Friday, June 19, 2015

fabulous friday : On Books (part three)

Books {That made me cry. love. and see the world in a new light.}
(disclaimer: these are all 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 three - a world of my own...
part one//part two

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
I read this maybe two years ago...I wasn't supposed to. It's assigned for school and my mother really prefers we not read books ahead of time. I did, though. I think I first cried when Darry shows up at the hospital.
I guess in a sense I had never really thought about other people, outside of my tiny world. All (or at least most) of the books I read, movies I watched, songs I listened to, where of/from/by/talking about similar people (or people so not same that it was fairy tale like), to the ones in my little world. Well, this book changed things. With the words, "Stay Gold, Ponyboy." I was like, these people have known a world I will never know, and yet I can still taste it, and I can still sympathize with it. They knew hardships that I'll never know. There's a greater hurt out there that I have never known, and probably never will know. It still makes me cry. )':

Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
I read this two or three years ago, and the end made me cry pretty hard.
This one ties nicely into The Outsiders. History books make things seem so far away, so distant, so impersonal. (Not to be prejudice against history books, I mean, don't get me wrong, I like history.) This book really brought home some of the prejudices (on both sides), and it was really, really impacting.
Gone With The Wind by Margret Michell
To add or not to add? That's the question. I read this four summers ago & when I-won't-say-who dies, I cried and just about threw the book across the room, "STUPID SCARLET IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!!! WHY DIDN'T YOU REALIIIIZE??" This book was so agonizing.
Again, it made me see the prejudices in a different light. In a TON of ways, the Northerners were more prejudice than the southerners (I studied this in history, I'm not talking just what I read from Gone With The Wind). They weren't excepting the slaves with open arms. They were using the slaves as an excuse, but really, the slaves weren't what the war was about, nor was it what Abraham Lincoln was all about, but the winner writes history. Okay, I'm getting side tracked.
But I have a love-hate relationship with this book. Not sure if I would even really suggest it (certainly not at the age I read it.) It was most certainly thought-provoking and so hard (and deep) on so many levels, but it wasn't a book I came away loving. Well, kind of loving. Mostly hating, and in that hating, love for the poetry of the book. (Am I making any sense? I'll stop.)

-Nothing To Fear by Jackie French Koller
I read this a couple years ago and since have gone back and reread/skimmed it quite a few times. I cry when his mom goes to the hospital & I cry when he finds out about his dad, and I cry at the end, because it's so happy & conclusive.
Like with The Outsides, this made me realize there was a whole other world out there. A world of the great depression. A world I could have had a taste of. I world, I could have touched. I was just born a good 80+ years too late. With this book it brought home to me how much everyone suffered. In my mind's eye, I see if there is ever another crisis like that, people will help each other, and I won't be effected by it. Only other people. But that's not life.

This is really short. this is super short. I have so so many thoughts on all of these books, but I'm going to leave it at that...Maybe some day I'll come back and write more, but for now...

I'm out.

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