5 Amazing Books...In My Humble Opinion

Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could amaze and delight you everytime I wrote a post? I mean the kind of stuff that makes you go WOW, she is really good! All I have to offer you today are some very good books I read in 2014 with just a short description of each. Take a quick peek at them and then tell me what you have been reading.

This past summer I read Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff. Cleopatra was such an elusive subject that Schiff had to depend on history written several hundred years after she had died. No painted image of her remains nor does any of her words. And yet the author managed to capture a queen that could have been alive during the time of Christ, the richest and most powerful ruler of her time even though she is hidden from view.

Now I am in the process of reading No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin. This is no an ordinary book in anyway shape or form. Goodwin relates the story of the Roosevelt relationship in all it folds with such detail that I feel as though I am living through that period of time myself. I went to bed last night so angry because I had just read about how an anti-Semitic official in Washington during WWII made it all but impossible for the Jewish people to escape Europe and come to the USA. Isn't it interesting that we see the answers perfectly in hindsight. The discussion of social issues prompted by a book like this can be nothing but a good thing.

But I also read a book called The Power of the Dog : A Novel by Thomas Savage. I can't remember how I found this book but it is a jewel. As I remember it was written back in 1967 before the homosexuality was widely discussed. Even though it received rave reviews it did not sell at that time. It was re-released in 2001 and Annie Proulx wrote the Forward for the later edition. I was reminded of a Pulitzer Prize winning book by Allen Drury called Advice and Consent. Released in 1959 I am sure it too caused quite an uproar.

My granddaughter insisted I read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. It was a delightfully written sad and telling book about how teenager's continue to live and love even though they are dying with terminal illness. Teen books have emerged as a very interesting genre of books I think. I remember hating the dummy down books we were fed and went directly to the grown-up section of any book store I was ever privileged to enter. Green told this story with such good taste and sympathy.

So what have you been reading?

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Books: Used Books Given With Love

With Christmas just around the corner I am beginning to think about gifting and re-gifting. It has been pointed out to me that, if I love something, there is nothing wrong with giving it as a gift. I know, Seinfeld would have a fit. The people on his show gave things back to the original giver, not because they loved the gift but because they didn't. No one likes fruitcake I hear. But I am talking about finding something you love and are willing to share. That kind of gift is wonderful and rare I think.

I have decided that if I read a book and love it then it would be wrong to keep that book. I need to share what I love. I will even put a note in the fly leaf with a little review. Here are a few that are on my list:

1.  Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
2. A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar
3. Straight Man: A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries) by Richard Russo
4. Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette (P.S.) by Sena Jeter Naslund
5. Blue Highways: A Journey into America William Least Heat-Moon

When I was growing up my father gave me a collection of Robert Frost poems that I read until the cover was threadbare. I re-gifted it to him later in life and that book traveled back and forth between us with notes in the fly leaf. What a wonderful gift that book was. I encourage you to do the same.

Be well,

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Magnifier for the vision impaired? How about a kindle?

Image via WikipediaI am not much for talking to other people on airplanes...no one likes a chatty seat mate.  Well I don't anyway.  My husband is the one that sits in the middle, will talk to the person next to him and really doesn't seem to mind.  So when the man next to him leaned across and asked me what I thought of my kindle, I didn't even register he was talking to me.  Then when I did realize he was talking to me, I found I didn't have a good answer.

You see, I have a love/hate relationship with my kindle.  I have always loved the feel and even the smell of a new book.  My idea of the perfect day is lunch and a trip to a book store.  I collected them on my shelf and lovingly touched them when I passed...old friends with familiar stories to tell.  Then one day my husband and I realized that we needed to send all those books out into the world so others could enjoy them.  The library benefited from all those years of collecting.  I reminded myself that I could visit them on the library shelves as easily as I could when they were stored in boxes in the basement.

Last August my son and I traded...he took my old iphone and I took his old kindle, books and all.  I have since bought many books and read each one with ease.  Another blogger (Wasted Days and Wasted Nights) talked about her kindle today and I liked what she had to say.

The Kindle lets me adjust the size of the text so that I can see it clearly without having to have my reading glasses.  It keeps my place for me automatically.  I can download books in less than a minute, never having to leave the chair I am sitting in!  There is a lot of free content for the Kindle.

I have found that being able to adjust the size of the text is an answer to a prayer...anyone that has impaired vision will realize what I mean.  The text can be made very big and eye strain is reduced almost to nothing.  It does act like a magnifier for text in many ways...but with out the cumbersome book or newspaper.  This means that I can read as long as I want without any problem...as long as I want!

One of my extended family members is visually impaired and has used a reader for many years. Hers is very expensive but will also magnify her hand writing letters or checks allowing her to remain independent.   I never really appreciated how this machine also allowed her to stay in touch with the world.  Now I get it...reading keeps our mind active and alive.  With a Kindle we are given access to some of the features of her large reader at a cost we can afford. 

The only thing I miss is the tactile feeling and the beauty of a real book.  But I keep reminding myself that really, there is no choice for me anymore.  It was do this or stop reading so much.  We all know that if you love the world that books open,  it would be very hard to give it up.  My kindle is now just a part of my life.  I download books in a few minutes no matter where I am.  The suit case is much lighter even though I have a whole world of books at my fingertips.

I just thought you would want to know.

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