That Thing on Facebook

There are so many quizzes, questionnaires, and tags on Facebook that it can be practically impossible to get anything done. I get pulled in just like everyone else - which means I now know that I should be living in England, that I'm darn good at history and science (15 out of 15!), that if I was a cheese I would be Provolone, and that if I was a Disney princess I would be Mulan. Duh.
But the new fad that's going around made me stop and really think (instead of mindlessly clicking on green when asked my favorite color). When tagged by a friend, you're supposed to name the 10 books that "most impacted your life." Note that it doesn't ask for your 10 favorite books, or the 10 books you couldn't put down. It's hard for me to narrow any book list down to just 10, but this one was especially difficult.
Since it was already a fairly long post when I finished listing the titles and authors on Facebook, I didn't take the time to explain why and how each of the books impacted me, so I thought I would do that here. As you can see, many of these I have already reviewed or referenced on this blog - just follow the links for more.
And now consider yourself tagged - which 10 books most impacted YOU?

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
This book was completely mind-blowing for me. The symbolism was rich and intense and the writing was different from anything else I had ever read. If I could tell you the number of times that I think about Ellison's description of Optic White and the 10 drops of black...now that's an impact. And here I must thank my high school English teacher, Ms. T, who assigned this to the class that adores her to this day.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
I know a lot of little girls may have dreamed of being Jo, but I tried to make it a reality. I created my own Pickwick Papers, developed plays for my sisters to showcase their talents, and set myself on a lifelong writing path in the process.

Light in August by William Faulkner
I went through a full summer of Faulkner as a teen, and this book is the one that started the whole thing. It appealed to my sense of being a misfit (weren't we all) and it was thrillingly full of Southern Gothic themes of race, sex, class, and religion. It made me question everything I thought I believed.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Like Light in August, this book came along at the right time in my life. With its gentle protagonist and his simple-but-not idea to change the world, this book reminded me that life isn't always about the destination, but the road you travel.

Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd
This huge chunk of writing transformed me into the Anglophile I am today, covering pre-history to modern day at the magical English site. It was also the first book in the sweeping-historical-saga genre that I actually appreciated, er, loved and obsessed over. One of the highlights of my life was re-reading Sarum while staying one mile away in lovely Wiltshire.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
I am a huge fan of YA fiction and of Neil Gaiman, and this is my favorite of his books. It is charming, witty, and unique, and it made me appreciate the category all over again.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Where to begin? It is set during a favorite historical time period, it is set in one of my favorite countries, and it is a completely different take on a story that I thought had been told in every way possible. But that isn't what impacted me - no, that was Mantel's writing, which is straightforward, gripping, and worth every award she received. I could not put this down.

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
There are two books that I consistently give as gifts. One is Peter Mayle's A Dog's Life, because it's so funny and everyone needs a good laugh. This is the second one - and I press it into people's hands with a determined "You have to read this." A completely different take on race, crime, and Southern literature, it really is that good.

With No One as Witness by Elizabeth George
There is no one in the same class as George when it comes to writing characters, and her Lynley-and-Havers duo ranks among my favorites in all of literature (yes, I do mean that). There are 19 books in the series at this point, and I selected this one as having the most impact on me because it is one of maybe three times in my life that I gasped out loud at a book's plot twist. Incredible.

First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough
Historical fiction is a tough genre - veer too close to the history side and it's boring, swerve over into the fiction lane and it's too fluffy. McCullough finds the perfect middle ground in her Masters of Rome series with meticulous research combined with her imaginings of the real men and women behind the myths. She even includes her own sketches of the historical players - and they're quite good. There are three historical time periods that I'm nuts about, and that can be attributed to three books. This is the one that dragged me into ancient Rome, and I've never left. In case you're curious about the other two points in history: Ancient Egypt and Tudor England.

Of course, once I saw everyone else's lists, I wanted to add more books to my list. So here are some honorable mentions: To Kill a Mockingbird, Pride & Prejudice (Austen's sarcasm obviously had an impact), Pillars of the Earth, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Handmaid's Tale, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Do Not Disturb - I'm Reading, Man

It's that time of year again, and I am equally giddy and nervous. Today, the longlist of nominees was announced for my favorite awards: The Man Booker Prizes. Awarded to the "best novel" of the year that was written by an author from the United Kingdom, these prizes have been my introduction to books I would not otherwise have heard about.

Last year's winner was the very well-known Hilary Mantel for one of my favorite books, Bring Up the Bodies. But the longlist included some of the most amazing books I'd never heard of: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, The Teleportation Accident, The Lighthouse. So good.

These are books that haunt me, to be honest, and that I call to mind often. In 2011, Pigeon English was on both the shortlist and the longlist. There is not a month that goes by that I don't at some point think of 11-year-old Harrison Opoku, the hero of that novel. The selection committee and the judges for these awards very rarely disappoint.

Therefore, I am putting you on notice: I am about to read these 13 books in a frenzy and I may not look up for weeks. You'll probably find many of the selections in my reviews later this year, if the past nominees are anything to go by.
At least I have until Sept. 10 to read them all. That's when the judges - who read 131 books to determine this list - will name their shortlist for the prize. The actual winner will be announced on Oct. 15.

Meanwhile, here is the longlist, just in case you want to put your eyesight in jeopardy, too. You can also find a Pinterest board of the nominees here.

Almost English, Charlotte Mendelson

Five Star Billionaire, Tash Aw

Harvest, Jim Crace

The Kills, Richard House

The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri

The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton

The Marrying of Chani Kaufman, Eve Harris

The Spinning Heart, Donal Ryan

A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki

The Testament of Mary, Colm Tóibín

TransAtlantic, Colum McCann

Unexploded, Alison MacLeod

We Need New Names, NoViolet Bulawayo 

Ready for the Journey

Review: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

by Rachel Joyce

This is a book that came along just when I needed it. I find that happens to me quite often - that a book will resonate with me at the perfect moment or will give me an insight into something that's happening in my life.
Life is a journey, a series of stops and starts, of peaks and valleys, of gorgeous blue skies, and of the darkest, coldest nights. Sometimes you travel with companions, and sometimes you have to make the trip on your own. Either way, you just keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Harold Fry was a just an ordinary Englishman, simply breathing in and out each day of his 65 years, but not really living. And then he received a letter from a long-lost friend and he took a detour. Queenie Hennessy had done something extraordinary for Harold in their past, and now he felt he owed her more than just a quick note back.
Queenie's letter said that she was dying of cancer, and that she wanted to thank Harold for being kind to her. It was a letter that made Harold feel guilty and sad that they had lost touch. So he decided to walk further than just to his own mailbox with his reply. As he passed another postbox, and then the post office itself, he just continued to walk, without really knowing why.
Thanks to a chance encounter with a girl in a garage, Harold decides to keep walking, believing that in doing so he can make a difference. In fact, he determines that he will walk 500 miles to where Queenie is in hospice, and that his journey - in a way his penance - will help Queenie live. As another person he meets says, "If we don't go mad once in a while, there's no hope."
So Harold walks, through pain and suffering, through gorgeous sunsets and lovely paths. He's propelled by a bit of guilt, a bit of hope, a bit of gratitude, and maybe even the need to impress his wife Maureen. Maureen is angry and hurt by Harold's snap decision and what she sees as his abandonment. But then she comes to believe that "there was even a beauty in it, if only because Harold was doing something he believed in for once, and against all the odds."
Harold's journey gives him the chance to cross paths with many people from all walks of life. He talks to them and he does what he does best - he listens. He gives them the courtesy that many don't today, to stop and truly listen to someone else, to share their time and their need for a connection. "Harold could no longer pass a stranger without acknowledging the truth that everyone was the same, and also unique; and that this was the dilemma of being human."
But, more importantly, Harold also renews his relationship with himself. He slows down to see himself for who he truly is. And he recognizes why he needs to make the journey to Queenie. The truth, as he sees it, is that he was compelled to walk to redeem himself and to make those connections with others along the way.
After all, as Maureen says, "It was not a life, if lived without love."
I recently made a journey of my own with a friend of mine who was fighting cancer. It was not an easy path for her, and it was not an easy one to travel with her. Watching her put one foot in front of the other, as Harold did, was a revelation of courage and of love. She fought her way step by step for her daughter and for her family.
It was a privilege to hold her hand, and to fight alongside her. At the end, it never seemed that she "lost" her fight. She had simply given all that she had to give. In a way, I owe her a debt of gratitude for reminding me that connecting with each other and showing people that we care is really why we are all here in the first place.
And to Harold Fry, and his author, I owe thanks for walking with me and offering the perfect words of comfort when I needed them.