I nominate Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner.

I'll add Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall. Some of the funniest, best writing I've read in a while. I'm only 70 pages in.

OK, what's on our list? We can't have more than 10 on a poll - and I think even 10 choices is too many to select from. Can we get a short list?

A poll for the poll, very good!

A Metapoll - as Chris would say.

The current nominees (lucky #13!):

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Crimson Petal and the White by M. Faber
A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson
The Seducer (by Jan Kjaerstad ?)
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner
Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall

That's three too many for a poll. What to do?

The only one on that list that I really know anything about is The Kite Runner, which, I'm sorry to say, I won't be trying to finish again.

So, once the metapoll gets going, I'll have to do some research before I make my vote.

How about splitting into two polls. 6 in each. Top 3 in each poll advance to the semifinals?

THen how do we divide the selections up so as to not skew the polls?