If you haven't yet read Anne Tyler's latest novel,The Beginner's Goodbye,  put in on your list for a time when you're ready for a quick and quirky read.  In this short tale, the marriage of Aaron and Dorothy, two hopelessly mis-matched people, ends abruptly when a tree falls on the house and Dorothy is killed.  (This is not a spoiler - it happens in the first few pages.) 

What follows is the story of how Aaron processes his grief by conducting a post-mortem on what was a less than blissful marriage, with Dorothy's ghost.  Their visits help move Aaron move from his sense of loss to a place that allows him to be the person that he was always meant to be.  

Anne Tyler ranks very highly among the royalty of domestic fiction.  Here, she uses her genius to explore the endelessly imaginative ways in which married couples manage to both endear themselves to one another and drive one another nuts. She is, as always, wise and witty, and I especially recommend this book to reading groups.

Eligible Californians can now register to vote online, thanks to a new Web application form at RegisterToVote.ca.gov.

"Today the Internet replaces the mailbox for thousands of Californians wanting to register to vote,” said Secretary of State Debra Bowen, California’s chief elections officer in a news release. “Online or on paper, California’s laws and procedures for processing voter registration applications are identical. Security is a critical part of elections, and I want to emphasize this online application is not ‘automatic registration.’ The information provided in an online application still must be verified by a county elections official before an applicant can be added to the voter rolls.”

Mail-in voter registration forms are available in the Library, and you can get more information on the Civic Information Center page.

The last day to register to vote for the November 6 General Election is October 22.

When Irish author David Mitchell’s novel Cloud Atlas was released in 2004, it won rave reviews and a number of awards for fiction.  Readers in book groups across America were alternately puzzled and dazzled by it.  Cloud Atlas didn’t make the New York Times best seller list when it came out, because it was competing with the likes of The Da Vinci Code and other blockbusters.  But now that it will open a major motion picture in late-October, reading Cloud Atlas is all the rage, and the eight-year-old book is now on the New York Times’ list best selling paperbacks. 

At the Library, we enjoy making book vs. movie comparisons, so if you have read Cloud Atlas and go to see the movie when it opens, please let us know which you enjoyed more.  And if you haven’t read the book, there’s still time!