[KarenInCa]

Lissa- Have you ever read books by Charles De Lint? You can look for his page on the net. A lot of what he does is short stories, and characters intertwine in the stories. The Ivory and the Horn is a good sample of that. He writes a lot of Urban mythology stories/books. Dreams Underfoot is another good one of his, but they are all good, and take you into another place and the characters come to life. All of his work is worth reading though. I like his short stories because you can put the book down after a story, and then pick it up again, and because it becomes a new story, you don't have to worry about forgetting any of the 'plot', yet it brings you back to other characters that he developed previously. He has a series of books called the Newford collection, that continue to be incorporated with on the same characters as friends in different scenarios. Memory and Dream is the last one that I read of his....It was really intriguing. He has a lot of books out, and they all captivate you.
Also, Mitch Albom has some beautifully written books. The five people you meet in Heaven is a short but interesting read from him. Again, brilliant word play, with vivid descriptions of the 'feel' of the characters.
Another brilliant piece of work is Flatland: A romance of many dimensions. It's kind of slow at first, because it takes time to describe the place called Flatland, but the whole concept is fascinating after you start reading it. The author died in 1926, and I believe he wrote it in the 1880's. But a lot of it's reasoning still exists today. it deals with social status of fictional characters (actually shapes) that live in a one dimensional world-on paper, but it can be applied to our own social values here, in our element. I enjoyed the concept that we tend to believe that everything is just as WE see it, instead of realizing that there are other realities out there beyond our own. It's a very fast read, and I wanted it to continue, as I found it really entertaining after getting thru the first part. I think he also wrote a sequal called Sphereland. It's a classic, if you have not read it already.