Happy Tuesday, friends and fellow book-lovers! Today’s selections…
BOOKS TO READ…
…IN THE FOREST!
While the location isn’t technically required, these books have just the right thoughtful, reflective vibe that is perfect for a lawn chair in the great outdoors or next to a fire, far away from the big city. A few are set in actual woods-type areas, while some just made me feel that wind-in-the-trees sound in my head after reading them. Some are happy, some are sad, all are moving. Grab your bug spray, some sunglasses, and one of these great books to enjoy!
• DINNER AT THE HOMESICK RESTAURANT by Anne Tyler: The elegiac story of a 20th-century family that doesn’t always like each other, this is like a picture of real life in the best possible way. It is heartbreaking and painful, but also sweet and quiet and true. The characters are frusterating in a way that makes them real, and that makes me love them. This is a more “sophisticated” book (it’s literary fiction written for adults), but there is so much that is true about life that it doesn’t suffer the uppity-ness it might have had. A book that left me tear-streaked, closed-lipped, and contemplative, it is an apt choice for the isolation of the outdoors to make you appreciate other human beings.
• THE QUEEN OF EVERYTHING by Deb Caletti: Set in the Pacific Northwest, this is the story of a girl whose father gets entangled in a dangerous, messy situation and takes his passion too far. At parts queasy and anxious, the author portrays the young protagonist with such sympathy and wisdom that I just had to see how such a smart, spunky girl deals with such a devastating situation. The language and the characterization are particularly uncommon and beautiful, especially how the author uses the deep water of the Puget Sound in her story.
• I AM THE MESSENGER by Markus Zusak: Another brilliant book set in Australia by an Australian writer, this is the mysterious tale of rejections, playing cards, and people you wish you knew in real life. Only one of Zusak’s acclaimed and enjoyable books, I AM THE MESSENGER is like the Oasis song “The Importance of Being Idle” in book form. In the best possible way.
• CATALYST by Laurie Halse Anderson: This book made me appreciate having a boring, average life. The daughter of a preacher whose physicist mother died when she was much too young, the plucky young protagonist of this story is under way too much pressure and she just keeps getting more. When the house of her very poor and very weird neighbor burns to the ground, she is forced to live with the teenage girl and young boy who lived there. My mom would say this book is too much like real life, but I’d say it’s just right: the characters are flawed and real, the circumstances are unfortunate and unavoidable, and the plot is a learning experience for everyone involved. Laurie Halse Anderson is one of the best at portraying young people in a positive (that is, real) manner.
• LOCK AND KEY by Sarah Dessen: Much of this book actually takes place in the forests of North Carolina. When the protagonist’s mother leaves her home alone without so much as a goodbye, it is only a matter of time before the authorities find out this high-school-age girl is living alone by herself in a dilapidates yellow house with no power. She is sent to live with her elder sister and her sister’s husband, who the girl hasn’t seen in years. As she makes mistakes, heals, and learns to live with people who love her, the story takes the reading through the real-feeling highs and lows in the life of a girl very lost. There is also jewelry design, a cute boy next door, and a fun quasi-Facebook in the world of the story, making it a journey of both tears and smiles for both the characters and the readers.
Thanks as always, intrepid travelers of pages! Hope you all are having as much fun as I am with this. Have anything to say? I am always listening: comment, message, Facebook, whatever. Best wishes!
In our next installment:
BOOKS TO READ…
…IN A CASTLE!
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