Under The Tuscan Sun: At Home In Italy by Frances Mayes (20)

Frances Mayes's epic poem to Tuscany. Under The Tuscan Sun is slow and leisurely. If you're reading it in a recliner or in the sun, it's quite likely you'll just ease into a nap after a few pages. You won't be napping from boredom, but from a desire to siesta like the village in which Mayes makes her summer home.

The book arouses the jealousy of the amateur chef. Tales of bountiful home gardens blooming like Eden without any care, fresh ingredients from town markets, and quality olive oil and wine for cheap make the Key Foods down the street even more dismal. My fire escape herb garden fights to survive, but in Italy, wild sage and rosemary spread like dandelions. What a pleasure it must be to cook so simply and so well.

And that is the point, if there is any, of the book. The pleasure and beauty of life, even if you have to go to the Mediterranean to find it.

Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message That Feminism's Work is Done by Susan J. Douglas (19)

Sexism is still around and keeping ladies down. I agree with the basic message of this book that women still have to fight for equal opportunity. I also acknowledge that our society does little to support women at home and at work.

But I have to say that this is a very tiring book from an unimaginative feminist. The book is far longer than it ought to be to make her point. Douglas is repetitive and easily distracted with an irritating habit of interrupting important sentences with constant sarcastic asides that sacrifice clarity for labored humor.

I do appreciate her attitude and I loved reading the chapter on Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess, two of my favorite shows as a kid. Those fantasies of powerful women kicking evil butt were encouraging escapes for a tiny, shy girl with glasses as big as her head. Yet, the author did little to mention how media can encourage women or how media could or does further feminist causes. She only took hundreds of pages retelling 90210 or Xena or Boston Legal, shows she obviously enjoyed watching, explained how they supported the new sexism, and offered no counter examples.

Douglas has less than a basic understanding of economic theory or practice and she considers only one vision of how the country can support families: the federal government does it all. Apparently national day care is going to solve everything for women. Because the only men who can help us care for our children are the ones we elected.

Nudge by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein (18)

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." Kay, Men In Black

Lay and professional economists are too optimistic about citizens' reactions to laws, markets, and incentives. I studied economics at a conservative college and slid into thinking that people know themselves and care enough to make relatively informed decisions about their lives. Thaler and Sunstein are honest about the human laziness and apathy that economists ignore, though they say it nicely.

Thaler and Sunstein make gentle, convincing arguments that people need a little nudge when making big , rare decisions with little feedback or chance for correction - mortgages, loans, health insurance, and other important things that people often mess up.

It was difficult to follow the flow of Nudge at first after a fiction binge, but the arguments are easy to understand and the writing is personable and earnest. Thaler and Sunstein build trust by exposing personal flaws to the readers, like forgetting to turn in health insurance forms at work for good coverage. It's a great read for people who are moderately interested in political issues, but are repulsed by the vitriol of current political discussion. It is balanced and logical without jargon or superiority. Plus, the elephants are cute.

Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann (17)

Let The Great World Spin, a mosaic of stories in the tunnels of New Yorkers lives, is the best Manhattan-based novel I've read. The characters are caricatures, cliches, and exaggerations of New Yorkers. The story I liked best was the one with the most regular characters - a group of mothers meeting to commiserate over the loss of their sons in Vietnam. It was full of the tension, uncertainly, awkwardness and regret of real life.

It is a quick read because it is precisely written, with paragraphs of concrete examples pulled from characters' thoughts. It is also a good, fulfilling read, and pretty much worth all the hype.