I love to see little girls walking, dawdling,
slowly trailing behind their parents in stores and on the street. These girls with
their intense faces glued to the pages of a book have the look of someone in
another world. Watching them, magically walking without tripping, I sense these
girls are kin. My mother spent her childhood in a tree reading. She’d go up in
the morning with a bunch of red apples staying up on a large branch as long as
she could. Books have been a huge part
of my life since I was 10. I’d lay down on
my stomach in the long grass of my
backyard, holding my chin up with my palms so I could read my book on the
ground. At lunchtime, my mom would bring out peanut butter and homemade strawberry
jam sandwich along with a glass coke bottle full of cold, sweet lemonade. Childhood
summers were heaven because of books and my backyard. I could read all I wanted.
Even now I always have a book going. They
have touched my heart, taken my breath away with their authors’ gorgeous words,
or given me adventures I never would have had in my real life. A few even
radically changed my thinking way when I thought I knew everything. I have made
a short list to share. Since the Patriot Act, libraries no longer keep records
of all the books checked out. It’s too bad, because I don’t have perfect recall
of each book I held in my hands that I was grateful to have stumbled upon.
I am kind of fussy about books. I’ll give
them 25 pages or so to amuse me or intrigue me, then I’m on to another. These
all caught my attention right away. Maybe you will find something great to read
for yourself and in turn, make list of your own to share. I truly hope so
because right now, I’m out of new books; all my holds from the library came and
went, so I need inspiration. As soon as I click “publish,” I’m sure that I’ll
remember a book I adored and forgot to add.
This past year has been really difficult. I’ve hardly written at all. I’ve been
writing, but in short spurts. I’m painting and working on a children’s book,
but I am not feeling very inspired right now. I’m hoping to rely on my writing
colleagues to help me out. There are few things I love more than finding a new
author.
Maybe these will seem light weight to some
of you, but I’ve read most of the classics and these still are my favs that
nurtured me and stay with me still.
Childhood Favorites
Madeline-Ludwig Bemelmans- Children’s book about a
smart, sassy, good little girl in Paris. Pure magic.
The Island of the Blue Dolphins - Scott O’Dell- Historical
fiction about an Indian girl who lived on a Pacific island by herself for over
20 years.
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott- Jo, the writer as narrator,
tries to grow up being true to herself, among her sisters during the Civil War.
Jo, more than anything, wants to be a great writer.
Lovely book with Alcott’s transcendental view
shining through.
Spirituality and Society
The Kingdom of God is Within You- Leo Tolstoy-Tolstoy gives the best
analysis of state, war, and soldiers I’ve ever read. This is the book Gandhi
read before he began his work in India. I read it 30 years ago and its powerful
stories have stayed with me.
A Path with a Heart
- Jack Kornfield-All
purpose, keep going back to, book about spirituality and meditation.
Cries of the Spirit-A Celebration of Women’s
Spirituality- edited
by Marilyn Sewell-Every woman poet from Atwood, Dillard, Giovanni, and St.
Vincent Millay write about love, God, children, work, body image, and the
Spirit. I used it as a text for a class I taught.
Spiritual Pilgrims-Carl Jung and St. Teresa
of Avila- John Welch –
A great book for learning more about ourselves and spirituality in mid-life.
Another book I go back to time and time again.
Fiction
The Secret Life of Bees-Sue
Monk Kidd –A young Southern
teenage girl runs away from her abusive father during the civil rights
struggles. A perfect story. I wish I had written it. Kidd’s “Dance of the
Dissident Daughter” is awesome as the story of her spiritual growth.
The Life of Pi- Yann Martel-A boy travels across the sea in
a small boat with a tiger. Sounds weird, I know, but such a great page turner
written by a talented writer with an important message.
Like Water for Chocolate-Laura
Esquivel-A
magical realism work of fiction about a Mexican family that has a daughter who
does all the cooking. Her emotions show up when people eat her food, they cry,
they laugh, sometimes even fall in love.
The
Prince of Tides-Pat Conroy-This
book is worth is just for the descriptions of Southern low country geography.
Storytelling at its finest. His other books are great as well. Santini, Conrac,
try them all.
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater –Kurt Vonnegut- One of Kurt’s best. A
wealthy young man set up a table where people can come tell him what they need.
He’s giving away all the family’s money and they are trying to put him away in
the loony bin! Funny and smart.
King’s Oak-Anne River Siddons-All of her covers look
like she writes romance novels. Don’t be deceived because she is an excellent
writer who uses every discipline to make her novels interesting, including
anthropology. Also she has about 20 novels that all start out like they are telling
a light little tale, then wait…
The Good Conscience-Carlos Fuentes-a graduate school favorite.
A rich Mexican young man tries to reconcile what he is taught at church and
school with his family’s business values. Excellent.
One Hundred Years of Solitude-Gabriel Garcia Marquez-So dreamy, funny,
sweet, it’s worth the try. A multi-generational family in Latin America tries
to maintain its isolation from other towns.
The
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society-Mary Ann Shaffer-It’s one of those books where you love all
the people, hate to finish it so you slow down so it won’t end too soon. So
good.
Water for Elephants-Sue Greuhn–A great story, beautifully
written, where you are rooting for the orphan Vet student to come out of his
experience alive and well and get the girl and
the elephant.
Mysteries
and Detective Novels-I
love mysteries and follow lots of detective writers, but these are the best I’ve
found.
Malice-(or anything in the series) Robert Tanenbaum-This
is part of a series about a quirky family, super honest Butch Karp, the NY
District Attorney, his wife Marlene, the violence-prone defender of domestic
violence victims, their cute twin boys, and daughter, the multi-lingual Lucy,
with her mystical visions of St. Teresa. Start with the earliest books in the series so
you so it all makes sense.
The Camel Club (or
anything in the series)-David
Baldacci-The main character is an ex-CIA special ops agent, but now lives in
Lafayette Park across from the White House, in a tent. He is worn out
physically, burned out emotionally, and yet still tries to save the world,
along with his great friends that include a Secret Service agent, a librarian from the
Library of Congress, and many others. All in the Camel Club series are really
entertaining and smart.
Newest
Favorite from this Summer
God’s Hotel-Victoria
Sweet-A doctor working
from San Francisco’s Laguna Honda hospital tells the poignant story of alms
houses for the poor, European medical history, and her own search for a better
way to help sick people. Sweet works part time at the hospital while she
pursues a doctorate in medical history using Hildegard of Bingen (a nun from
the middle ages who was a healer, herbologist, writer, musician, and abbess of
her own monastery) as her point of trajectory to compare the two methods of
medicine.
Some Assembly Required: My Son’s First Son-Anne Lamott- Anne’s honest and moving
journal about her first grandson’s first year. I loved this one and most of her
earlier books like, Operating
instructions and Rosie.
Other authors that have read and I love all
of their books:
Alice Hoffman
Kristin Hannah
Lorna Landvik
I hope you find a new author and write your
own blog about your favorite books!
