Book Buying and the Budget

For a New Year's Resolution, the spouse and I have decided that we are going to strictly budget in 2008 -- that is, keep an record by month of what we plan to spend, and then record what we actually do spend. I'm interested to how this affects my book buying. I do buy a lot of books, but in all honesty, a significant percentage of them are impulse buys -- not really considered and planned choices. I was thinking of instituting a personal rule that I have to check books out of the library or at least see if the library has them before I buy them.
I buy most of my books at my local bookstore. They're not as cheap as Amazon, but I think it's valuable to support a local business, and I value the staff's recommendations and expertise.
Now -- oh joy, oh happy day -- it's my turn to pick the book for my book group this month. We rotate pics. There are two conditions: First, you can't get input from other people in the group. This is so we get a good variety of books without any picks "by committee." Second, no one can have read the book. We all come to the book fresh as new readers.
So with the budget in mind, I'm going to pick a book that I own but that I haven't read. Here are some of the possible contenders.:

• The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke: Burke writes mystery novels set in Louisiana. This is his latest, set in post-Katrina New Orleans. It is supposed to be excellent with a literary bent, and I've never read him before.
  
• Mothers and Sons by Colm Toibin. Short stories set in contemporary Ireland; Toibin has superb reputation as a serious fiction writer. He recently wrote a fictional life of Henry James ("The Master") that got great reviews. The only thing holding me back from picking this one is that my last pick was a contemporary Irish novel -- The Sea by John Banville. I may pick Toibin anyway.
• The Ha Ha by Dave King. This is American fiction from 2005, about a brain-damaged Vietnam vet who befriends a little boy. The man doesn't speak, yet he narrates the novel. It's supposed to be a really good and has gotten great word of mouth.

I also have the following unread titles to consider:

• Generation X by Douglas Coupland: I've never read this novel released in 1991 that gave the name to my age cohort;
• Bayou Farewell by Mike Tidwell: Pre-Katrina nonfiction about Louisiana's vanishing coast line;
• A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia by Victor Pelevin: Short stories from one of Russia's best contemporary writers;
• New Stories from the South 2007 edited by Edward P. Jones: an anthology of last year's writing from Southerners.

So you can see I have quite a few choices. Feel free to comment and let me know what you think, excluding current book group members. I think I'm going to narrow it down to three books, then read the first chapters of all three, then pick one.
Update: This post has been amended. It originally said "The Ha Ha" was "about an autistic man who befriends a little boy." See comments for details.

Mister Pip, a book trip, and making the tough calls

I'm going out of town this weekend, so I'll get some blissful airport reading time. The book is my current book group selection, Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones. This is about a tropical island shattered by war, where the last Westerner remaining teaches the school children by reading Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.
When I get back from this trip, I need to do a serious catalog of all the books I've bought recently that I haven't yet read. I'll admit that my book buying has momentarily gotten a little bit out of hand. I have some really good books that I need to read. Hopefully I will rank these books to help myself decide what to read next, and I'll post the list here.
I badly need to do this before the annual book sale or things will get completely out of hand and there will be books all over the floor because the book shelves are all full.

The dreaded "twee" appellation

My book group is preparing to discuss Eat, Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert. I really liked it -- I've been a fan of Gilbert's ever since I came across her distinctive chatty-but-smart magazine stories in GQ years ago. This book is a memoir Gilbert's emotional recovery from a painful divorce. Her solution is to seek pleasure worldwide by eating in Italy, praying in India and finding balance in Indonesia. It's a clever premise, and in the end the book moves beyond her divorce to her spiritual maturation as a complete woman. Her writing is a joy -- breezy, funny and modern. And I really liked the way she documented the hard-to-describe feelings of silent meditation.
But I fear my dear book group compatriot J. is not going to like it. I can hear her now, she will tag it with the dreaded "twee" appellation. What is twee? Twee is anything that J. considers too cutesy or precious or sweet or clever for it's own good. It's the opposite of J.'s most complimentary adjectives, which are -- can you guess? -- "ironic" and "dark" (and sometimes "sarcastic"). Other books we have read that J. said were twee are Winkie by Clifford Chase (a satirical memoir in which a teddy bear becomes ensnared in a terrorist plot) and The World to Come by Dara Horn (a cross-generational love story celebrating Jewish art and literature, hinged around a stolen Marc Chagall painting).
So I'm thinking up my twee counterarguments now.