Woolly Mutts

A summer with my nose in a book.

I have decided that I do not read enough.  I know, I know.....I am never without a book, but it's true that I don't read as much as I used to.  Much too much time is spent right here gazing into the computer screen.  Then there is the knitting.  I can't knit and read.  I know those who can (all hail the power of the amazing knitter) but I just end up having to rip back and ripping back is not on my agenda....ever.  So, I've made a summer reading list, AND I have also decided that I want to read these as books, not on my kindle or ipad.  This in no way means that I have any negative feelings towards my kindle.  Quite the contrary,  I have mad love for my kindle.  Sometimes I just miss the way a book feels and smells.  I miss the hunt at the library for just the right book.  I miss checking out the end before I get there.  (yes, I'm one of those.) Below is the list I complied during a sleepless night:

*Hunger Games series - Suzanne Collins.  This one I will be listening to on CD in the car. AH is listening to them now.  I really enjoy the YA genre and have heard good things about this series.  A film is also being made based on the first book. 

*State of Wonder - Ann Patchett.  Love Ann Patchett.  If you haven't read Bel Canto, you should.

*Body Surfing - Anita Shreve.  Even though her books always make me cry.

*Anybody Out There - Marian Keyes.  Just because.

*The Girl Who Chased the Moon - Sarah Addison Allen.  I have fallen for this author in a big way.  Her books are lyrical, simple and altogether lovely. 

*A Year on Ladybug Farm - Donna Ball.  Who wouldn't want to read a book about a place called Ladybug Farm?

*The Secret Lives of Dresses - Erin McKean.  Recommended by a seamstress, I am completely romanced by the title.

*Smokin Seventeen - Janet Evanovich.  May the tales of Stephanie, Joe, and Ranger never end.

Here is where you come in; this list isn't long enough to keep me reading all summer so I need suggestions.  What have you read that you love?  What is on your need-to-read list?  Please and thank you.

A few that I have recently read and can recommend:

The Discovery of Witches - Deborah Harkness.  LOVE, love, loved this book.  AH read it and also enjoyed it, although I loved it more.  It might be a little bit more of a chick read.  I do love a good vampire story.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dayne - Katherine Howe.  First vampires, now witches.  Extremely well written and fascinating read. 

Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen.  As mentioned above, adore this author.  Also read The Peach Keeper and am currently reading The Sugar Queen. Whimsical, sweet books.

We had another heck of a storm last night.  Parts of Rockford are still without power, which is no fun at all.  This Spring has been all about extremes.  Crazy hot temps (it was 98 yesterday) and damaging storms.  We never know what to expect next.  AH got some good pics of the iris before they got blown to pieces.  Such mysterious flowers.

Go now and send me book suggestions.  If you'd rather email than comment you send them to hollyberry57atcomcastdotnet.

 

Hopelessly Devoted

If I don't have something to read I get the jitters.  No, seriously, I have withdrawal symptoms.  Thankfully, this rarely happens.  On a good day I have three books going, in various forms.  Right now I am half way through the final book in the Millennium series via my Kindle, am listening in the car, to " Fledgling" by the late Octavia Butler (this is my first experience with Ms. Butler's work and I find it very well done.) and then there is the summer mowing book, "An Echo in the Bone".  (I have A LOT to mow.)

Because I once worked in a library and I always have a book with me (all hail the mighty Kindle) I am frequently asked a nearly impossible question: what is your favorite book?

What? How can a person pick a favorite book?  It's like choosing a favorite child or looking at a field of flowers and pointing to just one as the most perfect of them all.  Sure, I can name several (hundred) that left lasting impressions with me.  When I need something light I choose anything by Nora Roberts.  Scary; Dean Koontz.  Quirky in the best possible way: Charlaine Harris. Funny, but thought provoking; David Sedaris. Elizabeth Gilbert, Elizabeth Berg, Anna Quindlen, Sue Monk Kidd, Dan Brown, Barbara Kingslover, Janet Evanovich......the Harry Potter books, the Twilight books, Sookie Stackhouse, Stephanie Plum..... Honestly, I'm just barely brushing the surface here and that's only fiction.  Rarely have I met a book that I didn't like on some level.  Even the not-so-fantastic books have some redeeming features.  A favorite...hmmmm.....perhaps there is a series of books that rises above the rest.

In 1991 I picked up a book suggested by my sister.  It was LONG (800+ pages) and somewhat difficult to genre label.  It was a romantic/time travel/history book and once I entered into the world that it opened for me I was completely and hopelessly devoted.

Outlander was the first and nineteen years and seven books later I remain as in love as the first day I met them.  The writing is so superior and the plot and characters so compelling that I have read each book at least twice and the first many times.  Even better than reading is listening to them read by the talented Davinia Porter , as I am this summer while I mow.  After all these years I know these people.  I hope for them, laugh and cry with them, sit on the edge of my seat (tractor seat) as war erupts around them.

Want to know the real reason I keep coming back to the Outlander books?  James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser.  That's right, I'm hooked on a fictional man.  Oh, don't look so surprised.  Come on ladies, lets see a show of hands....who's hot for Jamie?  Yup, I thought so.  But you want to know the best thing about Jamie?  It's how he loves his wife, Claire.  I swear, when she finally went back, 20 years later, to find Jaime in the print shop I though I'd never stop crying. (It's in Voyager) Romance at it's very best.  Except that it's not really a romance novel.  It's an epic story where the central characters remain in love for decades.  I think that there may only be one more book to be written in the series and when I finish that last page I may have to take a week off to grieve.  The author promises that she will not kill them at the end of the last book, but a life without another chapter of Jamie and Claire's life to look forward to is going to be grim indeed.

There has been talk of an Outlander movie and I have mixed feelings.  Movies never, ever live up to a books standards and choosing cast to play Jamie and Claire....well let's just say that I'm glad I don't have that job.  No way to make everyone (anyone?) happy there.  Oh, and just in case you hadn't heard, there is a new graphic novel "The Exile" available for pre-order on Amazon, which is written from Jamie's point of view.

Apparently there can be a favorite book, or rather seven of them.  Just don't ask me to pick which one of the series is my favorite.  That would just be cruel. :-) 

Google=COOL

As previously mentioned, I have been reading the Steig Larsson books, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and currently, "The Girl who Played with Fire".  Being a proud Swede (as well he should be), Mr. Larsson frequently (like every page) throws in locations in the Stockholm area where the action is taking place.  At first I skimmed over these bits because I had no mental reference point to use them.  THEN....I was sitting near the computer reading and Google Earth popped into my head.  As I came upon a location, I typed it into the Google Earth search bar and PRESTO there is was.  It's an over head view, but you can zoom in pretty close and suddenly I was traveling the streets of Stockholm with Bloomqvist and the rest of the characters.  Cool.  Incredibly cool, and free.  If you've never played with GE give it a try. Lots of fun, even when you aren't reading a book taking place in a foreign land.

I am not technologically skilled enough to freeze an overhead shot, so I skammed this pic of Stockholm from a travel site.  At don't think I've ever seen a city with more trees and green space.  The more I research it the more beautiful it becomes.  I think I might (hope you're all sitting down for this one) like to visit there.  Just one more positive thing about reading; when an author can tell a story that makes you want to physically be there.  Good stuff.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I just finished reading, via my Kindle, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the first book in Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. In fact, also via the magic that is my Kindle, two minutes after I finished it, I downloaded The Girl Who Plays with Fire and have eagerly begun reading it.

I gotta be honest, I only picked Dragon Tattoo up because a good friend suggested it and I struggled through the first half of the book.  Struggled; as in really wanted to like it, but was incredibly bored by it.  I kept asking, "when is this going to get better?", and was told to keep reading.  So, I did.  Having spent 22 years married to a second generation Swede, I understood Mr. Larsson's somewhat emotionless writing style.  I got that every Swede seems to have an enormous family tree.  I understood it, but I still really had a hard time with it.  I didn't think I would ever start to care about the main characters. And then....I did.  It went from a snooze fest to I-can't-put-this-down in a blink of an eye.  I can hardly wait for the film.  One has already been made in Sweden and I've got it saved on my Netflix que.  Book two begins nothing at all like book one.  I was drawn in from the first page.  No dozing off during this one!

As I said, I was married, unsuccessfully, for lots of years to a big ol Swedish family. (because you know you never marry just the man)  After that marriage ended I didn't think I wanted to see one more of anything that remotely reminded me Sweden.  Dala horses, Tomten men, ligonberries, swedish pancakes, yellow and blue in any combination.....even IKEA made me want to scream.  But, time does heal and I've come to my senses.  I mean, who in their right mind does not love IKEA? 

Reading this book also reminded me that I have some of that Swedish heritage from my father's mother.  She was one of thirteen children who immigrated with their parents from Sweden to northern Wisconsin in the early 1900's.  Mr. Larsson's writing reminded me how my father always said "Skol" before he took a drink and that he would often allow me the treat of setting the holiday glogg on fire.  Each and every one of my Swedish relatives had the coffee pot on at-all-times.  I think we could have visited any one of them in the middle of the night and would have be presented a hot cup within minutes of arrival. Oh....and the bed time snack.  My grandmother was a huge fan of the bed time snack.  

So, a book that began as a chore to read ended up being a nostalgic experience.  I love when that happens. :-)   

Bad movies and great books.

That's usually the way the story goes, right?  The books are always better than the movies.  For the purposes of today's post, however, the two are unrelated.

We have been on a major losing streak in the film department.  Aside from "Avatar", which we saw twice and loved it both times, most of the films we've viewed in recent weeks have been reasonably terrible.  Makes me wonder if it's me or the selection.  We've already discussed "Green Zone".  This one is getting much better reviews that I gave it, so I'll lay the blame there at my door.  "Repo Men" had a few redeeming moments (one involving a typewriter), but I still give it a thumbs down.  I wanted to love "Wolfman", because who doesn't love a good werewolf movie, but aside from some great actors and amazing costumes, it was pretty dismal.  "Book of Eli" was fairly good with an ending I did not see coming, and I actually enjoyed "Alice in Wonderland" quite a lot, so I should not paint the entire bunch with a dark brush.  Maybe the beautiful emotion of  "A Single Man" ruined me for those that followed.  I don't know.  At least there have been some very good books.

   Just like I need to have more than one knitting project going at a time, I also have at least two books that I am reading, or listening to, during the same time period.  One on the Kindle, one in the car and maybe one actual book.  After going through a bit of a dry book period, the latest have been very, very good. Last week I finished listening to "The Lost Symbol" and holy cow, was it fantastic.  The thing I love the most about Dan Brown's books it how much they make me think and want to research different ideas he presents.  They are the sort of books I what to read with a highlighter and Google nearby.  A great read and shines an interesting light on Washington DC.

  Also in the audio book department, I'm currently listening to "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane".  Amazing Husband listened to it first, and recommended it.  Moves back and forth from 1991 to the early 1700's and involves some history of the Salem witch trials.  The author has a really lovely descriptive style and I find myself driving around blocks or sitting in lots to hear just a bit more.  Looking forward to hearing how it ends.

  The next two were surprises for me and I read them via my Kindle.  Let me say that I have never been a fan of Regency Romances, or inspirational /Christian fiction and these books are both.  The first I read was "The Apothecary's's Daughter".  The story is so well told and the characters so interesting that all the reasons that I thought I didn't care for this type of book never entered my mind.  Another positive point for Kindle; the night I finished The Apothecary's Daughter I found myself in the bathroom at 2am feeling very unwell.  I brought my kindle into the bathroom and from my little nest of blankets on the floor I downloaded the next book, "The Silent Governess" right then and there.  Thirty seconds later it was available on my Kindle and I read several chapters until I felt well enough to return to bed.  I love my Kindle!  I have since finished TSG and am ready to read anything else Ms Klassen has written.  Just goes to show that how far an open mind can take you.

And finally, I have picked up "Eat, Pray, Love" to read for the third time. There is nothing I do not love about this book and each time I read it I find something new that speaks to my heart. 

A new year, a new toy. My Kindle review

Hello again!  Welcome to a new year, a new decade, a new face on Woolly Mutts.  It was way overdue and is a bit of a work in progress, but a good place to start, none the less.  I avoid resolutions in general.  I can find other ways to disappoint myself, but I do intend to become more faithful to this blog.  Wenders, a long time friend and blog reader (as well as writer) asked me for a review of my new Kindle and now is as good a time as any.  You might want to get comfy and grab a beverage, cause there is much to say about Kindle, both positive and negative.

Before I get into specifics, let me remind that I am, at heart, a book girl.  There is nothing I don't love about a book.  The smell, the weight of it in my hands, the adventure that book and I take together.  I worked in a library for nearly 10 years and never, ever met a book I didn't like.  Love, even.  However, I am also a lover of the gadget.  It it has a power source and buttons I am probably interested.  Kindle is the meeting of both worlds.

And there he/she is.  Apparently, many Kindle owners choose to give it a name.  Not sure about that, yet.  You can see it has the screen, a full keyboard, page turn buttons, menu, home, and a teeny, tiny joy stick thingy.  (I am so technical.) 

 

To give you some idea of the size, here it is a top of an average sized hard cover book.  It is small and very light.

 

I was lucky enough to get a case for mine (thanks Sonya!), so here it is, in the case, same book.

A quick overview; Kindle holds up to 1500 books, uploads them in less than a minute (my experience has been more like 20 seconds) from the Amazon store, either from your computer or straight from the Kindle itself.  It also will display newspapers, magazines, text files, and blogs for your reading pleasure.

The good:

*Small and light with a non glare screen.  The display looks almost exactly like a page in a book.

*It keeps your place without even asking it to, and does so for every document that you are reading. If, like me, you read while having a meal, there is no struggling to keep it open or need to prop up to get the right view.

*You can highlight, annotate, clip sections for later use.  The little controller moves a cursor any where on the page.  Place it in front of any word and the definition of that word appears (like magic) at the bottom of the page.  Fabulous!

*When it goes to sleep a new picture appears on the screen.  Some times it's the picture of an author, or a field of butterflies, or a tree of birds.  I get a kick out of seeing what picture will appear next. 

*As earlier reported, books appear in the Kindle less than a minute after you request them.  Amazon also offers LOTS of free books in lots of genres AND (this is so cool) you can order the first chapter of any book for free so you can sample the book before you buy. There a number of places that offer free books for the Kindle and I have heard, though not experienced yet, that some libraries have a Kindle download program.  (LOVE libraries!)

*Newspapers from 15 countries can be delivered daily to your Kindle.  You also get a free 14 day trial of each newspaper before you commit.  I am currently enjoying a trial of The Independent, a UK newspaper.  There are also magazines and blogs.  There is a cost for all, including blogs.  I haven't experimented too much with the built in browser, but have read that it supports Google Reader, so you could read your blogs using the Kindle.

*Lovely long battery life.  I just plugged it in today and I've been reading it, on and off, since the 27th.  I've read one complete book and almost half of another along with daily newspaper reading.

*PDF files.  Oh knitters, this one is tres cool.  When you register your Kindle you get an exclusive email address where you are able to email documents and images.  A large number of my knitting patterns are in PDF form so I can email them to the Kindle to have available instead of the paper copy.  I adore this feature.  Same is true for Word docs. 

*You can search any publication using word or phrase. Great tool if you're studying a particular subject.

*Text size is customizable and it has the ability to size up to extremely large print.  You can also change how many words appear on a line and the screen rotation.

*It will read to you and it's a pretty good voice.  I was expecting the sort of computer voice that isn't appealing to listen to, but you can choose a male or female voice and the rate that it speaks.  If you're engrossed in a story and have to leave for work, you can just have it read as you drive and then pick up reading again where the voice leaves off.  Fantastic feature!

The not so good:

*No color.  I understand the necessity of black and white, but I am hoping that someday they will be able to over come this hurdle and offer a color version. 

*The screen can not be brightened.  The screen is calibrated to be seen at any angle and in most lights with no glare, but it still feels a bit dim to me.  Having said that, after I begin reading I hardly notice it and I can and have read in sunlight or with a lamp and had no trouble.

*You can't format a pdf file.  Having the knitting patterns in the Kindle is fantastic, but it would be even more so if I could make the text larger.  Again, color would be better in this instance as well.

*You are only viewing one page at a time so you must hit the "turn page" button more often than you would turn a page.  This sort of annoyed me at first, but after using it for awhile I don't notice it as much.

*It's not a book.  Some times it just has to be a book.

Overall, taking the good and the not so much into consideration, I adore my Kindle.  LOVE it.  5 stars, two thumbs up, standing ovation. This dedicated book lover is just crazy about her Kindle!

If you are a Kindle owner and have tips or comments to share, please do so!!!

BBC love.

Here in Muttville we love our sci-fi.  Amazing Husband and I are both appropriately grateful that we share the sci-fi love.  It's much more fun viewed with company and it makes the discussions of viewed sci-fi much less one sided.  Our latest sci-fi obsession has come to us via the wonder that is BBC America.  It appears that the Brits also enjoy a bit of the pushing-the-boundaries viewing. 

A week or so ago we finished the final episode of Primeval which was canceled rather unceremoniously with main characters stranded in random pockets of time.  Quite annoying.  If the rumor mill has any accuracy, the film rights have been purchased and the big dogs, who I image discovered a little too late that the fan base for this tv show is large and not quiet about their discontent over the terrible ending, are planning to resurrect it similar to Firefly. (Shiny!) Filmed mostly in London, I think I was almost as much in love with the location as I was the actual show.

So, left with no British sci-fi to keep us from evening boredom we have now turned to Torchwood, which I believe is currently in its third season and has not, thank you very much, yet been canceled. Yet. Torchwood is filmed in Wales, Cardiff to be specific, and again, the location is a big draw for me.  Also new is an American member of the cast.  Or maybe he's just playing an American....not sure.  We are on the 5th episode of the first season and already fully under the spell.  Love this show.  It's edgy and weird, exactly how good sci-fi should be.  Thank you the wonderful itunes for allowing us to feed out little addiction.

In keeping with the whole British theme, after finishing my re-read of The Time Traveler's Wife (the movie is going to be SO sad) I dug through my stash of must reads and pulled out "The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club" by Gil McNeil. I purchased this book on a whim, and well, let's just face facts, because it had knitting in the title.  Like the above tele programs, it takes place in the UK and is written using some extremely entertaining British vernacular.  I have to say I am enjoying this book very much and actually find myself laughing out loud now and then.  There is knitting involved, but it's really just a sweet story of starting over.  While reading I have compiled a list of a few of my favorite words:

ballocks: who does not love ballocks?  If you have to use a bad word I think ballocks might be THE perfect one.  "Oh, ballocks!"  Divine.

brilliant: brilliant idea - things are going brilliantly - bloody brilliant (see next word)

bloody: yet another fabulous was to emphasize frustration or exclamation: bloody h*ll, bloody amazing, bloody old, hot, early, late...bloody fantastic.

require - will you be requiring anything else? room of requirement (ok,I took that one from Harry Potter)

bits: bits and bobs, best bits, jigggly bits

bugger: the Brits really know how to swear, don't they?  love it.

jumper: sweater.  I haven't figured this one out at all, but then, I guess jumper isn't really any more odd than sweater.  Who really wants to sweat?

dodgy: difficult or tricky

biscuit: cookie

I have yet to discover exactly what "digestives" and "conkers" are.  I love a good puzzle. :)

Go forth and have a bloody fantastic day! Brilliant!

What then, if not to read?

As you can tell from the photo above, I am a very undiscriminating reader.  I will read just about anything and I get a little twitchy when I don't have anything new to read.  I do have a few rules; if it doesn't grab me in the first 100 pages it's outta here AND there can be no animal cruelty or sadness or death. No animal bad stuff of any kind.  No exceptions.  I have some authors that I'll read whenever they publish a new one (Nora Roberts, Diana Gabaldon, Janet Evanovich), but I generally choose what I'm reading by what topics I'm interested in at the moment.  This doesn't make me a very good candidate for a book discussion group, because I generally have to be in the "mood" to read a book, and well, let's just be honest here, I'm not much of a joiner and groups of any sort scare me a little.  Here are a few of my most recent reads:

The Widow of the South  by Robert Hicks.  I read this right after we returned from Nashville.  It takes place at Carnton Plantation (oh how I wish I had toured it while we were there!) and is a superbly written tale of Carrie McGavock (you see the name McGavock a lot around the Nashville area) and her experiences when her home was commissioned as an army hospital during the Civil War. Based on a true story.  I think we need to be reminded about what war is before we can fully understand the necessity of peace.

Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris  Have you fallen under the spell of the Sookie Stackhouse books yet?  Great books, each and every one of them.  I do love me a vampire.  This is the 9th book in the series which was the inspiration for the True Blood HBO series.  Fantasy meets the deep South.  Good stuff!  In this book Sookie finds out more about her parents death and her somewhat fantastical ancestry.

Finger Lickin Fifteen by Janet Evanovich.  I actually listened to the audio book version of this book, which I usually do with Evanovich because they do such a fabulous job with them.  Only read (or listen to) Evanovich when it's ok to laugh out loud, because you will.  This was maybe not my favorite of all her books, but it was worth the read to spend some time in the world of Bob, Grandma Masur, Ranger, Joe, Lula, Rex, and Stephanie.  If you haven't read any of her books begin with One for the Money and prepare to become hooked.

Black Hills by Nora Roberts.  As previously mentioned, I read a lot of books by a lot of authors, but if I want a book that will consistently hold my attention I turn to Nora Roberts.  Her books are not always deep, mysterious, or even very funny, but once I open one I can hardly put it down until I finish.  She has a gift for drawing you right in and keeping you there.  Black Hills is her most recent hardcover and a good, solid read.  She never, ever disappoints. 

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.  This is probably one of my top 20 favorite books of all time.  I read it first years ago and with the film coming out soon I decided to read it again. It is such a lovely, lovely, mind stretching read about Henry who travels through time arriving naked, nauseated and with no idea where or when he is.  His wife, Clare, becomes his northern star, though their life together is complicated and so beautiful.  In general, I am pleased to see a book made into a film.  Ok, The Davinci Code was a real heartbreaker, but if you go into the film knowing that it will not be exactly the same as the book, and perhaps some of your favorites parts may be missing, it is still a positive experience.  Harry Potter, for example managed to make all of their films well worth watching.  I hope that The Time Traveler's Wife will be the same.

I have a stack of about 5 other waiting and a growing list of someday-reads on my blackberry.  Last night my inlaws recommended "The Art of Racing in the Rain" which is a story told by a dog, and that scares me a little cause I generally don't do dog books of any kind, but maybe this one will be the exception.  Anyone else have a suggestions for a "can't be missed" book?

Neil Gaiman is a cool dude.

I read.  In fact, I cannot imagine a world where there was nothing to read.  Perhaps that's my own personal afterlife bad place.  I will read almost anything and think that almost any book has some redeeming value, for some reader, somewhere.  My last two reads were both by Neil Gaiman and were my first adventures into his strange and wonderful mind.

Ok, I'll admit it.  I read Coraline because I heard the movie (3D must see!) had teensy knitted  sweaters.  My mind follows trails like that.  A little piece of random information can lead to great things.  Coraline, the book, was, as I understand it, written for Mr. Gaiman's daughters and is a twisted little tale of discontent and creepiness.  Coraline is frustrated with her parents and in search of something to occupy her time discovers another world with another mother and the true meaning of "there is no place like home".  It's a little book, a fast read, and an engaging story.  I confess that I'm not sure what age group the book was written for, but I can tell you that it is not for young children.  It's a scary tale with odd and wonderful characters that would have given me nightmares as a child.  As an adult, I now look at buttons, beetles, black cats, and shiny things in general with much more curiosity.

After I put down Coraline I picked up The Graveyard Book, also by Neil Gaiman. Nobody Owens is the sole survivor of the brutal murder of his entire family and is saved, raised, and protected by a fabulous cast of dead characters in a graveyard.  Again, not sure what age group the book was intended for, and again, not for the young.  The book begins with the murder and moves through Bod's life with sometimes scary circumstances and creatures.  I loved this book. I loved all Bod's departed friends, like Miss Euphemia Horsfall (1861-1883, She Sleeps, Aye, Yet She Sleeps with Angels) and her beau Tom Sands who passed from this life in completely different time periods, but seem able to ignore their differences, Silas, the mysterious guardian, and the loving Mr. and Mrs. Owens, who become Bod's new parents.  This book is so creatively written that when I closed the cover I was sad to say goodbye.  I hope a film is in the making, or better yet, a sequel because I know Bod's story is far from over.  Graveyards now have a new and interesting appeal. Not always being the brightest bulb on the tree, I didn't see the ties to Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book until I read the acknowledgment at the end of the book. 

Judging from these two books, I think I must check out a couple of Mr. Gaimans other books and see if his gift for character and circumstance translate to the adult genre.  One thing I know for sure is that Neil Gaiman has got to be an incredibly cool guy.

A request for assistance.

Welcome to 2009. Today is the first day that we are officially back to the usual schedule since AH was off work all last week.  I've been thinking a lot about things that I might want to make priorities in this new year and one of them is more time with my nose in a book. Not sure what happened last year, but I didn't read anywhere near as much as I usually do.  So, I've begun a list of books that I want to read in 2009 and here is where you come in....I need some input.  If you have a book or books that you have read (doesn't matter when) that really meant something to you, would you share them with me?  I love to hear what books you'v read and why they moved you.  I'm really looking for depth here, not just "it was good".  I want books that made you open your mind or heart...you know what I mean.  Here is my list so far,in no particular order:

The Essential Ghandi - Louis Fischer
Peace is in Every Step - Thich Nhat Hanh
A Mercy - Toni Morrison
The Graveyard Book - Nail Gaiman
Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson
Grace Notes - Bernard MacLaverty
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingsolver (LOVE her)
Alice's Tulips - Sandra Dallas
The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barberry
The Hour I First Believed - Wally Lamb

Any comments, reviews, opinions on any of the list? Which one should I read first?  I've included the Amazon links for your reference, but part of this resolution, if I want to call it that, is making better use of my library.  While I have nothing whatsoever against supporting authors with my dollars, I do it WAY too much and really, why not use the library? 

So, to recap, any comments about the books on my list and other suggestions for books to add.  Please? 

Thank you!