1. “I grew up eating ham and pigs, and then 30 years ago I moved to Mississippi and learned to love pizza!”– Mennonite man on a tractor

2. The award for Best Meta Vanity Tag goes to:
THE TAG

3. You should probably go on and read A Good Hard Look by Ann Napolitano. Flannery O’Connor is one of the characters — if that appeals to you, awesome! If that makes you roll your eyes, WAIT. It’s very well done AND there is bonus grostesquery. And peacocks!

What you should not read: The House at Riverton by Kate Morton. Have you ever wanted to rip out the last page of a book so that future readers won’t have to endure the stupid ending, and can instead imagine that everything went a different way? If you haven’t, feel free to read this book.

And have we already talked about Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton? The first part — Blood — is good. Great, even. Perfect? Maybe. I was feeling a little woozy and starry-eyed about how much I was loving it, and then I started the middle section and wow. SOMEONE gets an MFA in creative writing and plays around with narration and WOW COMES OFF AS A HUGE JERK FOR THE REST OF THE BOOK. You should get it from your public library just to read the first part.