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.