What's on my Nightstand this month?

My nightstand is newly stocked after a trip to the library yesterday. Some time during the month I picked up A Mercy by Toni Morrison, Dissolution by C. J. Sansom, and The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian. I started the first two and didn't like them. I always feel weird when I don't like books by an author as popular as Toni Morrison, but I'm sorry I just didn't. I'm notorious for starting books that people rave about and not liking them. You know that list that's going around on Facebook of the 100 books you should have read? I've read 25, but I've started at least 10-15 more and couldn't get into them. What does this say about me? Some might say, "Uncultured swine" but I prefer, "independent thinker."

Anyway, I kept The Double Bind and am enjoying it. The first book I read by Bohjalian was Midwives, which was fantastic. This is about a woman who becomes connected with a homeless man and his box of old photographs, which he claims to have taken himself. I'm not sure what kind of a plot will develop from it, but I'm a few chapters in and hooked already.

I also picked up The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo which has been on my list for some time. In fact, such a long time that I forget how or why I put it on there in the first place. I think I just like the word "Alchemist" because it makes me think of "apothecary" which means pharmacist (and in Mandarin pharmacists are also called "chemists"), and that's what my dad is. How's that for a compelling reason to read something?