“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” - Jane Austen
I think I've posted that quote before but it's such a good one! Reading is one of my most favorite things to do. I set a challenge to read 90 books this year -- sounds easier than 100, right? So far I'm on a good pace.
I was really mesmerized by the plot - Alice, (aptly named since she went down her own rabbit hole of sorts) falls during a spin class at the gym and in doing so has a doozy of a headache and no memory of the last 10 years! The story was gripping from the start but it did go on and on and on too much and then ended rather quickly. I felt like I had fallen down that rabbit hole and then hit the bottom hard! Perhaps that was the author's mission all along. While the book wasn't a 5-star read for me, it was thought provoking.
What if you woke up and it was 10 years later than you thought it was? What if you didn't recognize your children? Remember the pangs of childbirth? Remember the day before the day before the day before yesterday? Remember your husband? Remember what you loved to drink, eat, do? Remember your friends? Remember milestones in life? Pretty tough to imagine since I do remember all those things, some are hazy and some more vividly than others! The book gives the reader a look at Alice's life as it was presently and it was shockingly different than she could have imagined it to be. The book's goal, I think, was to make the reader pause at her/his own life path.
Sometimes we think our lives will turn out a certain way. They don't. They may have elements of what we wished for, dreamt of, worked toward, but our road was set for us long ago, to follow and live so it's just one big surprise after another whether we like it or not, good or bad, sour or sweet. God has a plan. I know He does. I'd like to think that if I woke up tomorrow and missed a decade of my life, that I'd still be surrounded by my wonderful, loving family and have the life I have now, just with a few more gray hairs and lots of more books in the house. In order to achieve the life we want, we need to be in the present and not be bogged down with trivial distractions that clutter our path and keep us from living the life we are meant to live. Being the real you and keeping consistent to your true self is essential. Don't ever be somebody you're not and always give everything of yourself even when you don't get anything back in return.
Quite a different book is Red Sled by Lita Judge.
Zack and I read this picture book this week and it's a true delight. With hardly any words, the story flows along for the imagination of the reader, which makes for the best kind of picture book! The illustrations are darling - a bear spots a red sled in the snow leaning against a cosy house; he borrows it at night to take woodland animals for spins in the snow. He then returns it by morning so the child can use it once again, perplexing the child with the footprints in the snow. The ending is so adorable - the child sees it is the bear who borrows the sled and goes sledding with the animals too.
Life can be a mystery but we can be part of it and enjoy the ride. Even if goes by fast on a sled!
- - -
Finished an interesting read this week, What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty.I was really mesmerized by the plot - Alice, (aptly named since she went down her own rabbit hole of sorts) falls during a spin class at the gym and in doing so has a doozy of a headache and no memory of the last 10 years! The story was gripping from the start but it did go on and on and on too much and then ended rather quickly. I felt like I had fallen down that rabbit hole and then hit the bottom hard! Perhaps that was the author's mission all along. While the book wasn't a 5-star read for me, it was thought provoking.What if you woke up and it was 10 years later than you thought it was? What if you didn't recognize your children? Remember the pangs of childbirth? Remember the day before the day before the day before yesterday? Remember your husband? Remember what you loved to drink, eat, do? Remember your friends? Remember milestones in life? Pretty tough to imagine since I do remember all those things, some are hazy and some more vividly than others! The book gives the reader a look at Alice's life as it was presently and it was shockingly different than she could have imagined it to be. The book's goal, I think, was to make the reader pause at her/his own life path.
Sometimes we think our lives will turn out a certain way. They don't. They may have elements of what we wished for, dreamt of, worked toward, but our road was set for us long ago, to follow and live so it's just one big surprise after another whether we like it or not, good or bad, sour or sweet. God has a plan. I know He does. I'd like to think that if I woke up tomorrow and missed a decade of my life, that I'd still be surrounded by my wonderful, loving family and have the life I have now, just with a few more gray hairs and lots of more books in the house. In order to achieve the life we want, we need to be in the present and not be bogged down with trivial distractions that clutter our path and keep us from living the life we are meant to live. Being the real you and keeping consistent to your true self is essential. Don't ever be somebody you're not and always give everything of yourself even when you don't get anything back in return.
- - -
Quite a different book is Red Sled by Lita Judge.
Zack and I read this picture book this week and it's a true delight. With hardly any words, the story flows along for the imagination of the reader, which makes for the best kind of picture book! The illustrations are darling - a bear spots a red sled in the snow leaning against a cosy house; he borrows it at night to take woodland animals for spins in the snow. He then returns it by morning so the child can use it once again, perplexing the child with the footprints in the snow. The ending is so adorable - the child sees it is the bear who borrows the sled and goes sledding with the animals too.Life can be a mystery but we can be part of it and enjoy the ride. Even if goes by fast on a sled!
7 comments:
I am loving all the book posts on blogs this Jaunary - so helpful as I make out my 2012 reading list. Just added: Alice!
What a thought-provoking post! I'll have to see if the library can get the book for me. My younger daughter is reading "The Night Circus" right now and is insanely crazy over it. She's trying to hold herself back from reading too much so as to savor it. I've started Witches of East End and am listening to the final hours of Sue Grafton's latest (which is amazing).
I am not much of a readed , I'm more of a movie watcher. But one day when I do feel like reading a book, I'd love to have a list of some good books to read. So wonderful. I admire people who like to read, I wish I was one of them.
Yesterday I finished reading the language of flowers. It was such a good story!!
lovely quote..i love this quote too..
i love books with my heart and soul ..
big hugs xx
I like to read journals from real women in colonial times, like the ones that traveled West in pioneer days. I'm reading one now that was written by an 11 year old girl named Anna Winslow during the 1700's when she was sent to Boston for schooling and lived with her Aunt and Uncle.
I love this book, too! Such fun illustrations!
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