It wasn’t nice to be gone so long. I thought I needed a break but it went on too long (a year, really?). I missed living the abc life. It did what it was intended to do: motivate me to do new things, read new authors, try new foods, discover all sorts of interesting facts and places – and be a little quirky to boot.
It’s too easy to fall back into stale routines, where weeks go by without any enrichment. I’m always busy, with or without the abc life, but I have so many more new experiences when I’m living it. That’s why you should try it too. Jump in with me on N or start from A and work your way through.
I never need motivation to read more, but to celebrate NATIONAL Book Month, I immediately discovered two interesting books.
1 point for A Monster Calls by Patrick NESS. Would never have picked up this book if it weren’t for the abc life, but it was one of the more amazing books I’ve read in a while. It’s a book for older children. It’s a book for adults. It’s a book that will break your heart and lift it up at the same time. I always know when I truly loved a book: I automatically hug it to me. Sounds corny but it’s like a reflex. The hardback version has incredible illustrations that are the perfect complement to this haunting, moving, riveting story of a young boy who is wrestling with his feelings and fears about his mother’s sickness. Check out the book trailer at YouTube:
1 point for Wingshooters by Nina Revoyr. Set in 1974 in a small, insulated Wisconsin town, this novel starts out slowly and builds to a tense climax. Dealing with racial bigotry and the convenient blinders people wear to see life through their own limited viewpoints, this story stayed with me for days. It scared me that 40 years ago may not be all that different from today. The voice of the book is a biracial woman (Japanese mother, white American father) who is looking back at the time in her childhood when she lived with her father’s parents. She shows how you can love someone even when you don’t always love who they are. Although I thought some of the characters’ actions were perhaps a bit of a stretch, it scares me to think that maybe they weren’t.
Both A Monster Calls and Wingshooters deal with children. Do you enjoy reading their stories and viewpoints too?
The ABC Life Blog 
Welcome back. I would check your blog periodically and….no Laura! I am so glad that you are starting off with a post about books, one of my favorite topics. How many points for Not Me by Michael Lavigne?
When Michael Rosenheim visits his elderly father Heshel, who is suffering from Alzheimers, he is given a box of his father’s journals. Michael begins to realize that everything he had always believed about his father’s past was in question. Was he really a concentration survivor as he had always been told or was he actually a Nazi posing as a Jew? Fascinating read.Check it out!
Hi Susan! Glad you checked back. I always follow your Friday Morning Book Club. Following your recommendation, I finally read Finny by Justin Kramon and loved it! Can’t wait to read Not Me. Sounds like a great book for my every other Tuesday book club (as opposed to my monthly Bookies and my bi-monthly Non-Fiction Book Talk).
Glad you’re doing this again. Gives me a good excuse to Navigate around my state and read New authors. I just came back from San Antonio and darn it, nothing began with an N. I’ll have to start using my Noodle and come up with some ideas.