All Time Favorites, Part 1

If you came to my house and asked for a book recommendation, I'd take you to this shelf first.
My all time favorites.


I found To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee Harper) on my dad's bookshelf when I was 10.
I was so confused as to why he'd have a book about killing mockingbirds,
and I cracked it open worried I might expose a dark secret about my father.
Maybe he secretly hunted birds,

Once I started, I couldn't put it down. This was nothing like The Hardy Boys or Ramona and Beezus.
A child was telling the story, but the story had so much more depth, and even in fifth grade,
I picked up on the nuances of complicated human nature and I was hooked.
When I turned in book report and my teacher found out I'd read To Kill a Mockingbird,
he recommended Lord of the Flies and then A Day No Pigs Would Die. 
It was then that I fell in love with books that made me feel.

I've read Charms for the Easy Life (Kaye Gibbons) so many times. I think my sister-in-law, Jo, recommended it to me just after I was married. I never get tired of the story and it was a go-to for a long time when I needed a book as a balm. Maybe its because my grandma lived with us my whole life so I have a soft spot for stories of granddaughters growing up side by side with their mothers and grandmothers. As well as a healthy belief in alternative medicine and herbs for healing.

I'm not sure how I discovered A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving), but it was some time before I had children and after I finished it, I started it all over, this time reading it with my husband on a long bus excursion while we were on vacation in Mexico. "Let me know when you're finished so I can turn the page." The foreshadowing and ultimate destiny and the all caps for Owen's voice stole my heart.

In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, (Anne Fadiman), I sympathized with the plight of two clashing cultures, both wanting to heal a little girl's illness 
but both at opposite ends of the care she needed. 
The American medical system called her disease epilepsy -- a joke to her Hmong family who knew it was a case of a spirit being jolted from her body when a door slammed and startled her. 
It eloquently portrayed the importance of respecting cultural traditions different from our own.

Part 2 coming soon!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

June 12

Image
Thirty-six years ago today, when we were just eighteen, Dan and I had our first date. It was the summer after our freshman year of college. Campus was relatively quiet, our class schedules were relatively easy.  Long days eased into perfect Utah nights. We met in Geology 101.  I was smitten with his confidence even though it bordered on cocky. One day he passed me a note that read: Make me dinner tonight. With no hesitation I dashed off a response: You make me dinner. He agreed. He made me dinner, which was the plan all along--his roommates and neighbors and Dan all grilled steaks on a balcony hibachi. And they made side dishes. I remember peas. One of his roommates played the record Another One Bites the Dust backwards and we laughed and laughed. Later that night we went swimming and I dove into the pool, which clinched it for Dan. It was many nights of him making dinners that did it for me. Love at second sight , as the song goes. (The Gambler. by fun. Love it so much.) His...
Read more

Journaling

Image
My first journal entry was written a few days after my eight-year-old birthday. My second was a year later when I rewrote that first entry in my much more impressive nine-year-old handwriting. From the beginning, even at eight years old, writing was how I got to know myself better.  When my oldest children were teens, I thought it would be fun to share with them parts of my journal so they could see what was on my mind at their age. They were lazing in our family room when I brought out the letter-sized white binder with a worn leather cover that I'd written sporadic entries from ages eight to eighteen. I read to them my eight year old birthday entry and then a rushed but enthusiastic paragraph I'd written just after doing a a double-flip on the trampoline at age ten. (We were trampoline pros!) Then we turned page after page of entries that were either angry, angsty or a long list of childhood crushes. My children were as embarrassed for me as I was. Clearly, not everything is ...
Read more

Book Tour Begins Today!

Image
The ireads virtual book tour for The Things They Didn't See begins today and runs through July 18.  Click here for details and the daily schedule for forty bloggers, instagrammers, and TikTokkers  who will be reviewing my book, with links to author interviews and a signed book giveaway!  
Read more