Stories connected to lives -- that's what reading means to me.
Reading has to make us learn from one another. We read not just for facts, but for perspective. I never want people to think exactly as I do when they read my articles or hear me on TV -- I want them to think, period! Education, it's said, is not just the filing of a pail, but the ignition of a fire. I want people to feel, and I think almost every writer or artist shares that sentiment.
To turn the pages and feel the authors' pain, their voices, to walk in their shoes, to connect ourselves with them. To take away a message, whatever that may be, but a message that matters. To take this gift that authors give us in sharing their lives, taking these lives into our own.
We must also realize that reading can be too cerebral at times -- it has to also touch our hearts if we are to truly learn from it. In "The American Scholar," Emerson writes that character is higher than intellect -- moral experience is important to a true education. Emerson reminds us that reading/thinking is a function in which the stream must retreat to its source. Reading must connect with our lives and how we live.
The highest value of reading is as a resource for living. Every book cannot change our lives or resonate with our souls and experiences, but I read with excitement, ready and willing to let the ones that can, do so.
I love reading love letters, I think they tell you much about a person, but also about a time in history. When studying the Civil War in college I found it hard to focus on some of the military strategy discussions and wanted to find a way to connect to an event that seemed so far away. I came across a few letters that soldiers had written home to their wives and I was immediately hooked. You could see so vividly what they were fighting for, what they thought was at stake, you saw their strength and their humanity and tenderness. Since then I have always looked for love letters from whatever time in history or war I may be researching.
Though there is much President Reagan and I would disagree on, the love letters do tell much about the man and President he was and give me a glimpse into why he was so beloved.
It is also a great reminder that it is important to take the time to write to those we love. E-mail and calls are great, but there is something special about a letter. I try to write my family and friends often (love letters aren't just for lovers you know). Just a little note or card so that they know I am thinking of them, usually with the much dreaded clipping from a paper of something they should know about, tucked inside (a habit I picked up from my mom-mom, Mary).
I do it because I was so blessed to have people do it for me, and I can remember how special and wonderful it made me feel. My dad, Kevin, was a public school teacher for over 30 years and I hope this doesn't get him in trouble, but on his prep period, he would take a moment to jot down a quote, one-line, or tell me how much he loved me. Translation I got 5 notes a week. I was his first born, he was a single dad, and he likes kids more than any person I have ever met, so no need to compete with this, I can't. Anyway, no matter what trials I had from the ages of 5 to 21 no matter how tough the day or mean the kids I would come home or to my dorm room to open up a piece of scrap paper with the words "you changed my life the day you were born and change my life ever day since then" scrawled across the top or a quote that was meant to inspire with a note that said "you can do anything you put your mind to --you are special." Can you imagine what coming home to that does to a person? Think about that today and do something about it tomorrow!
Peter and I both gave a speech at a conference together and I loved the idea of his book and when I read it, loved the book as well. It shows how 100 successful people from different fields who were "nobodies" without much experience and not too much of a clue of where they wanted to end up. The ending is good and the journey even better. I always love reading the path others took for a lot of reasons. One, it is always more interesting and complicated than one might think, two you can learn from some of their mistakes, three feel a kinship with similar frustrations and know that you are not the only one who has encountered obstacles and like the "somebodies" with hard work and determination you will succeed. We all have to forge our own path and no person can provide a complete model for how we should do things, but they can spark ideas and act as encouraging guides along the way.
Ben Franklin books I love:
Humor books:
Other books:
P.S. Don't get any ideas on these being Flavia's favorite picks of all time, just the ones I have read most recently and enjoyed enough to recommend.
Also, check out Iraq-related books in the Support and Defend section, and my thoughts about Children's Books.
What books do you recommend? Let me know by e-mail or include your own selections in the comments below!
NOTE: These comments imported from old version of this thread. Feel free to add your own new comments and recommendations at the bottom of the page.
Another book is titled War Letters by Andrew Carroll. It is a collection of letters from soldiers in the field to their loved ones back home from the Civil War to the first Gulf War.
It provides an honest insight into the soldier's world that is not seen by many with an accompanying postscript of the soldier's fate woven into the accounts when possible. Very interesting.
The book is part of the Legacy Project which is a non-profit that seeks to collect war letters to preserve and honor those who have served in our nation's wars. The book has a foreword by historian and fellow New Orleanian Douglas Brinkley.
Posted by: Joe at April 10, 2006 10:34 AMI highly recommend "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson. This novel is conceived as a bequest of a father to his very young son. Set in an unassuming Iowa town, revealing an apparently unassuming preachr's life, it allows us to glimpse the splendor in our hearts and souls.
It is in the quietly powerful spiritual vein of "A River Runs Through It" by Norman MacClean and "Dakota" by Kathleen Norris.
Posted by:Gisela at May 8, 2006 08:26 PMAlthough not a book, I wanted to recommend, however immodestly, the CDs by The Freedom Toast.
They are sort of musical commentary on the current times, with a twist. These are not angry bashing songs to make you want to get out and smash the nearest Republican party headquarters, although if you are so inclined already, they will do nothing to dissuade you either.
Their CDs, "Sing Along With The Republicans," and "Sing Along With The Democrats," are sort of what one might expect if the late Allan Sherman, along with Tom Lehrer and Jon Stewart, pooled their various talents. The songs are mostly for laughs, and have even been successfully lab-tested on Republicans (albeit only those with a sense of humor). Even Bill Clinton sent a note saying how much he enjoyed the lyrics to a song about how the Republicans blame him for everything bad since the opening of Pandora's box.
The Freedom Toast takes known tunes and puts their own special lyrics to them. According to feedback so far, some of the favorites are "Strangers on the Right," from "Democrats" with a scarily realistic Sinatra soundlike singing, and "I've Been Working on Vacation" with an equally scary likeness of Bush singing.
Imagine Sinatra singing:
Strangers on the Right
Invading Congress
Strangers on the Right
Impeding progress
They'll put up a fight
To liberals like you
Something in their eyes resembles fire
Roe v. Wade's demise is their desire
Cutting down to size
Those states that still are blue
or GW Bush singing (to the tune of I've Been Working on the Railroad)
I've been working on vacation
Chasing hares and moles
Cindy Sheehan not withstanding
And I never read the polls
I've made no mistakes I know of
That's just not like me,
I believe in presidential
Infallibility!
The Jamaican singer doing "Enron Farewell" to the tune of "Jamaica Farewell (sad to say/goodbye Ken Lay/we won't play golf for many a day)," was just in time to coincide with current events.
The humor is intense but not vicious, and the quality of the musical production is first-rate, as is to be expected as it was done in the same Atlanta studio where CNN has much of its background music recorded and processed.
You won't find these CDs at your local Barnes and Noble or (yet!) on Amazon, but www.CDbaby.com has them, and they are also available directly from The Freedom Toast's website: www.thefreedomtoast.com
I said immodestly earlier, as I had a hand in some of the lyrics, and so am not totally impartial. That's why I wanted to see the reaction of a few die-hard Texas Republicans. Even though both CDs bash the Republicans, it is with a newspaper rather than a lead bludgeon, so no permanent injuries are sustained.
The cdbaby.com site has long clips for anyone who wants to test-drive for free.
Like Sergeant Pepper was reputed to do, "They're guaranteed to raise a smile!"
Posted by: Marc at May 27, 2006 11:13 AMI just finished reading Veiled Souls, a memoir by an Iranian woman who grew up in a Bahai family in Iran. It is a gripping story of how family and societal prejudices can destroy lives. When Katrin realizes she has no future in Iran, she braves the dangerous route out of Iran with the aid of human traffickers. Reading the first hand account of the events after Iran’s Revolution, one can see stark similarities between the direction of Iran’s government during these years and the U.S. after September 11th. Below is a short synopsis of Veiled Souls.
In 1976 Iran is a peaceful, prosperous and westernized country. Katrin is an eight year old girl growing up in Northern Iran in a family who follows a minority religion known as the Bahai Religion. Katrin’s seventeen year old sister, Nassrin, commits suicide when Katrin’s father disapproves of Nassrin’s relationship with Hossein who comes from a Muslim family. As the family works through their grief, Iran’s political situation destabilizes when various political factions such as pro-democracy students and Islamic fundamentalists vie to overthrow the government through a violent revolution. The bloody revolution is followed by a full-scale war with Iraq, as Iran’s government cracks down on the civil rights of its citizens and openly discriminates against Bahais. Katrin who sees no future for herself in Iran decides to leave for the United States, but she has to brave a trip through the desert of Eastern Iran into Pakistan with the aid of human traffickers.
Her story in the United States is a personal account with a fresh view of an Iranian Bahai who is new to the western culture as she struggles to find her place in life. There are more twists and turns when she falls in love with someone outside of her faith whose mother will not give her blessing to their marriage.
Latina Icons: Iconos Femeninos Latinos e hispanoamericanos. Edited by María Claudia André.La Mujer Latina Series
This books brings the most prominent Latino icons, popular figures--such as La Malinche, the movie actress Maria Felix, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Maria Ilonza, Frida Khalo, Selena, Yemayá, Carmen Miranda, and Malena, the woman object of the most notable Tango-- and provide the most important clear description of the process of iconization of the most cherished female Latin American figures. This book attempts to define and provide meaning to these popular women within context of popular symbols and the function these women played in the construction of their individual and collective identity.
"If we attempt to do things for others or for the world without deepining our own self-understanding, our own freedom, integrity, and capacity to love, we will not have anything to give to others. We will communicate nothing but our own obsessions, our aggressiveness, our ego-centered ambitions." Thomas Merton
Posted by: Gavin t August 7, 2006 01:54 PM
Comments (2)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I know, I know. Oprah Club and all. Nevertheless, tells of what a father will do for his son. Worth the time.
Posted by: grant on October 11, 2007 02:46
I read four books this week, all I think are great
The Courage of their Convictions: 16 americans who fought their way to the supreme court
By Peter Irons
The Great Escape: Nine Jews who fled Hitler and Changed the World
By Kati Marton
Winning our Energy Independence
By S. David Freeman
The Essential Ramdas
Posted by: flavia on December 30, 2007 12:14