The World of Jerod & Elise (and their parents): Some pics from Itasca State Park/Mississippi Headwaters

Books that have affected me in one way or another

The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen (awesomeness)
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger (another all time favorite)
What is the What by Dave Eggers (one of my favorite books of all time)
Running with Scissor: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs (don't have real warm fuzzy feelings about this book at all)
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Mountains beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder
Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America by Stephen G. Bloom
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Empress Orchid by Anchee Min
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
My Losing Season by Pat Conroy (Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad book; but it's where we came up with Elise's name)
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Children of God Go Bowling by Shannon Olson (Just a good light read, and it actually made me laugh out loud at times)
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (I cannot believe I'm including this. I guess because it brought me to tears and because it has sparked a LOT of debate between my better half and me)
Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion by Sara Miles
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Once a Runner: A Novel by John L. Parker
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (most books I'm putting on this list are being added because I have positive thoughts about them. This is not one of those. It is, perhaps, my most hated book of all time.)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon