Two new books out now, very popular; First, The Irresistable Henry House by Lisa Grunwald, about, get this, a "practice baby" from a college home economics department in the 1950s. Apparently there were a lot of colleges that did this back in the days when every woman's destiny was to be a wife and mother -- take a baby from a local orphanage and have a set of home ec majors take care of it for a year, then send it back and get a new baby to take care of next year.

"Taking care of an infant is the only important job most of you will ever have"

Henry House manages at age 10-12 months to charm the house mother into keeping him.

The other, The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman, is about an English language newspaper in Rome and the lives of the people that work there. Very very good.

For those whose tastes run to challenging boundaries, John Waters has written a new book of memoirs, called, ironically I suppose, Role Models. The thing is, he is right about so many things, e.g. "being rich means you can buy any book you want and not worry if you can afford it." Or, his advice on buying art. Like he himself says about many things, "It's a freakshow but you gotta see it once." Still not for tender ears though.

There's a good, funny new book out now that concerns the publishing industry, titled After the Workshop: a memoir by Jack Hercules Sheahan: a novel by John McNally, who has also written a couple of other funny books, particularly America's Report Card.

Also, Jules Feiffer, who I always loved, has written an autobiography titled Backing Into Forward. It tells his whole story from childhood, including his collaboration with Norman Juster producing The Phantom Tollbooth, which is a wonderful J-book for any strong reader age 10 up.