Stories That Make You Cry

This evening as we were having a quiet night of reading, my husband reminded me of a book and made me cry.

Let me set the scene.  My step-son was lying on the floor with his feet up next to the fire reading Airborn by Kenneth Oppal.  My 4yo old was tucked in bed after we read Goodnight Moon and sang our special song “Little Drummer Boy”.  My husband was on the loveseat reading a memoir by Dick Gregory and I was on the couch reading The Private Thoughts of Amelia E. Rye. 

As I was finishing reading a very poignant scene, I closed the book and said, “Ah, this is such a great book!”  I began telling my husband about it and he wasn’t finding it as endearing as I was.  I told him he needed to read more fiction.  He proclaimed that we have different tastes in books and that’s okay and then reminded me how we all read A Long Way From Chicago aloud together one summer through road trips and around camp fires. 

As he was recalling this, he was reminded of the scene at the end of the book with Grandma Dowdel.  This stoic no nonsense woman stayed up all hours of the night with every blasted light on in her house and waved like crazy as her grandson’s troop train passed by not in the hopes of seeing him, but that he would see her.   Just as I am now, the two of us opened the flood gates and down came the tears and our reflections about the story. 

Now that is powerful.  We read that book 3 years ago and still it evokes such memories.  And after a long day of worrying about work, worrying about kids, worrying about family, worrying about ‘what if’s, it’s nice to know that there are books that give us an outlet, an escape, a hope, a reminder of our blessings. 

So dear readers, which books make you cry?  I have a long list, so I’ll just leave you with my top two:  as mentioned above A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck and Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery, the last of the Anne of Green Gables books – I defy anyone to read Walter’s letter to Rilla without crying!

So let’s hear yours!

How Many Books Can You Read at Once?

 I wanted to share all the books and books and books I've been reading.  How many books can you read at one time?  As a librarian, I'm fortunate enough that I get to be surrounded by books all day long and I get to read them to students - EVEN BETTER, and EVEN BETTER STILL my 4yo active son, my 13yo. active step-son, and my 44yo active husband! 

I don't count picture books as books I'm currently reading although I probably read on an average 10/day.  What I love is that I have a long commute so I listen to audiobooks.  Have you ever talked to someone who sits in the car after arriving at her destination just to finish listening to the chapter?  That's me, although that sometimes gets me in trouble with the 'school' clock and the start of the day, but oh so worth it.

So what am I listening to?  Right now I'm in the midst of Ranger's Apprentice and so far I'm rather impressed with how John Flanagan has created this world.  I've been drawn into it without much work, perhaps it's listening to it, but I feel myself watching the movie in my mind and that is always a sign of well-written book for me.  I'm so thankful because I will be meeting Mr. Flanagan in November and creating activities for my students to prepare them for his visit, now it will be much easier! Phew!

A colleague emailed me today asking me to order some books he found on Amazon that might get his reluctant girl readers reading.  I love that he took the initiative to look for some books, but why didn't he ask me for a recommendation??  Right?  Hello, that's my job!  Well, I handled it with grace and aplomb, I brought him a stack of books that I thought his students would like!  I think he was a bit overwhelmed, I told him if those didn't work we could look into other options - ha!  BTW - I gave him Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little, Mallory on the Move, and Amelia's Notebook, so I'll let you know.  While checking out these books, I picked up The Plain Janes and started reading.  It's a graphic novel and as those books are more often than not checked out, I was happy to have a crack at it.  It grabs you right from the beginning, I'll give you that!  Looking forward to more perusing of that book tomorrow. 

In the meantime, I've also started the adorable The Private Thoughts of Amelia E. Rye and Notes From the Dog.  I still have The Rise of Renegade X  to finish on my Nook, and Three Black Swans to finish and return to the library.  More in my pile?  You bet, I have Aurora County All-Stars, Silent Boy, and more from my husband.  He is a genius at short story so I like to challenge him with contests or blog posts, check out his stuff below if you don't believe me! He is also in the midst of a wonderful novel that I'm all caught up with, so now he needs to write more of it, it's that good!

So how many books do you read at a time?  Can you keep them all straight? Do you feel you have to finish the book to count it as read?  Don't you think that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is still the best written show around or has your mom 'bogarted' all the chips too?

It's about the Blessings, 'Bitca'

I've just started following writer Natalie Whipple on twitter, check her out if you haven't, I'm also following her blog.  In honor of Natalie being a first time Buffy the Vampire Slayer watcher I've added 'bitca' in my title.  It has been fun following her as she experiences Buffy episodes for the first time and I try to remember the episode as she tweets about it.  As you know, that show ROCKED!  The writing was spectacular and anyone who remembers the episode where Xander showed his lack of spelling prowess will understand my 'bitca' reference.  I have a few 'bitca' comments to make, but then it's all about the blessings!

My husband (learn about him below) is fond of telling people that when he met me I was the cute, adorable, librarian of a quaint little K-2 school, then the K-5 librarian of a brand new 'green' school, (they tore down that quaint K-2 school #sad), and now the District Librarian traveling between schools in this K-8 district where there used to be 3 librarians and 3 schools.  Sign of the times, right?  Sadly, yes, and sadly not wanting to lose my job I went along with it, a smile on my face and only complaining to those family who would stand to hear it.  I lost one of my dear friends along the way - she was the librarian at the 6-8 school when the district decided to cut her position and leave me to be the district librarian servicing all schools.  I also lost that feeling of making a difference and having a library program that meant something.  But that's just the background so enough of the 'bitching' because despite these sad tidings there is some good news and that is where the blessings happen.

BOOKS!  BOOKS ARE THE GOOD NEWS!  Although I might not have as much time to read to students as I used to, the times I get are precious and so much fun!  I value it now more than ever because every opportunity is special and offers the chance to put another story and book into the hands of a bright young mind.  Books help us escape, they help us focus on something other than our problems and books teach us about all sorts of things.  They give us hope even when they are about a bleak and scary future.  Books are hope, they are dreams, they are possibilities, they soar, no matter the format.  Our job is to make sure we keep getting stories out there, to make sure students have books to read.

Speaking of getting stories into the hands of students, my school district was recently the recipient of some free ebooks.  This boon accomplished many things.  First, after 7 years I finally got our library server and software program updated.  Secondly, it has caused such a stir of excitement in the students because now not only can they check out books electronically, but they can make recommendations to their friends, to me and create reviews of the books.  I had the chance to look on the system this morning and see if I had any requests to process and there sat 25 book reviews needing approval and several book recommendations.  Wow, for me that was very powerful, students still like to read and they want their opinions to be heard and matter - I LOVE IT!

So even in some seemingly bleak times there is always books, banter, and Buffy to see us through and I'm incredibly thankful for the blessing of my job.  Now it's off to read more of my husband's great new novel.  I love the first chapter and the great hook at the end of it, creepy and intriguing all wrapped up in one and I can't wait to read more!