First of all, I’m heading to Salt Lake City, Utah for the fourth Winter Institute bright and early tomorrow morning. The ABA (American Booksellers Association) began this conference four years ago as a chance for booksellers to meet each other and to learn without the chaos of Book Expo. I’m pretty excited to be going, even if I have to get up at 4:30am for my flight. The most important question of course is what books will I bring with me to read? Here’s what I’m bringing:

• The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Rief Larsen
• My Abandonment by Peter Rock
• The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

I’m torn right now because I’m in the middle of Lilith’s Brood by Octavia Butler (see sidebar) and really enjoying it. Her work is so dark! And I have to complain about the cover, which makes it look like a romance novel. The reawakening of the human race by an alien race after humans annihilated themselves is not exactly a romance.

Second, I disagree with Michiko Kakutani’s review of T.C. Boyle’s new book The Women in the Times today. She calls it dreary, a “small, cheesy paint-by-numbers soap opera”. I can’t say that I liked all of the characters in the book (yes, I know they’re based on real people but they’re still characters in a novel) but I didn’t find it either of those things. Also, why is she reviewing it now? It’s got a strict on sale date of February 10th! That’s very annoying for booksellers who have to field all the requests from customers for a book they can’t sell yet.

And finally, John Updike?! What? I’m shocked. I wasn’t aware that he had lung cancer. I don’t know what to say.

I’m writing my first post in a very long time. It’s going to be a short one as I’m mostly linking to another blog post here, one that does a really nice job summarizing some exciting books coming this year. Max at the Millions always does a fantastic job at this sort of thing. I’m looking forward particularly to Colson Whitehead’s Sag Harbor, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck, and Lorrie Moore’s A Gate at the Stairs. I read T.C. Boyle’s new novel The Women back in December—it’s fantastic, better than Talk, Talk. On a side note, he’ll be appearing at my store on February 11th.

Two books I’ll mention quickly. First, one of the best books I read in 2008, I didn’t read until mid-December; Philip Hensher’s Northern Clemency was the perfect ending (or nearly ending) to my 2008 reading list. The book chronicles two English families over the course of several decades beginning in 1974. There’s no straight plot, you just follow their lives. I quite enjoyed reading it. Right now, I’m in the middle of Laila Lalami’s The Secret Son. I loved Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits and so far her new novel has not disappointed me. 2009 has begun with a good start!