memoir

Basically, because getting new books is exciting for me, and Still A Dreamer is about sharing things that I find worthwhile and valuable. Books – and reading – hold a place of importance in my life, and I just went to a huge book sale!

Maybe because I hope to inspire you, and you are ready for some great suggestions. (in my opinion, of course.)

In the top photo, are 6 books I found and purchased from my carefully curated list of 34 books. Celeste Ng’s book is not the original from my list, but a worthwhile swap.

In the photo above are some extras I found – 3 by authors I know and like, a fictional biography enthusiastically recommended to me by a young woman at the sale, and one for a friend.

The total haul? $22.00. You can’t beat that if you’re a reader.

The love of reading was engendered in me from a very, very young age, around 1 or 2 years old, for which I am deeply grateful. I quickly found that books were magic – they took you places you’d never imagined, taught you all your little mind could grasp with joy. Books laid down the path for a lifetime of curiosity, enjoyment, learning, and inspiration in so many ways.

See anything you like? I hope I’ve offered some interesting possibilities. BTW, if you have kids, and they see you reading, you’re already an inspiration for them to develop a lifelong habit of doing the same .

If you are not currently an active reader, or feel it’s too late to learn, find the book that will get your mind lit up and jump in. It’s never too late.

p.s. The day after the book sale, not having found the few “must-haves” on my list, I decided to buy 6 more on Thrift Books. I think I’m set for quite a while now! Stay tuned ….

There are so many ways one can get lost on the web, between websites, social media, blogs, etc., but then there are places where you simply feel found. One of those places is on the ANHonestHouse-CReyes-Cover2 lovely blog of Cynthia Reyes, where I find myself on a regular basis. Not only is Cynthia a wonderful writer with something to say, but she is also a published author whose second book, An Honest House, has just been released.

An Honest House is a memoir, designed to be read as a standalone or as the sequel of the memoir she started in 2013 with her first book, A Good Home.

Perhaps a step back is in order as a backdrop to Cynthia’s latest accomplishment – A Good Home is described as a “profoundly emotional book about the author’s early life in rural Jamaica, her move to urban North America, and her trips back home, all told through vivid descriptions of the unique homes she has lived in — from a tiny pink house in Jamaica and a mountainside cabin near Vancouver to the historic Victorian farmhouse AGoodHome-CReyes-Cover2 she lives in today … Full of lovingly drawn characters and vividly described places, A Good Home takes the reader through deeply moving stories of marriage, children, the death of parents, and an accident that takes its high-flying author down a humbling notch.”

Fast forward to the release of An Honest House three years later which picks up “from the early days of her recovery from a car accident, as told in her first book, A Good Home, she shares in this new book intensely lyrical stories of life with her husband Hamlin in their historic farmhouse north of Toronto …You will be challenged as the author immerses you in the reality of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and the courage it takes to live with chronic pain. And you will say a wrenching farewell to the farmhouse as she opens a new chapter in a life still devoted to creating beauty out of the materials life serves up to her, be they dark and haunting or light and joyful.”

From everything I have read about An Honest House, and from what I’ve learned over the past few years of Cynthia through her blog, the journey with her through her challenges and successes, her fears and her triumphs, will be one well worth taking.