Patty Pick for My One Word Resolution for 2017 is........

It's that favorite time of year for most of us! Between Thanksgiving and Christmas and 
on into New Years, we are all in festive moods, ready to spend time with our family
and friends. This time of year also bring memories of Holidays past. We seem to turn back to the childhood traditions that we loved when we were growing up. In my family we bake the same cookies, make the same time-tested and delicious recipes for our big meals, and never forget those traditions like movies on Christmas Day. This time of year can also lead us to turn the attention to our inner selves to think back over our year and assess what we did and where we went and the relationships we have. 

I always like to read a book with a Christmas theme and had picked out a good one from what I hear - "A Lowcountry Christmas" by Mary Alice Monroe. I wanted a pick-me-up and this heartwarming story and the author's lovely writing style seemed to fit the ticket perfectly. Unfortunately this year for too many reasons to mention, I failed to even do that. In fact, I seemed to have failed to read much at all. I could blame this on my writing, but I am not sure that is the complete reason. 

Our lives are constantly being challenged with electronic devices. Yes, we can read our 
book on our Kindles, Nooks and whatnot, but that is not what I am talking about. I seem 
to find myself online in some form or fashion and neglecting the very thing that I champion and work hard to be a part of - being an author. I write books, I am part of a book club, I usually read a couple of books a month. I blog for heavens sake about books! The point being that what is so mesmerizing that I am not reading as much -that darned internet. I am spending so much time trying to learn my craft, learn how to connect with my readers and other writers and yes, just having fun, that I am not writing or reading nearly enough.  

So my one word resolution for 2017 is Simplify.  I want to simplify my life, enjoy the
little things, read more, enjoy time with my family more and stop trying to do it all. 
I want to clean out the debris that is cluttering my desk, my store, my closet, and yes, 
my brain. I want to clean out, so to speak, manage to "spring clean" myself and my 
surroundings. I am hoping that this does not mean I clean up and then cannot find anything at all as has happened in the past. I plan to simplify what I do and stop trying to do everything and accept some help when I need it. I plan to simplify my writing and go back to what I love - long hand. I know that seems odd since you are reading my blog on a computer of some kind, but when I write a book or story, I need time for my brain and 
fingers to sync and often with a computer keyboard that syncing just seems hard to do. So back to my pen and paper style, that allows me to think at the same time. Eventually it will make it to the laptop but not until I have the first draft. 

I don't plan to just simplify my writing, I want to simplify my whole life so I can truly enjoy it. I hope I am successful but if not I will not beat myself up. Life can be hard enough without that. So let me hear what your one word resolution or your multi-word
resolutions are for 2017. And if you have any wonderful tips to share with me on ways to simplify my life, by all means please pass those along. I am going to need them!! 
Can't wait to hear from you all.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, 
Patty 

Best Books of 2016

Here we go, another list of Best Books of 2016 and I am so far behind in reading them! 
These books are pulled from multiple internet sources and my own personal 
"To Read" lists. I am going to include some of the best books that I have read this 
year too in a separate list. Please read my reviews for more information on these books. The fact is there seem to be more books out there that I want to read and less and less time to do so! 

I know you are all eagerly awaiting my own book, The Distance Between Us, to come out and hopefully 2017 will be the year. Keep your fingers crossed! There is also a fiction book in the works and a non-fiction book that I am writing with Lisa Satterfield Shank. She is a walking, talking miracle! If you liked Brain on Fire:My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan, you are going to want to read this book! Our tentative title is One in A Million. 
Now on with the lists: 

2016 Books Not to Miss: 
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanthi
The Mothers by Brit Bennett
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
small great things by Jodi Picoult
My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
Redemption Road by John Hart 
The Whistler by John Grisham 

Best Book Choices of what I've Read this Year: 
Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty
Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
The Gates Manor Band by Jan Hemby
Just Mercy:A Story of Justice & Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
Pretending to Dance by Diane Chamberlain
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki 

I know there are others that need to be on this lists but browsing for your own 
books is always part of the fun! Happy Reading and here's to a wonderful 2017 
of books. Happy Holidays to all!

Thankful

There are many things to be thankful for on this glorious Thanksgiving Day, but today I want to
thank my family. My husband and my daughter who make this day and every day before
and after this one very special. They not only give me the most joy but they are my biggest cheerleaders.

When I told them I really wanted to write down the books and stories I had stored in my head over the years, they encouraged me to do it. My daughter suggested I start with a blog, find something else I love and just write and write. Thus this blog, bookreaderforlife, was born. How did she get so smart?

When my husband watched me write my first book longhand while using anything available to me - like an upside-down tray, while sitting in the bed, and just about anywhere else I could find a quiet
spot, what did he do? Buy me one of the most comfortable leather chairs and suggested I change our
old "computer room/extra bedroom" into my writing room. How do you compete with these two?

Yes, I am very blessed. The world is not perfect and everything does not always go the way you plan,
but at the end of the day if you have a family like mine you are very lucky indeed. Sometimes the news this world brings you and the meanness of people around you may be hard to bear, but just look around at your family and know that you are one lucky human being. So when life gives you lemons, hard knocks, or blessings, remember who to share them with. Your family will always be in your corner.
At least mine will, and I am very thankful.

Patty Pick for 11/18/16 is "Truly Madly Guilty" by Liane Moriarty

Liane Moriarty's latest book, "Truly Madly Guilty" was a good read! 
The book centers around an incident that happens at a neighborhood BBQ one afternoon on an ordinary street with ordinary people. Ms. Moriarty has a nice way of dancing around what really happened and keeping you in suspense until well into the book. You must keep reading to find out what the incident was and to see the effect on the characters as the chapters go by.  

One thing about her novels that I have thoroughly enjoyed is her 
character development. She has a way of writing, that most of the 
good writers do, that helps you live inside the character's head - to really imagine these people as someone you know. You develop a relationship with them and you get invested in their lives. In this book, I had a hard time finding one character that I liked at first, but by the end I like most of them.

You would think that tragedy would bind people together, but from personal experience I agree with the direction of this book that hardship and tragedy usually pushes people apart. Don't ask me to explain this strange human truism but it does work out that way more times than not. With Clementine, Sam, Ruby, Holly, Erika, Oliver, Vid, Tiffany & Dakota all in attendance at the meal in question, you get different points of view of the accident and different reactions. 

Not to spoil the plot for you, but it does take a while to get to the what actually happened. Along the way, you get to know the ends and outs of their lives and how they all ended up there that afternoon, but I really, really wanted it to get to the point. But 
by the end of the book, I got the point finally. The "getting there" is the story. It's really 
the story of all of us, how we cope, react, and go on after the bumps in our lives. 

So while this one doesn't use a sledge hammer to make the point, hang on until the 
end and you will get it. A solid 4 Stars!

Patty Pick for 11/10/16 is "Before I Go to Sleep" by SJ Watson

"Before I Go To Sleep" by SJ Watson engendered a lot of discussion among my book club members. We wanted to read a scary book for October, but a lot of us don't like bloody and scary. We once read a very scary book by Dean Koontz called, "Intensity". My advice is only read this one if you are not easily scared and serial killers don't bother you. I will never look at an RV the same again, on the highway or anywhere for that matter. But I digress, back to 
"Before I Go to Sleep." 

Christine is always on rewind. Every night as she sleeps, her memories are erased and she wakes up thinking she is a young 
woman with her life ahead of her. Instead, due to a traumatic accident, she is a forty-seven year-old woman with a husband she does not know or remember. As she wakes each morning, she is terrified and looks in the mirror at a person she does not know. Her husband has placed pictures and clues around the house to help her remember as she goes through her normal routine. Since the accident, she 
can not work, or barely leave the house.  

What her husband does not know is that Christine is meeting with a doctor most days 
to help her remember. His advice is for her to keep a journal as they go along and he 
calls her each morning to remind her to read the journal and then they talk or meet. As Christine reads the journal each morning, she begins to remember some of the same things. She is confused over what memories are true and what memories are just her imagination. Her husband tells her conflicting versions of what she wrote in her journal. 
Who is telling her the truth? And how did she get this type of amnesia in the first place? 


As we read along with Christine down her path to memories, we start to question
everything. I did not see the twist or the ending coming. Very good and it will keep you 
guessing until the final pages. 5 Stars!!

Reading Laine Moriarty's latest, " Truly Madly Guilty" now and not sure it's going to be one of my favorites. Love her writing, but these people are driving me crazy. And she usually 
leaves you one character to like, but I'm not sure if there is one in this novel for me. We 
will see.....

Patty Pick for 10/27/16 are Some Interesting Political Books for the Season

During this election year, we have seen our political process at its best at times, and sometimes at its worst. This will not be the most contentious election ever fought in our country, but it will definitely be written about and remembered for a very long time, no matter your political persuasion. On that vein, I have collected a list of some of the more well-known nonfiction and fiction books on politics and/or our country's presidency. The fact that I can even write this blog openly about our election system and we can all choose who we want to vote for is one of the most cherished and valued parts of being an American.

We, Americans, are a hardy breed. We have survived countless wars and tragedies during the years as America grew into a country and aged into the nation we have now. Through it all we would come together to fight sometimes even each other, but always to mend ourselves back into a united group for the good of all. The one thing that we all have in common is our love for this country we call home. Let's hope that we never forget the citizens that have fought for this right and the struggles our country has endured to find it's way to becoming the greatest country in the world. Why do countless people around the globe try their best to find their way to our shores and become part of the American dream? 

So enjoy these fiction and nonfiction choices if you like. That is our God-given right, that we have fought for over countless generations, choice. And please Vote for the candidate(s) of your choice, be part of the solution. Our country is an amazing place and my hope is that we all remember that going forward. 

There are many good political books and fiction books following political story lines, so I have chosen some of my favorites and some on my to-read list to share with you all. Hope you find some of your new favorites on the list. 

1)  Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
2)    Primary Colors by Anonymous
3)    The Lucky Ones by Doris Mortman
4)    All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
5)    The Run by Stuart Woods
6)    Hartsburg, USA by David Mizner
7)    Game Change by John Heileman & Mark Halperin
8)    Middlemarch by George Eliot
9)    The Race by Richard North Patterson
10)    The Last Election by Gary H. Collins
11)  Transfer of Power by Vince Flynn
12)  Almost anything by Brad Thorr & Tom Clancy

Patty Pick for 10/20/16 is "The Nightingale" by Kristin Hannah

                                                                                                                         I've heard so much about this book and it definitely lived up to it's reputation! At first, I thought,

"Oh, no, another World War II book." My book club and myself have read so many over the last
few years, but this is not another World War II book. The characters are believable and full. The setting of the war from the view of the French people makes for a mesmerizing look at history.

Isabelle and Vianne are two sisters that are trapped in their lives due to the war and due to their individual circumstances. You will understand by the end of the book that the war in which they are embroiled, does not define their entire lives. They both rise above their doubts and fears to create new, but incredible lives, memorable lives. But war is not easy nor pretty and this novel by
Kristin Hannah does not cut out the ugly parts.

Vianne Mauriac is a young wife living in the quaint town of Carriveau with her husband and daughter. She is a school teacher and they live an idyllic life together in her parents old house.
Vianne is afraid of everything and when her husband, Antoine, go off to war she is left to handle
things on her own. As the war advances and the town is invaded by the Nazi's, she finds herself
living with a Nazi officer. She is trying to walk a tightrope through the war, not giving aid but not
allowing herself, her friends, and her daughter to suffer too much damage. Her younger sister has other ideas.

Isabelle has rebelled her entire life. Since their mother passed away, their father has pushed away
the two sisters. Fighting her way through boarding school after boarding school, she has finally
found her way home to her father and his book store at the start of the war. With the looming
Nazi invasion, her father sends her off with family friends to go stay with her sister, but the pampered
Isabelle faces some of the most harrowing days of the war just trying to get to Carriveau. She meets
Gaetan, a young man determined to fight back, who helps her arrive at her sister's house. Isabelle becomes determined to fight back also and she usually gets her way.

From that start the two sisters fight the war in their own ways. Neither is better or easier for their survival but they bravely fight anyway. With help, love and determination, they fight the Nazi
invasion of their country in their own way. You will not feel how they can survive, but you must
read this book to find out if they do. The story is told in beautiful language that flows across the page and builds vivid pictures of their stories. A huge thumbs up!!