The Cobweb

The latest book on our reading list, "The Cobweb," by Neal Stephenson and J. Fredrick George, starts off with one of the funniest first chapters I've read in a long time. You can read it for yourself here, toward the bottom of the page, under the heading "Read an Excerpt." The rest of the book is pretty good too—funny, suspenseful, and (sure, I'm just guessing here but so what) dead-center, Iowa.