{"id":728,"date":"2013-12-21T09:17:51","date_gmt":"2013-12-21T14:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/?p=728"},"modified":"2013-12-16T18:09:31","modified_gmt":"2013-12-16T23:09:31","slug":"books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/2013\/12\/books\/","title":{"rendered":"Books…"},"content":{"rendered":"

      Books.
\n      I am a writer. I love words. And when words come together in a swirling conglomeration of emotion and character and plot and rhythm and awesome<\/i>… a book is born.
\n      Thus, loving words, I love books.
\n      What do you mean that logic is shit? *grumble* It makes sense to me. I’m a left-brainer. Deal with it.
\n      Anyway, there was a meme going around Facebook recently (*gasp* Shocking, I know!) and once again, it made me think. I believe the actual copy & paste post said something like “Name 10 books that stayed with you long after the story ended” or some such.
\n      I posted a brief list with no explanation, but I thought – this sort of discussion requires more thought and detail!
\n      So away I go, in no particular order…<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/u> – by Victor Hugo.<\/i> I read this book when I was around fifteen. I went through a period when I was seriously into the classics, trying desperately to act as smart as I knew I secretly could be. I read Anna Karenina<\/u> and Jane Eyre<\/u> and a bunch of Dickens. I guess it started as a way to off-set my tweenage obsession with Jackie Collins novels. But when I hit Les Mis, I hit it hard. It was the first novel that touched me in a profound way. I mean, books had made me laugh or cry or fall half-in-love with characters, but never had I felt such wonder or been as astounded by it. Part of the draw came from the musical, I admit it, but still… when I got to the end and Jean Valjean gave his last little bits of dialogue and then died… it was about two in the morning, I was in the living room by the fireplace in that ivory wingback chair… and I sobbed. I mean it was the ugly<\/i> cry. And I never forgot it. One of my main goals, as a writer, is to one day inspire that level of… ugh… pain! Visceral, gut-wrenching, agony…<\/li>\n
  2. The Dragon Prince<\/u> – by Melanie Rawn.<\/i> Also, the other six books in the two trilogies. I had long loved fantasy – the idea<\/b> of fantasy, at least. Yet it was not until I picked up The Dragon Prince<\/u> that I really discovered a deep affection for it. I loved Ms. Rawn’s books before I even read the classics – Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and McCaffrey. She is the big-cast, complicated-plot, unique-magic, amazeballs-world-building ruler that I measure all other books by. I have read and re-read them. I have cried and laughed and carried these books across the country half-a-dozen times.<\/li>\n
  3. It<\/u> – by Stephen King<\/i>. I was in 6th grade and I had already blown past the other kids in my English class on the “pages read” competition list. It wasn’t enough to win though – I wanted to cream<\/i> them. Since reading was the only thing I was much good at, I went to the library and found the biggest, thickest book I could see. It was “It” and even though I had seen a bit of the TV mini-series a few years before when it first ran on TV and that tiny bit gave me clown-nightmares for a week… I checked it out. And I read it. Sure, I had to hide it in the wicker chest filled with blankets that resided in the hallway. I couldn’t even have the physical BOOK in my room, or I could not sleep. Also, it taught me that even critically acclaimed books, great books, can have flaws. That book allows me to love and hate my own books.<\/li>\n
  4. The Valley of the Horses<\/u> – by Jean M. Auel.<\/i> Yeah, so, I have to admit this. I read the first four “Earth’s Children” books when I was in mid-teens. Thirteen and Fourteen, I think. I did a hideously embarrassing book report on the second one in my Sophomore year. I failed to realize there would be a verbal component and I had to stand in front of the class and talk about my book that month. Eek. Anyway – aside from the purple prose sex scenes peppered throughout the series, and the implausibly perfect main characters, those books gave me a real love for factual, researched, historical fiction. They made me interested in herbs and natural medicine, in the tools ancient cultures used and how they learned. Those books sparked a fascination for ancient\/archaic skills and techniques that I carry to this day. Sure, I research things like brain-tanning for my books, but also because they are fascinating<\/i>! All because of Ms. Auel. Too bad she fucked up the last two books so badly. But that’s a rant for another day.<\/li>\n
  5. Red Dog<\/u> – by Bill Wallace<\/i>. I don’t really remember the plot anymore. Something about squatters or someone trying to take a homestead from a kid and his family. And his dog. Maybe it is my love for things canine, or maybe it was the “little house in the mountain valley” vibe, but I fell in love with this book. I put it down as my favorite novel on lists and questionnaires for years afterward. I should read it again one of these days – I still have my copy – accidentally stolen from my 4th Grade Teacher, Mrs. Walker. Ooops, sorry about that, Mrs. Walker!<\/li>\n
  6. Illusion<\/u> – by Paula Volsky.<\/i> Elfin-haired elitist Eliste. My fascination with the French Revolution. A recommendation from my future husband that I could not ignore. This novel changed how I viewed historical fiction AND fantasy. If I cannot be as talented as Melanie Rawn when I grow up, I want to be as talented as Paula Volsky. Do yourself a favor – if you haven’t given Illusion<\/u> a read yet – go find it and read it!<\/li>\n
  7. Slave<\/u> – by Mende Nazer.<\/i> A novel about slavery. Set in 1993. I was flabbergasted. I was naive – yes, even at 25 – about the situation in the rest of the world. I had never really made it a priority to learn or care. I had only the vaguest modern American notions of things like slavery, racism, third-world-problems. Then I read this novel and my eyes opened and now I drive my husband crazy with social justice issues and global goings-on. This girl’s story of real life (modern day!) enslavement stuck in my head.<\/li>\n
  8. The Shifting Ages<\/u> – by Timothy W. Fields.<\/i> If he ever finishes it, this book will rock my world. The excerpts I read back in the 90s, when he was working on a first draft… I adored them. So much. SO much. <\/li>\n
  9. The Ruins of Ambrai<\/u> – by Melanie Rawn.<\/i> *sigh* Like The Shifting Ages<\/u>, this remains unfinished and it desperately needs to be finished. I understand the author went through a tragic time in her life and she hasn’t been able to face the return to the trilogy. But… *sigh*<\/li>\n
  10. The Song of Ice and Fire<\/u> – by George R.R. Martin.<\/i> Changed my life. Set me to loving fantasy after a few years’ absence. Definitely affected my writing – my latest novel is broken up into POV chapters like his series. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Dear Lord, I could go on forever, but I think I’m closing in on 1200 words and that’s pretty excessive for a freaking LIST.
    \n      If you actually read this far – comment below and tell me 10 books that have stayed with YOU well beyond the end of the book.
    \n\"Signed,
    \nNote: Image is “Old Books 2” by (nkzs) from SXC.hu<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Books.       I am a writer. I love words. And when words come together in a swirling conglomeration of emotion and character and plot and rhythm and awesome… a book is born.       Thus, loving words, I love books.       What do you mean that logic… <\/p>\n

    Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1],"tags":[104,214,106,105],"class_list":["post-728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","category-uncategorized","tag-books","tag-life","tag-lists","tag-reading","xfolkentry","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":730,"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions\/730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jeezjosie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}