The Book of Air and Shadows, by Michael Gruber

I entered The Book of Air and Shadows with a feeling of doom, because it came to me via the same person who gave me both Michael Crichton’s State of Fear and Next. Needless to say, my hopes were low. Still, a free book is a free book, and The Book of Air and Shadows *does* concern Shakespeare, so I decided to keep an open mind and see what this Michael had to offer.

Emotionless Souls, by David S. Grant

Don't expect to like the people who fill the pages of David S. Grant's Emotionless Souls. They're sick, empty people made emptier by their attempts to make their lives full.

I'm sure you're wondering, what exactly do these emotionless souls do to add feeling to their lives? Sex, drugs, violence? Of course -- and lots of them, with a little sadism thrown in for good measure.

Cake, by Doreen Fitzgerald

When you reference one of my favorite foods in your title, I'm immediately impressed. So I began Cake, a collection of selected poems by Doreen Fitzgerald, with a favorable outlook.

Cake's poems are short, mostly all a single page. The shortest is the title piece, which reads They say you can't / have it / and eat it too, / but then, / while you're chewing, / it's all yours.

Despite the playful tone of "Cake" most of the other pieces are more serious in nature, especially when Fitzgerald writes of her past. Those with a nostalgic feel are among the most powerful, as well as those which discussed nature. (The title of this post, by the way, comes from one of my favorites entitled "From the Far Side.")

Fragile Things, by Neil Gaiman.

At heart, I'm a follower. Although I profess to be a true individual who chooses the road not taken and all that, such posturing is often a front. Well I know there is comfort in conformity.

Such were my thoughts when I purchased my first-ever Neil Gaiman book, Fragile Things.

For the record, I want to like Neil Gaiman. Everyone else seems to. Everywhere I turn, yet another person is singing Gaiman's praises. With nary a naysayer to be found, I [naively] assumed Gaiman was for me, too. I mean, shit -- Gaiman and Tori Amos (one of my favorite musicians) share an affinity for one another. That must count for something, I reasoned.