Ghosts of War by Ryan Smithson, a Columbia High grad who went to Afghanistan as a 19 year old GI. Tristan really liked this and I learned from it. It was written in very simple language, explaining basic Army terms and abbreviations. Not too gory and sad in spots but not overwhelmingly so. I kept thinking it was a YA book, but it wasn't.
In return, I gave him Dave Pelzer's A Boy Called It and was very pleased that he zipped right through it. It is such a great story. He is now readinga Walter Dean Myers' war story about Fallujah which I brought him from the lib.
Joyce recommended a YA book that I also liked: Revolver by Marcus Sedgewick. Set at the turn of the century in Alaska, a teen must cope with the freezing death of his father and a murderous stranger who invades their small isolated home in the wilds.
Finally finished Love is the Best Medicine, a vet's story by Dr. Nick Trout. Sort of a "pick up and read a little now and then" kind of dog book.
I attempted to read Lisa Scottoline's bestseller Save Me and found it totally insipid, bad dialogue, improbable situations, unlikeable characters. A popcorn read for the brain dead. I abandoned it.
In the beginning...
...there were The Flyaways, a family who traveled in their miraculous flying machine having daring adventures with Goldilocks and Cinderella. The first in the 3-book series by Alice Dale Hardy was published by Grosset and Dunlap in 1925 and copies are almost extinct. Few people remember Ma and Pa, Tommy and Susie Flyaway now.
I became acquainted with them on my grandfather's lap, my dear Grandpa Baker who read and read and read to me every evening for as many years as I can remember. I would hold my breath as each chapter ending neared, hoping he would not stop. I would keep begging for "just one more" chapter until his voice got so hoarse I would have to run to his room to get his throat lozenges.
Over the years we covered all of Uncle Wiggly and Honey Bunch, the Bobbsey Twins, the Five Little Peppers, the Wind in the Willow series, some of them more than once. He read to me until long after I could read everything for myself, until I was into Beverly Gray, Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. I was safe and happy snuggled up on the couch with him and that feeling has never left me. I still read and read and read, and it still makes me feel safe and happy.
I became acquainted with them on my grandfather's lap, my dear Grandpa Baker who read and read and read to me every evening for as many years as I can remember. I would hold my breath as each chapter ending neared, hoping he would not stop. I would keep begging for "just one more" chapter until his voice got so hoarse I would have to run to his room to get his throat lozenges.
Over the years we covered all of Uncle Wiggly and Honey Bunch, the Bobbsey Twins, the Five Little Peppers, the Wind in the Willow series, some of them more than once. He read to me until long after I could read everything for myself, until I was into Beverly Gray, Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. I was safe and happy snuggled up on the couch with him and that feeling has never left me. I still read and read and read, and it still makes me feel safe and happy.
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