The Clairvoyant Zoopraxiscope

Am reading Kay Ryan's Niagara Falls and David St. John's The Face right now. These too are more conservative than writers I might normally read, but also not. Ryan's poems have an odd, abrupt way of ending, and St. John's poems have spontaneity in them which I enjoy, even if they do talk about what Donald Rumsfeld would call "known unknowns." Am also reading The Poisonwood Bible, alongside a book about Mobutu's last days as President of Zaire. I'm trying, and stop me if I've said this before, to read a Sjowall/Wahloo book as well, The Man on the Balcony. These books are pared down to a really comforting degree, a little depressing, but also genuine.