I read a couple of fiction books in November when we went away for the weekend. I also finished one non-fiction book I’d read over a couple of months.
So here’s what I read in November:
The Family Gift
by Cathy Kelly
Freya has just moved house but her blended family is under threat. Dan’s first wife who abandoned her daughter now decides she wants to see her teenage daughter. Can Freya keep her family together?
You Said Forever
by Susan Lewis
Charlotte appears to be living the dream surrounded by family and friends, living on a vineyard overlooking the ocean in New Zealand. However, she is haunted by the enormity of something she did years ago and is faced with making a harrowing decision.
Sophie’s Heart
by Lori Wick
Alec is struggling after the tragic death of his wife. He and his three children are lost in grief. Meanwhile Sophie has left Czechoslovakia to start a new life in America. She’s a highly educated woman but finds herself keeping house for Alec and his family. Can Sophie help Alec and his family through their grief?
All three novels were great reads and I cried at some point in each one. Tears of sadness and joy!
The Right to Write
by Julia Cameron
As the title suggests this book is about writing but it’s also about creativity of any sort and has great advice for life in general.
Wherever you are is always the right place. There is never a need to fix anything, to hitch up the bootstraps of the soul & start at some higher place. Start right where you are.”
Julia Cameron – p4 The Right to Write
This book is about making writing a natural part of life. After each short chapter there’s a suggested exercise to complete. I completed most of the exercises and hope to complete the rest soon. Many exercises involved writing but some were quite different like having an “Artist Date” to ‘fill the well’ by going to a museum, art gallery or somewhere else and just enjoying your time there. Others included going for a walk or a drive. One of the writing exercises that stands out is going to a cafe or shopping centre or similar and sitting and writing for an hour about what you see around you and describing the people and what they’re doing. I felt a bit like a spy and at one stage a lady on the table next to me, in the cafe got her small notebook out and started writing as well. I wrote that it would be ironic if she was doing the same exercise.
Julia Cameron recommends that everyone does Morning Pages every day. This is basically writing whatever’s on your mind first thing in the morning. This idea fits really well with the ‘scribe’ part of Hal Elrod’s Miracle Morning which I read earlier in the year. Whilst I’ve been doing morning pages it’s not only helped process some issues but I’ve also written down ideas to implement. I highly recommend this book.
What have you been reading lately? What books would you recommend?
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