Something to Say

"Readers are drawn to passionate people. They feed off the blogger's intensity. When I first started I adopted an all-business, "just the facts" approach to my posts  ...Slowly I realized that readers wanted to see how I felt about a subject. ...My passion gave them permission to engage with me on an emotional level. I now believe that passion is the "secret sauce" for powerful blogging."
-Stanford Smith, Born to Blog



Today I have something to say. I don't know if I was "born to blog," but I know that I am passionate about reading, books, history, traveling, and family. I thought about blogging about books long before I actually did. I'm not sure why I waited so long, because I've been longing to share my thoughts on this subject. Am I passionate about reading and books? Why do I care about this topic? Does it make any difference in the world? I have some answers to these questions today. I've never been a part of a book club. I've never been invited to join a club, although I've had friends who were in one. I've never been invited, and it may be because these groups are "tight-knit" the way best friends can be. Perhaps adding a new person would put a crease in a group that has been established for many years. I'm sure I could join a book club on my own, after all, there are "meet-up" groups for just about any interest,  but for some reason I've never done that. Writing about books here allows ME to choose the books and I get to decide when I communicate my ideas. I can write during the day when I'm not working at my part-time job as an E.S.L. teacher in an elementary school. I guess you could say that I'm my own boss, and as such I can say anything that I want to. I'm not passionate about many things, but if you ask me what I think about a book that I've read, I'm willing and eager to tell you. The sad thing is that I often encounter people who never read anything except their email and texts, but I respect their choice. Email and the internet are, after all, made up of words, and power and inspiration lie in words. So why do I really care about this topic? Well, I think it's because I like to think. Books lead me to think. I don't just read a book for its words - I think about what is happening and why. I don't have to agree with the book in order to appreciate it. A book causes me to look behind the characters in the novel or the historical characters in non-fiction. I wonder what makes them act the way they do. What are their motives, and how do they affect those around them? Through books I often come to understand the complexity of human nature and I become more accepting of others. I know I'm passionate about reading, and I almost always have something to say.

My favorite books list may change occasionally, but I'd like to share some of my very favorite novels. I also have another list in my mind of my favorite non-fiction books. These include inspirational stories biographies such as My Life in Green, The Boys in the Boat, Born to Run, and How My Mom Raised Ten Kids on 25 Words or Less. But back to my favorite novels list...my top ten as of today are, in no particular order:

The Poisonwood Bible
Uncle Tom's Cabin
A Prayer for Owen Meany
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
To Kill a Mockingbird
Cutting For Stone
The Grapes of Wrath
War Brides
Great Expectations
Paris: A Novel



Maybe you're wondering why I chose these books. Well, to make the list they have to have most of the elements of a great novel. They must have a great story that is both interesting and intriguing. A novel must have thoughtful organization. It must have strong rising action and falling action. It must be long enough to follow the main characters through many events and turning points in their lives. It must have language that causes readers to think. Words must be carefully chosen and appropriate for the story and characters. A good novel must have something to say that matters. For example, Cutting For Stone has something to say about unconditional love that is shown to twin brothers who were born to a nun in Asia. Similarly, Uncle Tom's Cabin has something to say about unconditional love that comes from unlikely people, but it also says a lot about hatred. It's on my list because it is full of metaphors and inspiring characters who could have actually lived during the time of slavery. Also, the writing style of Harriet Beecher Stowe is unprecedented.

I've read several hundred books since I've kept a record (1984). In each post I include the next ten books that I've read:

Miles to Go by Richard Evans
Decision Making and the Bible by Edward Everding & Dana Wilbanks
Will the Real Me Please Stand Up by Lee Ezell
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
This Republic of Suffering by Drew Faust
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Abraham by Bruce Feiler
Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding
The List by Martin Fletcher
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Have a great weekend, and I hope your team wins the super bowl.

-Melissa

Free trips!

"I love books. I love that moment when you open one and sink into it you can escape from the world, into a story that's way more interesting than yours will ever be." -Elisabeth Scott

One of the reasons that I love to read is that it allows me to go on a free trip. You probably didn't know that I've been to Mexico, Alaska, Africa, and all over Europe. I've sailed oceans. I've run across the jungles of Mexico. I've fought in wars. I've lived on a farm and built a cabin. I've met interesting characters in every single one of these places. I've learned a lot from the people whom I've met. I've observed their emotional struggles, painful pasts, and war-torn struggles. I've found strength in each one of them as I've learned that they are not perfect people, but they are incredibly strong and resilient people. Ok, so I haven't actually be to all of those places. My own real life is not nearly as audacious, but it hasn't exactly been a sleeper either. I have gotten to visit a few countries and I've actually been to Alaska. But by reading books, newspapers, and magazines allows me to "visit" many more places than I will ever get to visit in person. I know it's not quite the same, but reading allows me to come in contact with people who live in various communities in various time periods. 

El Camino de Santiago is for the adventurous!

So what's on my bucket list for traveling? Well, that's a pretty easy question for me. I want to visit Machu Pichu in Peru, and I want to hike some of the famous pilgrimage trail, El Camino De Santiago (most likely the part that is in Spain). I've read books set in these areas, and I've seen movies about them. These are definitely my top two dreams for myself, and not far behind is my desire to visit Ireland. Will I ever actually travel to any of these places? Absolutely! I have every intention of doing so within the next few years. Locally, my dreams are to buy a small cabin in the North Carolina mountains and to take up knitting. Who knows - maybe I'll do every one of these things!

This week I had the rare opportunity to go to a movie by myself. I went to see "Wild!" with Reese Witherspoon. I read the book by Cheryl Strayed a few years ago, and I found it to be quite inspiring. So I decided to give the movie a try. I found the movie to be very close to the scenes that I remembered from the book, so that was very refreshing. Many times I've found that the movie that is based on a book is a let-down, but not this time. If you enjoy inspiring stories of courage, strength, and determination, you will enjoy this book and movie. The movie is rated R, so don't take your young children to see it. 

Yesterday I finished reading the book Home: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson. You may know some of the other books by Robinson, Gilead and Lila. Home is about the Boughton family and their emotional struggles as a family. Glory, Jack, and their dad live together temporarily, and they struggle to deal with things that happened in their past. Mr. Boughton is a retired Presbyterian minister, and as he is now in his later years, he must rely on two of his grown children to take care of him. If you enjoy novels that deal with family and psychological issues, you will like this book. As for me, I think I'd rather read another good historical novel about now. So that's why I downloaded the book, Pastel Orphans, y Gemma Liviero. This WW novel is set in World War II, so I know I will continue to learn a lot. I seem to be in a pattern of reading books set in Europe during WW II, but I've had an adventure with each book. Incidentally, I'm always in need of book suggestions, so please leave your comments. I like to stay a step ahead so that I have my next book in the lineup. I have requested a couple of books from the library but it looks like it will be a long time before I'll get Some Luck by Jane Smiley and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

 Now for the next ten books that I've read since 1984:


1. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
2. Epic by John Eldredge
3. No Mortal Reason by Kathy Lynn Emerson
4. Miles to Go by Richard Evans
5. Decision Making and the Bible by Edward Everding and Dana Wilbanks
6. Will the Real Me Please Stand Up! by Lee Ezell
7. Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

8. Called to Die by Steve Estes
9. Annie Armstrong by Elizabeth Marshall Evans
10. The Smoke Jumper by Nicholas Evans

If you've read any of these books on my list, or if you've read any of the books that I've discussed, I'd love to get your feedback! Meanwhile, keep on reading...

Melissa

What Should I Read Now??

"I have a fondness for historical fiction, something wondrous like "Wolf Hall," but I'll read most anything as long as the story grabs my mind or my heart, and preferably both. You would be hard pressed, however, to find science fiction on my shelves." -Sue Monk Kidd

Kidd, author of Gilead and other novels.

I agree with Sue Monk Kidd regarding historical fiction! And I also concur that you will not find any science fiction on my shelves. I just can't get into all of that science fiction stuff, no matter how spectacular the time travel is or how many galaxies the characters invade. It's just too silly for me. The reason that I like historical fiction so much is that it touches two interests of mine at the same time: history AND a great story. In the past year I've read several historical novels, and I'm happy to see them doing well on the New York Times list as well as the Amazon bestseller list. These books include The Boys in the Boat, Orphan Train, Unbroken, All the Light the Light We Cannot See, Paris: A Novel, and War Brides. I thoroughly enjoyed each one of these books, and I recommend them to you as well. I seem to be following a trek through history that leads me to various dates in time, and many of them overlap. For example, when I read The Boys in the Boat, I realized that Louis Zamperini (from Unbroken) was once on the same ship to the Berlin Olympics with the rowing team from the University of Washington. All of these young men saw Adolph Hitler while they were in Berlin, so I wonder if they met each other too. I made another connection to War Brides when I read that one of the young women had been thinking about eloping to Grasmere, Scotland. Grasmere is a village in the UK that we were able to visit in 2014. It's known as a great place to get married, thus the reference in War Brides. Incidentally, William Wordsworth lived in Grasmere for fourteen years, and he described it as "the loveliest spot that man hath ever found." When I read that a young woman wanted to elope in Grasmere during WW II, I thought about our own our brief visit to the beautiful village.

And now for the next ten books in my card catalog. These are some of the books that I've read since 1984:

To Dream Again by Robert D. Dale
The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas
Encountering Evil by Stephen T. Davis, ed.
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Love For a Lifetime by Dr. James Dobson
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Room by Emma Donahue
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

So what do you suggest that I read next? I'm reading Home by Robinson as of today, but I need a list of good books so that I can start to prioritize what I'll read next. Please note that I don't care for romance novels, mysteries, science fiction, or self-help books. So put it through the sifter and see what comes out. I would rather get book suggestions from readers than from a bestseller list (I don't always agree with popular culture as to what is a good book).
Have a wonderful week! Please leave me your book suggestions and comments. -Melissa

Reading the novel, nouveau, la novela - a trek through the genre

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen

 Happy New Year to you and all of my readers!
I hope you're having a great year so far and that you've found a way to stay warm in the midst of this deep freeze that we've been experiencing. I shouldn't complain too much because it's been warmer here than in Kentucky, Ohio, and New York where many of my friends and relatives live. Thank you for reading my thoughts about books today, and I hope you will continue to read my posts and leave your comments.

I've read four novels since I wrote last at Thanksgiving time. I listed to two of these books while en route to and from Kentucky. It's always fun to go to the library and look through their many books on cds before a long solo car trip. I listened to Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie and Blue Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews. I enjoyed both and was able to finish them during the trip. Of course, I'd heard of Murder..., but I'd never read it. The characters are quite colorful and mysterious, so it was fun. Agatha Christie is a classic mystery writer of approximately 80 novels. and some of her books have been made into movies as well.

The other two books that I've read since the end of November are Gray Mountain and The Circle. Gray Mountain is a current bestseller set in western Virginia and other mountainous regions. It's about the coal mine companies and the destruction that they cause to the beautiful natural areas of Virginia and Kentucky. A small group of lawyers provide free legal services to the mountain people, and they always seek to find justice. They also try to shed light on the harm that large companies are causing to the land, and the harm caused by black lung disease. Lately I've been reading a lot of historical  novels, and this book is the closest of these four to belong in this genre because the background events have actually happened or are still happening. Still, I confess that I enjoyed my historical novels of last fall more, books such as War Brides, All the Light We Cannot See, and Paris: The Novel.



I finished reading The Circle by Dave Eggers a couple of days ago. My parents loaned this book because they thought I would enjoy it. Well, I can't say that I actually "enjoyed" it, but it was interesting. It's closer to what I'd call scary, strange, worrisome, and frightening. The story unfolds about a young woman named Mae Holland who thinks she's just gotten her dream job at a company called "The Circle." Gradually she realizes that the company isn't what she thought, but she begins to embrace the mysterious actions of the company as the Circle begins to close. I don't want to say too much about this book because I want you to read it. It's about technology becoming too intrusive and people becoming less human. All of us have been touched by the constant changes in technology, so I think you'll find this book to be interesting. The Circle is a company like Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and other technology companies rolled into one. The book is an easy read, and after a few pages you'll fid that you don't want to put the book down. 

I've been sharing the titles of the books that I've read since 1984, so here are the next ten in my card catalog:

1. No Second Chance by Harlan Coben
2. The Rain Before it Falls by Jonathan Coe
3. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
4. Ike Godsey of Walton's Mountain by Joe Connely
5. My Reading Life by Pat Conroy
6. The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy
7. The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper (a memoir set in Liberia)
8. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
9. Twilight at Monticello by Allan Crawford 
10. The Hours by Michael Cunningham

Keep on reading, and leave me your comments and book suggestions. My reading pile is a little short right now, so your suggestions are appreiated!

Stay warm,
Melissa