I went to the library for this one (actually I went to "BookBub - not familiar with that resource? If you have a Kindle, Google it! BookBub will make you smile...sometimes, anyway. On other occasions, you'll curse yourself for even having spent $1.99!!) I read pretty much every day - sometimes I squeeze in a few minutes, sometimes a few hours. I don't consider myself "well-read" but perhaps I'm at least "lots-read."
Every once in awhile I stumble on an absolutely brilliant writer and his/her brilliant book, and that just happened. David Arnold's "MOSQUITOLAND." If you like quirky, check! If you like humor-laced storytelling and characters who are so well drawn it makes your head spin for want of having that much talent, check! Try "Mosquitoland" - what an interesting 'voice' David Arnold has; what a heroine he has crafted!!
I don't actually own many books anymore since I have moved enough times to have yard-sold many or offered them to libraries for their fundraising sales. But, I still have a copy of a few that have stuck in my bloodstream - books that have those elements of brilliance that will make me want to re-read them and I want to be able to hold them, maybe even hug them occasionally - as is true for "Still Life With Woodpecker" (Tom Robbins) and "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" (Christopher Moore).
Lest you think I constantly dwell in frivolity (and I don't really care if you do - after all, I'm a Kidder! It's my birthright.) I recently sent a copy of Marquez's "100 Years of Solitude" to a book club pal. Anyway...I'm hoping some of the fun of these reads (notice I didn't claim "brilliance.") also comes across in my novel, working title "Who Killed Dorothy Miller?," which I am currently shopping to literary agents. I think when I send out my next batch of query letters, the first lines will read "Dear Sir or Madame would you read my book, it took me years to write, won't you take a look?" Whaddaya think? Get the reference?