Week 30 of the 52s...Unnatural Creatures

Due to the hideous temperatures--the fiery 90s crossing the line into triple digit nuclear meltdown--I've been hard pressed to come up with an adventure for the 52s this week.  I can barely walk the dogs in the early mornings, let alone go out later in the day on a quest, and trying out a new recipe is totally off the table since lately I've been living on cold salads and fruit smoothies.  There's no way I'm using the stove or turning on the oven.

This morning, while staggering strolling with the boys along the river and attempting to organize the week in my head, I also pondered what I could possibly do for something new.  I don't think Creative Ways to Lay on the Kitchen Floor, or Living Undetected in the Lawn Furniture Department of the Air Conditioned Grocery Store, would really count.

Then, driving home, the dogs panting loud enough in the back seat to drown out the radio, BookCrossing flashes into my mind.  And the book I've already chosen, waiting patiently for me to remember, on the middle shelf of the bookcase in my bedroom.

Here is the perfect book to release into the wild...

 

I love Neil Gaiman.  One of my favorite books of all time is American Gods.  When I first saw this book, and his name, I didn't hesitate to grab it off the shelf at the store, and even though I quickly realized it was a book of sixteen short stories and not a new Gaiman novel, I still had to have it.  Because how amazing must these stories be if he was the one to select them?  Very amazing, as it turns out.

 

Part of the blurb from the back cover:

 

     ...herein is a collection of rare and magnificent species.  Each one will thrill, delight, and quite possibly unnerve you.

 

     Selected by master storyteller Neil Gaiman, the sixteen stories in this menagerie will introduce you to a host of strange, wondrous beings that have never existed anyplace but in the richness of the imagination.

 

Not only does Neil introduce each story, but there's one of his own in the collection too, Sunbird.  To me, Unnatural Creatures, is like discovering a lost, almost forgotten book of fairy tales...written for adults.

 

So, tomorrow morning after walking the boys, I'm going back to the college (where I had my basket class a few weeks ago), and somewhere on the campus--perhaps in the café, on a bench in the quad, or maybe by the auditorium or near the theatre--I'm going to release this most excellent book of stories into the unknown...

 

I hope the journey is a magical one.