January through April reading notes: ten reflections on books & reading

Last Monday, I wrote about the difficulty of getting back to writing after not doing so for several weeks.  I had the idea of starting with lists and came up with a list of ten writing goals for May.  My last installment of reading notes was at the end of 2015.  So today's list catches up my reading notes with reflections on reading and books from the last few months. 

1.  Reading books in different places makes them memorable in different ways.  I was totally engrossed in Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None on our recent trip to Poland.  The weather was rainy and gloomy for a few days, which coincided with the mood of the book.  I often have stronger memories of books that I read on trips or vacations.  I'll never forget how the release of the last two Harry Potter books coincided with our annual northwoods summer vacation.  I had Amazon ship those books to the resort where we stayed in St. Germain and devoured the books lakeside, lounging at the cabin and in bed late at night and into the morning.

  
2.  Two girls who changed the world:  I enjoyed reading two very moving, but structurally different, autobiographies and discussing them with our middle school literature group.  Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges is more of an advanced picture book autobiography with Bridges looking back at the tumultuous events of her childhood through her remembrances and those of the adults in her life as well as photographs and news accounts.  I am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World by Malala Yousafzai and Patricia McCormick is the young readers edition of Malala's compelling and heroic story.

3.  I love a really good mystery.  As mentioned in #1 above, I read And Then There Were None.  I pride myself on often guessing the culprits in mystery stories, but Agatha Christie kept me guessing (and compulsively reading!) until the end.  I look forward to watching the 2015 BBC miniseries adaption of the book.   

4.  I also love all things Jane Austen.  Which is why I really enjoyed Longbourn by Jo Baker, a book that tells the story of the servants of the house at the same time as the events of Pride and Prejudice.  Purists or "Janeites" may disagree and lament the inaccuracies and anachronisms, but for me it was a delightful pleasure to revisit the settings and characters from a different perspective.

5.  Modern day angst can be funny but also annoying.  I laughed out loud at Lauren Fox's wry observations on parenthood in Days of Awe.  Rainbow Rowell also makes some keen observations in her book Landline.  Both of these books deal with faltering or failing marriages.  The protagonists in both sometimes annoyed me with their self-absorption.

6.  Dystopian fiction is addicting.  Still.  I enjoyed Julianna Baggott's Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders last year, so I thought I'd try her post-apocalyptic Pure Trilogy.  These books are better written, darker, deeper and include more science fiction elements than other series that I've read in this genre. 

7.  There are pros and cons of reading on an e-reader or tablet.  On the one side, attempting to read a very long novel, such as Daniel Deronda by George Eliot, on a transatlantic trip - I appreciated the lightness and portability of the device as opposed to the heft of a nearly 900 page book.  On the other hand, it was harder to page back when I was trying to remember what the heck was going on.  I do love Victorian-era novels, but they are not easy to read.    




8.  "Southern novels" - I want to look away, but I can't.  I decided to read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers because my son was reading it for American Literature class.  This is a beautifully-written novel.  McCullers wrote it when she was only in her early twenties!  The fascinating and ultimately tragic characters really drew me in and illuminate the darker realities of the human condition.  But it was so, so sad.

9.  I learn a lot from books I read with my children.  Norse myths, yellow fever, the Magna Carta...just a few examples of stuff I wouldn't know much about otherwise.

10.  I read more before I had so much technology in my life.  The bombardment of information from so many different sources is definitely distracting to me.  That doesn't mean I have to look at it, but I often do.  One of my writing-related goals from last week is to focus on reading more books rather than clicking to read random articles.   

*****

January through April complete reading list:

Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges
Burn by Julianna Baggott
Fuse by Julianna Baggott
D'Aulaire's Book of Norse Myths by Ingri D'Aulaire and Edgar Parin E'Aulaire
The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks
Days of Awe by Lauren Fox
American Copper by Shann Ray
Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
Longbourn by Jo Baker
The Door in the Wall by Marguerite deAngeli
I am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World (Young Reader's Edition) by Malala Yousafzai and Patricia McCormick
Landline by Rainbow Rowell
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
The Magna Carta by Walter Hodges
Knight's Castle by Edward Eager
Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan