Falling in Love….with reading

There’s something just plain magical about finding a genuinely fantastic book. The book you can’t put down, the one you stay up half the night reading, the book experience you can’t wait to talk about with your friend who is hopefully as equally obsessed with the story and characters as you are. The one that, once you finish, leaves you devastated (in the best way, of course).

Once you know true book love, your whole life changes. Because immediately after you finish one spectacular book, you’ll want more. More books, more genres, more authors to discover. You’ll wonder why you haven’t been reading your entire life. Your bookshelves will start to overflow and groan under the weight of other people’s stories. Your library card will become worn down and faded with use. You will spend hours and hours reading alright-but-kind-of-mediocre books your sister recommended, only to find them lacking. But once you find the next amazing book, the one that makes you want to skip work or school so you can read one more chapter, it’s so, so worth it.

–Abagail Cardi–

 

These are some of my favorites!!

 Tree Grows in Brooklyn

The Bell Jar

The Woman in White

Into the wild

The Kite Runner

Memoirs of a Geisha

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

 

Happy Reading!

 

Day 21 – 30 Day Book Challenge – A guilty pleasure book

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 21

 Day 21-A guilty pleasure book

This is easy!

50 Shades of Grey Trilogy of course.  Need I say more….

 

 

 

Day 20 – 30 Day Book Challenge – A Book you would recommend to an ignorant/racist/closed minded person

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 20

 Day 20-A Book you would recommend to an ignorant/racist/closed minded person

I have read both of these and they are both so well written and “I just can’t put it down” books.

The Book of Negros by Lawrence Hill.

Goodreads overview

Unrolling a map of the world, Aminata Diallo puts one finger on the coast of West Africa and another on London. The first is where she was born in 1745, the second is her location six decades later. Her story is what happened in between, and her remarkable voice is the heart and soul of Hill’s magnificent novel.
Brought before the British public by the abolitionists to reveal the realities of slavery, she has come, old and weary, to change the tide of history and bear witness to some of the world’s most grievous wrongs.
Kidnapped and taken from her family as a child, Diallo is forced aboard a ship bound for South Carolina, where she arrives at age 12, weak and ill, the other slaves her only family. But soon she is sold again and begins an exodus that will lead to Canada, where she discovers the same relentless
hardship and stinging prejudice.
Her hunger for freedom drives her back across the Atlantic to England, and in 1792, Aminata undertakes yet another ocean crossing, bound for the place of her birth.

Or

Night by Elie Wiesel

Goodreads overview

Night A terrifying account  of the Nazi death camp horror that turns a young  Jewish boy into an agonized witness to the death of  his family…the death of his innocence…and the  death of his God. Penetrating and powerful, as  personal as The Diary Of Anne  Frank, Night awakens the shocking  memory of evil at its absolute and carries with it  the unforgettable message that this horror must  never be allowed to happen again.

Day 19 – 30 Day Book Challenge – A Book that changed your mind about a particular subject (non-fiction)

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 19

 

 Day 19 – A Book that changed your mind about a particular subject (non-fiction)

 

Barbara Colorosos’ books “Kids are worth it” and “Just because it’s not wrong doesn’t make it right”.

Becoming a parent and being a parent can be extremely overwhelming, I have four children aged 11 through to 26 ,  and I’ve found these books to be a huge help , I love her no-nonsense, common sense approach to raising children. I don’t always follow through with what she suggests but I try.

Her books focus on helping kids develop their own self-discipline by owning up to their mistakes, thinking through solutions, and correcting their misdeeds while leaving their dignity intact.  I have a highly spirited child at home (11)  and have a grown “spirited” child (21) and these books really, really helped and do help, she gives you the tools to help parent “the spirited” child effectively. Sometimes, I’d really like to see someone handle Ms. Hay effectively, keeping my dignity intact 🙂

Barbara Colorosos books are filled with practical suggestions for handling the ordinary and extraordinary tribulations of growing up.

Her book “Just because it’s not wrong doesn’t make it right” is also a fantastic “self-help” book for parents.

 

Day 18 – 30 Day Book Challenge – A Book You can’t find on shelves anymore that you love

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 18

A Book You can’t find on shelves anymore that you love

Into the Wild written by Jon Krakauer.

This book is the true story Christopher McCandless, who had given away all his savings in the amount of  $25,000.00, abandoned his car, most of his possessions, burned all the cash he had and hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness just outside of MT. McKinley in 1992.

He lived “off the land” for a short 4 months until his death. This is his story.

This book was later turned into a movie. Which I have not seen

Chris McCandless sitting by the bus he lived in along the beginning of the Stampede Trail, Alaska.

Day 17 – 30 Day Book Challenge – Day 17- Book turned movie and completely desecrated

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 17

 Day 17- Book turned movie and completely desecrated

I am writing this post for my dear friend who writes “Back from the Edge” I had posted  yesterday for Day 16 of the 30 Day Book Challene Favorite book turned movie and this was one of the comments made, I thought these comments were worth sharing and I just loved the thoughts shared by my fellow blogger.

It would have to be Memoirs of a Geisha.

“Back from the Edge” :

Ok, I like this post because I respect your opinion. My opinion, however, is that it is the worst (seriously, I’m that emphatic!) film from a book ever made. I thought it was almost as miscast as Gary Oldman as Sirius Black. Of course, these things are completely subjective and  I love that you love the book. Isn’t it just a complete masterpiece?

I loved the honesty in the comment above and thought it totally appropriate for today’s post.

Thankyou to Back from the Edge.

Day 16 – 30 Day Book Challenge – Favorite book turned movie

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 16

 Day 16 – Favorite book turned movie

Favorite book turned movie….hmmm…could be The notebook…could be War Horse…certainly wasn’t Girl with The Dragon Tattoo  🙂  It would have to be   Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden!!!

Read the book loved it !  Saw the movie loved it too, and it was just as I had imagined it would be, the story and the characters I’d read about in the book  were brought to life on-screen, and that doesn’t happen too often.  The movie really did do the book justice.

Worth reading and watching.

In my humble opinion 🙂

Day 15 – 30 Day Book Challenge- Foreign Culture

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 15

Favorite book dealing with foreign culture

The Kite Runner is an unforgettable,heartbreaking, and deeply moving, story. I really enjoyed this novel. 🙂 You will find it hard to put down!

It takes place in Kabul and beginning just prior to the Russian invasion, The Kite Runner tells a heartbreaking story about the friendship between two boyhood friends who are as close as brothers, but also just happen to be master and servant.

Their relationship evolves over 40-year period and is forever marked by a moment in their youth when Amir, the privileged son, watches from safety while his friend  and caregiver Hassans life will change forever.

Day 14 – 30 Day Book Challenge-Required reading list

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 14

Book that should be on hs/college required reading list

A Tree grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith,  should be on high school/college required reading list if it’s not already.

This is actually a book I may just re read. 🙂

It was published in 1943 and sold over 300,000 copies in its first 6 weeks.

Betty Smith wrote from her experiences growing up in Brooklyn and created “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”.

The following is part a book review by Esther Lombardi

“Francie’s mother, Katie, is the child of immigrants. Like so many others, they came to America to make a better life for their children. When Francie was born, Katie’s mother visited her and told her what she must do to help her children succeed.Katie’s mother stressed the importance of reading the Bible and the works of Shakespeare. She also said, “you must tell the children the legends I told you–as my mother told them to me. You must tell the fairy tales of the old country. You must tell of those not of the earth who live forever in the hearts of people–fairies, elves, dwarfs, and such…”Perhaps the readings and the stories were not the only things that helped Francie to develop such an active imagination, but they became a part of who she was. She was a part of her family history. Smith writes, “She was all these things and of something more that did not come from the Rommelys nor the Nolans, the reading, the observing, the living from day to day.” It’s that “something” that is in “each soul that is given life–the one different thing such as that which makes no fingerprints on the face of the earth alike.”

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Day 13 – 30 Day Book Challenge – Favorite childhood book

30 Day Book Challenge – Day 13

 Day 13 – Favorite childhood book

These questions are getting tricky!

I’m not sure which book to choose, there were so many, I loved the Richard Scarry books, of course Dr.Suess and we used to have those “pop up” books, when you opened the page the pictures just popped right up on the page, I absolutely loved those ones too, Good night Moon and The very hungry Caterpillar my list goes on..

Cover of The Very Hungry Caterpillar

But my absolute favorite would have to be It’s a Busy,Busy World By Richard Scarry,  there were/are so many pictures of cats,dogs,rabbits wearing clothes and driving cars,  working in bakeries, as carpenters, firemen, policemen,  I just thought that was the most exciting thing, there was always something within the pages of this book that you’d find almost like those Where’s Waldo books.

As I grew older I liked my Little House on the Prairie books and started reading mysteries, I couldn’t get enough of  Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.

Hardy Boys (Photo credit: Chris Blakeley)

So I think I’ve answered that question and more 🙂