Audrey Niffenegger's novel "Her Fearful Symmetry"

I am reading Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger right now.  Here is a little clip about the book and how she came up with the idea and her characters..

Teaching Children About The Great Depression

Teaching Children About The Great Depression

I know this is not a book, per se but I wanted to remember this for a project I am working on...

Great Depression -- Letters from Boxcar Boys and Girls of the 1930s

Great Depression -- Letters from Boxcar Boys and Girls of the 1930s

Great Depression -- A Boy Says Goodbye to His Mom and Hits the Road

Great Depression -- A Boy Says Goodbye to His Mom and Hits the Road

Two New Books Read

Last Thursday, July 12, 2012 I started reading The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks and when I finished that one I read Safe Haven also by Sparks.  I finished the latter last night before I went to bed.  They were both very good reads.  I love Sparks, to start with and knew that going into these books I was going to feel my heart-strings pulled immensely.  And it was.  Both books made me cry.  I have to say that The Best of Me was a little predictable because I had the ending figured out pretty much way ahead of the game.  But in Safe Haven I was not sure about the ending, so this book kept me on the edge until the very end.  It was very heart wrenching. Very good.  In fact, I read where they are filming the movie as I write and it is starring Cobie Smulders, Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel.  I am looking forward to seeing this movie.  Now I am on to more books.  Summertime is a wonderful time to catch up on reading wonderful books.

Source: julieballew.com via Connie on Pinterest

A little thought about a book I am reading...Some things I knew and a lot I didn't... Posted by Debbie Aycock Williams

On Writing by Stephen King is a book I have wanted to read for a long time.  Mainly because,  I read a lot of authors talk about what an essential it is to have on one's bookshelf if one likes to write or at least try to write.  I am three-quarters of the way through it and it is hard to put down.  King teaches writing in such a way that you don't even feel like you are learning, but you are.  You learn by listening to his story, not an autobiography, but his story about writing.  You learn by example. And if anyone can set an example for good writing it is King.  The inside jacket says it like this,"Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower-and entertain- everyone who reads it."  I couldn't have said it better.  It was an inspiring read with so much insight into this fascination writer.  I can't say that I have read all of his books but the one I have read I loved.  I have read The Talisman, Pet Sematary, Thinner which was actually written under the Bachman name.  I have a lot of catching up to do.  I started counting his published works and there were too many to count and not get confused.  This is one prolific writer.


If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write.  Stephen King

When asked,  "how do you write?" I invariably answer, "one word at a time".   Stephen King

Open a Romantic Novel and Read by Candlelight.

 

A Few Quotes For The Thought

"To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark."


Victor Hugo, Les Miserables


"Anyone who has a library and a garden wants for nothing."


Cicero


"If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads."


Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is no Frigate like a Book

To take us Lands away,

Nor any Coursers like a Page

Of prancing Poetry...

Emily Dickinson


I love this!

"Readers may be divided into four classes:

1.) Sponges, who absorb all that they read and return it in nearly the same state, only a little dirtied.

2.) Sand-glasses, who retain nothing and are content to get through a book for the sake of getting through the time.

3.) Strain-bags, who retain merely the dregs of what they read.

4.) Mogul diamonds, equally rare and valuable, who profit by what they read, and enable others to profit by it also."

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Bon Voyage

May you read with zest!

I wonder what is on his little mind?

 

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.” 


Emilie Buchwald

Refreshment on a hot summer day!

'Then another porpoise broke the water and rolled toward us. A third and fourth porpoise neared. The visitation was something so rare and perfect that we knew by instinct not to speak—and then as quickly as they had come, the porpoises moved away from us…Each of us would remember that all during our lives. It was the purest moment of freedom and headlong exhilaration that I had ever felt. A wordless covenant was set, and I would go back in my imagination, and return to where happiness seemed so easy to touch.” 


  
Pat Conroy,  Beach Music

I am currently still reading The Associate by John Grisham.  I have had a lot of other things going on and not as much time as I would like, to read.  But I found this quote about reading that I like and wanted to share.  Until I finish my current book I will be writing little tidbits and posting little quotes that I find...


He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, as in all fortunes.


Barrows


Bon Voyage!

A Good Place to Read A Book

 

“Why do I read?
I just can't help myself.
I read to learn and to grow, to laugh
and to be motivated.
I read to understand things I've never
been exposed to.
I read when I'm crabby, when I've just
said monumentally dumb things to the
people I love.
I read for strength to help me when I
feel broken, discouraged, and afraid.
I read when I'm angry at the whole
world.
I read when everything is going right.
I read to find hope.
I read because I'm made up not just of
skin and bones, of sights, feelings,
and a deep need for chocolate, but I'm
also made up of words.
Words describe my thoughts and what's
hidden in my heart.
Words are alive--when I've found a
story that I love, I read it again and
again, like playing a favorite song
over and over.
Reading isn't passive--I enter the
story with the characters, breathe
their air, feel their frustrations,
scream at them to stop when they're
about to do something stupid, cry with
them, laugh with them.
Reading for me, is spending time with a
friend.
A book is a friend.
You can never have too many.” 


Gary Paulson

Well I couldn't stand it.  I had to go back to the Monroe Symphony Book Fair again today.  I bought three cookbooks. 

Papa Rossi's secrets of Italian Cooking by Victor Bennet

Leaves from our Tuscan Kitchen by Janet Ross and Michael Waterfield

The Woman's Day Book of Salads by Carol Truax

On the way into the building they had boxes of books for twenty-five cents.  I found two gems!  I love old books so when I saw these two I was ecstatic.  I love Taylor Caldwell and Irwin Shaw and when I saw these old books I grabbed them.  

A Pillar of Iron by Taylor Caldwell

Beggar Man, Thief  by Irwin Shaw

I also picked up The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom.  All these books for $5.00 and they are all hardback books.  I did good!

“When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any

left, 

 I buy food and clothes.” 

Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus


Go check out the thrift shops and yard sales and get a good deal on a book and read this summer!


Bon Voyage!  

KETC | Living St. Louis | Elaine Viets

Today I went to the Monroe Symphony Book Sale.  I bought 13 books for $12.00.  I bought 4 hard-back books which look brand new and nine paper-back books. I am so excited!  I think I got a great deal and may even go back tomorrow and browse some more.  They are continuously putting books out.  WOW!  Here is the list of books I got this morning.

Hardback

  1.  The Alchemist's Daughter by Katharine McMahon
  2.  The Island Walkers by John Bemrose
  3.  Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
  4.  Morgan's Run by Colleen McCullough (Thorn Birds)
               

Paperback

  5.  Empire Falls by Richard Russo (AWESOME AUTHOR)

  6.  Straight Man by Richard Russo

  7.  As the Crow Flies by Jeffrey Archer ( Kane and Able)

  8.  Sons of Fortune by Jeffrey Archer

  9.  The Brethren by John Grisham

10.  The Innocent Man by John Grisham

11.  The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult

12.  Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult

13.  Circle of Grace by Penelope J. Stokes

I know these are not new books.  Most were published quite awhile back.  But I have not read them so I am very excited.  I have read something by most of these authors, just not these particular books.  

After Grayson and I left the book fair we went to the library.  Well, after a run through Micky Dee's to get him a m&m McFlurry and me a sweet tea.  We got a lot of books about travel, such as trains, planes and space shuttles.  We have been reading this afternoon then Tom and Jerry caught his attention.  Next time we sit down to read I will turn the television off first.

Just a note; We had a murder, suicide in West Monroe at the local Sonic this morning.  Tragedy!  We never know who we are parked beside, behind or in front of.  Staying home a reading sounds a little safer to me.  We must never let our guard down wherever we are.  

Last night I began reading The Associate by John Grisham.  I am only on page 28 but I can tell that this is going to be a good one.

"The more you read, the more things you will know.  The more that you learn, the more places you'll go".  Dr. Seuss

Bon Voyage!  Enjoy a chapter or two today!

 

A little pink flower to warm your heart and arouse your senses!  
"All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind."


Abraham Lincoln

The first book I wish to review is Half-Price Homicide by Elaine Viets.  I have to say that this is the first time I have read this author.  The book was in a box of books a friend of my sister's brought to my mother to read.  Because she had several mini-strokes awhile ago she is unable to use her left hand very well so it is hard for her to hold a hard-back book.  Thus, I brought several home with me.  This book was included.  I started reading Half-Price Homicide before school was out.  As I started to read the first chapter I was a little apprehensive as to whether I was going to like it.  But I kept reading and the more I read the more I liked it.  Ms. Viets characters are very well rounded.  They are definitely not static, flat characters.  The author has a since of humor that comes out in her writing.  The story is about a young heroin, Helen, who works at a consignment shop for customers who like the high-style without paying the high prices.  But when someone is murdered in the shop our heroin is right in the middle of the investigation. This is a hilarious read from beginning to end.  If you like mysteries, funny stories and surprise endings then I believe you will enjoy Half-Price Homicide.  I certainly did.  

I love many different types of books.  My favorite genre is mainstream fiction.  Some of my favorite authors are Larry McMurtry, Richard Russo, Nicholas Sparks (and no he does not write traditional romance), John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, John Grisham (met him about 15 years ago), Jeffrey Archer, Mitch Albom, Colleen McCullough.....You get the picture!  But I read in a lot of different genres.  So there is no telling what I will decide to read and write about.  Until I finish another book.. get yourself engrossed in a good book and travel the world..

"To read is to fly, it is to soar to a point of vantage which

gives a view over wide terrains of history, human  variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries".  
A.C. Grayling

I love to read.  Reading has to be the one past-time that really takes me on a journey which both revitalizes me and relaxes me.  There is nothing better than to sit down somewhere quiet, with a good book and just get away for awhile.  That sounds a bit like an oxymoron.  But how true it is.  One does not have to spend a lot of money on airplane tickets, hotels or gas to travel all over the world. This is a new blog for me.  My first blog "DebbieAycockWilliamsPhotographyandVignettes" is a blog of randomness.  I love posting on that blog but as of lately I seem to have abandoned it for other activities.  I have begun to  delve into my genealogy again, finding the resting places of my great-grandparents on my Mother's side of the family, which is an accomplishment since there is not a lot of "remembering" going on in my family.  this is why I find it important to get as much information about my family trees so just in case my children or grandchildren want to know where they come from.  And besides, it is so much fun! So between all three blogs, doing activities with Grayson this summer, writing and reading I should be able to stay busy.

"All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality---the story of escape.  It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape".
Christopher Benson