stories – Page 2 – Peaceful Reader

3 Great Stories

I ended 2017 with three good library books and oddly enough I didn’t receive any books for Christmas. Probably good because my own piles are still sky high. Before I share my 2017 stats I thought I’d share these three.

1. The Tie that binds by Kent Haruf (1984): I read this because I loved Haruf’s Our Souls at night which pushed me to the library to find his first story of Holt, Colorado. Described as a Greek Tragedy, this story gives us Edith Goodnough, a woman who struggles to make something of her life within the confines of the hand she’s been dealt. Her mother dies young and Edith is left to care for her younger brother, Lyman and her abusive father. The intricate tale of love and loss will make you question how far responsibility carries anyone.

2. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (2011): I picked this one up after reading A Gentleman in Moscow and found this one as clever. Katey Kontent, a 25 year-old New Yorker with her roommate Evelyn meet Tinker Gray, a wealthy and handsome banker in a Village jazz club. The three of them set off on adventures, big and small, with both Evelyn and Kate hoping for their own moments with Tinker. Evelyn and Tinker eventually pair up but it’s not in any way how they expected. Filled with twists and turns and memorable characters like Anne Grandyn, this first novel by Towles is just as intriguing as A Gentleman in Moscow.

The Dry by Jane Harper (2016): Set in Australia this murder mystery has its own twists and turns in a short amount of time. Aaron Falk returns to his small hometown after his childhood friend Luke and his family are murdered. Aaron agrees to stay for a week to help the new sheriff as they both have questions about what exactly happened. While digging up clues they find simmering hatred and other secrets harbored by the small town residents. As they dig for clues Luke hopes to solve another mystery involving the drowning of his childhood friend Ellie of which he was the prime suspect. For a mystery with a LOT going on this one handled it all with interesting style. I’m looking forward to the next Aaron Falk tale.

July is almost over…

It’s been an amazing summer so far! It’s always hard to see summer melt away. And I’m one of the lucky ones in that I have days off to enjoy and sit in my hammock and read.

I met a friend at the farmers market this morning and I bought beets. She had a great time exploring-it was her first time at our downtown market-and she bought sweet corn, a huge tomato, and a berry pie. I’m sure they’ve finished at least half the pie by now. It looked delicious.

I met another friend at the library and we talked books for about an hour and a half. She’s also a librarian and she makes it to Book Expo so she is always far and ahead of me on what is new and great.

Book I finished yesterday:

Ms. Bixby’s Last Day by John David Anderson (2016): An excellent read about three boys who try to make their cancer-stricken teacher have a great last day before she leaves for treatments. Perfect for elementary and middle school.

In my bag now:

The Impossible knife of memory by Laurie Halse Anderson (2014): Recommended by a friend and I love Anderson’s work.

Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn (2017): Read about this one in an article about post-apocalyptic novels and after reading American War I decided this one sounded interesting as well. (RT update-I read almost the entire book in the car yesterday)

The Island of Dr. Libris (2015): Need to read for school, highly recommended.

The Witch’s Boy by Kelly Barnhill (2014): I loved Iron Hearted Violet and more recently The Girl who drank from the moon!

Recommended by my friend:

This is how it always is by Laurie Frankel
The stranger in the woods by Michael Fink
We were the lucky ones by Georgia Hunter
Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak
Small great things by Jodi Picoult

I’m excited to check some of these out from the library. After waiting and waiting for a copy of Alex and Eliza to come in at the library I finally downloaded it only to get a notice the VERY next day…#lessonlearned

29 days of book love…

I stopped. Why bother, I thought, when no one is listening? It’s frustrating I admit it but do I want to admit defeat? No.

After that struggle I reassessed; I’m not really writing for anyone else. It’s important for just me. Do I want people to read? Absolutely. Do I want people to comment? Absolutely. Yes, please. Say something, tell me what you think. I love discourse and dialogue.

But even if I’m just talking to myself it’s okay.

So I cam back to book love. Barbara Kingsolver. Anyone else love her?
I’ve read almost all of her books.

Here are my favorites in reading order:

1. The Bean Trees (1988): Goodreads wasn’t around but I read this one first and fell in love with the way it was written and the characters. I kept reading the series as I found them.

2. Prodigal Summer (2000): An amazing character driven tale that takes place in Appalachia. I loved Lusa because she was struggling with her place in the world. I could relate.

3. The Poisonwood Bible (1998): Wow. Ten years after The Bean Trees and this is a big leap up. A totally different kind of story. Quite good and I made it through all 546 pages.

4. Animal Vegetable Miracle (2007): She said everything I wanted to hear about food. Changed the way I thought about meat. My son was so happy. Local, healthy food and funny stories along the way.

5. The Lacuna (2009): Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Harrison Shepherd jaunt through Mexico and the U.S. during the 1930s. Beautiful and 508 pages.

6. Flight Behavior (2012): Goodreads says it like this “Contemporary American fiction at its finest…” I agree. This story blends interesting characters with an environmental message that made it easily my favorite of all her books.

Thank you Barbara for writing. I love your work.

29 days of book love…

This is the perfect book to be snowed in with, the kind of book you could curl up on the sofa and read for the whole day. In front of a roaring fire. I love talking students into reading it-they always come back happy. It’s mysterious, adventurous, and built on friendship. A trifecta.

Totally loving my snow day today even though the amount of snow we got is not record breaking. I’m soon to head out to take some snow photos of Groovy Girl and her BF, BF’s brother and little sister building snow people.

Top Ten Tuesday; Top Ten Bookish people I'd like to meet

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish this top ten list are the authors I would love to meet for dinner, coffee or maybe even a glass of wine. I’d be so nervous to meet them I’d have to have a list of top ten questions to use for talking points!

1. Barbara Kingsolver; I would ask about what inspired The Bean Trees and we could talk a long time about sustainable living.

2. J.K. Rowling; I would nudge her to talk about magic and her wonderful HP characters. I might ask her even about her new adult book.

3. Anne Lamott; I could listen to her stories for hours-she can make me laugh about parenting like no other! And then when we are all done laughing we could talk about our faith as well.

4. Judy Blume; Just to give her a hug and tell her thank you for all those stories that helped me go from elementary to middle and beyond. Thank you.

5. Louisa May Alcott; I would love to take a walk in the garden with her, just to listen to her tell stories about her sisters.

6. Henry David Thoreau; Same here, a walk would suffice and I’m sure he could give me advice on the simple life and civil disobedience.

7. George Washington Carver; I think of all his accomplishments but would love to just talk about gardening with him.

8. Kate DiCamillo; I’ve loved everyone of her stories and have a huge crush on her writing style. The Tale of Desperaux and Winn-Dixie are two books I could read every year.

9. Mildred D. Taylor; Roll of Thunder, Hear my cry is one of my favorite novels and I would love to have the opportunity to sit and share a meal with Ms. Taylor to talk about Cassie and her family.

10. Alice Hoffman; Alice Hoffman’s writing style fascinates me and I don’t think I could keep up but I would love to hear her speak.

Honorable mentions go to Dr. Seuss and President Barack Obama! I’ve heard the president speak but would love to have a one-on-one conversation about some important issues over a cold White House brew. Michelle could come also. What bookish person would you love to eat or chat with??

Top Ten Tuesday; Top Ten books that make you think…

It’s been awhile since I’ve particpated in The Broke and the Bookish’s weekly Tuesday meme and as I mentally promised to blog more in September I’m jumping in. There were several on her list that I completely agreed with.

1. The Book Thief-Death as a character was an amazing point-of-view to read from. This should be required reading at the high school level.

2. Revolution-I didn’t know much about the French Revolution before reading this book and I had to do some research to make it all fit together.

3. One Thousand White Women-made me question my knowledge of Native Americans and our government. Plus the whole book makes you feel like you are reading a true account and I kept having to tell myself “this is fiction, this is fiction…”

4. Along Way Gone: Ishmael Beah’s tale of his years as a boy soldier in Sierra Leonne. I had to stop many times to readjust my ideas and attitudes toward the human race. My husband lived in Sierra Leonne as a young boy and we shared many in-depth conversations about this country.

5. The Poisonwood Bible-Challenged my ideas of what a family and faith meant.

6. The Lacuna-like Revolution this book made me search for more information about the artists and the time period, opening up a whole new era for me.

7. The Red Umbrella-I learned so much about Cuba and what it was like for immigrants to settle here.

8. The Newman’s Own Organics guide to the good life-This was the first great book I read about being mindful of all that I did. Simple things stuck with me like why preheat as the first step of a recipe. Yes, we know that when baking something it is important to preheat but for cooking dinner there isn’t a reason in a world for that oven to heating up the entire time I work on a casserole in order for it to cook properly. If you lean toward organic this is an essential guide.

9. NutureShock-Made me rethink how I teach and how I parent; mind-blowing and well-written.

10. Stiltsville-A brilliant novel that shares so many snapshots of our world; women, gay, rich, poor, married, divorced, difficult and happy that you can’t help but think more profoundly after reading this adult novel.