Top Ten Books

It’s been a while, but let’s pretend that it hasn’t. I want to talk to you about books. Not just any books, but the top ten books on my list…so far.

These are books that if the zombie apocalypse happened, I would have to take them with me…or hunt them down in now abandoned libraries and books stores. These are the books that bring a smile to my face and I always go “oooohhh…I remember that book.”

1. Little House on the Prairie – we’ve already talked about my love of this series so I won’t bore you again.
2. Interracial Intimacies – Not so much fiction as it was a book that provided a great deal of insight into the relationships between black men and women and some backstory on why things are the way they are. I wouldn’t say all the hypotheses' are concrete, but they do open one’s mine to the workings and the why’s of some issues that seem to plague black relationships.
3. Micaville's Letter to the Prince – it was required reading in my political science class and I have to say it left a huge impression on me about politics and how things work.
4. Where the Wild Things Are – I loved this book. I did not see the movie, but the book still resonates with to this day. I have to find it so I can read it to my children
5. Harry Potter series – just good fun with morals and principles thrown in. Loved them.
6. Where the Sidewalk Ends – I need the 30th anniversary edition with the new additions. That is something I will definitely be putting on my child’s bookshelf.
7. Any Dr. Seuss book…ever! They were all so colorful and full of stories and parables that even now, I can think of the lessons that I learned from them.
8. Wishes by Jude Deveraux– my first book with a plus sized heroine. I LOVED THIS BOOK! I read it so much that the spine broke and I had to tape the pages back in. This was the start of my desire to write stories that did not fit the mold. Heroine’s that weren’t “standard”. The end did leave a bit to be desired, but the concept was just…magic for me.
9. The Donovan Series by nora roberts – loved this series. It was also an introduction to the art of two POV’s going on at the same time. Even now I wonder why more people don’t do it. I as a reader really want to see what is going on in the other person’s head. Is that weird?
10. Last but not least…Ina Garten. I’m serious. I love her cookbooks. They read like books and anytime I get one, I have to sit down and read through it. Of course I mark the stuff I want to try, but the writing style of these books is just…I’m in love.

So…now to you. What are some books you just have to have no matter what? Let me know in the comments.

Making an impact

Have you ever read a book so good that it stays with you for not just weeks or months, but years and decades? And each time you open the book or even just see the cover, you are taken back to that moment when you first read the book and your whole life changed?

Let’s talk about mine for a second.

There is one book…okay one of a just a few…that changed my life. It stuck with me and even today, I can think back to the first time I cracked it open, how excited I got to read it, how just looking at it made me feel happy and alive.

Little House on the Prairie

Don’t laugh…I’m being completely serious here. The whole series really started me on my journey of a love of reading and books and just…everything.

The first thing that stuck me about the entire series is the closeness of the family unit. I liked that aspect of it. It reminded me of my own family, even though at the time we were far apart, we were still a unit and deeply loyal to one another.

I also liked the wholesomeness about the whole series. Of course, at the time I think I was like 8 or 9, but still. No blood and guts. just day to day living and struggle. Never giving up and always taking the high road, even when you wanted to knock someone out. I liked it and still do.

Laura was definitely my favorite character. Of course, the books were mostly centered around her, but still. I liked her independence, her love of family, her pluckiness *LOL* I wanted to be her in a sense. Still do at times.

Reading the books was vastly different from watching the TV series and honestly…this is when my dislike of movie and TV adaptations of books started. You can not imagine the intense disappointment I felt when things did not happen like they did in the book, even if it was impossible. Just don’t do it then! Ugh…*deep breath* Let it go Desiree, let it go.

This series in part, definitely had a hand in shaping how I thought the world should work. That spark of independence, that wonder in adventure and devotion to family. Along with my family and how I was raised, the books unquestionably had a part in making me who I am today.

With all that being said, I ask you:

What book/books had an impact on your life? Is there a book out there that you take with you if the zombies attacked?

Let’s talk about them.

Switching Gears…or direction

A few posts back, I previewed a chapter from my latest project “Perfect Planning”. As a matter of fact, I did quite a posts about the story, including posts from the character’s point of view.

Oops…

That is not the direction that we are going on. After going through my stories and how far I still have to go with “Perfect Planning”, I decided to go with a story that was already done.

This story that I’m going to be coming out with next I feel is very relevant to today’s current events and it’s something that I’ve been working on for a few years now. Right now, I’m in the critiquing stage, but I’ll be doing the same thing that I did with my other story. I’ll post a preview chapter and do the posts in their point view and all that good stuff.

I’m very excited for this change and I hope that you are as well.

I’m back…

So I took a long break. Way long, longer than I ever thought. went through a lot things on my break. a divorce, a move home and a move back, but things seem to coming back. the need to write, the urge to be creative is bubbling up and you know what that means…

Writing and other cool stuff.

I’m very excited to try new things, finish my stories and put them out there for others to hopefully enjoy. With that said, enough babbling and on to the good stuff.

Holidays and shopping

I need to get out and shop. Between working all day and then coming home to work on my website, I have not had any time to do the shopping needed for Christmas. This would usually not be a problem, as I would just go during the Thanksgiving holiday and do what needed to be done. The problem this year is that I will be out for surgery. My husband is insisting that I’m not going to leave the house during my recuperation, keeping me confined to the apartment and surrounding grounds. This could be a problem, since I like to shop until I drop, literally. I don’t necessarily enjoy shopping online for gifts. For me it’s okay, but for others, I love the tactile sensations of touching things, running my card through the machine and walking down the street with bags upon bags on my arms.

The angry people though…not so much.

So the situation is really, should I go through the effort of shopping or should I, the Diva of Crafts, make everything I can and then fill in the rest. I already know the answer to that. It’s really too late in the season for me to try to make too many things, so I’m gonna have to get creative. A little bit of shopping, a little online browsing and some intensive homecrafting.

How will you be filling your Christmas list?