Please Help My Brain From Becoming Mush
I'm looking for reading suggestions...it seems like for a while now my reading has been primarily for information. I'm ashamed to say, but I think it's been like six months since I've finished a piece of fiction! I was telling Aaron that it would be nice to have reading assignments like in school. Maybe it's the fact that then I'd HAVE to finish it, maybe it's that I'm too lazy to remember which books I've been interested in reading....who knows.
Anyway....as the title says, please help my brain from becoming mush. Gimme some assignments. What has inspired you, moved you, impacted you, caught your interest?
For the record, I'm not really into things like the Shopaholics books or light supermarket stand novels or uneccessarily depressing things or glorification of immoral things . Other than that, I'm open, I think.
So what'll it be?
I'm looking for reading suggestions...it seems like for a while now my reading has been primarily for information. I'm ashamed to say, but I think it's been like six months since I've finished a piece of fiction! I was telling Aaron that it would be nice to have reading assignments like in school. Maybe it's the fact that then I'd HAVE to finish it, maybe it's that I'm too lazy to remember which books I've been interested in reading....who knows.
Anyway....as the title says, please help my brain from becoming mush. Gimme some assignments. What has inspired you, moved you, impacted you, caught your interest?
For the record, I'm not really into things like the Shopaholics books or light supermarket stand novels or uneccessarily depressing things or glorification of immoral things . Other than that, I'm open, I think.
So what'll it be?
14 Comments:
how about Silverwing by Kenneth Opel
The last fiction I read, and I admit it's been awhile, was A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro.I thought it was beautifully written. He became well know because he also wrote The Remains of the Day which I have not read. I always have a hard time just choosing what to read. I stand in the library and think..do I pick the one with the cool picture on the cover, or an author with a nice name..?? I will be interested in what others write, I need ideas, too.
It's late and I am off to bed.
I don't think you should feel bad about not reading any fiction for awhile. I went through a time when I was just reading gardening magazines and books, just information on domestic arts kinds of stuff. I eventually got back into fiction. We all go through phases.
One book I'd like to recommend is Living Water by Obery Hendricks. It's kind of in the same vein as The Red Tent, in that it takes a Biblical account and turns the traditional interpretation on it's head. I read it several months ago. It's also interesting because it's an account of the Woman at the Well, who was Samaritan. The author is an African American man and he infuses black culture into his re-telling, which I found fascinating because both cultures are oppressed cultures.
The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver. Or Prodigal Summer, by her as well.
the first deals with the subject of proselytising in Africa. A fictional family and their obsessive and controlling missionary/priest father. it's fascinating how the population of natives deals with them. a heartwrending book, ultimately.
the second, deals with the different stages of a woman's life. Barbara Kingsolver was a biologist before she became a novelist, so this one is full of etymology and other interesting seguays into the natural world.
I'm in a book club - I highly recommend it because, not only do you get out once a month, but you HAVE to get something read.
I just finished "Corelli's Mandolin" would you like me to send it to you?
I second the Prodigal Summer recommendation. I devoured it, and I am in a weird post-English major stage where I simply do not devour books anymore.
I am also currently reading a WONDERFUL memoir called "Eat. Pray. Love." So good.
But I'm in the middle of reading a non fiction book, but it's my favorite of the recommendations. In fact, it was recommended by Mimi :) Babycatcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife. I've been thinking more and more about going to midwifery school eventually, and this book is seriously going to seal the deal. It is hysterically funny, heartrending, and fascinating all at once. I LOVE it! (And thanks Mimi!)
So, I borrowed Prodigal Summer from the library this morning...gonna finish my nap chores and get to it :)
Babycatcher sounds interesting, Arielle..that's cool that you're interested in midwifery. I apprenticed with a local midwife before I had kids and was planning on going to midwifery school but decided to wait on it. I styill keep it open as a "later in life option"...that's just been our decision, though. It's such a great field...do it, do it :) Plus, I wish I could find an Orthodox midwife, that would be way cool!
Plus, I wish I could find an Orthodox midwife, that would be way cool!
Wouldn't that be awesome?
While I love Prodigal Summer I think it's the weakest of Kingsolver's books, just so you know.
PS - Babycatcher is great. My cousin (whose first birth attendance was my 10year old's) loaned it to me.
It's certainly not fiction, but have you read "Thirsting For God in a Land of Shallow Wells". That one was very powerful for me.
As for fiction - I've resorted to checking out books on tape from my local library. My time to just sit and read is VERY limited. But there is plenty of time when I have tasks to do which require my hands but not my brain (folding laundry, mopping floors, shelling peas, driving, etc) when I can listen to a good book. I finish about 3-4 per week that way.
This week was "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath, "Another Day" by the same guy who wrote "Tuesday's With Morrie" (but whose name escapes me at the moment) and "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants."
My mind is already mush!
I cannot tell you the title of the last fiction book I actually finished.
I am into housekeeping, gardening, parenting and now farming books and magazines and have been for many years. I do not even get to read these from cover to cover much. Every once in awhile I will find one that I just cannot put down. So I have no suggestions for fiction. Sorry! Looks like you got many good ones though! Have fun!
A little late, but the book that's stuck with me the most over the past year (and I've read a LOT), would be Hungry Planet (http://www.amazon.com/Hungry-Planet-Peter-Menzel/dp/1580086810)
It's not fiction, but it's easy to read. It shows families all over the globe, with brief anecdotes, a recipe from their life, and a picture of a week's worth of groceries. Couldn't put it down.
Wow Liz...you've got my attention!
I ordered Hungry Planet tonight, it sounds amazing! Glad to share my copy... "Thirsting For God in a Land of Shallow Wells" looks interesting, too. I am going to research all of these great ideas.
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