Reading Rut

I need some help. I'm in a reading rut. Got any good books you can recommend? I hate when this happens. Like most readers, I've got a pile of books by my bed. There's a pile next to my desk at home and even a few on my desk at work, but I can't find anything stimulating or engrossing to read. I've wandered the aisles at my local bookstore and come up empty handed. Help!

2010 was not a great reading year for me. The first half of the year I returned to work and had all I could do to survive each day. Managing baby, job and life left me clueless about new books. I did finish
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy. What characters! I could excuse the ridiculous details because Lisbeth and Mikael were fascinating. My curiosity about what they were doing and why kept me reading at a good clip.

What I did for summer reading, I haven't a clue!  I know that in the fall I read Better, by Atul Gawande and also read Mister. Pip. I wanted Mister Pip to be better than it was. The setting was luscious, but I kept waiting for more to happen. It did, however, send me back to Great Expectations, a little bit.  I couldn't commit to wading into it deeply. I let being back to work suck the energy out of me.

By the end of the year I'd started Freedom. Sucker that I am, I bought it in hard cover. I could have picked up two other books for the price of that tome. I'm halfway through and  may just have to go back it; I'm so desperate for something to read. But part of me feels duped. The reviewer in the Atlantic wasn't a fan of the book either. He commented that for every contemporary book we choose to read, that's one classic we're not reading. Time to revisit the Bennetts or return to Pip? These long winter nights are perfect for long novels.

It's been awhile since I've reread anything. Perhaps that is the route I need to take.

I need a book with a strong voice, something that grabs me on the first page. Patti Smith did it; I finished Just Kids last night. Those of you who can remember feeling that you just may be able to take on the world with your art or your talent will recognize her voice. And those of you whoever doubted that you were making the right choices with your life will recognize her as well. To think the mother of punk rock once felt insecure... Her relationship with Mapplethorpe was beautiful. How lucky for her to have had him as a friend.

Never Let Me Go was excellent. I read that before the holidays. What I enjoyed about it was the premise, the idea that was always present in the story but Ishiguro artfully avoids mentioning. It did haunt me. I'd read it before falling asleep, then dream about walking down windswept rainy streets with the characters. It took some time to read because it affected me so. Ishiguro's writing is so filled with melancholy. He renders a truth that is painful to stay with for long periods of time but hard to leave. Does that make sense?

I also need a character, or two. A colleague lent me Dennis Lehane's first novel with Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, A Drink Before the War. Patrick and Angie are the detectives Ben Afleck made famous in "Gone, Baby Gone." That is actually the fourth or fifth book in the series. They are characters, all right, but the frankness of their reality is a little too much. Part of the problem may have been that I was reading the book around the time that I watched "The Town." Maybe I'm just a wimp.

Here's what I'm looking for: a story with characters who have strong voices. A story that sticks with me but doesn't haunt me. A great story with a surprise, or two, that makes me think for a bit. Got something to fit the bill?