I guess I can breath now, my books arrived this morning. I think I should add a disclaimer...that my three recent arrivals are all published by my company, Houghton Mifflin, and that I got them for half-price. However, I know that I would have paid full-price for these books had Houghton not published them. (Houghton also published People I Wanted to Be, The Plot Against American and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.)

So now I'm on to Cynthia Ozick's Heir to the Glimmering World. It's my first Ozick.

I also got Robert Stone's Outerbridge Reach, which has drawn comparisons to Melville. And speaking of Melville, Stone obviously has an affinity for the man. Here's an article he wrote for the New York Times on Melville and Kerouac.

April 12, the Jack and Stella Kerouac Center for American Studies at UMass Lowell will host the second annual New England Poetry Conference.

Now reading:
Ozick Heir to the Glimmering World
Tobias Wolff Old School

On deck:
Stone Outerbridge Reach
Barbara Croft Moon's Crossing