Also in my rage to list books I am forced to list all the books that I started but that didn't seem rewarding and were put aside for good (marked with *) or that I vaguely mean to pick up again (marked with **) or that I am angsting about not having finished yet (marked with ***) or that I read a little bit of every night (****):

Rebecca West's book about treason **
Proust ****
Hudson River Bracketed, by Edith Wharton *
The Wapshot Scandal ***
Arabia Deserta ****
A book with "Crickets" in the title, by James Sallis *
Neither Three Nor Five, by Helen MacInnes *

The thing that the three one-star books have in common is that they are all very explainy. The Edith Wharton really made me nuts. Every statement is followed by three supporting statements from the history and interior life of the characters. The Sallis book was like the fourth in a series and the first 20 pages were catching up all the characters in a telegraphic way. "He looked at old Cooter and remembered the night at Joe Ed's dock three years ago that Cooter had saved his life with a single defiant act. Now Cooter was standing outside the liquor store. 'Howdy, Cooter,' ..." etc. And the MacInnes was just weird.