I don't know what you've been up to over the last few days, but I have been taking full advantage of the long-awaited arrival of spring weather. With winter lasting until the end of April, I have become very behind on sprucing up the garden. Yesterday was near perfect, so I spent it working grass seed into the bare patches on the lawn and yanking out the dreaded dandelions. In between spurts of digging in the dirt, it was delightful to sit at the patio table with a cool beverage and a good book.

It's time to get ready for summer reading and mark your calendars for our upcoming discussions:

May 21, 2007 - Remainder by Tom McCarthy
June 25, 2007 - Happiness by Will Ferguson
July 23, 2007 - On Beauty by Zadie Smith
August 20, 2007 - Set This House in Order by Matt Ruff

Speaking of Remainder and this month's discussion, I have written a review of the book for thescene, a lifestyle e-zine based in Australia. You can read the review here, but I'll go ahead and let you know right now that I loved it. The writing is just as surreal as the storyline and compliments it well.

There's also a blog dedicated to the work of Tom McCarthy, which I assume was created by a fan, called Surplus Matter. It hasn't been updated since March, but it does contain the full text of many reviews of the book and interviews with the author. If you're interested in finding out more about Remainder, Surplus Matter is an excellent resource.

Next month's title, Happiness will be hosted by Brian of Dispatches from an MFA Seeking Writer. (He's pretty close to graduating, I think. I wonder if he'll change the name of his blog to Dispatches from an MFA Graduate Seeking a Book Deal.) Brian is no stranger to hosting, since each week he leads his visitors on Haiku Saturday. Surely you have a few moments to stop by and haiku with the crew.