Books, books, books!

I am a bookworm. 

I didn’t get to sleep until after 1 last night, and I can only blame the book I was reading.

Which I’d read before. Many, many times.

A good book is like an old friend. It’s comfortable. It talks to me.  And, though it uses the same words all the time, I always seem to catch something new the second – or fith – time through it.  There’s nothing I love more than being under the covers with my nose in a book.

And I’ve read some good ones in my day.  So I figured that today I would share a few of my favourites with you. 

First, we have To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  It’s the story of a white lawyer – Atticus Finch – who  is assigned a black client – Tom Robinson.  Tom is accused of raping a white woman. What makes this story remarkable is that it is set in the Deep South in the 1930s, where racism still ran rampant, and is told from the perspective of Atticus’ six-year-old daughter, Scout.  Like all kids her age, she innocently tells it like it is, without much commentary or opinions; she describes events candidly and only sometimes questions what she doesn’t understand.

It really makes a person think.

Next is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Set in Nazi Germany during WWII, It’s the story of a young girl named Liesel who is given up by her mother and fostered by the Hubermanns.  It recounts the tales of her relationships with those around her, but especially with Max Vandenburg, a Jew the Hubermanns are hiding in their basement.   What makes this story unique is the fact that it is narrated by the Angel of Death.  As he comes and takes the lives of those around her, he catches glimpses of her and is fascinated by her.  

And if you’re wondering where the book’s title came from, Liesel is obsessed with books – even though, at first, she can’t read – and steals them from various places.

The style is pretty unique, too.  I like to call it poetic prose.  I’ve never read anything quite like it before.

Moving on, we come to The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Set in Mississippi in the 1960s, it chronicles the stories of three black maids and the white women they work for, as well as the inequalities that exist between them.  Little do any of them know that their worlds are about to be rocked when Eugenia Phelan – also called Skeeter –takes a real interest in the lives of these maids and is determined to write a book about them.  It’s a story about standing up for your rights and reaching for your goals.

And lastly, we have Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell.  Set mostly on a plantation in Georgia during and just after the American Civil War, it’s the story of Scarlett O’Hara, a headstrong woman who fiercely fights to protect what is hers – namely Tara, her father’s plantation – and to get what she wants. She is so determined to achieve her goals that she doesn’t care who she has to marry, stomp on, or yell at to do so.  And while that doesn’t sound like a very enticing description (admittedly, Scarlett is rather witch-like and not my favourite character in the world), Margaret Mitchell does indeed paint a very vivid picture of the times that I find to be gripping.  And maybe there’s a small part of me that thinks that, during my next read-through, Scarlett will smarten up and start looking past her own nose.

Of course, that never happens.

And there you have it. Upon reflection, what I find interesting are the similarities between all these books.  They deal with human struggles between people of different classes and races.  And they are all, in a sense, historical fiction, meaning that, though the characters are not real, the things they experience are.  They breathe life – and death – into the facts found in our history books.

And all of them speak, wholly or in part, of facing obstacles and overcoming them.  Maybe not in the way one would expect, but still.  It speaks to the strength humanity possesses to stare in the face of evil and tell it to get lost.

It's inspiring.

And now if you'll excuse me, A whole world contained in about 300 pages awaits!