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-The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series (Alexander McCall Smith). I thought I wouldn't like these, as I rarely like cult classics, but I'm quite pleased with these. (joyce (um, if you haven't read these... I seem to remember they weren't on your latest list of series, anyway), there are (as of my current reading) no murders! The books affirm the positivity of human behavior rather than the negative side! These are the books you were looking for!) The mysteries are, admittedly, not of the "gather clues and work out the puzzle" sort-- more the psychological/procedural "here's how we figured out what was going on and what to do about it," and aren't novel-length mysteries for the most part, which I actually liked quite a lot (though I'm glad the puzzle sort exist as well).

-Collected Stories (Alfred Bester). This Bester only counts as light because a) he's old and b) these are short stories. I seem to have read a bunch of these, one way or another, when I was younger, but they're a lot better than I remember (much like Austen, whom I didn't much care for in the sixth grade when I was too young to realize how howlingly funny and sarcastic she is). Bester is right up there for me. Love him almost as much as my hero Cordwainer Smith. Well, maybe half as much.

-Unnatural Death (Sayers). I was under the vague impression I wasn't such a big fan of Sayers' mystery novels before Strong Poison. Now that I've read this one, I may have to rethink that whole concept. It's still true that Lord Peter is a bit of a two-dimensional donkey in this one, but he does show signs of growing a personality someday, and Parker is brilliant, and Sayers' sense of humor is on grand display here. And I utterly, utterly adore Miss Climpson. I liked it a lot.

-Dante's Daughter (Heuston). I loved this one, but I love Dante, and I love the Divine Comedy, so I feel I can't speak at all unbiasedly about it. I loved it because it showed Dante as the man I think (from reading the Divine Comedy) he must have been-- full of life and passion, a great man in both his virtues and his flaws (of which he was the first to agree he had many). I am annoyed that she was married off to someone whose entire family the author knew was going to die in the Plague, but that's just my squeamishness showing through, I think. I'm super squeamish about my characters sometimes. Also, I enjoyed the shout-out to Mormons. I'm a sucker for secret allusions, too.

Yup, still on the hold list for Sons of Heaven. Someday...

Also, I am totally, totally lusting after an amazon Kindle. But early adopters Do Not Rule! I have to keep telling myself that (as I play with my clunky first-generation iPod-- um, that was a gift, by the way!)