Since my little boy is taking a nap, I decided to dig into the latest novel I'm reading: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. The book is so good, I had to stop reading and talk about it, but Carissa is working. And if Alex was awake, I suspect he wouldn't be interested.

I know, the book is three years old and most who wanted to read this book will have done so by now. I've had the book for over a year, but just didn't get around to it.

Here's the thing: it's certainly not the plot that has me so enthralled. It's nothing but a family drama, and I've lived enough of those. It's not the characters, because they are so completely drawn out that I am certain of my dislike for them. So why in hell am I reading it?

It's the writing! Franzen writes about average people living average lives, but in a way that is absolutely engrossing. The characters are so real, the sense of place so palpable...he makes the mundane fascinating. I haven't read any of his other work, so he may have just hit the jackpot here.

Only two writers have been able to do this to me over the past few years; Wally Lamb in I Know This Much is True (not so much in She's Come Undone), and to a lesser degree Richard Russo in Empire Falls.

There. Just had to get that off my chest.