Okay, here are a few off-the-beaten-track selections from my Lit Shelf that I adore.

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. Ray's stories about Green Town are both a wonderful look into the life of a young boy and also a great tribute to family life. But there are also a few scary moments here, a few that seem to be tinged a bit with magic. This is pure comfort food people - macaroni and cheese in a book. Delightful.

The Magician's Study by Tobias Seamon. I was lucky enough to get this book for review over at Bookslut. It was the subtitle that drew me in: "A Guided Tour of the Life, Times & Memorabilia of Robert 'the Great' Rouncival". It's a fictional account of an early 20th century magician and illusionist in New York City told entirely by a tour guide as you walk through his study. It's an innovative idea and a great story - drama, romance, tragedy. It's all here and all superbly done.

The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch. I've been raving about this one for quite awhile and my interview with Jim is up at Bookslut this month. I hate to call this a coming of age story because that seems like such a well worn cliche. It's about a boy and an ocean and a girl he loves and parents who are teetering on the edge and a giant squid. There - I've piqued your interest. It's so well written, I bought 6 copies as gifts. If that's not a recommendation, I don't know what is.

Theater of the Stars by NM Kelby. This is the book that really set off my interest in forgotten or overlooked literature when I wrote about it for Bookslut. Everyone should know about this book. It's partly about the 2nd world war and the research of the Curie family and partly about Los Alamos and the search for the bomb and partly about a daughter and a mother who never knew each other enough or understood each other at all. And it's also about love, both good and bad, both contemporary and distant. I LOVED THIS BOOK! Nicole is so talented and Theater shows all the beautiful words she can call in an instant.

The Extinction Club by Robert Twigger. This is such a quirky book! It's partly about the Milu, a species of deer that really almost went extinct and were saved by a Basque missionary who brought them to England and protected them. But it's also about so many other aspects of humanity, about myths and stories we tell ourselves about each other, about natural history, about who and what we try to save and who and what we ignore and about writing itself. Several times I caught myself thinking it was nonfiction only to have the story bring me back to its fictional self. I learned a lot reading this book, and it has encouraged me to take risks in my own writing.