More Than Just Book Smarts
I have the best book club ever. Seriously, I adore these ladies. We’ve all known each other for decades, and they are amazing. Frankly, I always find myself still a little surprised that they want to hang out with me because they are so much more cool and literary and cultured than I am! They are on my mind particularly now since we just had dinner together. At one point in the evening, they brought up this blog. I can’t even tell you how much it meant to me that they were all so affirming about my efforts; I consider it the highest praise. I was actually a little dumbfounded, to tell you the truth. It made me think about how much I appreciate each one of them and how sorry I am I missed the opportunity to share that at the moment. I’ll do it now, but where to begin? How about alphabetically?
Rant Free Book List
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
I have the best book club ever. Seriously, I adore these ladies. We’ve all known each other for decades, and they are amazing. Frankly, I always find myself still a little surprised that they want to hang out with me because they are so much more cool and literary and cultured than I am! They are on my mind particularly now since we just had dinner together. At one point in the evening, they brought up this blog. I can’t even tell you how much it meant to me that they were all so affirming about my efforts; I consider it the highest praise. I was actually a little dumbfounded, to tell you the truth. It made me think about how much I appreciate each one of them and how sorry I am I missed the opportunity to share that at the moment. I’ll do it now, but where to begin? How about alphabetically?
AM is about the funniest, sweetest, most earnestly
devoted woman in the world. I’ve always thought she’s just so capable and
efficient. She has a ton of wit and talent,
and she doesn’t give herself nearly enough credit for how great she is. I don’t see her often anymore, but I’m crazy
about her. I love her quietly expressed viewpoint
on things, and I love to see her just crack up with no inhibition at all when
something strikes her funny bone.
BO has the single most impeccable taste I’ve ever seen. Her home is gorgeous—full of life, color, and
art, just like the woman. I’ve seen her
in many different phases of life, she’s been single, married, heavy, skinny, retired,
an educator, a performer, and a world traveler.
What I have always admired about her is that she always fully enjoys her
life, no matter what the circumstance.
Her manners are flawless, and her loyalty to friends and family is
simply beautiful.
When I grow up, I want to be CD. This woman is brilliant and classy. She knows about everything, and she’s always
growing herself, challenging herself. She’s
got this earthy, hip quality about her I’m not even sure she’s aware of. I admire her as a mother most of all, her
ability to see and embrace the unique in each of her children. If that meant she spent all day in the car
driving three kids to three different schools that is exactly what she
did. A lot of people raise kids; she’s
figured out how to stimulate character coupled with individuality.
PT has taught me the value of kindness in a self-centered
world. I truly credit her with helping
me to be a more thoughtful person. I love her laugh. She’s not a loud person, but her laugh is
infectious. She’s another great mom, beautifully
negotiating that tricky line between hanging on and letting go of an adult
child. The thing that strikes me about
her is how supportive she is and how she manages to comfort without ever
intruding. There’s a lovely, discreet
fashion in which she digs in and helps. She
just does what needs to be done and cares for who needs care.
I’m so thankful for these women, both collectively and
individually. I love that we can discuss
faith and politics and everything else with respect for each other, even though
we may differ very widely on certain topics.
I would never be afraid to say what I believe, but I know I’d better be
prepared with a rational defense for why I do!
This crowd is too smart to accept anything less. I love the beautiful balance between accepting
each other fully, yet challenging each other to grow and think. I love that by challenging my status quo,
they often help me to arrive right back at the belief I started with, but with humility
and a realization that people are more important than philosophies. I have the best book club ever. Sometimes we even talk about books.
1/26/2015
Rant Free Book List
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
“It helps us understand the pernicious effects of slavery and how we are still grappling with America’s Original Sin.”
Bleak House, by Charles Dickens
“Bleak House is, to my mind, one of the most finely crafted works of literature ever written. The story lines and characters still feel fresh and alive today, 160 years after Dickens created them.”
The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
“I read this book when I was 19. I understood it then as a visceral, poetic lament about how race, class, and beauty had conspired to destroy the soul and spirit of a little African-American girl named Pecola Breedlove. I found in Pecola’s story a way to understand my own broken girlhood in America. This novel remains for me an eloquent reminder of how fierce the struggle to love whom you see in the mirror can be.”
Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival and My Journey From Homeless to Harvard, by Liz Murray
“The author’s true account of living with drug-addicted parents on the streets, overcoming hardship, and ultimately landing admission to Harvard University made me look at life differently and changed the way I think. Now I follow Murray’s mantra: ‘So what, now what?’ I face my problems head-on, find solutions, and move forward with life.”
The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger
“This novel was published when I was 14, in 1951. It became, for teenagers like me, an underground book. We hid it from our parents and whispered about it among ourselves. It opened up a world that we hadn’t felt invited into.”
The Chronicles of Narnia, CS Lewis
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magician's Nephew
The Last Battle
Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury
“This is one of the few books I know that have been read by my grandmother, my mother, me, and my daughter—a testament to the timelessness of the material. Any book that features magic sneakers, summer in a bottle, and a Happiness Machine is bound to make an impression. The whole world is in this novel: fear and acceptance, joy and sorrow, the circle of life and the passing of the seasons, and the magic of everyday things. The author shows his own heart in this work, something I try to do in mine as well.”
The Eight, by Katherine Neville
“It may be 600-plus pages long, but this historical thriller has a cult following for a reason: The story hurtles along, following two women protagonists in different times—an 18th-century ex-nun hiding the pieces to a dangerous chess set during European revolution and a 20th-century American banker whose life depends on unraveling the secrets to the very same chess set.”
Foster, by Claire Keegan
“You will never forget this novel because, from the first sentence, the story comes alive and the characters reach out for us from the pages. A young Irish girl narrates her experience of going to live with an unfamiliar couple on a farm. It’s a story about childhood, told with such beauty and with such respect for the growing heart of its main character that I consider it to be one of the best books ever written. In other words, I would take a bullet for this book!”
Halftime Walk, by Ben Fountain
“A group of regular-guy heroes on leave from the war in Afghanistan gets dropped into the luxe circus of a Dallas Cowboys halftime show. Bracingly absurd, the story raises important issues about who is fighting for American values and just what those values are.”
“Forget that this is an important book, one that captures our country in a moment in time like none I’ve ever read. Fountain’s real accomplishment is his dizzying prose, fabulous dialogue, and wonderful characters.”
“Forget that this is an important book, one that captures our country in a moment in time like none I’ve ever read. Fountain’s real accomplishment is his dizzying prose, fabulous dialogue, and wonderful characters.”
Howards End, by E.M. Forster
“Time and again, I recommend Howards End, by E.M. Forster. It’s all about our need to connect with our fellow humans, no matter how different they might appear on the surface.”
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs
The true story of an individual's struggle for self-identity, self-preservation, and freedom, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl remains among the few extant slave narratives written by a woman. This autobiographical account chronicles the remarkable odyssey of Harriet Jacobs (1813–1897) whose dauntless spirit and faith carried her from a life of servitude and degradation in North Carolina to liberty and reunion with her children in the North.
The Inn at Lake Devine, by Elinor Lipman
“I read this punchy romantic comedy while finding the courage to leave my job as an attorney. The story, which centers on a Jewish girl’s fixation on an anti-Semitic hotel in Vermont, stayed in my mind and heart and filled me with the notion of becoming a writer: I can do this, I thought while turning every page. At the very least, I have to try.”
The Last Lion, by William Manchester
“My biographical gateway drug was the first volume of Winston Churchill’s life story. I read it when I was 14 (yes, I was a very edgy teenager) and was entranced by the profound human tale of one man’s decision to stand alone against Hitler, risking everything. For me it was the beginning of a decades-long conviction that individuals, with all their vices and their virtues, their hopes and their fears, are the determinative force in human affairs. And that conviction is why I do what I do.”
The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman
“On tiny, isolated Janus Rock, off the perilous Western Australian coastline, a childless lighthouse keeper and his grief-stricken wife are swept into a series of life-changing decisions when an infant washes onto their shores in a rowboat. Every character is insightfully drawn, morally complex, and so very human, I was absolutely riveted.”
St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, by Karen Russell
“Vampires in the Lemon Grove was a huge hit this year and deserved every accolade. Which makes me think that we should all go back and read her first collection, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. I love the exuberance in these stories. Reading them you feel as if the writer is having as good as time as you and the characters, running around hunting for turtles or mapping the stars. When the sadness hits, as sadness so often does in all very good fiction, it’s startling but earned, a slow bolt of lightning to the heart. A book that sticks with you for life.”
True Grit, by Charles Portis
“Many older folks recall the ’60s movie with John Wayne, and a few years ago, Jeff Bridges played the role of the gruff, true-hearted, one-eyed marshal Rooster Cogburn. But the book, in which Mattie Ross, a very old woman, tells Jesse James’s brother the story of how she set out at 14 to avenge her father’s murder, is pure genius.”
