"Bleeding London" features, among other things, a character who decides to walk every street of London. The plot itself is not so strong, but it hardly matters because Nicholson has wonderful powers of observation and imagination. Very enjoyable read.

"About Schmidt" is an elegant but comic novel that examines a middle-aged man's frame of mind. I found the absence of quotation marks (the ones that normally represent direct dialogue) an interesting literary tool: sort of like a scrim onstage--the conversation appears to be just a tad blurry and impressionistic, as if it's coming from somewhere else instead of the banal present.

"The Shipping News" is a wonderful place to start. Such inventive use of language--sometimes I wasn't sure whether I was reading prose or poetry. I liked "Accordion Crimes" until about 2/3 way through, when an orange cat's killing is described in detail.

"Paper Wings" is a beautiful coming-of-age novel.

In both Dana Spiotta's "Eat the Document" and Sigrid Nunez's recent "The Last of Her Kind," you will be taken back to the radical protest movements of the late sixties and early seventies and then whipped back to the present to learn some of the consequences of--as well as present-day variations on--those movements. Both novels feature engaging characters and are worthwhile reads.

Coming-of-age novel with a twist. I loved all the characters. Always funny, always poignant.

At 654 pages, it's about twice as long as it should be. It was gripping at first and then became tedious. Here and there, I found quotable passages, but overall, am sorry to have spent so much time on it.