I wasn't expecting to receive my gift until after my nice long 12 hour day but as I go to take out the trash to my surprise a lovely box is sitting in front of my door. Happily I snatch up the box and tear into my kitchen. My Kitchen because it's oddly the brightest room in my house to take some pictures. Cutting open the box I find FOUR lovely books waiting for me. That made me so Ecstatic. These will keep me entertained for quite some time. My husband thanks you for saving him the hassle of entertaining me.

The Books were Stardust by Neil Gaiman In the sleepy English countryside, at the dawn of the Victorian Era, life moves at a leisurely pace in the tiny town of Wall, so named for an imposing stone barrier that divides the village from an adjacent meadow. Armed sentries guard the sole gap in this wall, in order to keep the curious from wandering through. Here in Wall, young Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to beautiful Victoria Forester. But Victoria is cold and distant - as distant, in fact, as the star she and Tristran see fall from the sky on a crisp October evening. For the coveted prize of Victoria's hand, Tristran vows to retrieve the fallen star and deliver it to his beloved. It is an oath that sends the lovelorn swain over the ancient wall, and propels him into a world that is strange beyond imagining. But Tristran is not the only one seeking the heavenly jewel. There are those for whom it promises youth and beauty, the key to a kingdom, and the rejuvenation of dark, dormant magics. And a lad compelled by love will have to keep his wits about him to succeed and survive in this secret place where fallen stars come in many guises - and where quests have a way of branching off in unexpected directions, even turning back upon themselves in space and in time.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman The Earth's leaders have drawn a line in the interstellar sand--despite the fact that the fierce alien enemy they would oppose is inscrutable, unconquerable, and very far away. A reluctant conscript drafted into an elite Military unit, Private William Mandella has been propelled through space and time to fight in the distant thousand-year conflict; to perform his duties and do whatever it takes to survive the ordeal and return home. But "home" may be even more terrifying than battle, because, thanks to the time dilation caused by space travel, Mandella is aging months while the Earth he left behind is aging centuries...

Nightwatch by Sergei Lukyanenko They are the "Others," an ancient race of supernatural beings—magicians, shape-shifters, vampires, and healers—who live among us. Human born, they must choose a side to swear allegiance to—the Dark or the Light—when they come of age. For a millennium, these opponents have coexisted in an uneasy peace,forced by defenders like the Night Watch, forces of the Light who guard against the Dark. But prophecy decrees that one supreme "Other" will arise to spark a cataclysmic war. Anton Gorodetsky, an untested mid-level Light magician with the Night Watch, discovers a cursed young woman—an Other of tremendous potential unallied with either side—who can shift the balance of power. With the battle lines between Light and Dark drawn, the magician must move carefully, for one wrong step could mean the beginning of annihilation.

And Last but not least I AM LEGEND by Richard Matheson Robert Neville may well be the last living man on Earth . . . but he is not alone. An incurable plague has mutated every other man, woman, and child into bloodthirsty, nocturnal creatures who are determined to destroy him. By day, he is a hunter, stalking the infected monstrosities through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn....

Four Books that I have never experienced and I'm giddy to start with. Thank you so much for putting time and thought into my gifts. I love all four of them and I cannot wait to start reading them. Luckily I'm off tomorrow so it will give me plenty of time to dive between the pages of one of these beautiful Gateways and give me some for of release from the realities of adulthood. So for you I will write a poem.

My gateway of Escape

Life will grab and pull you down

Feeling as if your starting to drown

Longing for escape and peace

Things so simple but hard to see

But in my hands I hold a key

Something of paper that will set me free

Dive down deep into its words

Open a portal to a different world

It could be a Kingdom of dragons and stone

or a world of chaos so long gone

It will not be my story

It will not be yours

A Human, a Werewolf,

or a alien among stars

Forget all problems

For get all things

That circle your head

with stress and screams

Live through another

see their pains

watch their triumph

or fall to their knees

Forget for just a moment

What lives outside these pages

And embrace a freedom

That will flow down for ages.