Two worth reading...

 

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

I never fully comprehended just how oppressive Apartheid was until I read this book. Trevor Noah really opened my eyes. His book is smart and insightful, honest and compelling. And I came away from it admiring both him and his fearless and amazing mother. Here's one of my favorite quotes from this book:

"We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where you come from, your imagination can be quite limited....My mother showed me what was possible. My mom raised me as if there were no limitations on where I could go or what I could do."

Who Says I Can't? by Coach Rob Mendez

Instead of focusing on the things in life he can't do because he was born without arms or legs, Rob Mendez chooses to focus on all the things he can do. It's a powerful message. I loved his honesty in this book, and his confidence, humor and positivity, too. Here's one of my favorite quotes:

"When an opportunity presents itself, you should be eager to seize it. That means not only recognizing the opportunity for what it is but also being willing to risk failure or embarrassment or any number of other negative outcomes."

These are two great nonfiction reads and I recommend them both.

Happy Reading!

Bookish quotes...

I didn't love this book. Some parts were good. But I ended up skimming the rest.

Which is too bad, because I usually like Susan Hill. But even though I didn't end

up loving this particular book, I did love these four quotes from it:

"Cold room, warm bed, good book."

"I thought I had cleared out all the books I would ever need to lose five years ago, but books breed....As fast as I get one out of the back door, two new ones come in through the front."

"A book that cannot be returned to again and again, and still yield 

fresh entertainment and insights, is only half a book."

"Reading is magic. Books are magic. It starts when we are shown picture books and realise there is another world beyond the everyday one we know.  Once we can read ourselves, we live inside the magic. The only problem is that we have to emerge at the end of a book, and we don't want to leave and return to that dull domestic world we know.  The only solution to that problem, of course, is that there is always the next book, and the next and there is bonus magic if it is another in a series we already love, so we are plunging back into a magic other world but one we already know.  We feel a lift of the heart, a lurch of the stomach, when we find ourselves in it again."

If this book appeals to you, I'd suggest you read Susan Hill's Howard's End is on the Landing instead. It's also a memoir about books and reading, but of the two, I think it's the better read.

Happy Reading!

Two books that inspire:

Elizabeth Smart and Malala Yousafzai.

On the surface, these two girls could not be more different.

One was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, the other in the Swat Valley in Pakistan.

One is blond, the other brunette. One is Mormon, the other Muslim.

What they have in common is that both experienced something horrible and shocking as teen-agers, and they both survived. More importantly, they have each shown an amazing spirit of hope, grace, courage, and unfailing optimism. I admire both of them and I think each of their memoirs are worth reading. Here are a couple of my favorite excerpts from their books:

My Story by Elizabeth Smart:

     "When faced with pain and evil, we have to make a choice. We can choose to be taken by the evil. Or we can try to embrace the good. ... Life is a journey for us all. We all face trials. We all have ups and downs. All of us are human. But we are also the masters of our fate. We are the ones who decide how we are going to react to life."

I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai:

     "I thank Allah for the hardworking doctors, for my recovery and for sending us to this world where we may struggle for our survival. Some people choose good ways and some choose bad ways. One person's bullet hit me. It swelled my brain, stole my hearing and cut the nerve of my left face in the space of a second. And after that one second there were millions of people praying for my life ... I know God stopped me from going to the grave. It feels like this life is a second life. People prayed to God to spare me, and I was spared for a reason--to use my life for helping people."

Happy Reading!