My book-gifter really went out of his way to send me a thoughtful selection of books. He sent me five books from five genres, all tailored to my reading tastes:

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (YA fantasy) The Ear, The Eye, and The Arm by Nancy Farmer (YA sci-fi) Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (nonfiction) Winesberg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson (short stories) American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (graphic novel)

He sent along a wonderful note explaining each of his choices and sharing some of his own thoughts and experiences of book.

The Thief is totally new to me -- I've never even heard of it!

The Ear, The Eye and the Arm looks familiar to me, but I can't recall having ever read it. (My gifter went out of his way to order a copy of the book with the old cover, since he told me he didn't like the reprinted versions. I'm sure I ran across this book in my own youth, but never picked it up.)

Fast Food Nation is one that a couple of my students (high school seniors) read last year during a unit when they were required to choose a non-fiction book to read. I remember one of them being distinctly surprised by how much he enjoyed it, and it's been in the back of my mind ever since as a book I should probably pick up when I get a chance.

Winesberg, Ohio is one that I've been meaning to read for ages. I had a creative writing professor in college who raved about it, and in fact he structured a whole class semester around a project inspired in part by this book. It's about damn time somebody made me read it!

American Born Chinese has been somewhere vaguely on the edges of my radar for a while. I've seen it come up in passing when people talk about graphic novels, but that's about it.

I'm really excited about all of these books, both the knowns and unknowns. And, as an added bonus, they're all high school appropriate, so when I'm finished with them, they can get new lives in my classroom library!

I know there have been some wonderful gifts posted, but I really feel like I got the best book-gifter in the world! Thanks so much!! :-)