Category Archives: Favorite Books

The Gift of a New Year

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I got another visit from my javelina friends. I was taking out recycling when I smelled something nasty and skunky. Then I looked outside the fence and there they were! Yes, they smell. They also seem to use their sense of smell to figure out where I was and don’t seem to see that well. Their snouts are very active!

Now back to my topic: The New Year is a Gift

With January slowly slipping away, I’m making a conscious effort to make the most of it. Each new year does feel like a gift. There’s a chance to be better, make changes to be healthier and focus on new goals.

How am I doing that? First, by re-reading Julia Cameron’s book “Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance.”

From Amazon’s description:

The third book in Julia Cameron’s groundbreaking trilogy on creative self-renewal, now for the first time in paperback. In this inspiring twelve-week program, the third in Julia Cameron’s beloved body of work on the creative process, Cameron offers guidance on weathering the periods in an artist’s life when inspiration has run dry. This book provides wisdom and tools for tackling some of the greatest challenges that artists face.

The second thing I did this weekend was renew my membership to SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writer’s and Illustrators) and downloaded “The Essential Guide to Publishing for Children.”

The guide covers all aspects of the publishing process, including finding an agent, writing a query letter, writing a book proposal, understanding contracts, and more.

I also watched a video of marketing trends in children’s literature which was on SCBWI’s resource page. I have several children’s manuscripts that I’d love to get published. I’m going to give it another try!

One of them is a story about growing up with my mom with her quirky and eccentric ways. I wrote it at least 20 years ago and got an offer from a small publisher. At the time, I was on contract with the Los Angeles Times Kids’ Reading Room to write children’s stories and was published in children’s magazines like Ladybug. I thought the publisher’s contract was too small! Of course, I never got another offer and quickly learned getting published is not that easy.

The other manuscript won first place in a Writer’s Digest competition as well as my local SCBWI chapter. It was also picked up by the most adorable website in the UK called S’mories where young British kids were recorded reading stories. The website was taken down for some unknown reason. Perhaps the parents no longer wanted their children broadcast in public all around the world.

I’m going to start with those two projects and will work on new projects, too.

Momma with two babies.

A video of Javelina with babies eating birdseed.

Do you feel like a New Year is a gift?

What plans or goals do you have for 2026?

Book Review: A Quartet of Books

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Here are two in a series of four books by author Charles Martin. The series (so far) includes “The Water Keeper”– which I gave to a friend — “The Letter Keeper” and “The Record Keeper,” which I’ve read and still own. The fourth, “The Keeper,” I’m waiting for it to come out in paperback.

One of my blogging friends suggested these books to me. I wish I remembered who. (If it was you, thanks! Please let me know in the comments.) Because the subject matter is rescuing and helping sex-trafficked children recover, my blogger friend knew that I donate time to a sex-trafficking residential recovery center. If you missed reading about my visit last week to the Phoenix Dream Center — Where Hope Lives, and the ribbon cutting for our Mother’s Kitchen — you can read it HERE.

In the “Murphy Shepherd” series, also known as the “Keeper” books, the protagonist hero has helped develop and support an entire town in the Colorado Rockies dedicated to sex-trafficked victims recovery. Not only that, but he makes the dangerous rescues. There’s also more to his story and what he does, but in the reverse of a spoiler alert, I’m not saying another word.

Here’s a snipped of a review of “The Water Keeper” from Charles Martin’s website, written by one of his son:

I can’t explain to you enough the rollercoaster of emotions I faced while reading this… I laughed. At times I didn’t breathe. Other times I read really fast in anticipation and suspense- and then re-read to make sure I didn’t miss anything important. At times I fist pumped in celebration. I even shouted a couple times in celebration and relief. But then yes, I also shed a tear or two. Then I cussed. Then I cussed at my dad. Then I cussed out my dad because he did the whole “rip-your-heart-in-half-thing” that we all love/hate him for. Then I repented of those because the next scene was usually one where he pulled the whole “blind-side-rug-out-from-under-you” move and I was fist pumping in celebration again.

https://www.charlesmartinbooks.com/books/the-water-keeper

Here’s a snippet from the description from Amazon:

With Charles Martin’s trademark lyricism and poignant prose, The Water Keeper is at once a tender love story, a heartrending search for freedom, an exploration of the terrible cost of human trafficking, and an anthem to the power of love to create change when it shows up regardless of the cost.

If you’re looking for a fast-paced, well written series of novels with characters you can’t get out of your head, I highly recommend Martin’s Murphy Shepherd series. He’s also written a number of other books. I’ve read a couple including “When Crickets Cry,” which I recommend. Martin writes beautifully and does his research.

If you’ve read Charles Martin’s books, which one did you like best?

What books are you reading now and what can you recommend?

Book Review: “Daughters of Shandong”

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I’m on a roll of reading good books! Don’t you love that when it happens?

A few weeks ago I finished “Demon Copperhead” and I asked for book ideas HERE.

I got a good list, plus got more ideas from my friends who share books during our monthly lunch. Also, my dear friend from Santa Barbara calls me whenever she finishes a book she loves.

So why did I like “Daughter’s of Shandong?” I am a fan of books about China and the dramatic changes when Mao took over. It’s both frightening and fascinating how evil people can be to each other. “Red Scarf Girl” is one such book which is a YA autobiography by Ji-li Jiang. It’s about her life during the Cultural Revolution as a child. It’s another book I recommend as well as books by Lisa See.

It’s hard to fathom in our comfortable, easy lives how the characters in “Daughters of Shandong” survived so much hardship. Here’s the text from Amazon:

In 1948, civil war ravages the Chinese countryside, but in rural Shandong, the wealthy, landowning Angs are more concerned with their lack of an heir. Hai is the eldest of four girls and spends her days looking after her sisters. Headstrong Di, who is just a year younger, learns to hide in plain sight, and their mother—abused by the family for failing to birth a boy—finds her own small acts of rebellion in the kitchen. As the Communist army closes in on their town, the rest of the prosperous household flees, leaving behind the girls and their mother because they view them as useless mouths to feed.

Without an Ang male to punish, the land-seizing cadres choose Hai, as the eldest child, to stand trial for her family’s crimes. She barely survives their brutality. Realizing the worst is yet to come, the women plan their escape. Starving and penniless but resourceful, they forge travel permits and embark on a thousand-mile journey to confront the family that abandoned them.

From the countryside to the bustling city of Qingdao, and onward to British Hong Kong and eventually Taiwan, they witness the changing tide of a nation and the plight of multitudes caught in the wake of revolution. But with the loss of their home and the life they’ve known also comes new freedom—to take hold of their fate, to shake free of the bonds of their gender, and to claim their own story.

Told in assured, evocative prose, with impeccably drawn characters, Daughters of Shandong is a hopeful, powerful story about the resilience of women in war; the enduring love between mothers, daughters, and sisters; and the sacrifices made to lift up future generations.

At the end of the book is an author’s note that really touched me. It added so much depth to the entire novel. This is a debut novel and the author is so talented. Here’s bit about the author from Amazon:

About the author

Eve J. Chung is a Taiwanese American lawyer and women’s human rights specialist. She has worked on a range of issues, including torture, sexual violence, contemporary forms of slavery, and discriminatory legislation. Her writing is inspired by social justice movements, and the continued struggle for equality and fundamental freedoms worldwide. She currently lives in New York with her husband, two children, and two dogs.

Have you read “Daughter of Shandong? If so what was your opinion of it?

How about “Red Scarf Girl or books by Lisa See?

Struggling with a book

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Books I’ve read or am reading during my spree with Lisa See.

I’m struggling to finish “Peony in Love.” I zipped through the other books pictured above as well as “Dreams of Joy,” “Shanghai Girls” and “Flower Net.” I wonder if my problem with “Peony” is due to the power of suggestion. One of my close friends listens to audio books while she works. She sews for interior designers and creates duvets, curtains, throw pillows, sailboat sail covers and furniture slipcovers.

She gets through quite a lot of books during her working hours. She recommended “China Dolls” and “The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane.” But she did add she couldn’t get into “Peony in Love.”

Is that little nugget of info tucked away in my brain? Or is it the story I don’t like? (It’s about a girl who is lovesick and quits eating until she dies. Then she hovers around her family trying to figure out how to come back to life.)

I read an article in the Wall Street Journal by Jason Gay this week called:

Is Watching a Movie the New Reading a Book?

In a zero attention span world, spending two hours locked in on a film feels like a trip to the spa

Here’s an excerpt:

My chest puffed with pride. I watched a whole movie, in one night, all by myself. No interruptions, no pauses, no iPhone diversions, no flipping channels, not even 30 minutes of falling asleep on the couch, drooling into a pillow and dreaming that I was an astronaut pizza maker who played point guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder. 

It was a revelation. You know what watching a movie felt like to my easily-distracted hamster brain? It felt like an accomplishment. It felt smart. It felt like a spa day for my skull. It felt like…finishing a book. 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-cost-of-biden-family-advice-700d12cf?mod=hp_opin_pos_5#cxrecs_s

I agree with the WSJ writer that our attention spans have shortened. I can find myself flipping through texts, X messages and assorted other distractions online. It’s much easier than reading an entire book – or sitting through an entire movie. I prefer reading to watching TV, though. I also like listening to podcasts.

Have you read “Peony in Love?” Did you like it?

Do you think your attention span has changed through the past years?

Do you like to watch entire movies or do find yourself distracted like me?

How many books on this list have you read?

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I have never copied and posted something from Facebook on my blog before. But this popped up on a childhood friend’s page and I played. I enjoyed it and as readers and writers, I believe you might find it interesting, too.

In fact, I rarely even look at Facebook anymore. I don’t know why I did the other day, but I did. So here you go.

Anne of Green Gables early book cover
One of my favorite series.

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. Want to play?

1 Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

6 The Bible –

7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

11 Little Women – Louisa May Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulkes

18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife-Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch – George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

26  Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis

34 Emma – Jane Austen

35 Persuasion – Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne

41 Animal Farm – George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving

45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding

50 Atonement – Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel

52 Dune – Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime – Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History – Donna Tart

64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

72 Dracula – Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses – James Joyce

76 The Inferno – Dante (Have it downloaded)

77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal – Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession – AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell-

83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Eupery

93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

94 Watership Down – Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

100 Gaudy Night – Dorothy Sayersshared from Book Snoop Auctions

This list gave me ideas of what I’ve wanted to read but haven’t — yet. I scored 44. What is your score?

UPDATE: My son informed me the list is “BBC’s Top 100 Books You Need to Read Before You Die.” If you click on the link HERE you can check off the books and see where you stand compared to other readers.

Living on “The Edge”

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I finished reading “The Edge” yesterday. The book brought back memories of growing up in my rural Pacific Northwest hometown. It’s a book written by “Clark Douglas” who in real life is one of my childhood best friend’s little brothers. Dougie, as we called him when we were big junior high girls, followed us around whenever I hung out at their home. I’m not sure how much younger he was, but he was a little kid and I enjoyed his company because of his personality and brain power.

I have tons of memories at their home. My brother’s good friend was Christy’s oldest sibling Larry. Christy’s sister Cathy was in my brother’s class. They had about 10 acres with a tennis court, cows, a barn with a loft and bales of hay — and a lake with a tiny island that Christy and I attempted to camp out on one summer. Christy’s room had a steep roof and gable. We could climb out the window and sit on the rooftop. Their mom left us alone and my only memories of their dad was pushing a lawn mower. Often we’d be the ones tagging along our big brothers on the golf course. Christy and I were the only girls on the boy’s golf team.

Although “The Edge” takes place in Montana, it could easily be our hometown with the high school football games being the star attraction in town and the athletes our local heroes. Douglas creates quirky characters that are entertaining and reminded me of my neighbors in Snohomish, where everyone knew everyone’s business. The story follows the life of Will Powers, the younger brother of local football heroes, through his early childhood being provoked by his siblings through his college years, marriage in California, to his return to his hometown. I admire how Doug created such depth of characters and intertwined their lives in unexpected ways.

The beautiful cover is painted by the author’s talented oldest sister Cathy and captures the PNW beautifully. Christy was editor and proofreader. With my history with this family, of course I whole heartedly recommend the book, but it was a good read, too.

From Amazon:

Prior to the turn of the century, life in western Montana provided all the elements of harmony and simplicity. William Powers had that life, and struggles to get back to it. William never accepts defeat, though. Battling through life’s hurdles, he ultimately must return to the person he once was in order to attain it. Pete Campbell, however, has to make a decision–do what is right, or do what the law says. As a deputy sheriff in a rural community, this may be up to his interpretation. Armed with knowledge of the people and the history of his community, Pete may choose to answer to a different standard. Pete tells us the whole story behind Will’s life. Though Will appears to be just an average person, nothing normal could be said about him. Fueled by love, anger, justice, and determination beyond measure, Will searches for his peace. Will’s story carries the reader back to a time and place that by today’s standard can only be imagined and desired. A delightful mix of comedy, conflict, romance, drama, and suspense are all rolled up into one tale. This easy read will captivate the mind, building story upon story until it all surfaces at The Edge.

After Dr. Suess, who’s next?

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This was the first children’s book published by Dr. Seuss,  Theodor Seuss Geisel

As a baby shower gift, we received a large compilation of Dr. Seuss books in one heavy volume. My husband loved Mulberry Street and read that nightly to our son. I think the attraction to the story was a young boy with a vivid imagination coming up with a story to tell his dad. It was a father son story.

Today I learned the book will no longer be published and Dr. Seuss is banned from many schools altogether. This cancel culture is taking the joy out of simple pleasures. The banning is because of racial overtones or is it undertones? I can’t keep up.

I long ago sent that volume of Seuss books to our local thrift shot benefitting Angel View Crippled Children’s Homes. I regret it. I’d like to read the books again and see what’s so offensive. I don’t remember anything except little squiggly hairs on creatures that weren’t quite human or animals.

I remember the first books I read. “One Fish, Two Fish,” and “Green Eggs and Ham” and “Cat in the Hat.” I was so proud to be able to read on my own.

I went on Amazon this morning and there was one copy of Mulberry Street left. For a hefty price of over $20. I then clicked onto ebay and found the book being sold for as much as $140! Oh well.

I’ve read that Gone With the Wind and To Kill a Mockingbird have been banned from schools. I googled book banning and learned of lists of books that have been banned for decades from people from all sorts of points of views. My opinion is strongly against any and all book banning — by anyone for any reason. At least I can’t think of a reason why I’d support banning books. Here’s a list of banned books through the years along with the reasons.

 

And To Think I saw it on Mulberry Street

by Dr. Seuss

When I leave home to walk to school,

Dad always says to me,

“Marco, keep your eyelids up

And see what you can see.”

But when I tell him where I’ve been

And what I think I’ve seen,

He looks at me and sternly says,

“Your eyesight’s much too keen.”

“Stop telling such outlandish tales.

Stop turning minnows into whales.”

Now, what can I say

when I get home today?

All the long way to school

And all the way back,

I’ve looked and I’ve looked

And I’ve kept careful track.

But all that I’ve noticed, Except my own feet

Was a horse and a wagon on Mulberry Street.

That’s nothing to tell of,

That won’t do, of course….

Just a broken-down wagon

That’s drawn by a horse.

That can’t be my story. That’s only a start.

I’ll say that a ZEBRA was pulling that cart!

And that is a story that no one can beat,

When I say that I saw it on Mulberry Street.

The beginning of “And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street” by Dr. Seuss