Stranger Things Happen -- Kelly Link

You know how sometimes you wake up from a particularly vivid dream and as hard as you try, all you can remember is an image?  And then, days later, you'll be washing the dishes or doing something similarly zen and the whole dream will come back to you?

That's what Kelly Link's stories are like for me.

Images from Stranger Things Happen that are still with me: 

A man on a beach.  A tackle box full of prosthetic noses.  Black dogs in a library.  A floppy hat decorated with teeth.  A middle-aged, plump Venus.  A pair of thigh-high black boots.  The Snow Queen, Cinderella's prince and the Twelve Dancing Princesses.  Nancy Drew.  A Chinese restaurant.  Envelopes with the stamps cut out.  A naked ghost and a cello.  A fireplace.

Spooky and funny and and painful and melancholy and hopeful.  She's a special one -- I haven't read anyone like her.