey and Connie May Fowler.�� It's not out in digital form (though that's coming in a month or so) but if there's anyone on�� your Christmas list who loves Pat Conroy (who says American Ghost is a masterpiece) or Joshilyn Jackson or Flannery O' Connor or Kaye Gibbons, you can't go wrong buying this for them.

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This month I also read Swamplandia.�� It took me forever to get into.�� I think I set it aside more than once.�� Then I made an amazing discovery.�� There are some books that go better with Coke.�� Or Coffee.�� As a working mom, reading, long my favorite form of entertainment, got shoved into later and later time slots.�� It's usually what I do right before I fall asleep.���� Swamplandia is brilliant and gorgeous but I wouldn't have found that out if I'd not gone away with my husband for a beach weekend and sat on the porch looking at the ocean with Voltaire's favorite beverage (he was reputed to drink 72 cups a day) and re-opened the novel.�� So now I realize my ability to enjoy so-called "literature" hasn't faded.�� It's just that there are books you need to do first thing in the morning with as much of a stimulant as you can.�� On the Voltaire Index (tm) Karen Russell's high, but she's freaking brilliant.

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And speaking of brilliant, my dear friend Julianna Baggott's��PURE (which I INHALED) made the New York Times list of 100 top books written in 2012.�� I suspect it was written for young adults but like HARRY POTTER and Phillip Pullman books, it's appropriate for adults.�� The people who made the TWILIGHT movies are making this one into a movie and the next in the trilogy, FUSE, comes out February 19th.��

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Last but not least, I greatly enjoyed Will Schwalbe's End of Your Life Bookclub, about a club of two, the author and his mother, as she was waiting for chemotherapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering.���� Even the closest of families, (and this one seems exceptionally functional) have trouble sometimes when it comes to sitting down and talking about certain things.�� Death, sex, betrayal, etc.�� Books, which the mother and son both adore, provide a perfect jumping off point for intimacy, and humor, and just plain companionship.�� They begin with one of my favorite books EVER, and that's Wallace Stegner's Crossing to Safety.

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Any and all of the above books would make a great Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzai or Druid Fancier present.����

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Sheila Curran's Diana Lively is Falling Down is available only as a digital book, unless you contact the the author who'd be happy to sell you a paperback copy.�� Her second novel Everyone She Loved is available in digital or hard copy.�� You can view a trailer about the book (and the author's television-watching-dog) if you'd like to know more.�� Merry Christmas all!