GREAT BOOKS TO READ INTO SPRING
As March approaches, we begin the long trek to Spring. Keeping warm by the glow of a great book can make winter melt and bring on the blooms of Spring, at least in our hearts. So here are ten books about what Spring is all about - a new beginning, a renewal, a chance to rise up from the ground and sprout new shoots.
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD I know, you saw the movie - or now, the play. Or maybe you read it when you had to in school. Whatever - just get it and read it again. Believe me, it will grab you and take you to a new place - a place where you, now, can see what life is all about. Mark your calendar, every decade or so, read it again. You will have changed and so will the book.
THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT’S WOMAN Maybe you saw the movie with Meryl Streep, but no worries, the movie and book and very different. This is the story of love in Victorian England. The author, John Fowles, puts a modern spin on it - I’ll let you discover that.
THE HUMAN STAIN Philip Roth wrote many fine books, but none better than this look at race, loss, love and renewal. This is a book that just might change you.
PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK Annie Dillard’s book about her time observing the world around her is one of those great books that make us look at our own world more deeply. Take the plunge and when you come up for air, your world will have changed.
THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE Ken Follet’s thriller about WWII and the people it changed revolves around one of the best characters he has created - a spy who is about the steal the war’s greatest secret. Only one person can stop him - a woman who has spent her life caring for a disabled husband and her child on a lonely island.
ROSE Martin Cruz Smith went on to write Gorky Park, taking us into the gray world of the Soviet Union and then Russia. In this early book, he takes us into Victorian England and tells us a story we will not soon forget.
1876 Gore Vidal takes us back to the Centennial year when a man was chosen President by a political deal that would have ramifications even down to our present day. Of course, that doesn’t get in the way of the wittily told story about love and power in old New York.
MIDDLEMARCH George Eliot’s (pen name of Mary Ann Evans) great novel is about life and love set in the fictional town of the title. Many think this is the greatest novel written in English - but don’t let that stop you from enjoying a great read. Start today and when you look up, it’ss be Spring!
THE GRAPES OF WRATH John Steinbeck’s great story about a family devastated by the Great Depression, heading West for a new life in California.
THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING Joan Didion’s book about life, love and loss - and moving on.