I subscribe to Shelf Awareness, an e-newsletter for readers and persons employed in the book business, and today's issue has an information-packed link about the benefits of reading. Not that I needed any additional proof about reading's advantages, mind you.
Click on the link to learn more about how the brain changes and thrives while under the spell of a book. It'll make you feel less guilty while you burrow under the covers and keep turning pages when there's a sink full of dishes in the kitchen.
http://oedb.org/library/beginning-online-learning/your-brain-on-books-10-things-that-happen-to-our-minds-when-we-read
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Sunday, February 3, 2013
The Long and Winding Road
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce, is a quirky book. But's it's a quirky book with a big heart that left me mulling big thoughts about life---do I seize each day? have I wasted opportunities to live well and full? am I the best that I could be? is there something major left for me to accomplish?
Harold Fry, a recently retired business man, lives life comfortably but without passion. He's blah. His wife Maureen is blah, and their lives together are dull, loveless, and very clean. There's lots of dusting and sterilizing going on to fill the void. Their son, moody and disconnected from his father, is out of the picture, so it's just the two of them. A story about nothing.
But then an old friend writes to Harold. She's in hospice and wants to say goodbye. Harold sheds a tear for Queenie, a former officemate, and quickly responds with a short letter of his own. He walks to the mailbox, and then decides to keep walking. He will walk to Queenie. He will walk 600 miles, across the spring-blooming hills and dales, cities and villages of England. He's on a spur-of-the-moment odyssey, and for the first time in decades Harold is alive with purpose.
I know what you're thinking. A book about walking? How interesting can that be?
While he walks, Harold replays episodes from his life, and we begin to understand that in the beginning he and Maureen were madly in love. We learn about Harold's difficult childhood with an alcoholic father and runaway mom. We learn that Harold shrank away from his duties as a father, and isolated himself emotionally and physically from his son. We learn that he and Queenie met at work and formed a solid friendship. We learn that Harold's pilgrimage may be his last hurrah.
And like any worthwhile pilgrimage, there are entertaining asides about people met along the way and others who join the long walk north. Over time and miles, Harold attracts fans of his own. Misfits, lost souls, even a stray dog, fall in line behind him.
While England finds a new hero, back home Maureen actually dusts less and begins to miss her husband. He writes and phones, but she is at a loss. She knows he and Queenie were never lovers, but living alone has rekindled her own memories of their youth. Maureen wants Harold back home.
Over each new hill there is a fresh challenge or another tag-along or another flashback into Harold's life as a child, husband and father. The farther north he wanders, the more we understand his life and his sorrows. And then we wonder, will he get to Queenie in time? Will she hang on until Harold gets there? What will they say to each other?
I thought this book was going to be like a slow walk, pokey and meandering and not all that heart-thumping, but I was mistaken. This book was hard to put down. There were always questions and concerns. How far would he walk today? Would his blisters do him in? Why hasn't his son contacted him? Where will he sleep tonight? After weeks of effort, sacrifice and exhaustion, Harold's pilgrimage comes to an end. I won't say if he gets to Queenie in time, but I will report that Joyce created a tense, emotional conclusion to the book. The final 30 pages were riveting.
I highly recommend The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Just be ready for something different. It's not your usual walk in the park.
The Push From the Book: Live boldly, don't waste a minute, tell the special people in your life they matter.
Harold Fry, a recently retired business man, lives life comfortably but without passion. He's blah. His wife Maureen is blah, and their lives together are dull, loveless, and very clean. There's lots of dusting and sterilizing going on to fill the void. Their son, moody and disconnected from his father, is out of the picture, so it's just the two of them. A story about nothing.
But then an old friend writes to Harold. She's in hospice and wants to say goodbye. Harold sheds a tear for Queenie, a former officemate, and quickly responds with a short letter of his own. He walks to the mailbox, and then decides to keep walking. He will walk to Queenie. He will walk 600 miles, across the spring-blooming hills and dales, cities and villages of England. He's on a spur-of-the-moment odyssey, and for the first time in decades Harold is alive with purpose.
I know what you're thinking. A book about walking? How interesting can that be?
While he walks, Harold replays episodes from his life, and we begin to understand that in the beginning he and Maureen were madly in love. We learn about Harold's difficult childhood with an alcoholic father and runaway mom. We learn that Harold shrank away from his duties as a father, and isolated himself emotionally and physically from his son. We learn that he and Queenie met at work and formed a solid friendship. We learn that Harold's pilgrimage may be his last hurrah.
And like any worthwhile pilgrimage, there are entertaining asides about people met along the way and others who join the long walk north. Over time and miles, Harold attracts fans of his own. Misfits, lost souls, even a stray dog, fall in line behind him.
While England finds a new hero, back home Maureen actually dusts less and begins to miss her husband. He writes and phones, but she is at a loss. She knows he and Queenie were never lovers, but living alone has rekindled her own memories of their youth. Maureen wants Harold back home.
Over each new hill there is a fresh challenge or another tag-along or another flashback into Harold's life as a child, husband and father. The farther north he wanders, the more we understand his life and his sorrows. And then we wonder, will he get to Queenie in time? Will she hang on until Harold gets there? What will they say to each other?
I thought this book was going to be like a slow walk, pokey and meandering and not all that heart-thumping, but I was mistaken. This book was hard to put down. There were always questions and concerns. How far would he walk today? Would his blisters do him in? Why hasn't his son contacted him? Where will he sleep tonight? After weeks of effort, sacrifice and exhaustion, Harold's pilgrimage comes to an end. I won't say if he gets to Queenie in time, but I will report that Joyce created a tense, emotional conclusion to the book. The final 30 pages were riveting.
I highly recommend The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Just be ready for something different. It's not your usual walk in the park.
The Push From the Book: Live boldly, don't waste a minute, tell the special people in your life they matter.
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