Dear Santa...

This book-lover gave "Santa" a wish list with the following books:

The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman - This sketchbook is a whimsical book that would make a great "coffee table book." Kalman describes it by saying, "...This is a year in my life profusely illustrated, abounding with anguish, confusion, bits of wisdom, musings, meanderings, buckets of joie de vivre and restful sojourns." Doesn't it sound interesting? I adore coffee table books, so hopefully this finds its way under my tree!

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath - I have been meaning to read this classic American novel for quite some time but haven't gotten around to buying it for myself (I am trying to cut down on my book purchasing sprees!). In this novel, Plath chronicles the break-down of the main character, Esther. Apparently this book is a fairly autobiographical work about Plath's summer of 1953 when she was a guest editor at Mademoiselle and went though a breakdown of her own.

Time of My Life by Allison Winn Scotch - Jillian Westfield, the main character in this novel, has a storybook life: perfect house, investment banking husband, and cherubic eighteen-month-old child. Her life appears perfect from the outside, but no self-help book or how-to magazine article can seem to fix her marriage or help her deal with the tedium of diaper changing... or help her stop asking - "what if?" Then one morning, Jillian wakes up seven years in the past. Before her daughter. Before her marriage. Armed with her 20-20 hindsight, she's free to make all of her choices over again. Will her choices change her level of happiness, or was she the problem all along??? This book is intriguing to me - being the analytical person I am, I often find myself asking, "well... what if?" What if I hadn't turned that date down? What if I hadn't gone to UND. I don't regret any of the decisions I've made but it is interesting to think how many choices set our lives down a completely different path than your life would have took had you made a different choice....

Pretty Little Mistakes: A Do-over Novel by Heather Mcelhatton - This book is the answer to the dilemma above - if only you could go back and do things over. Well, with this book, you can. There are a total of 150 possible endings! You could end up in a mansion or alone and pecked to death by ducks in London; a Zen master in Japan or morbidly obese in a trailer park. Don't like how your life turned out? Start over again. Kind of reminds of the the game "M*A*S*H" that we played as kids - anyone remember that? You had a box, at the top it said MASH which stood for Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House (I think), then you picked 4 kinds of cars, the names of 4 boys, and 4 options for the number of kids you'd have. Then through a process of elimination, you might end up in a Mansion with no husband or a shack w/ 15 kids. It provided hours of entertainment for me and my friends/sisters when we were little!! Ahhh, those were simpler times!! Do kids still play that game, I wonder??

Love Letters of Great Men - On Sex & the City: The Movie, Carrie Bradshaw reads a few letters from this book... and it went on my 'to-read' list on goodreads.com right away. I am a sucker for a good love letter. I love email as much as the next person, but there is nothing like getting a love letter from your betrothed (I assume... I've never received one! Someday, someday). Here's an excerpt from one by Beethoven - obviously, he could compose other art forms besides beautiful music...

...my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, now and then joyfully, then sadly, waiting to learn whether or not fate will hear us ...

Yes, I am resolved to wander so long away from you until I can fly to your arms and say that I am really at home with you, and can send my soul unwrapped in you into the land of spirits ...

...Be calm - love me - today - yesterday - what tearful longings for you - you - you - my life - my all - farewell. Oh continue to love me - never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved.

Ever thine,

Ever mine,

Ever ours.

* sigh *

I'll stop there... My to-read list on goodreads.com (awesome website, btw) has 137 books on it, so I could obviously go on and on!