The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B
by J. P. Donleavy | 
Take Me With You
by Catherine Ryan Hyde | 
Empire Falls
by Richard Russo | 
Anne of Windy Poplars
by Lucy Maud Montgomery | 
The Sense of an Ending
by Julian Barnes | 
Out Stealing Horses
by Per Petterson | 
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
by David Eggers | 
2666
by Roberto Bolano | 
Buying the Farm
by Kimberly Conn | 
Flight Behavior
by Barbara Kingsolver | 
Harbor of the Heart
by Katherine Spencer | 
The Book of Ruth
by Jane Hamilton | 
Everyman
by Philip Roth | 
We Were the Mulvaneys
by Joyce Carol Oates | 
Old School
by Tobias Wolff | 
South of Broad
by Pat Conroy | 
Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories
by Ghassan Kanafani | 
The Wake Up
by Catherine Ryan Hyde | 
The Risk Pool
by Richard Russo | 
Drop City
by T. Coraghessan Boyle |
What will happen to George Smith? Mysteriously rich and desperately lonely, George appears to be under attack from all quarters: his former wife and four horrible children are suing to get his money; his dipsomaniacal housekeeper is trying to arouse his carnal interest; his secretary, the beautiful, blond Miss Thomson, will barely give him the time of day. Making matters even worse are the threatening letters: Dear Sir: Only for the moment are we saying nothing. Yours, etc., Present Associates. Despite such precautions as a two-inch-thick surgical steel door and a bullet-proof limousine, Smith remains worried. So he undertakes to build a giant mausoleum, complete with plumbing, in which to live. Hunter S. Thompson called reading this book "like sitting down to an evening of good whisky and mad laughter in a rare conversation somewhere on the edge of reality."