You may or may not know that one of my goals for 2010 was to read 5 books. Not listen to them on CD as I normally do but to read them with my own eyes. I’m sure you’re thinking “oh wow 5 whole books!” well you can suck it! That’s huge as I hate reading! I am happy to report that today I finished book #5!! That’s right!! And I still had 3 months to spare. Go me! So here are the 5 books that I read with my own eyes & my thoughts on each one. Here we go…..
Book #1 Silent In The Grave
This was a recommendation from my friend Chalise & she is in love with this book. I am not in love with it but it was good. Murder, romance, sexual tension, scandal, heartbreak & corsets! There was this particular line from the book that really spoke to me. Basically the main character’s husband dies at the beginning & in the end he wasn’t the person she thought he was in the beginning which I can totally relate to. My favorite line from the book: “I mourned the boy I lost because I had already lost him….” Good stuff.
Book #2 Dust and Shadow
Another recommendation from Chalise. It’s Jack the Ripper as told & investigated by Sherlock Holmes. It was a good book but I was hoping it’d be a little more bloody & tragic. I mean it’s Jack The Ripper! But it seemed to have more to do with Sherlock Holmes (who I find to be very self-centered!) than with Jack The Ripper. Whatever Sherlock Holmes. Still it was a good book & easy to get through which is good cuz I have a pretty short attention span!
Book #3 The Secret Life Of Bees.
Good book. Those crazy bee keepers! I liked it cuz it was sprinkled with tragedy & what I’ve discovered in my reading quest this year is that I like tragedy! I like it when the characters are soaked in misery. For some reason it speaks to me & holds my attention way longer. Take your happiness & get it out of here! Anyways…Secret Life of Bees is good & I got through it pretty fast & really wanted to find out how everything was to get resolved in the end. However, it was made into a less than great movie. Where’s the tragedy?! Why did you skip over everything? And why did you change what her father says to her at the end?? Come on Hollywood!! Good book tho.
Book #4 Where Light And Shadow Meet
Ok so one of the very very few movies that ever makes me cry is Schindler’s List. I only watch it like once every 5 years cuz it’s so tragic. In my opinion it’s one of the greatest movies ever made & even tho it’s rated R I think every person should see it. So I had just finished watching Schindler’s List & decided I would read the book that it’s based on. Well I also found this book-Where Light and Shadow Meet which was written by Oskar Schindler’s wife Emillie and is their whole story told from her point of view & what she experienced during & after the war. After reading this book I feel as tho she really is an unsung hero. She really did so much for the Schindler Jews & really I don’t think anyone has any clue that she was behind the scenes. With that said I also found her to be a very bitter woman and at times it seemed like she’s just mad that she hasn’t gotten enough recognition for her part in things. Sure that’s fair but it’s not all about the rewards after. Yes her husband was always leaving her behind & cheating on her & in general was a d-bag to her but I found her bitterness very off putting. Still it was very interesting that someone who can be so uncaring & selfish to his own wife could muster the compassion to save thousands of people from being killed. I find it very interesting & in that respect it speaks to me. Good book.
Book #5 Left To Tell
Ok remember how I said I love tragic stories & for the characters to be miserable? Well really that really only applies to fictional characters. I’m not heartless. That said I’ll tell you about Left To Tell because oh my gosh it is TRAGIC! It’s written by this woman Immaculee` Ilibagiza & she lived & survived the genocide in Rwanda by hiding in a 3x4 foot bathroom with 7 other woman for 3 months. No talking. No showering. No laying down. Barely any food. And rarely ever sleeping. All the while her family & pretty much everybody she knew were outside getting slaughtered. This woman is so amazing! She talks all through the book about discovering God through this horrible tragedy. You cannot believe what was going on over there & really the rest of the world either was unaware of it or they ignored it. Frankly I’m shocked by how much attention was not & has not been paid to this event. If you have a chance to read this book do it. I think I’m going to write this woman’s name on a piece of paper & whenever I’m feeling like my life sucks I’m going to tack it up on the wall so I’m reminded of how good I have it. I slept in a bed last night in my own room. I woke up & took a shower. I ate 3 meals today. And all of my family is with me. This woman’s best friend in the world was her brother Damascene & he was very brutally killed while she was hiding in the bathroom. At the end of the book she goes to a prison where they’re holding a lot of the people who carried out the genocide. She comes face to face with leader of the group who killed her brother. The guards at the prison expected for her to scream at this man or spit on him or hit him. Instead she looked at him, touched him on the hand & said “I forgive you.” WOW! I’m telling you read this book. It will change your life.
So those are my 5 books and I read every one of them with my own eyes. But I’m not done yet. Chalise has hammered into my head that you meet a goal & then you must exceed it so I have to read one more book. I’ve checked out this book “The Glass Castle” from the library at least 4 times & can’t seem to get it read. It’s a pretty in demand book so I can never renew it & then it takes forever to get to the top of the waiting list again. It’s waiting at the library for me as we speak & since I’m already more than ½ way thru it I’ll have my goal exceeded in no time!
Side note……while I haven’t actually read it with my own eyes I’m going to mention one more book in this write up. It’s called “A Thousand Splendid Suns” and I have decided that it is my very favorite book. It’s by the author of The Kite Runner which is also a fantastic book. I’ve listened to it twice on CD & I just bought the actual book the other day so now I have a book on my book shelf that I’ve actually read! I love this book! It’s hauntingly tragic. It follows 2 different women in Afghanistan from the 70’s til after the Taliban are driven out and all that they go thru as women in that country. Seriously I’m haunted by it! Read it!
