Kristi L. writes:
I’m always looking for a good book or two to read. Not that I have tons of leisure time, but it’s nice to have a book or two on hand when those rare moments appear.
Would you, ladies, please share some good suggestions? I’m thinking of several categories: best sellers, fiction, nonfiction, classical, biography, theology.
Well, I don't know if this one will fit into any of those categories...or into anyone else's interests. But I'm reading I Am Legend. It is NOT the Will Smith movie, but the original book. Very different from the movie. This man is the last one on earth, or so he thinks, surviving some terrbile plague that has either killed everyone else or turned them into vampires. Weird, huh? But it's well written and very insightful as the main character goes through his mood swings of handling the lonliness and not handling it; of being determined to solve the problem and survive, and not really caring if he dies that night; of finding purpose or drowning himself in a bottle of liquor. It's holding my attention. Of course, I've always been a sucker for vampires and werewolves and the like. I remember watching the black and white horror flicks when I was a kid. My mother was worried, I'm sure....
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there is someone reading something more valuable than this.
Jenny - I too have a weakness for vampires and werewolves also wizards, hobbits and spaceships. I should still be 12.
ReplyDeleteNow that that is clear to all, here are some of the books I've enjoyed reading over the years. Mostly fiction and since I've gotten pregnant my brain won't take on more than "young adult fiction", something I can easily read through and not have to think too much over, so sorry I don't have many "deeper" recommendations!
Classic Fiction - Jane Eyre and Villette - Charlotte Bronte (I heart Charlotte!), Turn of the Screw - Henry James (this book surprised me, very good if you're in for a very creepy tale!) and Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe (a "boy book" I guess but a great story that "had me at hello")
Modern Fiction - The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco (murder mystery + monks? sign me up! book way better than 1986 movie no matter how sexy you think Sean Connery is, sorry I just said "sexy".), Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden, The Chosen - Chaim Potok, The Song of the Lark - Willa Cather (Willa Cather is a must read for any Midwestern gal) and I recently read The Help - Kathryn Stockett (being born and raised in the South I had to keep reading this one, I laughed, I cried, I'll probably see the movie)
Reverent Fiction - Hammer of God - Bo Giertz (wonderful), Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold - CS Lewis (lesser known novel of his, retelling of myth of Cupid and Psyche and very worth the read)
Autobiography - The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls (sad but compelling read), Confessions - St. Augustine (a must read). And a book I've got on my Amazon list right now that looks pretty good is The Dirty Life: On Farming Food and Love - Kristin Kimball ("Kimball chucked life as a Manhattan journalist to start a cooperative farm in upstate New York with a self-taught New Paltz farmer she had interviewed for a story and later married.")
And if you have a super dork lurking within as I do here is my Nerd Alert SciFi/Fantasy category - Dune - Frank Herbert (oh yes, and I even read 3 of the sequels. Eek!), The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Tolkien (I don't apologize for this one!), CS Lewis's Space Trilogy is great also.
Sorry I can't offer more thoughtful commentary other than "good book, me likey". This comment is already too long and, I've been pregnant for 4 years, my brain is crickets and cobwebs.
Good luck in your search, maybe something on this list will find it's way to your night stand.
I love Christian Fiction...I know not very good theology but most of the time they have great Bible verses and there is always forgiveness!
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