A Man in Full -- Tom Wolfe
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith
Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
Al l Quiet on the Western Front ll -- Erich Maria Remarque
Beach Music & The Prince of Tides -- Pat Conroy
Body and Soul -- Frank Conroy
Cannery Row, East of Eden & The Grapes of Wrath -- John Steinbeck
Far from the Madding Crowd -- Thomas Hardy
Go Tell it on the Mountain – James Baldwin
Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan
Middlemarch -- George Eliot
Pickwick Papers, Hard Times, & Great Expectations -- Charles Dickens
Pride and Prejudice -- Jane Austen
Red Badge of Courage -- Stephen Crane
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter -- Carson McCullers
The Poisonwood Bible -- Barbara Kingsolver
The Great Gatsby -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Billy Budd -- Herman Melville
The Good Earth – Pearl Buck
The Last of the Mohicans -- James Fenimore Cooper
The Accidental Tourist – Ann Tyler
To Kill a Mockingbird -- Harper Lee
SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE TIME
{just a few of the novels that have changed my life)
For Dylan, Taylor, and Caylie
Each a Tiny Miracle Filled with Promise
Thursday, November 30, 2006
We look at a child, and we think we see
the child we think
we could have been
or the child we were
all over again.
We see dimples, we see fingers,
we see toes that feel finer
than the finest velvet.
Softer than the softest down.
We see chance.
We are so tempted
to think we can mold –
that we should –
a child into going our way.
To become what we want.
Wanted so badly to be.
Stand up! Put your shoulders back!
Don’t touch that!
Pick up!
Don’t talk back!
Go to the school I tell you to.
This is dressing for success.
Only think you want to play
with that. Like my game better.
This profession, not that.
Age and Experience have decided.
You are a child. Remember that.
We are the ones who need
to remember. There is A Plan
that has little to do with us.
If we feed our children well,
if we listen, if we show
instead of tell,
if we keep a hand free
to stop falls – not failures --
if we are here, rewarding
and growing along with,
our children will soon lead us
as they travel with awe
through The Great Adventure.
Shhhhhh. Close the storybook
for now. So sweet in sleep.
Such treasures not to keep.
