Fabulous Friday - On Books (part one)

 Books. There's a lot going on here. So lemme break it down. real quick, like.

Books {That made me cry, love, and see the world in a new light.}
 (disclaimer: these are all from literature, there have been other books that have effected me, that I am not including for various reasons, e.g. the bible,  the shining company, etc,  but that does not mean that they have not effected me.)
part two//part three

Johnny Tremain by Ester Forbes

   If someone asked me for a good book to sum up The American Dream, I'm pretty sure I would hand them Johnny Tremain.
   When I first time I read Johnny Tremain, it was read out loud to me. I was probably ten or eleven, and honestly, I just didn't like it that much. A couple years later when I reread it I cried the whole last chapter, or just about.

   There's something so sad and upsetting about it all, even with the hopefulness at the end of the book. The last line was so "WOW!" to me, though. So much american dream there. Definitely to be filed under my "favorite last lines" right there under A Separate Peace. To me that line made the book. It was already a great story, with great character development, but the last line really tied it all up, made it complete in all it's wonderfulness. Will forever be a classic in my mind.

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

   I first read David Copperfield the summer I was eleven. Honestly, I only really cried when his mom died (awkward thing: My sister was reading it out loud to me and I was actually in bed like weeping. yep, that's me.) I totally didn't get that he and Agnes were perfect for each other, to show you how much I missed. I reread it last December (instead of taking me all summer I got it done in a month! yay!), and absolutely loved it. I cried all over it. The themes are so strong. The characters are so stark. Even his descriptions as a small child are so nicely done. Giving enough detail to fill you in, yet leaving enough out so you feel as though you are that child. The themes that stand out again and again are so subtle and so real and bold. 

How did it impact me? *coughcough howdiditnot?* Basically his character the whole way through was so...Inspiring? Honestly, I'm not really sure... He's just so amazing. How he grows is so great to me. Also his trust in everyone and his desire to see good in everyone is so, so Bingley-like.  *cue cute picture of crispin bonham-carter

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

I first read this when we checked it out from the library, I don't know, three summers ago? I was about twelve. My oldest sister had checked it out from the library with a big stack of huge books and cried really hard when she read it. So then she gave it to my second oldest sister to read and Jess was like, "yeah, that's pretty good." and it was short and I was like, "hey, why not?" And oh my word, the prologue! The Prologue ties the whole story together with beautiful language weaving everything together. And I was pretty hooked.

I cried as soon as Jesse comes to get her & cried til the end. Actually, I still do when I read it.

There was something so impacting of not wanting to live forever and why, and Natalie Babbitt conveys it in such a short children's book, it makes it that much better. It was one of the books that just kinda haunted me and I couldn't stop thinking about it.

So now every August, when it's in those first months of summer, and we're at the top of the ferris wheel, I take out Enya's A Day Without Rain and curl up and read Tuck Everlasting.
So many adventures couldn't happen today
So many songs we forgot to play
So many dreams swinging out of the blue
We let them come true
Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever?
Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever?

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

I'm hesitant to put this one on. Just thinking about this feels like ripping a scab off. A scab the size of Great Britain.

I read this a couple weeks ago for school. I cried for most of it, but heaviliest (is that a word? it's giving me the red snake...) at the very end. The last page was hard to read, not just because I've always had difficulty reading, or the fact that I was crying to hard...It was just painful all around.

Side note: I finished the day after my birthday and two days before christmas. Stupid, much? xD

I don't think I can honestly say how it effected me, without spoiling the book. I realized how true the end was as I looked around me...also I had the biggest book hangover I have ever experienced in my life. fact.

To be continued...