Lynn's Lines

Just finished Kate Morton's "The Forgotten Garden" last night, what a great read.  I loved the story, the intrigue, the characters.  Captivating story of a young girl left on a ship headed for Australis in 1913.  Taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their child.   However, at 21 years of age she was finally told the truth about her abandonment and she sets out to find her true identity. Uncovering long forgotten secrets, frightening, perplexing, a journey you won't want to miss.  However, the only draw back is the writing style.  Frequent changes in time and place are a bit confusing. There are so many characters and scene changes that sometimes you had to re-read once you figured out where you were and who was who. A challenge to read, but well worth the effort.

The Bookself

On my bookself to be read is, "The Best Loved Poems of the American People".    The book was written in 1936 and from some comments I read, it seems a lot of people grew up having these poems read to them as children. I certainly recognized some great ones I remember from high school like William Wordsworth's The Rainbow and Daffodils and I especially liked Will Allen Dromgoole's, The Bridge Builder. This is a great book to just keep reading over a long period of time and probably one that will stay on your bookself forever. Thank you Dulce for the recommendation.

What to Read Next?

I stopped by the library last week and found an interesting book by Sara Nelson, So Many Books, So Little Time. I couldn't wait to read it. Sara was on a mission to read 52 books and chronicle a year's worth of reading. I just new I would have a great list of books, I expected to be overwhelmed with book ideas.  Didn't happen;  However,  I give her an A+ for writing a very interesting book combining her life and literature choices.  However, I was disappointed in her lack of passion for any one or two personal favorites. She never once said, "this is a book you just have to read," I was so waiting to hear that phrase. To me, she never showed any great enthusiasum or passion for a book. I would say, Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird was perhaps her favorite.  She did say it was the best self-help guide she had ever read and she read it in a single day, that says a lot.  I read Bird by Bird a few years ago so that didn't help my list. She seemed too layed back about the books she read for a true bookaholic.  When I read a great book I'm shouting it from the rooftops, wanting everyone to get a copy, wanting to share that pure pleasure of a great read with all my friends.  I did pick a few books she mentioned that I thought I would enjoy.  So I'll let you know if she chose any good books that we need to shout from the rooftop about. Stay tuned for some great read ideas!

A Few Great Reads!

What are your all time favorite books?  When someone asks, "What book would you recomment?" what's the first book that comes to mind.  For me it's one a very good friend recommended many years ago.  Olive Ann Burns, Cold Sassy Tree.  It's one of those books that make you laugh, cry and smile the whole while you're reading it and you just can't put it down. Please read Cold Sassy and let me know what you think. 

Another one that was also recommended by a friend that I think of often and just might have to read again is Eat, Drink and Be From Mississippi  by Nanc Kincaid. A few quotes that I loved, "If more people fished, then fewer people would need to pay a psychiatrist."  "I guess I was absent the day they taught mind-reading, or maybe I just flunked it." and one I feel like using sometime is, "You're devoted to ignoring the obvious."(lol)  If you're from the South, you need to read this book it'll bring back good memories.

My Next Book?

I'm half way through "God's Politics" and it's hard to believe I don't have a book on the shelf waiting to be read. This is highly unusual, so if you have a great book to suggest I'm open. It also brings up the queston of how we choose the books we read. I like for someone to say, "I just finished a book that you just have to read ," but that doesn't always happen . So sometimes I go to book club sites and see what they're reading. Book clubs can pick some great books for discussion and sometimes they have books with weird titles that you would never pick unless you read a review or a reader's guide article. Other times I browse online the best sellers or look for the bookstores top picks. Sometimes a book is so good I read another book by the same author. But the most fun and time consuming (we all need a break once in a while, right?) is browsing a bookstore that offers a great cup of coffee. So I usually go to Barnes & Nobles, meet a friend for coffee and somehow a really great book just catches my eye, (just like that perfect shot when you're taking a picture and you just don't know how it happens) and I read the back cover, the inside flap and I just know this is it - another winner.

Any suggestions -what are you reading now?

Lynn's Lines

The Help - by Kathryn Stockett

I loved it. The three characters were extraordinary. You could connect with them; they were so true to life. You felt like you knew them so well, you could read their soul. I liked Aibileen, her love for the kids, her ability to hold in her anger, her deep friendships, her being able to trust and most of all her faith and prayer life. She journaled her prayers and her friend said, “People think you got a better connection than most. We all on a party line to God, but you, you setting right in his ear.” “The Help” is full of humor, although heartbreaking at times, but I believe a honest depiction of the life of domestic help in the small rural town of Jackson, Mississippi. It’s about friendship, love, hate, anger, caring and uncaring people, helping people and hurting people. You could see yourself in some of the characters and somehow you felt like you were right there sitting beside them listening in on their conversations, feeling their pain.

There are some real nuggets: “My heart hiccups.”, “That old tree just playing possum.”, “Lately, she been glowing like a firefly she so in love.” 451 pages of pure pleasure. A book you’ll want to share.

Wrapped in Rain --by Charles Martin
I was looking over my old Book Note -Journals and ran across a book I read in September of 2006. Wrapped in Rain -by Charles Martin, I had written a few excerpts from the book that caught my eye and wanted to share them with you.

"If anger ever took root, it latched on, dug in, and choked the life out of whatever heart was carrying it."

"Listen here, Child, that's God's little girl, baggage and all, so don't go judging the cover. He doesn't care what she looks like. He'll take her and us any way he can get us. Just like the woman at the well. Best you switch lenses and start seeing her that way too.

"He let go like he'd just squeezed the guts out of his pet frog. A picture of total fear mixed with complete delight."

"Child, I disciplined you because I loved you. Same, thing with the Lord. He chastises those he loves, you might as well get used to it."

Was your Dad real mean? "Let's just say he really licked the red off my lollipop."

"Not even Solomon, in all his glory, was arrayed as one of these. So don't worry about tomorrow. Each day has enough worry of it own."

"Bury the bitterness and cut away your coffin."

"There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread."

and I love this one: "Life is a battle, but you can't fight it with your fists. You got to fight it with your Heart."

So if you haven't read it, grab a copy of Charles Martin's "Wrapped in Rain," a great author, you'll be glad you did and, if you have had the pleasure of reading it, please give us your comments.