On my bedside table

I was talking with a friend lately outlining my reading list for the next few months. Anyway, here's what I have read in what order.

• The Book of Chameleons, by José Eduardo Agualusa: This is for my reader's advisory class. The assignment was to pick a contemporary work of fiction in translation, in this case, from the Portuguese. This is an avant-garde murder mystery set in Africa and narrated by a lizard! I started reading it this morning, and it's beautifully written and already haunting me. In tone and mood, it reminds me just a bit of The Sea by John Banville. (Are you reading this, JJ?)
  
• A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Tolz: Speaking of JJ, this is her book pick for our next book group meeting. It's a zany literary-adventure novel from Australia; The Wall Street Journal compared it to my much beloved A Confederacy of Dunces. Because I'm a hard-working blogger, I dug up the exact quote from the WSJ: "Mr. Toltz's merry chaos -- a mix of metaphysical inquiry, ribald jokes, freakish occurrences and verbal dynamite booming across the page -- deserves a place next to 'A Confederacy of Dunces' in a category that might be called the undergraduate ecstatic." The reviewer then calls it "Voltaire meets Vonnegut." OK, so you get the idea. It is, so far, snicker-out-loud funny. And it's loooooooooong ... some reviewers say too long. 
  
• I have two books that I may review. I won't name them here but one is about post-Katrina New Orleans and the other is a first novel. 
  
• Finally, I made a deal with my mom. Either I read The Brothers Karamazov by her birthday or I give her my spanking new, hardcover, fabulous new translation copy of the book. I don't want to do that! Her birthday is May 4. Can I make it? Only time will tell!