My First Five Years at SeaSummary: A country boy from Kansas makes an unexpected U-turn into high adventure on the water.
Shanghaied onto a rum runner in the 1930s, MIT-bound James Tyler sails into history and adventure faster than you can say, “Captain Anne Bonny.” He manages to land on his feet, “moving from one unexpected maritime intrigue to another.”
Mom’s at it again. She’s skipping around the house chirping about sweater weather. Pumpkins. Leaves changing clothes. And FALL! I have no idea what that means. But you know Mom!
Squirrel!
Wait. Where was I? Oh yeah. Fall and reading. Like we noted before, Mom says fall is perfect for curling up with a good book and a cuppa hot whatever. She made a list of recent reads that fill the bill. Checked it twice. (I helped. The first list didn’t smell right.)
Anyway, here are some of our top picks for the season. In no particular order:
1.Gone to the Woods: Surving a Lost Childhood (Farrar Straus Girous Books/Macmillan, 2021)“One of the most remarkable memoirs I’ve ever read” – Mom
Gary Paulsen has long been a favorite author. We love his simple, almost terse style of storytelling about nature and outdoor adventures. So when this book came along, we snapped it up quick.
Some books you can skim. Skip through pages or chapters like a game of hop scotch. Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood isn’t one of them. This is the kind of book you have to slow down for. You’ll want to savor each chapter. Suck the marrow out of every paragraph and sentence.
Indeed, the story of how Paulsen survived his turbulent childhood is gripping. Compelling. Contents include The Farm, The River, The Ship, Thirteen, and Soldier. All are vintage Paulsen: Real and raw.
With absentee/alcoholic parents, Paulsen pretty much raised himself. There were only two places he felt safe: the woods and later, the library.
He describes living in a basement at age 13 to escape his drunken parents. It’s “blue winter.” Paulsen stumbles into a library to get warm. With the help of a kind-hearted librarian, Paulsen discovers the wonderful world of books and reading. It changes his life.
This is Paulsen at his most powerful and riveting. An exceptional achievement.
2. Soldier’s HeartBy Gary Paulsen
Historical Fiction
Via: Library
“There’s always fear and there’s always a meadow.” – Soldier’s Heart
Charley Goddard didn’t really know what a “shooting war” meant when he lied about his age, 15, to enlist with the First Minnesota Volunteers. He didn’t really understand why he was fighting. He just didn’t want to miss out on “a great adventure.”
In this fast-paced, based-on-fact historical fiction, it doesn’t take long for Charley to discover the true face of war – and all its horrors – from the first Battle of Bull Run to Gettysburg.
Soldier’s Heart gives voice to all the anonymous young men who fought and died in the Civil War. It is brutal. Chilling. Heartbreaking. And not to be missed. At just 102 pages, you can read it cover-to-cover in an afternoon. We did.
Another absorbing Paulsen read.
By Laird Hunt
Historical Fiction
Via: Library
A farmer’s wife disguises herself as a young man and marches into the U.S. Civil War to fight for the Union.
In this compelling, mysterious read, “Gallant Ash” becomes a hero, a traitor, a madwoman, and a legend.
Told in the first person in short, staccato sentences, Neverhome makes the Civil War stand up and walk as “Ash” provides eye witness accounts of the bloody battlefield of war. Also intense longing. Suffocating loneliness. Sweat-drenched fear. Fierce devotion. Confusion and bewilderment as thick as a pea soup fog.
The narrative has an authentic first-person quality to it, with phrases common to the language of the period. It reads like you’re looking over the writer’s shoulder as she pens letters home or drafts entries into her diary.
Swirling throughout the story is the inevitable undercurrent of “Why?” Why did this woman leave her home and husband and join the war in the first place? Readers are kept guessing in this intriguing, unusual account of some of the bloodiest years in U.S. history.
4. Night Swiftly FallingBy Tricia D. Wagner
Fiction/Novella/Juvenile Fiction
Via: Reedsy/Discovery
Tragedy is narrowly averted when eight year-old Swift and his best friend and fellow pirate, Ash, suddenly discover the power of the restless sea.
After being warned not to play by the water alone, Ash tumbles into the deep. Frantic, Swift calls for help. But no one comes. So he dives in after Ash – and emerges with a fractured friendship.
Bewildered and confused by Ash’s sudden rejection post-rescue, Swift struggles with a friendship fabric torn asunder. As his older brother, Caius, helps Swift slowly realize he can’t control others, Swift discovers the anguish and frustration that accompanies the desire to help someone who needs help but can’t or won’t accept it.
As Swift mourns a friendship gone south, he slowly learns that sometimes letting go is all that’s left. And that change “is the nature of life.” But “how not to lose oneself?” Swift wonders. “How not to lose those you love in the face of unstoppable pain?”
This is one of the most clever, contemplative books I’ve read in awhile. In addition to a tightly woven plot, the author demonstrates a masterful command of the language in every paragraph that’ll keep you turning pages until the end.
Propelled by delicious prose, Night Swiftly Falling is also poignant and heartfelt. It’s relatively short – just seven chapters. But this beautifully written novella packs a punch. It’s honest and hopeful at the same time. A triumph.
Saved My LifeBy Lynne Podrat
Via: Reedsy/Discovery
This book opens in August 2020 as the author watches the original Star Trek TV series with her Down Syndrome brother. “Brucie” has been diagnosed with kidney disease and pancreatic cancer at age fifty-three.
The rest of the book is a retrospective on Bruce’s life and the impact he had on not just the author but on many others as well.
Intent on becoming a veterinarian, the author’s life mission changes from saving animals to saving Bruce and children like him. While focusing on Bruce’s life and his unique challenges, the narrative also touches on family interactions and events such as bar and bat mitzvahs, weddings, graduations, and later, trips to the hospital for Bruce as his health deteriorates. Through it all, Bruce remains a “source of heartache and inspiration.”
The author writes that her plans for Bruce were “to open and enrich his world.” In the end, however, she realizes how being with Bruce “accomplished so much more.” She realizes how this “sweet small man” and “Brucie’s” capacity to love and to “just go on because there was no other choice” profoundly influenced her life. And how Bruce opened and enriched her world.
I’d bring tissue ‘fize you.
As the calendar crosses the bridge from summer into autumn, now is a good time to find and snuggle up with a good book! But what to read? What to read? Hmmmm…
Not worry. Kimber and Mom have you covered. (You knew that, right?)
Looking for high quality, well-crafted stories that are wholesome and uplifting without being preachy? Have we got a deal for you! These authors never disappoint. (They also know that vulgarity is no substitute for wit. Yea.) They offer heaping helpings of inspiration, hope, and grace.
So, without further ado, here are five great authors for autumn. Or anytime. In no particular order:
By Gary Paulsen
YA/Fiction
Via: Library
“Dogs know how to love better than people.”
– Paintings From the Cave
Sometimes even the best laid plans go awry. Especially when a monkey wrench gets thrown into the mix. Like when Mom and I plan our blogging calendar. (Well, one of us plans. The other snoozes. I’ll let you figure out who’s who.)
See, we were going to put together a collection of Best Gary Paulsen Books Ever. He’s an old favorite. When it comes to outdoor adventures or coming of age tales, no one does it better than Gary. He’s our bud. He’s also a dog lover. Need I say more?
So here Mom and I were, cruising along with our blogging calendar when Mom stumbled upon a Paulsen book she somehow missed: Paintings from the Cave.
After finishing this extraordinary trio of gripping, poignant novellas, we knew they had to have a stand-alone post. Here’s why:
“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”
—Kurt Vonnegut
Kimber here. Mom is still trying to figure out where June went. And here we are, halfway through September! You know Mom is always trying to figure something out, right? The weather. Time travel. Splitting the atom. How some people get elected to office… But anyway…
While Mom’s trying to figure that out, can we agree that fall is Seriously Awesome? You know. Like me!
“But fall comes at a price,” says Her Momness: “A sigh and a sense of loss – always flavored with amazement. As in, Where, oh where, did summer go?”
Mom says it’s easy to say the same about writing. In fact, if you’re reading this you’re probably a book lover. And most book lovers we know are also writers. You know. Also Seriously Awesome. So this one’s for you.
As in, why do writers so often sigh and say, summer-like, I was going to finish chapter twenty-two today, but… I haven’t actually finished the proposal… I planned to, but… thought about… talked about… considered… Well, maybe…
Yet the novel, article, story, essay, or outline sit on your desk or in your hard drive unfinished. Poised to creep out the back door when you aren’t lookin’.
Kimber here. With a question: Where do your best friends live?
Some of our BFFs live at The Book Place. Where they have row after row of books! All lined up on shelves, just waiting to be checked out and read Also…. Oh. Wait. Mom is butting in again. So I’ll let her tell you more and give you some additional background:
Mom: There’s something inspirational about a library. Being in the massed presence of so many authors is like snuggling under a cozy quilt on a snowy day. It’s like Christmas, Independence Day and the First Day of Summer all rolled into one.
Pages & Paws 