5 Stars for Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler

Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler deserved the 1989 Pulitzer Prize. Any writer who can make boring everyday life absolutely meaningful gets my vote. Reviews that rank this book lower than four stars seem to base their score on this story not being thriller content. Real people are not interesting all the time, and a trip to a funeral isn't high on the list of exciting things to do; however, in the midst of commonality - I kept discovering little pockets of truth parallel to my own life and people around me.

For example, Ira, the husband's need to play solitaire all of the time while keeping a cool distance from emotional drama sounded much like my husband and my father-in-law. I loved Ira from the beginning, because I knew beneath his carefully carved out unobtrusive personality was a guy with deep emotional ties to the people he loved dearly. Ira's wife, Maggie, was quite a busybody, but no matter how annoying she became - Ira loved still loved her.

Maggie wasn't my favorite character, but reflecting upon my own flaws I certainly didn't wish for her death in the story, rather I tried to understand the loneliness she felt. Maggie's children has recently left home. Maggie wanted to desperately hold on to them.

Maggie's character needed a dynamic change from something she had been to something she could be with her husband and as a person on her own. This change couldn't happen unless she changed her way of thinking.

She couldn't see what worked in her life. For example, Maggie couldn't accept Ira and his flaws without losing the idealism she held in the things she could not control. Her journey is not unlike my own as a mother, and like my mother. All moms have a tough time letting go of their kids. I can't dislike Maggie for holding onto her children a little longer.

I highly recommend this book to every married couple and all mothers. For Maggie, a day trip to a friend's funeral changed her way of thinking, but for me it was watching the love between my mother and father-in-law, and appreciating my husband a little more every day. Thank you, Anne Tyler.

5 Stars for Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology

Everyone should read this. Neil Gaiman certainly did not inhale the fumes of Odin's odious fart. This is a spoiler I will not spoil.  He was certainly blessed with the gift of retelling a story and reinventing his own. I loved his retelling of Norse Mythology. His voice carried the harsh tempos of the tragic moments, but also humor in the more flute-like places. I began this book with Marvel knowledge and came away feeling a bit like a mythology historian. Neil Gaiman can do that for a person. I also began this book as a respect towards my dad, who found a hero in Thor, also Conan the Barbarian, but that's another story. For me, Loki is certainly my favorite, and I was happy to discover his tale did not disappoint. Gaiman should seriously think about a story that involves both Othello's Iago and Loki in a modern world setting. They could pour poison into the ear of great leaders turning the world into what it is not. And who to save the world but a child not yet born, one of a new birth out of the death of the old one. Everyone should read this! Seriously, I might listen to it again.