Some Reading Suggestions

Since yesterday’s blog was encouraging reading, I thought I’d share some of what I like to read just in case somebody’s looking for some ideas. My reading interests are very eclectic. There’s not really one specific genre I prefer over another. After all, a good story is a good story. There are some authors that I’ve enjoyed for years, and I’ll always come back to them. Then, I have some reading friends who make suggestions of new authors when they find somebody new they like. I also have students who make suggestions based on what they are reading. My biggest problem is finding time to read those authors I know I like and to try out the suggestions that are given to me. Often, I will put on hold my favorite authors or the suggestions of my adult friends to read something a student suggests. As a high school English teacher, I find it important to try to keep up with what the students enjoy reading. It gives us some common ground for book discussions, and if I know the kinds of genres they like, I can make suggestions of other books that they may like. Finally, sometimes I either see a movie preview or watch a movie that’s “based on” a book, and I like the story enough to check out the book, because the book is always better.

Some authors I’ve started reading based on the suggestions of my friends are Janet Evanovich (the Stephanie Plum series is hilarious; when you need funny, here’s where to go), Danielle Steel  (romance), Lisa Gardner (mystery), Nicholas Sparks (romance), and Catherine Coulter (mystery). My brother put me onto Brad Thor, David Baldacci, and Vince Flynn, who all write political thrillers, and John Grisham (legal thrillers) and James Patterson (mysteries).  After I started reading Stephen King’s books, my brother suggested I might like Dean Koontz, and he was right. As a result, I’ve been reading all these authors for years.

As a result of a friend praising Richard Paul Evans’s novel The Christmas Box, I have now read almost everything he’s written, most of which seem to be Christmas stories. Another friend suggested Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie, and although that book was nonfiction, I now read the fiction books that Albom publishes. I read J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series because my kids read them. I initially read the first book and wasn’t that impressed but after taking Cody to watch the sixth movie, I decided to revisit the series and give it a second chance. What I discovered is that each book was better than the one before.

There are some classics that I like. Contrary to popular belief, just because I teach English and just because I love to read does not mean that I love every piece of work that has been deemed “classic.” When it comes to Charles Dickens, the only work I really enjoy is A Christmas Carol; the others tend to bore me. Some classics I do like are Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, George Orwell’s 1984, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and others. The problem with trying to remember everything I like is that invariably I will forget something. I’ve no doubt that after I publish this blog, I will remember other items I should have included.

I also like historical fiction. Authors from this area that I would suggest include John Jakes (started reading his after watching the North and South TV mini-series based on his books), James Michener (again, enjoyed the TV mini-series Centennial), Larry McMurtry (thanks to the TV mini-series Lonesome Dove), and Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind (watched the movie before reading the book). I should probably include Alex Haley’s Roots here and Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds, though I haven’t watched either of those TV mini-series all the way through; I did read other works by Haley and McCullough after reading those, though. While not historical fiction, I also started reading Michael Crichton after watching the movie Jurassic Park.

There are also several authors and books I’ve read thanks to my students. I first read Jodi Picoult after hearing the students talk about her book Nineteen Minutes. After that, I’ve read many of her other books. Her books generally present a moral dilemma of some sort, and she does an excellent job of presenting both sides, so that as a reader, you question which side is “right.” And just when you think you’ve figured it out, she throws another twist and you see yet again how most issues are not clearly black and white. I read the Stephenie Meyer Twilight series because the girls kept talking about it, and I read the Rick Riordan Percy Jackson series because the boys kept talking about it. I’ve since read not only the seven books in Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, but I’ve also read the five in his Heroes of Olympus series, and the first one in his Kane Chronicles series. I read The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, and am now reading (and almost finished with) the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth, because of my students. I also read Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why based on student recommendations.

Then there are books that I just sometimes stumble upon or hear folks talking about that I ended up reading and enjoying. Some of these include Robert Dean Myers’s Fallen Angels, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins’s Left Behind series, John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany, Allan Wolf’s New Found Land, Paulette Jiles’s Enemy Women, Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief, Lee Goldberg’s Mr. Monk series, Penelope Lively’s The Photograph, Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain, Steig Larsson’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, Kim Edwards’s The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Sarah Gruen’s Water for Elephants, and books by Nicholas Evans, Toni Morrison, Emily Grayson, Mary Higgins Clark, Dan Brown, Steve Berry, Steve Alten, Greg Iles, Sandra Brown, Nora Roberts, Richard Peck, Lisa Scottoline, Karen Robards, Richard North Patterson, Michael Connelly, the Robertsons (of Duck Dynasty fame), Debbie Macomber, Madeline L’Engle, Tim O’Brien, and Mario Puzo.

I also like to read nonfiction, and here are my suggestions for nonfiction reading: Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, Elie Wiesel’s Night, Jennings Michael Burch’s They Cage the Animals at Night, Frank McCourt’s books, Dave Pelzer’s books, Stephen King’s On Writing, Lynn Truss’s Eats, Shoots and Leaves, Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward’s All the President’s Men, Robert Kennedy’s Thirteen Days, H.G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights, and Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture. I also read autobiographical books put out by folks who are from my favorite TV shows or musicians. Some of those include Maureen McCormick, Rick Springfield, Patrick Swayze, Barry Williams, and Denise Jackson.

I’ve no doubt that I’ve omitted some good books that I would suggest you read. I still have a long list of books that I want to get around to reading. If I live to be 100, I don’t think I’ll ever finish the list. It just keeps growing. The authors I like keep writing, and my friends and students keep making suggestions. The bottom line, however, is that there are so many genres out there, if you give it a try, you’re bound to find something you like. Happy reading!

The Book Is Always Better Than the Movie

When I hear that a book is being made into a movie, I usually cringe. Too often, those who are into movie-making feel the need to change significant plot details, and that drives me nuts. My philosophy is quite simple. If the original plot in the book was good enough to make it a best-seller, why change those details for the movie? All that’s really accomplished is ticking off folks who want the movie to stay true to the book. This is even more true for our favorite books. Today’s blog will address some movie success stories and failures for those books that were made into movies. I caution you that there will be spoilers, so if you start reading about a book you haven’t read or a movie you haven’t watched, you may want to come back and read later.

1. Failure – In The Hunger Games movie, Katniss gets the mockingjay pin from a shop in the district. In the book, her friend Madge gives it to her. This may seem like a minor plot change, until you consider the role of that pin in the other two books. We learn that the pin originally belonged to Madge’s aunt who happened to be a friend to Katniss’s mother and who also happened to have participated and lost the Hunger Games. This is important to Katniss’s understanding of why her mother is the way she is as well as to her understanding of the way the rebels feel. Since the movie has already blown this, it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out in later movies.

2. Failure – In The Notebook movie, the two main characters Allie and Noah die in their sleep in each other’s arms. While that sounds quite romantic, it’s not how the book ended, with both characters still alive. This becomes even  more important when you consider in a sequel novel The Wedding, Noah is a primary character, and since the all-wise movie makers killed him off, it makes it impossible to make a movie version of The Wedding without totally annihilating the original story.

3. Mixed Success – In the Gone with the Wind movie, Scarlett is portrayed as the selfish character she is in the book, and yet, there’s still something missing. Perhaps they didn’t feel Scarlett needed to be totally vilified for her selfish actions, yet the book was a success. The movie does show Scarlett being wed twice before she marries Rhett, shows her stealing one of her husbands while he was her sister’s fiance, and shows her lusting after Ashley Wilkes the entire time. Scarlett gains a little humanity with her love for her daughter with Rhett, Bonnie Blue. However, what the movie leaves out is that Scarlett had two other children, one with each of her former spouses (both of whom died and left her widowed). In this instance I watched the movie first and then read the book so imagine my surprise to find Scarlett had other children. Granted, she ignores them a lot and is more loving toward Bonnie, but that is a significant part of her character which the movie left out.

4. Success – The Lonesome Dove mini-series carried the title of greatest adaptation until last weekend. The lengthy novel was made into a TV mini-series. Encompassing four nights, they did a great job with this movie. Dialogue came straight from the page. Events occurred in the same order they appeared in the book. Because of this, I was one happy girl.

5. Success – The Great Gatsby remake has taken the title of most successful adaptation. I watched this last weekend, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had told Jimmy he would need to read the book; however, after the movie was over, I told him he didn’t have to after all, as again scene-by-scene and dialogue occurred almost identically to the book. I enjoyed the Robert Redford version of the movie, but I do believe this is now my favorite version.

I could go on and on about movies that were so drastically different from the book that I have refused to watch those movies ever again. John Grisham’s The Chamber is one such movie. I hate movies that change the integrity of the characters for perceived financial gain. I’ve had so many people tell me that the ending of My Sister’s Keeper was changed and they hated it, so I still haven’t even watched that movie.

Just remember, if the plot sold the book and made it a best-seller, that same plot will sell the movie and make it a blockbuster. It’s time for the movie industry to stop ticking off the faithful readers who bought the book and would be willing to buy the movie, if only it would stay true to the book.

Add a Little Spice to Your Life

Here are a few things I recommend you try and/or check out, if you haven’t already.

1. Cherry 7-Up. I actually prefer Diet Cherry 7-Up, but that’s just because in general I prefer diet drinks. Whether you decide to go with the original or the diet version, you will enjoy this drink. I like Cherry Coke as well, but the taste of Cherry 7-Up is a lot cleaner.

2. Gone with the Wind. You might suspect that given my penchant for reading that I would recommend only the book, but I actually recommend both the book and the movie. Yes, the book is better than the movie, but that’s mainly because the movie had to cut so much from the book, and it’s still 238 minutes long (on the restored DVD version, according to IMDB). While the movie does cut a lot from the book, it remains true to the character development and basic plot, which is rare but nice. If you want the full story, read the book; if you want the abbreviated story, watch the movie. If you want the best of both worlds, read the book and watch the movie. Many of you have heard of Scarlett and Rhett, but you don’t know the whole story; check it out and meet two of the most selfish characters in literary history.

3. Criminal Minds. I’ll confess I haven’t watched it from the beginning, and I’ve mainly been catching reruns on ION television, but I’m hooked. I’ll also confess that I prefer the episodes with Rossi over those with Gideon, and I like Emily Prentiss better than Elle Greenaway. The concept of a Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) is very intriguing, and if nothing else, you should gain an appreciation for the people who do those kinds of jobs every day. And besides, could a show with Shemar Moore be bad?

4. Cooking. That doesn’t sound like such a huge leap as many of you are already cooking every day. However, why not try something new? Be good to your taste buds. Find new recipes and try them out. I suggest trying to make a dish similar to Johnny Carino’s Bowtie Festival. Obviously, that’s my favorite Carino’s dish, but it’s even better when my husband cooks it. I’ll be glad to share the recipe; just send me a message. Even if you’re not a pasta person (though I cannot figure out why some people don’t like pasta), find another recipe, one you might not normally prepare, and give it a shot.

5. Bungee Jumping. If you know me at all, you’re asking yourself right now why in the world I have bungee jumping on the list. The answer is simple: I’m just seeing if you’re paying attention. I don’t recommend bungee jumping to anybody. I see no reason to jump off a perfectly good bridge (or out of a perfectly good airplane). But even though bungee jumping isn’t my thing, I can recommend that you find something that’s a little “out there” and give it a try. Don’t be stupid about it. Use your head, and be smart. But there’s nothing wrong with every once in a while doing something a little out of character. It’ll keep your friends and family guessing.

Share a Movie with Your Valentine

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, so today I’m going to take a look at my favorite love stories. These are ranked in no particular order, other than the way they come to me as I’m writing.

1. Noah & Allie – The Notebook – The love story of Noah and Allie is impressive because it’s based on Noah spending day after day after day at the nursing home, reading their love story to Allie, who now has Alzheimer’s Disease. Most days, Allie doesn’t remember who Noah is, but that doesn’t stop him; he’s there every day to read to her, because to him, it’s worth it for that one time that she will remember. For those of you who have only watched the movie, I suggest you read the book. The movie wasn’t bad, but the book is a whole lot better. Especially the ending.

2. Scarlett & Rhett – Gone with the Wind and Scarlett – Again, if you’ve only watched the movie, you’re missing a huge part of the story. You cannot truly appreciate Scarlett’s selfishness if you haven’t read the books. Both rogues (yes, I just called Scarlett O’Hara a rogue), these two star-crossed lovers deserve each other, and much to everyone’s surprise, by the end of the saga, they have actually learned something and realize they really do love each other.

3. Elizabeth & Mr. Darcy – Pride and Prejudice – It takes some time but Elizabeth finally overcomes her prejudices against Mr. Darcy. It’s really no surprise that he overcomes his pride before she overcomes her prejudices, though. You know those strong, female characters. They can be a bit stubborn. In the end, though, it all works out, and Elizabeth is pleased to find that she really can marry for love and not money. It doesn’t hurt any, though, that the man she loves has money.

4. Baby & Johnny – Dirty Dancing – Patrick Swayze is my all-time favorite actor; it’s easy to see how socialite Baby fell for wrong-side-of-the-tracks Johnny. Unlike the others on the list, there’s nothing to indicate that Baby and Johnny stayed together forever, but I’d like to think they found their way back to each other. I certainly believe that neither of them was the same after their summer at the Catskills.

5. Sally & Harry – When Harry Met Sally – Based on the title of this movie, the movie could have ended about five minutes into it, when Harry met Sally, but it goes deeper than that. Harry and Sally met when they had a common goal, a destination to reach and carpooling was the logical thing to do. Of course, their paths continue to cross, and they eventually become friends who cross the line. It takes some time, but they realize they were meant to be together.

So if you’re in need of a feel-good love story this Valentine’s Day, check out one of the ones above, and you won’t be disappointed. Do notice, however, that I purposely left Romeo and Juliet off the list. It’s not Shakespeare’s best play, and it’s not the greatest love story in the world. They are a couple of teenage kids who met, fell in love, married, and committed suicide in about the span of a week. It’s Shakespeare so there are some good lines in the play, but it’s not the place to look for a great love story.

What Makes a Reading Database?

After I wrote about my reading database, there was some interest about what is, and perhaps what isn’t, there. What do I read? I’d say most people would be surprised at the wide range of reading selections that have made the list of books I have read since 1996, the year I started keeping track of the information.

Before I get into the “what” of the list, I’ll explain the “how” of my database. I actually have two Excel documents related to this. The first is simply titled “books read” and it has columns for the book’s title, the author, the year, the number it is, and the number of pages. After getting my Kindle, I added two more columns for Kindle and number of megabytes. I thought this database was quite thorough, until Jimmy mentioned he knew someone who could tell me what movies she had watched in July 2000. It occurred to me, there is a column missing from my database, and so for 2012, between the author and year columns, I have added a column for month.

There is a logical explanation for each column. I’m sure most of you understand most of the columns. If I had to guess, the only columns you might question would be the number of pages and the number of megabytes. Those columns just give me a point of comparison. My goal is to read at least the same number of books each year, but I’d also like it to be approximately the same number of pages of reading material. It would seem like cheating if one year I read fifty books that had 20,000 pages of reading material, but the next year, I read fifty-one books but only had 5,100 pages of reading material. After getting the Kindle, I added the megabyte column for the same reason, to have a point of comparison. I’m sure my faithful friends will just roll their eyes and say something about OCD, but hey, it makes sense to me to do it this way.

My second document is called “books read stats.” Until I got the Kindle this summer, this document had only three columns: year, number of books, and number of pages. After getting the Kindle, two more columns – Kindle ed. and number of megabytes – were added. This document is much smaller, since there are only eighteen rows, one for each year 1996-2012, and one row that calculates the totals in columns B, C, and E (the numbers columns). The purpose of this document is to be able to quickly see what the totals for each year are without having to scroll the other document to find the end number for each year. It also lets me quickly see the number of pages and number of megabytes for the year. Since this information is for comparative purposes, I can easily and quickly make a comparison. The number of books column includes all books, those that I hold in my hand and read and those I read on my Kindle. Keeping a separate tally for the Kindle books will allow me to see, again easily and quickly, how much my Kindle gets used when compared to regular books.

So, that’s my system. It really is quite simple and logical. Should you decide to keep a reading database, you can use the columns I have or create your own, based on your needs. Now, though, what do I read?

I read both fiction and nonfiction. I don’t reread books often, mainly those that I assign to my classes. Since these books are often assigned every other year, I have to reread those in order to refresh my memory. I never know what kinds of questions the kids will ask during seminar, and if I don’t read it again at the same time the new class is reading it, they’ll ask me something that I don’t have a clue about because I’ve forgotten that particular detail over the course of the two years. Outside of that, though, I rarely read a book more than once. I simply don’t have the time. I have so many books I want to read that any time spent rereading takes away from the books I have yet to read.

For fiction, many of my favorite authors fill the list of books I have read. Some of these include Nicholas Sparks, John Grisham, James Patterson, Danielle Steel, Janet Evanovich, Jodi Picoult, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Richard North Patterson, Greg Iles, Dan Brown, Catherine Coulter, Michael Connelly, Nora Roberts, Mary Higgins Clark, John Jakes, Larry McMurtry, David Baldacci, Richard Paul Evans, Steve Alten, and Michael Crichton. I’ll read whatever I can find by that group of authors. I’ve also read several noteworthy series of fiction books, including the Harry Potter books, the Twilight books, the Hunger Games books, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books, the Mr. Monk books, and the Left Behind books.

I’ve read many of the classics, some because I teach them in my classes, and others because I wanted to. You will find Moby Dick on the list simply because I told myself I was going to read it. I have a rule – if I start a book, I must finish it. I may not finish it immediately, and I may take a break and read several other books before I finish it, but the rule is to finish. That rule is the only reason I finished Moby Dick. I hated that book, but I finished it. I have only broken the rule a couple of times. One book I started but never finished was Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. I may have made it ten pages into the book. That book had more f-bombs on one page than an R-rated movie. I stopped reading and counted up to 20 on one page, and nearly every page of the ten I’d read was just like that, and I simply decided rule or no rule, I could not finish that book.

Other classics I enjoyed included books by Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Chinua Achebe, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Bram Stoker, Ray Bradbury, and George Orwell. There are some who aren’t necessarily my favorites though, like John Steinbeck and Charles Dickens. The only good thing Dickens wrote was A Christmas Carol and the opening paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities. Two other classics I enjoyed were Alex Haley’s Roots and Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind.

I also read a lot of nonfiction. I’ve read all of Dave Pelzer’s books about his struggles having been an abused child. I’ve read Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom; it’s one of my all-time favorites, and one of the few books I would reread whether or not I assigned it to my students (which I do, by the way). I also assign Lynn Truss’s Eats, Shoots & Leaves, which I think is a masterpiece, though my students don’t always agree. I’ve read several biographies about Princess Diana; I’ve been fascinated with the Royal Family since the fairy-tale wedding. I’ve ready Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. I’ve read memoirs by Patrick Swayze, Rick Springfield, Lisa Whelchel, Barry Williams, Maureen McCormick, Robert Kennedy, Elie Wiesel, Jennings Michael Burch, Tim O’Brien, Randy Pausch, Melissa Sue Anderson, Paula Deen, and Chad Varga.

My database includes lots of others authors as well. There have been several books I thoroughly enjoyed, but it’s the only book by that particular author that I’ve read. I don’t limit myself to the authors mentioned above. If a title catches my attention, I’ll read the blurb to see what the book is about. If it sounds like something that will interest me, I’ll give it a chance. All of my favorite authors have lots of books I haven’t had a chance to read yet, and of course I’d like to make it through their other works. There are also several other memoirs out there that I want to read, from other members of the Little House on the Prairie cast or The Brady Bunch cast, just to name a couple.

Reading is wonderful. I don’t understand those who don’t enjoy reading. They really don’t know what they’re missing out on. I suggest reading every chance you get, and I suggest you don’t limit yourself. As you can see from what’s on my list, it’s all over the place. Yours should be, too. Keeping the database may not be for everybody, but I enjoy doing it; it helps me keep track of what I’ve read and when I read it. I have fallen way short of my goal for 2011 reading; however, I have set my 2012 goal at 75 books, and I’m going to work diligently to fulfill that goal.

If you have to choose between keeping a database and reading a book, by all means, go read the book. But if you do keep a database, what is on yours? Are there other columns I need to add to mine? If you ever need a suggestion for something that would be good to read, or something to avoid, just ask. I’ll be glad to share suggestions with you. For now, I need to go finish a book.