2016 Top 10 Gift Books

I love giving books as gifts, because they are easy to wrap and there is a book out there for everyone. They just don’t know it yet.  Here is a list of top 10 books that I have given as gifts. I am not going to repeat anything that I may have mentioned in my Sci Fi book Series list.    

My Top 10 Gift Books

1.        Furiously Happy- Jenny Lawson

2.       American Gods- Neil Gaimen 

3.       Anna Dressed in Blood- Kendel Blake

4.       Harold & the Purple Crayon- Crockett Johnson

5.       Animalia- Graham  Base

6.       Beauty: A Retelling- Robin McKinley

7.        Quizol-Alan Dean Foster

8.       Cooking for Geeks- Jeff Potter

9.       Pride, Prejudice & Zombies - Jane Austin and Seth Grahame  Smith

10.  Gil's All Fright Diner- A. Lee Martinez

I make no apologies for my list.  I like what I like and I like to share good reading material with others. Hopefully this helped supply some quick inspiration. 

Awesome

Have you ever read a book that with a turn of the page it can take you from laughing uncontrollably to sobbing your heart out and still make you want to turn the page? I just finished reading Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson and I wish I could buy everyone copy. If I had a spirit animal, I am pretty sure it would be Jenny, because she makes me want embrace the sharp jagged pieces of my self in a loving embrace and be happy with them, because they are mine.   The sheer amount of bravery it takes to open up about the depression and how it is a sickness that not only affects you as an individual but also those that are closest to you and the way the rest  of the world sees you  is heroic. 

Each chapter in the book is Shakespeare.  It is either a comedy or a tragedy and full of made up words that are now commonplace.   There are some chapters that make question whether or not taxidermy would fit in my decor  or if it is one of those arts that I can appreciate in some one else's house.  There are other chapters that make appreciate my husband and the idiotic conversations we engage each other it, because being dumb with each is half the fun of being married.  If I had to sum of Furiously Happy, I would say that it has heart and so few books touch mine the way this one did. It reminded me to embrace the adventures I go on and own them, because there are no do overs and appreciate those that give your life character.  Sometimes I need that reminder that quitting isn't going to solve anything and that it is okay to be weird.  Weird is some one else's normal. 

"Quitting might be easier, but it wouldn't be better."
 - Jenny & Victor

Hot Metal Chicken

Do you ever have one of those moments where you find something funny and you are pretty sure that no one else is going to find it even half as funny as it is to you? Yeah. I seem to have a lot of those moments. 

A Christmas not too long ago my grandmother had gifted me a bottle of perfume.  I don't wear a lot of perfume, because I hate trying to find a scent that I like and going into a perfume store is an instant migraine. I was surprised at the gift (and hoping it was a subtle hint that I stunk).   It was the name of the bottle that caused my mental funny bone to kick in.

I follow The Bloggess.  I read her blog, follower her on Twitter and I have gifted her books more than once. There is a lovely antidote about perspective that involves a six foot tall metal chicken called Beyoncé that is one of my favorite posts and one that has been most shared among my group of friends.  The only reason I bring it up, is that the perfume my grandmother picked up for me was Beyoncé Heat.  All I can think about when I pick up the bottle  and spritz it on my collar line is that I am going to smell like a hot metal chicken and then I start snickering.  I am sure that my grandmother picked it out for it's light citrus scent with a slight honeysuckle  glow, but it doesn't matter to me.  It is my hot metal chicken perfume and I rock that chicken.