Friday Fixes

"I was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1936. By the time I was twenty, I had lived through a Hungarian Fascist dictatorship, German military occupation, the Nazis' 'Final Solution,' the siege of Budapest by the Soviet Red Army, a period of chaotic democracy in the years immediately after the war, a variety of repressive Communist regimes, and a popular uprising that was put down at gunpoint." -Andrew S. Grove, Swimming Across: A Memoir (2001)



On this hot, humid North Carolina morning I'm sitting in a small service station that does not have air conditioning waiting for my car to get an oil change. The truth is, I had an appointment for 9 a.m., but it's now 9:34 and the car has not been moved. Such is life, I guess, but I rarely have to wait at this place. I feel like granting them a little bit of mercy today, since so much mercy has been given to me over the years of my life. However, I do have to be home by 11 a.m. to meet the plumber so that he can fix two of our plumbing problems that have been ignored for too long. I guess I should call this day "FRIDAY FIXES" and be satisfied when the two big fixes get taken care of by the end of the morning. Today there's a little girl in here with her mother, and the four-year-old is getting a little bit restless. She quickly tired of her computerized toy, so then she started talking to herself and moving from chair to chair. As the minutes passed, her little voice got louder and louder, which prompted her mom to tell her to CALM DOWN! She's just being a typical preschoolers whose mom didn't bring enough toys or art supplies to keep her busy. I'd like to tell her mom, "Let her be a kid, but next time pack a bag of books, coloring books, and crayons for the child so that she won't be bored." I guess I should mind my own business though.

Last weekend I read a very good memoir that I borrowed from my parents. The book is Swimming Across by Andrew S. Grove. Grove, whose Hungarian name was Andris Grof, grew up in Budapest as an only child. His family was Jewish, although they weren't active participators in the Jewish faith. This memoir was published in 2001 and it chronicles Grove's life from the time that he was about two years old until he became a well-known business leader in the U.S. Grove's parents were in the dairy business in Budapest, and this sustained them through many difficult times. At the age of four, Grove almost died of Scarlet Fever, but after a long bout with the illness, he finally recovered. He was left with partial deafness that affected his life from then on. In every school where he studied he sat on the front roll so that he could hear, and he was afraid to get water in his ears when he learned how to swim. When Grove was five years old, his father and other Jewish men were sent to serve in "labor battalions" clearing roads and the like, and Grove did not see his father for several years after that. Then one day his dad reappeared in their apartment, but Grove didn't really recognize or know him any longer. His dad was emaciated and weak, but he eventually built up his strength. Grove's life was constantly changing as his family moved from place to place looking for safety. He was able to attend school off and on throughout the time of the war and occupations, and eventually he became very well-educated in America. We can't imagine what he went through, particularly during the years that his father was gone. His life was filled with sirens, fear, worry, and the unknown. His dream was always to be with his parents, to be safe, and to get an education. He loved to learn, especially in the area of Science, and he was notorious as a young many for doing experiments with chemicals which sometimes got him into trouble.

With the help of relief organizations and the support of his parents, Grove was able to immigrate to America when he was a young man. He lived with an aunt and uncle in New York City during his first years and was able to complete his education with the help of scholarships and hard work. He went on to become the found of the well-known company, Intel, and he became TIME magazine's Man of the Year in 1997. He has also become a well-known author of business texts, Only the Paranoid Survive and High Output Management. The title, Swimming Across, is an analogy of the effort that it took for Grove to reach his dreams. He feared for his life so many times, and faced so many obstacles, dangers, and setbacks, that he could have just given up. But he kept hitting the waves of life and never gave up. He eventually settled in California and brought his parents over from Hungary. Today he is an American citizen and has a family of his own. He has never returned to Hungary because he sees that as a completely different chapter in his early life. He started his life all over again when he came to America. If you like "the good guy wins" stories, you will enjoy this book. We all like a good success-story, and this definitely is one. Stories like this make us want to become better people. They make us realize that our lives are way too easy and that we don't appreciate what we have because we have never really had to work to get what we need. You can read this book in one weekend, and I don't think you'll want to put it down.

Here are the next ten books from my list of reading since 1984:

1. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
2. The Greater Journey, Americans in Paris by David McCullough
3. John Adams by David McCullough
4. Lessons From the Mountain by Mary McDonough and Beverly Nault
5. Born to Run by Christopher McDougall (a great book!)
6. Suffering: A Test of Theological Method by Arthur C. McGill
7. The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon
8. Love Me. Never Leave Me by Marilyn Meberg
9. The Zippered Heart by Marilyn Meberg
10. Bonhoeffer, Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

Have you read any of the books that I've discussed during the past year? Which book did you enjoy the most? Is there a book that you would SCREAM to me, "READ IT!"? I'd love to get your input so please feel free to share.

Have a great day,

Melissa
Book Blogger
www.onegoodbookblog.blogspot.com

One Hundred Years of Reading

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." -One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1970.





I finally did it...I finished reading One Hundred Years of Solitude! I'm not sure how much time I spent on the book because I took a detour for three days and read We Will Always Have Paris by Jennifer Coburn. Reading this book was somewhat like taking cough medicine: I didn't like the taste but in the end, reading this epic novel will be good for me. It will help me on Jeopardy, it will assist me in having meaningful conversations with my friends, and the vocabulary will help me become more intelligent. But to me, it didn't really "taste good." I'm glad that I read it though, because I have heard this book mentioned many times, but I had no idea what it was about. So, now I know. One Hundred Years of Solitude was written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 1965, and in 1970 it was translated into English. Garcia Marquez is a native of Colombia and wrote several books. In 1982 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, so this man can definitely write. But this book just didn't fit my personality. The paragraphs are very long, and there isn't as much dialogue as I normally see in a novel. I felt almost as if someone was narrating a play for me. Also, since this book is a translation, the syntax and language don't flow easily for me. Still, I do appreciate this book and the time that the Columbian spent on it.

One Hundred Years of Solitude covers the time between the invention of ice and the invention of airplanes. It chronicles the lives of Jose Arcadio Buendia and his family. He and his wife, Ursula, had three children: Colonel Aureliano Buendia, Jose Arcadio, and Amaranta. The story begins here with tales of war, revenge, lunacy, love, lust, and gypsies. There are so many characters who have similar names, that it's often difficult to keep the characters straight.  I admit that I didn't always know which character was doing what, because the names are so similar. Yet I persevered and was able to get an overall picture of what happened during the 100 years. At times I felt like it would take me 100 years to complete the book but I'm glad that I persevered until the end so that I could appreciate this great classic novel.

Last week I wrote a post called "We'll Always Have Paris Too" in which I discussed Coburn's book, We'll Always Have Paris. I enjoyed the book so much, especially because my daughter and I have also taken a magical trip to Paris, the City of Lights. Not only is the book sentimental, but it's humorous, so it was great fun to read. When you travel abroad, you HAVE TO keep a sense of humor, because things don't always go as planned. I sent Coburn an email to tell her how much I enjoyed her book, and she quickly responded. It was so nice to hear back from her and to know that she was going to read my blog! It's nice to know that someone in California is interested in my thoughts about a book that I sort of found by accident at Barnes & Noble. Incidentally, some of my greatest book treasures have been found by "accident."

Here are the next ten books that I've read since 1984:

1. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
2. A Corner of the Universe by Ann M. Martin
3. Feather Crowns by Bobbie Ann Mason
4. God Answers Prayers by Anna Hill Matthews
5. The Color of Water by James McBride (it was once a Durham Reads book;I attended his reading)
6. The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith
7. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
8. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (we attended his book signing here in Durham)
9. Teacher Man by McCourt
10. 'Tis by McCourt

Tonight I'm going to look through the bag of books that I got from my parents in Kentucky. I'm sure that there's a good book in there somewhere, so I look forward to sharing that with you later on. Meanwhile, what would you like me to read next? Have you read One Hundred Years of Solitude? What did you think of it? Leave me your comments, and thank you for reading!

-Melissa

We'll Always Have Paris Too

"A trip to Paris had sounded so adventurous when I was first talking about it a year earlier. People spoke about the city with dreamy longing, as though Paris possessed a magic that could not be found elsewhere. I'd never heard anyone talk about Paris without sighing. The city was a Promised Land that held appeal for most everyone: artists, lovers, even people who just liked cheese."

-Jennifer Coburn, We'll Always Have Paris (2014)

Last Saturday night as I was browsing through Barnes & Noble, a special book caught my attention. As I skimmed through We'll Always Have Paris, I realized that I just had to buy this book even though I wasn't in need of something to read. The author and her daughter had some adventures while traveling in Europe, and I could relate to this because I also had a trip to Paris and the Netherlands with my daughter, Lydia. I read the book in three days and enjoyed it very much. It was just the break that I needed from reading One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Jennifer Coburn, the author of We'll Always Have Paris, always had a feeling that she would die young. It wasn't so much a "feeling" as it was a "fear," a fear that she didn't have much time to make amazing memories with her only child, Katie. So, when Katie was just 8 years old, she and her daughter made their first trip to Europe, a trip to Paris and London. The second trip was three   years later, a trip to Italy. The third trip was another three years later, a trip to Spain, and by this time, Katie was 14 years old. One common thread that runs through Coburn's account is that every single trip had some bumps and bruises, some times when everything was not perfect. They prepared very well for their trips, but unexpected things always happened. For example, Katie got sick or they had to change their plans because the lines were too long to see a much-anticipated icon of the country. At times they even felt that people were taking advantage of them, i.e. trying to cheat them out of money. Katie was much calmer than her mother when these types of things happened, and she seemed to just go with the flow. She taught her mother some valuable lessons about patience, flexibility, love, and being spontaneous. She taught her mother how to enjoy the present and how to have a great adventure instead of worrying about something that probably won't happen.

My daughter and I also went to Europe together, and I give her a lot of the credit for making the trip so memorable. Lydia, now 21 years old, is an adventurous young lady who really knows how to enjoy life. Coburn dedicated her book to her daughter, Katie, and writes "For Katie Who makes every day a wonderful adventure." I could say the same about our Lydia, a rising Senior in college. Lydia has had many adventures in the past few years, and I've enjoyed being a small part of them. When Lydia graduated from high school in 2012, she and I made our first trip to Europe. We went to Paris and the Netherlands for a 10-day trip. We spent the prior six months planning the trip. We googled, read, and took advice from other travelers as we planned our itinerary and made reservations. Everything did not always go exactly as planned but I wouldn't change anything because I learned something every single day. We got to see everything on our list plus some other things that we had not planned on, so I would call the trip a great success. Some of the "bumps" along the way included getting lost, getting on the wrong train in Paris, arriving in Haarlem, Netherlands to find that our hotel was actually too far to walk to, and so on. But I would not change anything. Because of the glitch in my plans in Haarlem, we got to chat with a nice Dutch bus driver who politely answered my request regarding a ride to our hotel. I found that the Dutch are very nice people, and I would love to go back and just travel all over the small country. Perhaps next time I will get to ride a boat in a canal, visit the Van Gogh Museum, and see the tulips. My most memorable experience in the Netherlands was visiting the Corrie ten Boom home in Haarlem. The ten Booms saved many Jews during the reign of the Nazis, and you can visit their home and see the hidden closet where people hid. The woman who gave us our tour of the small house was an American Jew, and she said that if anyone wanted to know how they could have the same hope in God as the ten Boom family had, they could stay after the tour and she would talk to them. Wow - what a witness to the hope found in living a life with purpose in Christ! I will never forget the impact that this had on my life.

You may wonder what motivated Coburn to travel with her daughter. Well, she believed that if she died prematurely as she feared, at least her daughter would have the great memories of their three trips to Europe together. This fear of an early death was often in the forefront of her mind, so she wanted to fully enjoy her daughter. My daughter and I also have great memories, and we will always have them. I treasure them. Lydia and I will always have Paris too. Lydia got to return to Paris in 2014 with a college group, and she made even more memories. My husband and I were able to go to the UK for the first time in 2014, and we had a great time as well. Our son, Benjamin, is yet to have a great trip adventure, but he is looking forward to it in the future. So, while a fear of my premature death doesn't motivate me to travel, my desire to make memories with my family does.

Here are the next ten books that I've read since 1984:

1. My Father's House by Anne Graham Lotz

2. Traveling Light by Max Lucado

3. The Circle by Dave Eggers

4. Pastel Orphans by Gemma Liviero

5. The Sigma Protocol by Robert Ludlum

6. Martin Luther: The Best From All His Works by Luther

7. The Big Little School by Robert Lynn & E. Wright

8. Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald

9. The Bridge by Doug Marlette

10. Christy by Catherine Marshall

Have a wonderful day! And have a great adventure!

-Melissa

Run for the Roses 2015

This weekend many of you will be celebrating a wonderful tradition in my home state of Kentucky, THE KENTUCKY DERBY. You feel the excitement throughout the state, but especially in Louisville and Lexington. I remember a fun time that I had back in the mid-1980s when I enjoyed some of the Derby festivities. I have never attended the Derby, or any horse race for that matter, but that didn't keep me from participating in some of the hooplah. You may not be aware that there is a Derby parade, a Derby breakfast at the governor's mansion in Frankfort, and much more. One Saturday one of my roommates in Louisville had complimentary tickets to the governor's Derby breakfast, so Patti, Paula, and I dressed up and set out for Frankfort where we enjoyed a delicious traditional Kentucky breakfast under a huge tent. We also took our pictures in front of the governor's desk and actually saw her walking the grounds. Yes - that's right - Martha Layne Collins was the 56th governor of Kentucky at the time, and I was so proud that we had a woman as governor. My friends and I saw Collins and her husband walking along, and they were in the company of the well-known celebrity, Gary Collins, and his wife, Mary Ann Mobley. It was a beautiful day and a memory that I treasure. So, although I have never attended a derby, I have celebrated the occasion. I still try to watch the race on tv as often as possible.

If you love Kentucky as I do, or if you enjoy beautiful writing, I recommend that you read some of the books by Jesse Stuart,  the poet laureate of Kentucky in 1954. Born in Greenup County, Ky, Stuart was well-known for his short stories, novels, and poetry about Southern Appalachia. I read several of his books when I was a teenager. I have lived in several towns in Kentucky, but my favorite parts are the rural areas and the state parks. I've lived in Munfordville, Georgetown, Madisonville, Louisville, Shepherdsville, and Falmouth. I played basketball at Berea, Cumberland Univ., Campbellsville, and Kentucky State. So, ask me about Kentucky - I might surprise you with too many details. I can recommend a state park, waterfalls, and more.

I'm still working my way through One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez. It's a classic that I've wanted to read for a long time, and since it was in a bag from my recent Kentucky visit, I felt that I should dig in. It's an interesting novel with a lot of strange happenings, wars, deaths, etc. but its hard for me to focus on who is who. The names of the characters are difficult for me to remember because some of them are so similar. For example, there is a Colonel Aureliano Buendia and a Jose Arcadio Buendia.  There are Jose Arcadio Segundo and Aureliano Segundo, also very similar names. It's very confusing to me, but since I'm halfway finished with the book, I'll continue pushing through it. It does have some great quotes. For example, in my last post I discussed great beginnings in literature, and 100 Years has a notable beginning as well. It begins, "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." I can't say that my parents ever took me to discover something as vital as ice.

The next ten books in my card catalog to be noted this week are:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
2. Coffee Rings by Yvonne Lehman
3. If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name by Heather Lende (a memoir about life in Alaska)
4. Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts
5. Mendel's Daughter by Martin Lemelman
6. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
7. Gift From the Sea by Anne M. Lindbergh
8. Carrie Pilby by Caren Lissner
9. Mary Slessor by W.P. Livingstone
10. Jewel by Brett Lott

To all of my faithful readers, thank you so much for taking the time to read my thoughts today. I check the traffic on my blog periodically, so I am aware of how many people are reading my thoughts about books and other topics. Keep on reading!

-Melissa