The only reading I got done yesterday involved The NY Times, The SF Chronicle, and redroom blogs, which were so interesting to me in terms of discussing King Lear and "genius." I'm not sure I have an answer of the genius definition, but it was fun getting toward it. Often, I fine defining things shrinks them, so maybe I prefer a constant state of trying to figure something out. Life seems more interesting that way.

I usually read more in the summer than I am this summer--it's kind of strange. I think my brain may be on overload, but it is usually the time I save up, hold dear, know that the stories I've been needing will be mine at the end of May. Summer is the time of falling into stories, thinking about them, learning from them. But this is not happening this summer. I don't even want to enter into the book contest at the bottom of this page because the extra books in my house would make me feel bad. What is going on? It could be the extra teaching I'm doing--the novel that I'm trying to finish. The kid issues that have abounded since about March. Who knows?

But if I were reading, if I could get my brain act together, here's what I would have right now in my hands, on a rotating basis:

• Ericka Lutz's manuscript.
• Bob Levin's The Best Ride to New York.
• Richard Wiley's Ahmed's Revenge.
• Cormac McCarthy's The Road (after reading the review of Michael Chabon's new book on other genre forms in The NY Times, I know I have to read this one. It comes up again and again, and my oldest son really liked it. So here it is on the list).
• King Lear.
• Marilynne Robinson's Home.
• Christopher Meeks' Months and Seasons (this is my friends collections of short stories I wrote about a couple of weeks ago--it arrived, and it looks wonderful. He read the first short story in the collection at a UCLA reading a while back, and it was a hoot!)

All right. I've got King Lear in my purse and Chris Meeks' book in my gym bag instead of an US magazine. We are off, again, to try to get the car out of impound. I just might get a few words in.

Jessica