(B) The Best American Non-Required Reading 2009 (Ed. by Dave Eggers, 2009) Grade: B
The Non-Required Reading series usually introduces me to some new writers whom I have not heard of before (i.e. Jhumpa Lahiri), and the collections are a diverse mix of fiction and non-fiction. One of my favorite pieces was "The Chameleon," which was originally published in the New Yorker and discusses a real-life Frenchman who pretended to be all sorts of different people, mostly orphaned children. There were a lot of standout non-fiction pieces, including Jonathan Franzen's farewell to David Foster Wallace and "A Product of This Town," about the Jena Six.

(B) Nine Stories (J.D. Salinger, 1953) Grade: B+
The death of J.D. Salinger renewed my interest in his work, of which I have only read Catcher in the Rye, and that was years ago. I didn't know Salinger had only four published books; for some reason, I thought he had more. Well, perhaps his unpublished stories will one day be released to the public. Of the nine stories, my favorite was "For Esme--With Love and Squalor." It really depicted the affects of war on the main character.

I was reading this Reuters article and came across a very sloppy mistake: "Dear John" stars Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried as lovers whose romance is curtailed by the September 11 attacks. It is directed by Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallstrom and based on "The Notebook," a novel by Nicholas Sparks.

Dear John is not based on The Notebook, but on the book Dear John. But only someone like me would care about fact-checking. I think I'm missing my job.

(B) Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Alan Sillitoe, 1958) Grade: B
The first book by British writer Alan Sillitoe, Saturday Night concerns a young lad named Arthur Seaton, whose motto is "it's a great life, if you don't weaken." He carries on with little concern for what others believe is wrong--he sleeps with two married women, who happen to be sisters--but despite this, you still empathize with his character. He toils away all day in a factory at a job he dislikes, just to help his family and enjoy some pints on the weekend. You don't completely agree with his actions, but there is something to admire in his fighting spirit. Sillitoe's second novel, The Loneliness of a Long-Distance Runner, also is about disaffected, working-class youth (and inspired a Belle & Sebastian song).