The gift card that afforded me an opportunity of frivolously picking up a Spark novel I had never read has also provided me with a new Byatt. Little Black Book of Stories sits happily beside the keyboard, waiting for me to delve. In fact, I've already read the first two short stories in the collection, "The Thing In the Forest" -- which is very familiar to me as I've taught it several times for university intro English courses -- and "Body Art." These short stories promise to be such a treat. I'll be writing more about them, that's for sure.

I'm also working my way through a few more poetry collections. I've finished the next on the review pile: Palilalia by Jeffrey Donaldson is just full of verbal gymnastics. Fascinating stuff. Perhaps I will even go so far as to say 'brilliant.'