Our challenges are what help to define us; what guides us to becoming more. What greater challenge can there be than trapped with a ferocious tiger? More so, if that tiger is your own fear, anxiety, depression, desolation, and despair. It is our faith that helps us cross the cruel and endless sea.
Life of Pi
Yann Martel, 2001
Martel said that Life of Pi can be summarized in three statements: 1. Life is a story. 2. You can choose your story. 3. A story with God is the better story.
In no particular order of significance, here are my picks:
Great Expectations was the first full novel I ever read. When I closed the book, I knew something had changed inside me. Dickens continues to be a favorite of mine. No one creates characters like Dickens.
The Life of Pi and A Prayer for Owen Meany made me cry. Owen Meany has the best opening line I’ve ever read in a novel.
East of Eden gripped and horrified me and made me think about the nature of evil and good. I will say that the 1981 film version starring Jane Seymour is my favorite interpretation of the novel despite everyone else loving James Dean’s movie. Jane Seymour was more frightening in this film than Sissy Spacek was in Carrie!
The Age of Innocence is beautiful, poignant, heartbreaking. I have seen the older and newer film versions, as well.
All the Light We Cannot See ripped my heart up. I don’t usually read WWII novels. They are too intense for me. Since my dad was a WWII veteran, the war doesn’t seem that distant in the past; the horror of it all seems real and recent to me.
Lila and Gilead are graceful, gentle, beautiful.
The Murmur of Bees was my first foray into magical realism. I just loved this story.
A Gentleman in Moscow was thought provoking and emotionally satisfying.
The Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe is the first fantastical novel I ever read, and I was an adult when I read it. I was moved to tears at the symbolic portrayal of grace. I’ve read all of the Chronicles of Narnia, and they have taught me about courage, grace and faith.
The Great Divorce, other than the Bible, has made the most lasting impression on me. More than any other book, I think about it almost daily.
One Hoosier Life 