Jo Jo over at Jo-Jo Loves to Read! has tagged me with the bookshelf meme. What a fun way to get to know your blogging friends! In all honesty, she tagged me almost a month ago and it has taken me this long to get to it. I didn’t forget though!

A book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time, etc.):

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a total freak over A Separate Peace by John Knowles. It’s a simple book that forces you to think about friendship and what it means to be a friend. I picked this book up during a very dark period in my life and it put things into perspective for me. I loved it so much that I wrote a screenplay on it (which I never sold). If I am every having a crisis that has me questioning friendship, I pick it up and magically, all is well again.

A book you acquired in some interesting way (gift, serendipity in a used bookstore, prize, etc.):

While vacationing in Santa Barbara, I visited a used bookstore called The Book Den. There, I acquired a copy of A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. If you have yet to experience Bryson’s writing, do yourself a favor and pick-up one of his books pronto! This one happens to be about his trek through the Appalachian trail. Anyway, it was not something I would have picked up normally but I wanted a funny book to read on the beach. It was that, and so much more.

A book that’s been with you to the most places:

Years ago I purchased a collector’s edition of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. I got it on Ebay and it is in pristine condition. I take this book everywhere in the house. It’s nice to look it, wonderful to read and my kids know not to touch it.

The most recent addition to your shelves:

I used some of my Christmas loot to buy Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. The idea of spending a year living off a locally produced diet intrigues me. I have yet to start it though.

A bonus book that you want to talk about but doesn’t fit into the other questions:

I just saw a blurb on Jodi Picoult’s new book Handle With Care. It comes on March 3rd. Here’s part of the blurb:

“Every expectant parent will tell you that they don’t want a perfect baby, just a healthy one. Charlotte and Sean O’Keefe would have asked for a healthy baby, too, if they’d been given the choice. Instead, their lives are made up of sleepless nights, mounting bills, the pitying stares of “luckier” parents, and maybe worst of all, the what-ifs. What if their child had been born healthy? But it’s all worth it because Willow is, well, funny as it seems, perfect. She’s smart as a whip, on her way to being as pretty as her mother, kind, brave, and for a five-year-old an unexpectedly deep source of wisdom. Willow is Willow, in sickness and in health.”

Picoult always seems to ask the questions that no one wants to ask. She deals with some tough topics for sure.

I am going to break the rules and not tag anyone. I know, I know but I hate to tag folks that have already done it and I never seem to know who has already done it.