Willful Creatures (2005)

To curl up with an Aimee Bender story collection is to thank heaven you ever learned how to read in the first place. So it's no wonder Bender has such a devout cult of fans after 1998's The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and 2000's An Invisible Sign of My Own. Willful Creatures will continue to suck readers into Bender's magical worlds, where a young boy has keys for fingers, a thieving girl obsesses about kissing men of different hair colors, and a jilted bride gets in trouble for shattering air. What a treat to spend 15 stories in Bender's vast and wonderfully unhinged imagination. Now, if only she wouldn't wait so long between books.