Patty Pick for 3/17/16 is "The Gates Manor Band" by Jan Hemby

A wonderful part of this book is it's uplifting quality. The story will pull you along with well-written characters and mysterious happenings. As we start our story, Julia is dealing with a family scenario, like a lot of us, where her mother has dementia and her father is the primary care-giver. After her mother passes away, Julia is visited by a series of confusing surprises, a strange phone call and a flashback to her high school days. Someone is sending her a message and that someone is God. 

Sometimes He takes a more direct route and that route is prodding Julia to locate her best friend from high school, Margaret. As one event leads to another, we witness the chain of life situations that can follow one good deed after another. With Julia leading the way, she finds Margaret and helps her to deal with the tragic horrors she endured as a teenager and that in turns leads Margaret to finding a way to deal with her addictions and sharing the lie she has been living with her brother, Preston.

The cast from the past and the present come together to solve problems and delve 

deeper into their faith. They find out that by listening carefully, they can find the way 

that life wants to lead them. And in turn, they will go forward to be a help to others. 

Pay it forward is the theme that runs through this tale and you will enjoy solving each 

character's dilemma as they come along. Watching the ending take place will renew your 

faith in others. Take the ride..... 

Missing Pat Conroy

The following is one of my favorite quotes from Pat Conroy. All though to be honest, all 
his words, whether quoted from him directly or written in one of his books, are some of 
my favorite quotes. 

“The world of literature has everything in it, and it refuses to leave 
anything out. I have read like a man on fire my whole life because the 
genius of English teachers touched me with the dazzling beauty of language. 
Because of them I rode with Don Quixote and danced with Anna Karenina at a 
ball in St. Petersburg and lassoed a steer in "Lonesome Dove" and had 
nightmares about slavery in "Beloved" and walked the streets of Dublin in 
"Ulysses" and made up a hundred stories in the Arabian nights and saw my 
mother killed by a baseball in "A Prayer for Owen Meany." I've been in ten 
thousand cities and have introduced myself to a hundred thousand strangers 
in my exuberant reading career, all because I listened to my fabulous 
English teachers and soaked up every single thing those magnificent men and 
women had to give. I cherish and praise them and thank them for finding me 
when I was a boy and presenting me with the precious gift of the English
language. ” 
― Pat Conroy

I think all writers have this same passion, some of us just take longer to get 
to the actual point in our lives that we put it all down. Some of us tell stories 
in our head and never get them out to share with the world. I do think the 
wonderful and amazing English teachers that I had over the years, that 
inspired me to never quit writing and to always do your best work. I hope 
my first written book, A Distance Between Us, will live up to that standard. 

In Tribute to Pat Conroy

Earlier this year, I chose a one-word resolution of 2016! That word was 
"Appreciate". I want to slow life down and appreciate what I have, what 
I can give, and what God & lIfe give to me. Unfortunately, life does not 
slow down for anyone. Grab hold and live! 

We lost one of our great American authors today, Pat Conroy. I did not know 
him personally, but you could not read the words in his books without feeling
that you did. As a Southerner and an author, we all aspire to find 
words like those which flowed off that man's pen, straight from his heart. 
I will re-read some of his awesome books just to be able to once again 
wallow in the warmth of his rich stories. I read this quote online and it 
pretty much sums it up....

  

Happy World Book Day!

Happy World Book Day! May your books always be filled 
with awe-inspiring words and your shelves never be empty! 

Patty Pick for 3/3/16 is "The Fifteen Lives of Harry August" by Claire North

When reading the short description of this book, I was definitely intrigued. The premise of dying and re-living your own life over again sounded like a interesting theme for a book. Who wouldn't want to redo and change some of the decisions that we have made in our lives.
Harry August was born on the floor of a ladies restroom while his young, unmarried mother died giving birth to Harry. The wealthy family of the Harry's biological father, places Harry in the home of their gardener and wife with compensation to bring 
him up. Harry's father rapes Harry's mother while she worked as a maid in the estate home. Harry's parents are good parents, but his adopted mom dies young and his father never recovers from the loss.
When Harry figures out that he is continually coming back into his same life after each death, he tries many different paths. He eventually meets a member of the Cronus Club, who are other humans that are born over and over like Harry. She takes him under her wing and explains how their mission in life works. As Harry comes to the end of a life, a newer generation member tells him that the world is going to be destroyed and that it is happening at a faster and faster time period. 
Harry searches for the answers to why this is happening. We all come to figure out the cause as Harry works toward stopping the eventual outcome. This book reads like a memoir part of the time, along with a science fiction, and sometimes a thriller. While it 
did make for a lively and thought-provoking discussion amongst my book club, Don't look for happy endings. :)

OMG! I'm a Bookaholic!

Trying to clean up today and look what I found not hiding on my desk (in plain view!) It took forever to scan them all into my GoodReads shelf of "Books that I have bought but not read yet." 
Looks like I have my work cut out for me. I'm trying to pick out a good scary book for my next Book Club host date. I do 
not read horror, but a good psychological thriller sounds like the perfect match for October. Do any of you have 
suggestions? Please let me know!

In Memoriam: Harper Lee

When I recently heard that Harper Lee had passed away, it made me very sad for what the world had lost. What I should have thought about is what the world has gained by her words. To say that "To Kill A Mockingbird" has influenced generations of women and men would be an understatement. It continues to have an influence on the way we look at race relations in the world today, but more importantly it continues to have an influence on all those who read it. 

So don't be sad that Harper Lee died, but be happy and thankful that she lived and wrote a timeless story of a Southern family and one little girl that continues to live in all of us today. She pushed me to be my own person and helped me realize that I am a lover of words. Someone who reads them ferociously on some days and who writes with words on other days. Words that flow out in tidal waves or drips, but continue to come no matter 

what. 

The following is my original blog post from August 27th, 2015:

Harper Lee's classic, To Kill A Mockingbird, has always been one of my favorite books, as I am sure it is for many others. I can not count the times I have read and re-read it over the years, which is a rare thing for me to do. I had forgotten how much I liked it, until I read it again recently. It is a timely reminder that race relations have been effecting our lives in this country for many years unfortunately. 

Scout is one of the best female characters, which has been written into life by an author, in any decade. She is fearless, smart and vulnerable at the same time. Throw in Jem, Atticus, Dill and Calpurnia and the cast is one you will not be able to forget. 

Scout's father, Atticus, usually gets all the attention, but I feel that Scout steals the show. 

While Atticus, the small town lawyer and state congressman, is busy trying to raise his motherless children in small town Alabama, he is assigned the task of representing an innocent black man in a no-win trial. Parts of this book could have taken place in any small town in the South during this time period of our history. While many people concentrate on the lesson of fairness this part of the book relates, the empowerment of women and the discovery of one's true self should be the themes we discuss as much. Unfortunately this book too accurately portrays the truths of the South and other parts of our country during this time in our history concerning the color of one's skin.

But more importantly it shows us the special time of innocence many of us were lucky enough to experience in our youth. How many of you slept with your doors unlocked? Were you ever inside during your summer in daylight hours except to eat? School pageants that the whole town would attend were once standard fair in small town life.

I choose to concentrate on the well-written story of one family living through a special time in their lives, when the kids were innocent and walking to school was the norm. While the famous movie concentrates on the trial and the rescue of the kids by Boo Radley, I think the best part was Scout and her brave outlook on life. The thought of not studying to be a lawyer just because of the norms of the day, did not stand in Scout's way.

Next blog post on 9/10/15 will be on the recently released prequel by Harper Lee, 

"Go Set a Watchman".