Hmmmm....so the movie version of this book was nominated and won several Academy Awards....interesting.  I'm not saying it didn't deserve such recognition; I haven't seen the movie yet.  I'm only saying that based on Joanne Harris' book, I'm not sure why a movie would receive such accolades.  I'm certainly going to watch the movie as soon as I can get my hands on a copy--it has Johnny Depp in it, for heaven's sake!!!  :)

The book CHOCOLAT by Joanne Harris is quite good.  It held my attention enough that I kept reading and read it in just a few short days, in spite of the fact that I've been really busy finishing my semester.  I especially love how this book demonstrates how one person CAN make a difference in the lives of others.....and that influence can be positive or negative, depending on the type of person we CHOOSE to be.  That part makes this book super-great and well worth the read.

It is a story like IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, but without the main character contemplating suicide in order to realize her impact on those around her. 

I spent a lot of time wondering about my impact on others....am I someone who demonstrates true JOY as I want?  My life's goal is to live a life of JOY--showing the Joy of the Lord.  I know that I have trouble when I get frustrated showing that joy--or when I get angry--or stressed.  But do the people around me see Joy shining through me more than anything else?  

I think we all wonder, at least to a degree, about our impact on those around us.  The few people I've known in my life who don't wonder also don't care.  And their lives are the saddest--and the ones I try to avoid simply because they don't care at all about the negative ripples they're creating in the world around them.  I sure don't' need THAT in my life!!!  The priest in this story radiates negativity.  Where we should be seeing love and acceptance, he oozes ugliness.  It's really a sad state that the priest represents of so many people in this world today.  And not all negative people are men/women of the cloth; he simply is one representation of intolerance and lack of empathy towards his parishioners.

I guess that's what makes this story one so well worth reading--and I'm sure watching....the fact that it says so much about life--about how we should be around others and that we should be aware of the influence we have on those around us, even if we don't realize it.

I'm enough of a romantic, though, to be disappointed that the romance isn't as hot and steamy as the previews for the movie make it out to be.  I spent the whole book on the edge of my seat as I waited for Roux and Vianne to demonstrate evidence of electricity between them.  The only time that happens is when they fool around.  There isn't any indication prior to or after that incident to demonstrate chemistry between the two.  It sounds as if the movie takes that relationship to a higher level than the book does.  Well, at least when I watch the movie, I guess I'll get to see more of that and not be so disappointed!  :)

A masterful storyteller

Lee Smith truly knows how to weave a tale.  There is no denying that she is a masterful storyteller.  I honestly could read her stories all day.  MRS. DARCY AND THE BLUE-EYED STRANGER is a book of short stories by Lee Smith, so know going in that it is NOT a novel.  I, for one, really love the short story.  I think that the short story is a lost art in the world today, so it is refreshing to read a book full of wonderful short stories!  I can't possibly pick one to say it's my favorite.  There are great qualities to each and every story.  Smith's stories focus mostly on women as the main characters and/or as the narrators of her stories.  Many women will more than likely relate quite easily to the women in these stories.

My only complaint (please don't be mad, Lee!) is the portrayal of people of faith (religion) in Lee Smith's stories.  I guess her stories are more realistic than I am aware of and it's that part that disappoints me--not Lee Smith's storytelling.  As a woman of faith myself, I don't like to see people "play" at religion or to take it lightly or to show it in any way negative.  It's probably my own personal perspective that makes me see many of the religiously focused stories in a negative light rather than it actually being that way.

I know that I live in a fantasy world in so many ways.  I've joked with my students when we talk about such things that I want to live in my fantasy world and they should let me live here.  I LIKE believing that all the young women I know are "perfect" little virgin angels--and the young men, too.  That they don't do drugs, drink alcohol, or disrespect their parents.  I am fully aware of my fantasy world being exactly THAT--a Fantasy.

Just let me live in it, ok?!   ;)

Read and decide for yourself.....

I see why so many people are upset.  It's exactly as we've been warned:  Atticus in GO SET A

WATCHMAN is NOT the "hero" we all love and know so fondly from TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.  But I think the uproar about that fact is misplaced.  GO SET A WATCHMAN still shows us the world of Maycombe through the eyes of Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, but now she's a grown woman who went to a women's college and has been living in New York City for several years.  It's when she comes home for a visit that her eyes are opened to the true truth of who her beloved dad REALLY is and poor Atticus falls hard from the pedastal Jean Louise has had him on.  It is clear that Atticus has always been "this way" (read the book), but Jean Louise's impression of him is the same one we all have of him from reading TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.  And since that book is written through Scout's perspective, it makes perfect sense that we have the same impression of her dad:  that he is THE MOST AMAZING man on the face of the planet and we all wish that not only our dads, but all of our men were exactly like him.  But Atticus does what Atticus needs to do for justice to be served--for the truth to be told.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.  In the process, Scout sees her father as a forward-thinking man who loves and respects negroes as no one else in her life (TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD).  As Jean Louise realizes that her father is just like all the other men in Maycombe--they do what must be done, her image of her "perfect" father crumbles and shatters into a million pieces.  She does not handle it very well.

But isn't it that way with all of us?  I know that when I was a young girl, my dad was THE SMARTEST, most amazing man on the planet.  There wasn't anything he couldn't do.  He was for me, like Atticus is for Scout in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, my hero.  I compared all other men in my world to my dad and almost every other man never even came close to measuring up to the amazingness of the man who is my Dad.  I still see my dad as one of the most amazing men on the planet, but--like Scout, I began to see his weaknesses as I've grown older.

For example, most of you who know my family know that we are people of faith.  We have always gone to church almost every time the doors are open.  We aren't just people of faith talking-the-talk; my parents, especially, have always walked-the-walk.  I have always been so proud to say that my parents are truly GOOD, God-fearing, Bible-believing, faith-filled Christians who others can look up to as examples.  My parents built the dome home that they live in.  Dad is always doing things around the house--there is always something that needs doing.  I remember this one time when he had to dig a ditch, he rented a ditch-digger.  When he was finished, he had to put it on the trailer behind his truck so he could take it back to the store.  On that particular day, it was just him and me at home, so he had me help him.  I was NO help whatsoever, even though I really tried.  I'm not a very strong girl (in spite of being "big"--"big" doesn't mean strong, you know), so when he tried to put that ditch-digger on the trailer by sheer strength, it was all on him with me just being a prop, touching the digger so dad could feel like he had help.  Frustrated, Dad finally tried turning the thing on to get it to move easier.  Yep.  It went alright.  The whole thing went into the trailer and continued right into the tailgate of Dad's gorgeous red truck.

I'm telling you the honest truth--up until that very moment, I had never in my young life (I was about 14 or 15 at the time) heard one foul word, not one swear or cuss word come out of my Daddy's mouth.  I sure did that day.  Yes, the ditch-digger had hit me in the armpit hard enough to leave a bruise, but what hurt even more was the fact that in that moment, I realized that my Perfect Daddy wasn't Perfect.

I was crushed--just as Jean Louise is in GO SET A WATCHMAN.  I was devastated and horrified--just as Jean Louise is in GO SET A WATCHMAN.  It's a truth that no girl wants to admit about her Perfect Daddy especially those of us are Daddy's Girls.  Unlike Jean Louise, I didn't rave at my dad.  I remember being disappointed, certainly, but I also remember realizing that while my dad wasn't Perfect, he was and always would be MY DADDY and I loved him.  I respected him; I still do.

So for those of you who are nervous about reading GO SET A WATCHMAN because you have heard that Atticus is portrayed as a bigot, the story is about so much more than that:  it's about a girl's hero-worship coming to a place of seeing her dad as human rather than as super-human.  For us as readers, yes it's difficult seeing Atticus in this light, but as Jean Louise learns through this experience, it doesn't change how we feel about our loved one--it opens our eyes, takes the blinders off, helps us no longer see through rose-colored glasses.  (Seeing is a major theme throughout the book, in case you haven't caught that yet, BTW.)

I, for one, am very glad this book has been published.  I can't imagine that it really and truly was published without Harper Lee's permission.  She would have had to sign a contract, right?  I think that if Harper Lee was hesitant about seeing this book in print, it comes from the same place as Jean Louise's fear of seeing her dad "less-than"--Harper Lee certainly is smart enough to know that her audience would not like seeing our perfect hero Atticus Finch portrayed as "less-than."  But truth is truth whether we like it or not.

I recommend the book.  I also recommend that you formulate your own opinion of it and all the controversy surrounding it......but you can't really have an opinion worth sharing if you don't know ALL the facts and getting all the facts means that you have to read the book!  :)

**Update:  I did not realize when I wrote this earlier this week (July 15) that Harper Lee has had health issues where she is not fully aware of her surroundings--coherent, which means that she would NOT have been fully aware of what has been going on with her un-published works in recent years.  If she did not want GO SET A WATCHMAN, published, in reading it, I mean no disrespect to her or to what she has stood for in American history and for American Literature in the 20th/21st Centuries.  I respect Harper Lee greatly and I feel that TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is one of THE GREATEST books of all time--it should be required reading for EVERY student.  Honestly, I don't think any young person should be allowed to walk across a graduation stage unless he/she has read TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.  I'm truly sorry, Harper Lee, if my purchasing and reading GO SET A WATCHMAN demonstrates disrespect in any way; I certainly don't mean it that way.

A Reminder to LISTEN....

I had no idea that Gayle Forman had written any more books than the ones I read last year--and her newest one, I WAS HERE, so when I realized she did have another book, I didn't hesitate to get a copy.  As per usual with Gayle Forman books for me, I read SISTERS IN SANITY within about 48 hours.  I didn't like this book as much as I do her other books, but it's still a very good book and well worth reading.  A few short weeks ago, I heard of ODD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, for the first time--and it wasn't through this book.  I think it was because I was searching ODD that I even found this book.  So because I was searching it for a whole other reason, when I saw it in relations to ODD, I was intrigued.  When I realized it was a book about ODD written by one of my favorite authors, Gayle Forman, that clinched it for me--I HAD to read it.  I had to wait a few days to read it because I had a lot of other things going on, but once I started it, I flew through it.  While it's categorized as "Teen Fiction/Literature," I think it should be a required book for all adults and their teenagers to read TOGETHER, especially adults who feel their teens are out of control.  That doesn't mean that I think a book such as this one will make everything all better.  I do feel that a book such as this reminds us all that we just need to LISTEN to one another and HEAR what each other is saying.  Again, Gayle Forman has written a novel that will forever be high on my recommend list!

Roald Dahl's Adult Stories

I LOVE the adult stories of Roald Dahl!!!  It wasn't until a few short years ago that I even knew that he had written adult stories of any kind.  I'd always known him to be the author of many of my favorite children's books, my favorite being THE BFG!  I don't even remember what I was doing that I came across this information, but out of the blue, I learned that September 13 is Roald Dahl Day!  Dahl's birthday.  Since my birthday is September 14, that's close enough for me to feel a deeper connection with one of my favorite authors than I had previously!  So in honor of Roald Dahl Day, once I'd learned that there was such a thing, I wanted to celebrate in some way in my classes.  I did a quick internet search to see if he had any short stories I could read in class and lo and behold, there were his adult short stories!!!  The one I read in class that year was "The Landlady."  Who knew Dahl had such a twisted sense of humor in the adult world?!  We all knew how amazing his children's literature is, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that his adult literature was just as amazing and twisted!  So reading a whole book of his short stories, THE GREAT AUTOMATIC GRAMMATIZATOR AND OTHER STORIES, was pure joy for me.  I can't wait for Roald Dahl Day September 15, 2015 when I'll read another of Dahl's adult short stories to my students!!!

http://www.roalddahl.com/create-and-learn/join-in/roald-dahl-day

I gotta say, it took me awhile to get into THE GRAVEDIGGER'S DAUGHTER.  It wasn't because the story isn't interesting, though.  I have so much to read for school for the summer, so it kept being put on the back burner.  It was a little difficult to get into because I wasn't sure if I was "getting" what I was reading, but I decided it didn't matter and I just sat back and "enjoyed" the story--as much as one can "enjoy" a story about physical abuse.  This is a difficult story to read because of the physical abuse as well as emotional abuse that takes place, but it is even more than a story of abuse; it is a story of overcoming abuse and making something of oneself.  Joyce Carol Oates demonstrates in this amazing story not only the power of escaping horrors, but also the fact that one can't escape one's past completely, no matter how hard we try.  Certain things can and do follow us all the days of our lives--and we're all the better for it.  I know that sounds like a contradiction, but if you read this amazing story, you'll understand exactly what I'm trying to say.  Oates certainly isn't afraid to say the unsayable or to write the unwritable.  Her story is one that makes the reader THINK and FEEL.  This is not a story for the faint of heart or if you're looking for a simple summer read.  I promise, though, that if you'll give it a chance, you won't be sorry.

Plays are meant to be Seen, not Read

It does not give me any pleasure whatsoever to say that I am not a fan of the works of Tennessee Williams.  I realize that he is considered one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century, but I just don't see it.  Maybe I'm biased because I prefer musicals, who knows?  I know that there is some value to his plays, but of the ones I have read so far, I'm just not a fan.  (For those of you who love his works, I'm really sorry.)

I do think, though, that the movie version of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman is well worth watching.  I don't LOVE the movie, but I liked it enough that it gave me an appreciation for the play itself that I didn't have when I read it.  But that's the thing about plays:  they're meant to be seen (performed), not read.  There's just something about experiencing the nuances of an actor performing the written words that brings the words to life that is impossible to "get" when reading a play.  I think some of the best plays are written in such a way that it takes the performer to bring the words--the story--to life.  That's what separates a play from a novel or other work of fiction.  When I read a "regular" book, the story comes to life on the page because it is written to be read.

So while I am not a fan of the written version of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, I do highly recommend the movie version.  It's not a musical, but yet the performances by the actors give the story a life of its own that makes the story understandable, enjoyable, and have the point that I think Tennessee Williams was hoping to convey.  So if you choose to watch the movie rather than read the book THIS TIME, you won't be disappointed.

Besides, Elizabeth Taylor in this dress alone makes the movie WELL worth watching!!!  The dress is quite gorgeous, but so is Elizabeth Taylor IN the dress!  Wow.