The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein

BEST BOOK I'VE READ IN YEARS!!! I'm not going to say too much about it because I don't want to spoil the magic of this book for anyone. Please read it. It's wonderful.

What I will say:

The premise of the book is a dog, on the eve of his death, looking back to tell you the story of his family. The book is not about the dog (Enzo), but he is a pretty fun character throughout. I loved some of the goings-on inside the head of the dog as he dealt with his instincts vs. his canine dignity. It provided some nice comic relief among the devastation that was going on in the Swift family.

The story is about the Swift family and, specifically, Denny Swift, who faces circumstances that are almost unbearable to the reader at times. But he is a champion and you can't help but stick with him no matter how things turn out for him. Yes, I stuck with him even as I almost ran into light poles on Wacker Drive since I considered my walk between the train and office to be 6 precious minutes wasted if I didn't spend them reading this book!

And I loved the juxtaposition of the moving story of this family and Denny's challenges with the racetrack. That is, NASCAR/stock car/Formula One type racetrack. I do not care for car racing, but it operated as a perfect metaphor in this book.

What I can criticize:

Nothing. And I don't think I am going to read any reviews of this book because I don't want to hear anyone else's criticism either. I'm going to keep it perfect in my mind. If you don't like it, please just don't tell me. I'm normally not like this (I normally appreciate a good debate over a book), but I'm feeling really emotionally volatile about this book.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

I don't have a ton to say. Quick, fun read. The biggest problem with the book: it is a mystery novel and the main mystery was completely predictable. But there were plenty of side plot twists that could not have been predicted, so those kept the book interesting. You can also easily predict who Blomkvist is going to couple with, but it's not really so much a relationship book so who cares. The best part of the book is the characters. Charming, flawed, dysfunctional folks who I will definitely read about again. In fact, I think the second Blomkvist/Salandar book came out fairly recently... I'll put it on the list.