10 Books that Stuck with Me

I love to read.  It is said that children are made readers on the knees of their parents.  I truly have my parents to thank for me being a reader today.  I have read hundreds (maybe thousands) of books, but, prompted by one of those Facebook things, I choose ten that "stuck" with me for some reason. 

Rain Makes Applesauce, Julian Scheer
(A children's book published in the 60s, it's just as silly as the title sounds.)

Though this children's book was published in 1964, I didn't read it until the 2000s as a teenager.  It was referenced several times in a teenage romance novel I read, so I decided to check it out.  The title is quite indicative of the book: pure silliness.  And honestly, I believe that someone who doesn't like the book is probably way too serious for their own good.  Scheer worked for NASA when he wrote the book, and according to the cover flap, "the play of a child's mind is even more marvelously far out than space-probing."
My favorite line is, "The wind blows backwards all night long and rain makes applesauce.  Oh, you're just talking silly talk."  This book is a refreshing reminder that we're all just talking silly talk in the end.

Rediscover Catholicism, Matthew Kelly
(From Amazon.com: "In this unique and timely book, [Kelly] proposes that Catholicism is not a lifeless set of rules and regulations , but a way of life designed by God to help each person reach his or her full potential. With remarkable insight, Kelly dispels dozens of myths that surround the rejection of Catholicism today and provides a profound and practical vision of what will lead the Catholic Church to thrive again in the future.)

Don't let Amazon's stupid, self-help-sounding blurp dishearten you.  This book was given to members of my parish in Louisiana, and it came to me at a crucial time.  I was at the lowest point of my decade-long battle with depression, and this book took my mind off of it.  I hated the prologue to this book (an unimaginable analogy full of flaws), but I was able to fall in love again with Catholicism via the rest of this book.  The section on the seven pillars of Catholic spirituality helped me grow in my faith, and this book reminded me why I love the Church.

Gone with the Wind, Margarett Mitchell
(Southern plantation before and during the Civil War fiction at its greatest.  Seriously, this book still ranks as one of the favorite books among Americans.  Scarlett O'Hara is too charming for her own good, and the novel portrays her growing into adult hood, breaking hearts and having her's broken, and coming to realize that she must only depend on herself.)

I don't know how many times I've read this book or seen the movie.  Without a doubt, if I catch it on television, I'll stop everything to watch it.  I read it for the first time in middle school and have been enthralled ever since.  It is far more than a story of romance (In fact, it's probably one of the most depressing romances ever.); it's a story of resilience, faith, and determination.  Definitely a better story than any romance I've read lately.

13 Reasons Why, Jay Asher
(Hannah Baker committed suicide.  According to a series of tape recordings, Clay Jensen is one of the thirteen reasons why she did it.)

This YA novel came out the year I graduated high school, and it perfectly summed up how awful high school can be.  The story is told by Clay Jensen about the thirteen reasons why his crush, Hannah Baker, committed suicide.  He's one of the reasons, and he spends an entire night following a map and listening to recordings she left about why she killed herself.  I cried a lot while reading this.  I've reread it a few times and cried then, too. 
I would love to be able to teach this book to a class of high school students.

The House of Dies Drear, VIrginia Hamilton
(Thomas Small and his family move into a house that once served as a stop on the Underground Railroad.  The caretaker, Mr. Pluto, is a strange man that the townsfolk call a devil, which Thomas begins to believe when strange and scary things begin to happen in the house.)

I actually got to teach this novel to a group of middle schoolers, but my first time reading it was in the fifth grade.  It touches on a lot of sticky topics: racism, classism, being an outsider.  But I didn't pick up on those until I taught it to my middle school kids.  I learned just as much as they did.  It moves quickly and offers a lot of mystery and suspense.  I love it, and I really enjoyed teaching it.  But I'm not sure why it stuck with me so much.

In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
(A non-fiction, true crime "novel" that details the 1959 quadruple murder of the Clutter family of Kansas.  After reading about the murders, Capote and his good friend, Haper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird) traveled to Holcomb, Kansas to interview the townspeople.)
 
I hate horror stories, but I really enjoy true crime.  A lot of the time true crime stories cross the line with the gruesome as a way to hook readers.  In True Blood is perfection, though.  I've read it several times, and I never cease to be enthralled from the very beginning. 

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
(Young, new-money Jay Gatsby is obsessed with old-money Daisy Buchanan (who you'll probably quickly hate).)

I think the fact that I want to have a labra-doodle named Fitzgerald (Fitzie for short) says a lot about how I feel about F. Scott.  Another book I've read time and time again, Gatsby is so relateable.  I don't know the number of times I've tried way too hard to impress people I shouldn't be impressing, only to have it all come crashing down. 

Postcards from No Man's Land, Aidan Chambers
(Two stories are told at once, one of Jacob Todd in Amsterdam in 1994, the second of Geertrui, a young girl who nursed Jacob's grandfather in 1944.)

This book makes me uncomfortable but in the best of ways.  Issues of euthanasia and sexual identity are addressed, but the most uncomfortable aspect of the book is that the protagonist, Jacob Todd, has his world totally rocked.  Jacob's idea of his grandfather is challenged when he meets the woman who nursed his wounded grandfather during World War II.  Bridging the past and present with two stories told simultaneously, Chambers manages to write the feelings we all have when we realize that our parents or grandparents are not always who we think they are.

A Separate Peace, John Knowles
(Gene and Finny live and study at a New England Prep School in the early 1940s.  Polar opposites, they become fast friends.  Ultimately, Finny helps Gene to find himself.  The story is told when Gene returns to the school twenty years later to visit two sites: a flight of marble stairs and a tree, both of which play major roles in the book.)

This is the third YA novel and second YA coming-of-age novel set (at least partially) during World War II on my list.  A Separate Peace is an American classic and for good reason.  It was published less than twenty years after WWII ended, so I feel like it's probably pretty telling of that generation.  But the best part about coming-of-age novels is that they're always relevant.  Knowles' story of one friend pushing another so far out of his comfort zone makes the reader uncomfortable at times.  But like Postcards, you're uncomfortable in the best of ways. 

The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien
(A collection of short stories about a platoon during the Vietnam War.  Fiction, though many of the characters are semi-biographical sharing similar characteristics of men from O'Brien's memoir.)

I've only read this book, cover to cover, twice.  But I've read various parts of it a hundred times.  This book is hard for me to read; it's so damned sad a lot of the time.  Its a war story in the broadest sense; it takes place during a war in the middle of combat and several of the short stories are about combat.  But I feel so drawn to it because of the relationships within it.  In the last story, "The Lives of the Dead," O'Brien admits that he keeps his lost loved ones alive by telling their stories.  The entire book is meant, not to show the ugliness of war, but to show the beauty of friendship.