Hello, Bookies:

Are we going to get happy in February? As of this posting, The Happiness Project is in the lead, but our book poll doesn’t close until Sunday, January 24—and Jodi Picoult’s Plain Truth has been picking up steam. Have you made your choice yet?

The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin

Rubin, a RealSimple.com blogger, devoted a year of her life to testing both popular and scientific wisdom about how to be happier. The result is partly a memoir, partly a self-help book, and thoroughly engaging.

Plain Truth, by Jodi Picoult

Picoult’s absorbing 2000 novel is a murder mystery and courtroom drama that swirls around the accused: an 18-year-old Amish girl.

On Beauty, by Zadie Smith

Academic Howard Belsey is having a hard time of it. His marriage is faltering, his kids are fed up with him, and now his greatest rival has arrived to teach at the same New England college, as Smith tackles issues of race, sex, and status in her third novel.

Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiquro

The author of The Remains of the Day takes a step into the realm of science fiction with a tale of a private school in the English countryside whose students are bred for a very specific purpose.

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