Good Books

I love reading good books.  Whenever I’m asked what my hobbies are I always list reading first.  I love that it is quiet and relaxing.  I love that I can see another point of view or experience something through a character that I never could in my own life.  I love learning about history and people and other cultures.  My favorite night of the month is attending book club and discussing books that I liked or disliked with friends.  I appreciate good writing and love when a story grabs me and I just can’t put my book down.  While I have a great memory, I don’t usually remember details of stories that I read but I always remember how they made me feel.

My favorite book as a child was a book entitled “Mandy” by Julie Andrews.  It is about a little girl who is an orphan and finds a secret cottage back behind the wall of the orphanage.  She makes it her own little home and it becomes her escape from the sadness of not having a family.  Eventually she gets sick at the cottage but is luckily discovered by the owner and there is a happy ending.  I loved the romantic idea as a child of having a secret space and also having your most wonderful dream come true.

I don’t have a favorite book as an adult but I wanted to share some of the books I have recently read that were very moving or else that I just really enjoyed reading.  Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to why a book makes me so happy but I hope that some of you readers out there benefit from these suggestions.

1.  The Rent Collector by Camron Wright.  This story takes place in modern times and is about a family living in Cambodia at a dump.  They survive by picking through the garbage and selling whatever good items they can find.  Literacy changes the family though and I liked the redemptive quality that education and reading had in this story.  I understood the mother and her struggle to take better care of her family but just not knowing how to do so, until she learned to read.  

2.  Still Alice by Lisa Genova.  I’ve already picked this for our book club to read in November because this is the most moving book I read this year.  It is about a woman in her early 50s who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's.  Having had some personal experience with loved ones suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, I found this book very healing.  I loved that it was from her point of view, the patient, instead of the caregiver.  It challenged me to think about how I would handle this situation and what quality of life really means.  

3.  The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman.  This is the story of a lighthouse keeper living on an island 40 miles from shore with his wife and the challenges they face when the make a very difficult choice regarding a child who washed up on shore in a boat.  It really made me think about what is right and wrong and I went back and forth so many times in this book, which is unusual for me.  It has great symbolism with the lighthouse standing between the two oceans and the choices we make that take us one way or another.  

4.  The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton.  I was surprised by how much I loved this story, which is multi-generational jumping from the point of view of the grandmother to the mother to the granddaughter, all of whom are trying to figure out how the grandmother came to be in Australia on a dock by herself as a child.  It is a mystery wrapped up in fascinating characters and a very compelling story.  It gave me the same thrill as doing family history and learning something about the past as well as the fun of trying to figure out how it all happened.

5. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.  I usually prefer fiction but this is an amazing story of survival, both of the elements and then when he is a POW in a Japanese camp during WWII.  I was so impressed with his ability to forgive and keep his dignity during such difficult circumstances.  It was a very inspiring and moving story and even though I didn’t even really like the guy in the beginning, how he reacted to his circumstances set a wonderful example for us all and it really demonstrated the strength of the human spirit.  

Beyond the Blue, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, The Language of Flowers, Cutting for Stone, and Same Kind of Different As Me were all moving stories that really touched my heart and they are worth looking at as well. I read those long enough ago that my memory is fading as to why I loved them so much, but I know that I did.  

Right now I'm reading The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and while it is pretty different, I am intrigued by the strangeness of it. In fact, I think I'm going to go read.