O.K., I’ll admit it…my reading list is a few years out of date.  But an old book can still be a good book, and it’s also considerably cheaper than when it was on the list of New York Times bestsellers.

That said, I’ll plunge ahead without apology and tell you that I’ve just finished reading Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen.  (That was Ms. Gruen’s picture you clicked on to get to this page.)  Copyrighted in 2006, it went on to become #1 on the NYT Best Seller list, was translated into 43 languages, and ultimately landed on the silver screen just last year.  The passage of time does no harm to a good yarn.

You’ve probably already guessed that there’s an elephant somewhere in the story, extrapolated that fact to mean that is has something to do with circuses, and concluded that it’s still another of the “running away to join the circus” genre.  I think that I can tell you – without spoiling the story for you – that you’re partially correct.

But it’s also a story-within-a-story; and in one of those stories, the principal character, Jacob Jankowski is twenty-something and has just left Cornell University without taking his final exams in veterinary medicine.  The other takes place decades later in an assisted living facility, where his family has placed the ninety or ninety-three year old (he can’t remember which) after he fell and broke his hip.

Here Jacob confronts the situations and challenges – and battles – that we all fear that one day will confront us.  Growing old is not for sissies…

Perhaps I’m biased, but I usually don’t care for stories written by women featuring principal characters who are male.  The story can still be a good one, and the writing skillful, but somehow the character’s “voice” is alway just a little off.  Perhaps not enough to spoil the read, but enough to affect it.

Water for Elephants is a notable exception.  Sara Gruen has done a remarkable job of catching not only the maleness of her character, but also his voice as both a young man and as a somewhat embittered and struggling old man seventy years later.  It is an engaging and thought provoking read.

Ms. Gruen has written three other novels, all of them featuring animals.  Water for Elephants has made me one of her fans.  I intend to read every one of them…and anything else that she may write.

The book takes readers on a journey, visiting aboratories where neuroscientists explore how habits work and where, exactly, they reside in our brains.  Inside glimpses of the successful habits of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and civil-rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. help develop Mr. Duhigg’s thesis.  He takes readers through Target superstores, NFL locker rooms, and the nation’s largest hospitals to see how implementing habits can  mean the difference between failure and success, life and death.

At its core, according to the synopsis on Amazon.com,  The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, raising exceptional children, becoming more productive, building revolutionary companies and social movements, and achieving success is understanding how habits work.

With Valentine’s Day rapidly approaching, the more bookish among you may be thinking about getting literary gifts for your loved ones. A swell idea, as far as we’re concerned, but be warned — when given as gifts, books can take on special, often unintended meanings, so choose with care. For instance, as much as we love “American Psycho,” we’d never gift it to someone we were interested in dating. It just kind of sends the wrong message (like, “I’m imagining your death right now”).

If you are gift-selecting-challenged, like we are, this Huffington Post post may be invaluable to you.

Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 1812.  He is generally considered the greatest English novelist of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature’s most iconic novels and characters.

Dickens’ work has been highly praised for its realism, comedy, mastery of prose, unique personalities and concern for social reform.

Now, you can find ALL his work in one place.  Click below!

This, you gotta’ check out!  I did … and ordered SIX!

The partners at Finley & Figg—all two of them—often refer to themselves as “a boutique law firm.” Boutique, as in chic, selective, and prosperous. They are, of course, none of these things. They are what some folks call “street-law litigators”  … semi-desperate counselors looking for whatever they can get to earn a fee.  But in this novel, they stumble into something big.

As I whipped through the pages, I found myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion–and for all the right reasons this time. Grisham gives us some great characters, three-dimensional, likable, understandable, despicable, and everything in between. This is the Grisham I remember, one who was passionate, even fiery, but who also loved people and never forgot they were the driving force in his stories. Something has shifted. That fire is back. And this is easily my favorite Grisham in years.  (From a Review on Amazon.Com by Eric Wilson.)

Who is Maria Popova?  She refers to herself as a “cultural curator and curious mind at large.”

Here is her link (the link takes you to “Brain Pickings,” which is described as a “LEGO treasure chest, full of pieces across art, design, science, technology, philosophy, history, politics, psychology, sociology, ecology, anthropology, you-name-itology. Pieces that enrich your mental pool of resources and empower you to combine them into original concepts that are stronger, smarter, richer, deeper and more impactful — a modest, curiosity-driven exercise in vision- and mind-expansion.”  We’re recommending “Brain Pickings” as a site you might want to bookmark … and Ms. Popova’s list as a starting point for your Holiday Gift Shopping.

The #1 book on the list is Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout, by artist Lauren Redniss.   “To honor Curie’s spirit and legacy,” Ms. Popova writes, “Redniss rendered her poetic artwork in cyanotype, an early-20th-century image printing process called critical to the discovery of both X-rays and radioactivity itself — a cameraless photographic technique in which paper is coated with light-sensitive chemicals. Once exposed to the sun’s UV rays, this chemically-treated paper turns a deep shade of blue. The text in the book is a unique typeface Redniss designed using the title pages of 18th- and 19th-century manuscripts from the New York Public Library archive. She named it Eusapia LR, for the croquet-playing, sexually ravenous Italian Spiritualist medium whose séances the Curies used to attend. The book’s cover is printed in glow-in-the-dark ink.”

“The entire thirty-one days of December 1941 were memorable, messy, historic, poignant, confusing, inspiring, depressing, and enduring,” writes Craig Shirley, who is also the author of best sellers about Ronald Reagan; he has written extensively for The Washington Post, and other news publications.

December 1941 traces, day-by-day, the most important 31 days in the history of America’s participation in WWII, which snuffed out the lives of millions and changed history forever.

At the end of November, the number of freebies hit nearly 400!

Check out the page today and see how many free books you can read before the end of 2011!!

KINDLE FREEBIES !!

Here’s Amazon’s teaser: Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, and she’s flying back to New Jersey solo. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead, in a garbage can, waiting for curbside pickup. His killer could be anyone. And a ragtag collection of thugs and psychos, not to mention the FBI, are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying.  Only one other person has seen the missing photo—Stephanie Plum. Now she’s the target, and she doesn’t intend to end up in a garbage can.

The good news is that Janet Evanovich has brought us a new S. Plum novel.  This could be the bad news: it’s getting boring.  I say that not because I’ve yet read the book (it just came out this week), but because there are too many reviews echoing the words of reviewer “D. Strickland” (on the Amazon site) who write, “When I first began this series I was in love with all the main characters and found the side characters amusing enough. Stephanie was quirky and a little flaky, but she was funny, too. I couldn’t read the books fast enough.” But then, the critic complains that we’re seeing the same-ol’-same-ol’ and it’s getting boring, concluding with, “I swear – I’m really done with this series this time!”

But contrast that with these ratings (showing ranking in terms of sales through the Amazon site) as of November 23, 2011:

• #1 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Comic
• #4 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Women Sleuths
• #6 in Books > Romance

Somebody is buying this book!  Lots of somebodies!  One is reviewer Steve Abney, who wrote: “Janet is sooo good. … so far as good as all other books in this series and feels updated to this year………This has been my favorite series for years.”

If you are a Plum fan, you may have to read “18″ to decide for yourself.  Let me know what you come up with.