Thanks go to my friend Lois for telling me about this question that’s going around on Facebook. Name 15 books that will always stick with you. Rules: Don't take too long to think about it - just 15 minutes to list fifteen books you've read that you remember for various reasons. Here’s my quick list. (Yes, I know it’s more than 15, but the list would be even longer if I had more than 15 minutes.)
You Can't Go Home Again - Thomas Wolfe
Moving On - Larry McMurtry
Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
Time and Again - Jack Finney
Crossing to Safety - Wallace Stegner
The Shipping News - Annie Proulx
The Transit of Venus - Shirley Hazzard
Many Masters-Many Lives - Brian Weiss, MD
The Power of Your Subconscious Mind - Dr. Joseph Murphy
The Risk Pool - Richard Russo
The Other America - Michael Harrington
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Loving Frank - Nancy Horan
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
Motherless Brooklyn - Jonathan Lethem
The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery
Friday, July 24, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
“What sort of day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times. And you were there.”
When news of Walter Cronkite's death was announced yesterday, I thought of these words that he spoke at the end of “You Are There,” a CBS show broadcast on Sunday afternoons during the 1950s that recreated historic events such as the Battle of the Alamo and the Hindenburg disaster. The events were reported as breaking news with the main characters speaking directly to the camera.
I recall that line of Cronkite’s, especially when I want to reinforce the fact that both important and seemingly non-important days change history.
I recall that line of Cronkite’s, especially when I want to reinforce the fact that both important and seemingly non-important days change history.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Another Chapter
Everyday, it seems, I come across another online site pertaining to books. In just the last week, for example, I received something from NPR Book Notes, Powell’s Books, Random House, The American Library Association’s Book List, Oprah’s Book Club. There’s also Shelfari, Goodreads, Living Social and Daily Lit. And I’d guess there are hundreds more professional sites as well as a long list of book bloggers like me.
So I have decided to go back to my original idea for this blog and focus on language. Perhaps it’s the teacher in me or perhaps the days of diagramming sentences are instilled deep in my memory. But I am constantly intrigued by the English language - its origins, its past and current usage, and how it’s been beautifully expressed by wonderful authors.
For example, have you ever heard of “famine ridges”? I hadn’t, until I read that they refer to the fields formed by the abandoned potato crops during the Irish famine that began in 1845.
I'll still express my opinions about books, of course. Especially when the writing makes you think or learn, or laugh or cry. Or when you hate to turn to that last page.
If you have ideas or suggestions, please feel free to comment. If you can’t access “post a comment,” you may send an email to barbara37@gmail.com.
So I have decided to go back to my original idea for this blog and focus on language. Perhaps it’s the teacher in me or perhaps the days of diagramming sentences are instilled deep in my memory. But I am constantly intrigued by the English language - its origins, its past and current usage, and how it’s been beautifully expressed by wonderful authors.
For example, have you ever heard of “famine ridges”? I hadn’t, until I read that they refer to the fields formed by the abandoned potato crops during the Irish famine that began in 1845.
I'll still express my opinions about books, of course. Especially when the writing makes you think or learn, or laugh or cry. Or when you hate to turn to that last page.
If you have ideas or suggestions, please feel free to comment. If you can’t access “post a comment,” you may send an email to barbara37@gmail.com.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Summer Reading - Bestsellers? Classics? Both?
“I just finished reading Finding Nemo to my dolly. I told her it was a classic.” Maeve Wilson, 5 years old.
Not quite. But the concept’s there. Classics stand the test of time because of their universal themes that touch us emotionally and intellectually. Though Dickens, Austen and Tolstoy may first come to mind, 20th century literature includes a long and diverse list of books now considered classics. Book stores frequently display them as suggestions for summer reading.
Beginning in June every year, newspapers and magazines publish lists of books ideal for taking on vacation. From their lists you get the idea that the ideal book to take to the beach is a commercial best seller or an escapist novel, or a well-honed mystery. James Patterson, Jodi Picoult, and Nelson DeMille, as well as the list of nonfiction books - history, biographies, and travel memoirs - make you want to grab the suntan lotion and head outside.
Enter a book store, however, and you’ll find another kind of summer reading. These are the books you’ll find on tables often marked recommended for high school or college-bound students. Book stores also display piles of paperbacks generally acknowledged as some of the best books of the past, and mark the tables as recommended for summer reading. The two suggestions for summer reading frequently overlap. They include such 20th century classics as Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
Regardless of the choice of books to read this summer, there is no better place than a comfortable chair in a wonderful location for delving into a book that will be remembered beyond summer.
My summer reading? I just finished Wallace Stegner’s Crossing to Safety, a story of a friendship between two married couples, and I’m about to start a current best seller, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a mystery by Stieg Larrson.
Not quite. But the concept’s there. Classics stand the test of time because of their universal themes that touch us emotionally and intellectually. Though Dickens, Austen and Tolstoy may first come to mind, 20th century literature includes a long and diverse list of books now considered classics. Book stores frequently display them as suggestions for summer reading.
Beginning in June every year, newspapers and magazines publish lists of books ideal for taking on vacation. From their lists you get the idea that the ideal book to take to the beach is a commercial best seller or an escapist novel, or a well-honed mystery. James Patterson, Jodi Picoult, and Nelson DeMille, as well as the list of nonfiction books - history, biographies, and travel memoirs - make you want to grab the suntan lotion and head outside.
Enter a book store, however, and you’ll find another kind of summer reading. These are the books you’ll find on tables often marked recommended for high school or college-bound students. Book stores also display piles of paperbacks generally acknowledged as some of the best books of the past, and mark the tables as recommended for summer reading. The two suggestions for summer reading frequently overlap. They include such 20th century classics as Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
Regardless of the choice of books to read this summer, there is no better place than a comfortable chair in a wonderful location for delving into a book that will be remembered beyond summer.
My summer reading? I just finished Wallace Stegner’s Crossing to Safety, a story of a friendship between two married couples, and I’m about to start a current best seller, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a mystery by Stieg Larrson.
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