Anne Tyler is my favorite writer. I love her. I love her books. I love the ordinariness of her characters and how their small lives suck me in. How much I love living in her worlds and how sad I am when they are over. When I heard Noah’s Compass was coming out, I was so excited. Another novel by Tyler. She does write consistently but she’s not so prolific. You have to be patient. I wish she wrote six books a year, I can never get enough.

Noah’s Compass was no exception. I read it in one day. I wished there was more. I felt like I was living in the world of her characters. It made me think about growing old. About the choices I make. About how much presence matters. Being present in your own life. Being there. now. Being here. now. Taking it all in. Being accountable. How very much it all matters.

I love this book. I need to go back and read some of her older books now. She’s so very magnificent.

I read about Await Your Reply on several “top books of 2009” articles so I decided to give it a try. I had read and liked Dan Chaon’s previous book and had high expectations. While the writing was good and I liked the way the plot intertwined and unraveled at the end, I just didn’t get into this book as much as I would have liked.

None of the characters held my interest or sympathy. I found myself uninterested in their stories and how they turned out. The plot, also, wasn’t something I found engaging. But this is personal to me. The writing was engaging. So if the subject of identity theft is interesting to you, you might enjoy this novel more than I did.