What Are You Reading?

Hello all! 

(Gloria Swanson)

I managed to fit in a bit of reading while on school holidays!

I'm just in the midst of reading This Side of Paradise

and

But before these two, I finished reading Robin Hobb's latest book, 

I love Hobb's fantasy world of dragons, ships and magical cities,
and I really enjoyed this book,
but nothing will beat reading the Liveship Trader and Assassins Apprentice series,
when I discovered Hobb's writing for the first time. 

Also, I read For One More Day

and Moving Forward

which both dealt with the same topic, how to raise yourself above your past and become a better person.
Albom's version was a hypothetical type of story, in that it asks the question, what would you do if someone close to you died, and then came back into your life for one day. In the narrator's case it is his mother, and, while he is ashamed to admit his flaws and mistakes, he realises he can begin to live his life in a better way
if he wishes.

In Pelzer's Moving Forward, the story of a lost childhood is real, as Pelzer was horribly abused as a child. And yet, with all that darkness he found ways to let go of the past to enable him to move ahead, and now uses his experiences to help others. He provides tested methods for dealing with the low moments in life and how to get above them, and then takes this even further by encouraging people to be leaders. He warns, though that leaders don't get it easy. There will always be people who are cynical or jealous of the success of others and his advice is to be prepared rather than surprised by this. It is not personal, he says, just human nature for people to feel like they are missing out when a colleague or friend finds success.  I found this idea to be valuable, and I realised how important it is to be consciously aware of this.
I'll be reading more of Pelzer's books in the future!

I also finished reading Little Men

which was the most adorable story!
It tells of Jo Bhaer, from Little Women, who grows up to run her own school for boys (and some girls), and details all their little personalities and adventures, providing the children (and the reader!) with a whole lot of life lessons. Being a teacher I could really relate to all the idiosyncrasies and misunderstandings of the children, and just wanted to hug each one of them! If you love stories like Little Women
and The Secret Garden, then you will enjoy this too.

I also had a quick read on my iphone of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Being only a short story it was nowhere near as involved as the film (which was amazing!) but it is still an incredible story for its unusual concept of being born old and growing younger. While the ending didn't leave me in devastated tears like at the end of the film, it is still a spooky conclusion,
and makes you think about time, mortality, and how we live our lives.
Brilliant stuff!

Time to pop over to Book Journey to check out what everyone else is reading:

Love to you!
xxx