Good Reads

A Balance of Fiction and Non-Fiction

/ still a dreamer

Here’s what I’ve found … I really do like reading a balance of fiction and non-fiction. I usually am reading one novel, be it adult, MG or YA, and also one non-fiction book (generally) of a metaphysical nature.

Recently, after finishing my last novel, I started reading Dying to Be Me by Anita Moorjani. I have been slowly working my way through Wayne Dyer’s Wishes Fulfilled a second time because it is so spot on, but I  found I miss the thrill … the immersion in  a story that I can’t put down. I want a book that nurtures my heart and soul as well as one that calls upon my mind and emotions and takes me places I’ve never been.

So I am going to Paris with the vampire Pandora by Anne Rice, a selection I’d made at The county library’s annual book sale. If you’ve never read Anne Rice, you will find her riveting. I read Interview with a Vampire, The Mummy and several others, but I loved the New Orleans Mayfair witches trilogy the best – The Witching Hour, Lasher and Taltos. They remain on my bookshelf as worth keeping and reading again. I’m looking forward to sitting with Pandora in a Paris café where she recounts her history; she was once a highborn woman in Augustan Rome who later named herself after the Pandora of mythology and in time, came to pursue Lestat.

Balance restored. How about you? Are you a one-book-at-a-time reader or do you multi-read, too?

Lost when the Story Ended

/ still a dreamer / 4 Comments

How you know a book is truly fabulous is when you finish it and feel a bit lost. That’s how I felt after reading The Help. I was done the story, but I didn’t want to leave that world where Miss Skeeter was writing her novel with Aibileen and Minny. I wanted to keep cheering them on and holding my breath when Skeeter finds Hilly’s been in her satchel and wish that Minny would leave Leroy. And now it’s over.

It’s a wonderful author who can so thoroughly engross you in the world she’s created that you just sit and stare a while. The Help was not only a brilliant story but also a stark look into a time in the deep South when racism was sharp, but the edges were being chafed by the likes of Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers and Rosa Parks in the growing civil rights movement. It’s a portrait of whites and the “coloreds” who served them, and how the maids fared depending on the inclinations of their missus.  What a read!

I saw the movie before I read the book, and now am going to watch it again. Apparently, I’m not done quite yet.

But what do you choose to read after you’ve finished a novel that held you in thrall? I’m thinking something as far from it as I can get. Despite my many selections from the annual library book sale, I admit I did purchase a few new ones that I’ve been wanting to read, and The Camino is one of them. What a joy reading is.

 

Kids – Hope for the Future

/ still a dreamer / 4 Comments

Shazaam! I’ve got a magic wand!

Each week my local county paper has a kids’ section that poses a question or two and publishes the children’s answers with their names, schools and grades. I always read these. Sometimes – kids being who they are – the answers are hysterical, some about what you’d expect from a 6 or 7 year old, and sometimes remarkably perceptive. Those are the ones that always make me smile.

This week the paper posed the question, “What would you do with a magic wand?”

There were plenty of answers about making the child and sometimes his family rich, turning her backyard into Disneyland or taking him to Disneyland, getting rid of one’s allergies, getting lots of wonderful foods,  and so on. But then there were these.

“I would use a magic wand when people need help. I would wave my wand and magic spells will help them.”  –  Amy, 1st Grade

“If I found a magic wand, I would wish everyone the best and world peace. World peace is very important to me.”   – Lauren, 5th Grade

“If I found a magic wand, I think I would go back in time to see my ancestors. I would really like to see what they looked like and see what they did. I think it would be really cool.”  – Alexis, 5th Grade

“If I found a magic wand I would stop world hunger! I would also train my puppies to do their business in the woods …”   – Margo, 3rd Grade

“If I were to find a magic wand, I would use it very wisely and only for good …”   – Kristen, 4th Grade

“If I had a magic wand I would find clues to see who lost it and give it back to them because it is the right thing to do and I like to do what is right. I would do it with my parents’ permission.”   – Rhea, 1st Grade

And then there are the future artists and scientists …

“If I found a magic wand I would summon a unicorn! Me and the unicorn would play. I would name it Buttercup. I would ride Buttercup everywhere. That’s what I would do if I found a magic wand.”  – Derek, 3rd Grade

“I would make a duplicate of myself.”   – Wayne, 1st Grade

For those who are worried, take heart … there is definitely hope for the future.

Another Reason I Love Summer

/ still a dreamer / 10 Comments

Reading.

One of the wonderful things about summer is that the light lasts so much longer. OK, that can mean more time to get things done, but it also lends itself to sitting outside and reading for awhile after one is done those very things. Another wonderful reason to love summer? NOTHING on television. Repeats, silly reality shows, (except Master Chef), not one thing to make one want to curl up and engage with some characters on a good drama or have a good chuckle. All that adds up to?

Reading.

I just finished Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, another excellent book. And, like The Last Templar, it’s a novel which offers insight into an historic period/series of events I’ve known little about, the internment of the Japanese during World War II. This is a beautifully written novel. It is, all at the same time, a story about the cultural differences of an American and Japanese who fall in young love, a murder mystery told through a courtroom drama, aspects of life on San Piedro island – the men who make their living fishing on the ocean and those who cultivate the land on strawberry farms, the experience of some of the islanders who fought in the war and the aftereffects, and the rounding up and shipping off of the island’s Japanese residents and the conditions they were forced to endure.

Sounds like a pretty tall order, but Guterson is a wonderful writer and he captures it all. The snow, the cedars, the ocean, strawberries – all are practically characters in their own right. I’ll be holding my breath, but am going to get the movie.

And now I’ m reading a children’s book, Holes by Louis Sacher. Holes was the American Library Association’s 1999 Newbery winner. Awhile back, I decided to start reading what is considered the best in children’s literature and made a list – those that I wanted to read selected from among the Newbery winners. However, I  prefer this list – the ALA Newbery medal winners AND the Honor books chosen – many not-to-be-missed books were right behind the medal winners.

Hoping you’re finding some time to read whatever you love while the daylight lingers ….

Books vs. Movies – Part 2

/ still a dreamer / 2 Comments

I’ll be honest – I started this post on June 3, shortly after  I had seen the movie The Bridges of Madison County and compared it to the book. There’s no time like the present, someone once said, so I’m finally the getting this up as a post. As I look at the novels I currently have waiting to be read, I must admit I am often drawn to those where I could watch the movie version as well.

However, when I think about other books that I’ve read and their movie counterparts, the results are mixed. I’ve listed a bunch, and again, these are very personal preferences reflecting what I like to read and which movies I’d go see.

The Shipping News – Annie Proulx – both movie and book excellent!

Shawshank Redemption – Stephen King – really liked both

Silence of the Lambs – Thomas Harris – book so gripping I couldn’t put it down, movie was also gripping, but not quite as good, though truly terrifying

Red Dragon – Thomas Harris – Book was excellent – the prequel to Silence of the Lambs; movie a huge disappointment, and almost nothing like the book

Because of Winn Dixie – Kate DiCamillo – both excellent, book still a bit better

The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd – book excellent, movie really quite good

Lord of the Rings – R.R.Tolkien, Harry Potter Series – J.K. Rowling,  Narnia Series – C.S. Lewis – I lump these together – perhaps unfairly – because they are all series, fantasy and of epic proportions in film. I loved the books that I read from these series, and that was not always all of them, but I really loved the movies, too. Either way, you can’t lose.

White Oleander – Janet Fitch – Outstanding book, couldn’t put it down; the movie not really even worth seeing

The Invention of Hugo Cabret – Brian Selznick – I like the storyline, but it wasn’t a favorite book of mine; Martin Scorsese really brought the story to life. Preferred the movie.

2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthue C. Clarke –  Movie by Stanley Kubrick – One of my favorite movies, and I feel it far outshined the book, but I’m real biased on this one.

The Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan – an amazingly complex and engrossing book; the movie couldn’t possibly carry the book’s  richness. Book better by far.

The Devil Wears Prada – Lauren Weisberger – Here’s a case where the movie was just fabulous and fabulously funny. I got the book after seeing the movie and was disappointed.

The Horse Whisperer – Nicholas Evans – I saw the movie first on this one and it was excellent, so I read the book. Also excellent and I’d recommend both.

 

Well, that’s my two cents. Do you have a loved book that was made into a movie and a thought or two about it? Or a great movie and the book you read later? Let us know!