Some books find you. You ever notice that? Ok, actually I think this applies to music as well as probably every other sort of consumable art-form (including clothes), but I digress. Some books find you.

We’re clearly edging into Fall here in Madison. Some folks have cited the changing leaves, or the drop in temperature. For me, it was the air becoming crisp and, well, you could just smell the autumn in it. All of the sudden I found myself wanting apple cider and pumpkin pie. I went through a solid week of sweater lust even though it was too warm to wear them. Yeah, Fall is my favorite season. It’s exciting—or at least it used to be when it meant the start of a new school year. It’s spooky. And yes, Halloween is my favorite holiday. And if I’ve done my vague calculations correctly, I was possibly conceived around Halloween (a calculation I take no farther than justifying my enjoyment of the season).

Fall is when I want to grab a Stephen King book and disappear to windowsill somewhere. I want something eerie. And Monday morning I was trying to identify a book I could read that would give me the taste I wanted, but maybe be something other than Stephen King (as much as I love him, I really should diversify). I searched Amazon, but quickly found that I couldn’t put in search terms like “atmospheric” or “New England” or “horror” and get what I wanted. Then, a seed of an idea: I remembered someone had been reading “The Lovely Bones” and so I took a peek at that online, and was sucked in by the very first paragraph. The last time that happened was Stephen King’s “IT.” Which is my favorite book of all time. I was possessed by that first chapter, even though I was later sorry I’d chosen to read it after dark. And “The Lovely Bones” was possessing me that same way, so I planned to buy the book that afternoon, after my haircut.

I was telling my hairdresser that I was trying to find a good book for fall, something eerie. She looked at me in the mirror and said “Have you ever read ‘The Lovely Bones’?” I told her she was freaking me out a little, since I was planning on getting that book this afternoon. Weirdness!

Some books find you, and “The Lovely Bones” found me. It is so damn good. However, it had me crying within the first quarter of the book. Crying so much that even after I put it down the first time for the night, I was still dripping tears. I picked it up again and read more, and found a happier spot to leave it for the night. This is book is hard work, emotionally. I’m rolling up my sleeves for this one. But it also makes me happy, because a book hasn’t grabbed me like this for some time. Hopefully I’ll finish it fast. . .