Winter Is Coming: Reading

Nope not the Game of Thrones books, but let's revisit the classics. Which of these have your read? Looking to gift someone a present? You can't go wrong with a classic! I began reading classic by the time I was in 4th grade, I loved Shakespeare (go figure). I loved going to my school library and devouring an entire book in a  week, feeding my imagination. Now there are video games, but the knowledge, awakening that happens from reading is lacking in video games, and movies... so pick up a book this winter!

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - as much as Mark Twain is loved, as a girl, growing up in India, I couldn't identify much with Tom Sawyer, however I did dream of being a "lady" in the arms of Darcy in the old days when men were gentlemen and women were elegant... It's a must read for all young girls, whether they are a tomboy or girlie, it puts life into perspective.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - Sherlock Holmes is always an amazing adventure and mystery. He teaches us to think in new ways. It's amazing what we can learn from his methods of deduction! Heck when I first read a Sherlock Holmes book, I had no idea what deduction meant, but it was so well written one could easily deduce what it meant! ;-)

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Grimms' Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm - my mother first made me read the Grimm's Fairy Tales, and well they weren't fairy tales, more like horror stories. Still highly recommended, interesting, intriguing!

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde - this is an awesome witty story, much like a comedy of errors. It had me laughing.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
The Divine Comedy by Dante
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville - When reading it for some reason, I took the whale's side. It was always about the whale. I really had no attachment to anyone, except the whale and all the other whale friends. It's interesting what goes through a child's mind when they read books for the first time.

Ulysses by James Joyce
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
The Republic by Plato
Dracula by Bram Stoker
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens- One of my favorite classics this one, I don't know why I was so drawn into it. Maybe I was there, but Dickens works his magic through a political plot, to the most... Ok i can't say but its one heck of a book.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Dubliners by James Joyce- A spinet of life in Ireland. It's so cultural, and a different type of adventure, living in other people's shoes.

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë  - the most amazing romantic- tragedy ever. I saw the play after reading the book, and it made me cry as students acted it out.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Emma by Jane Austen
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad- my most favorite book of all time. I have so many copies of it. I love this story for the darkness it so truly captures.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin

Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - I recently began reading the Horla and oh boy! Maupassant had a way with horror, so creepy, dark and macabre!

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe - With all the rave about the show the Following, one must pick up some Poe. The Raven, The tell-tale heart... More darkness and Macabre!

The Iliad by Homer
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll - Read this book and find out why Wonderland is really creepy and scary. It's like Stephen King's IT if not scarier. I had nightmares as a child.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - if that much Shakespeare is an overdose, my favorites are a Winter's Tale, Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, Macbeth (as a kid this gave me nightmares), The Tempest, As You Know It, A Twelfth Night or What you Will and of course the popular ones such as Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night's Dream, and Othello...

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Call of the Wild by Jack London - this was another childhood favorite of mine. If you love dogs, the wilds, read this! Also great winter reading.

Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw
Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle - of all the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Homles' stories this was always my favorite because it involved dogs. It's a great mystery and a great ending, and a lovely trip to the dreary countryside in the bogs, and other lovely geography found only in England!

The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Aesop's Fables; a new translation by Aesop
Thus Spoke Zarathustra. by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
The Odyssey by Homer
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
Animal Farm by George Orwell

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien- with the second installment of the movie based on this book coming out, it would be great to revisit the story. Mostly because how did they drag out a simple story into 4 movies?! It's a classic to read over and over again, and now we can watch it.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Slaughter House - Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Where the Red Ferns Grow by Wilson Rawls
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
White Fang by Jack London
The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
The Time Machine by HG Wells
The Litttle Matchgirl by Hans Christian Anderson
The Mill on the Floss by George Elliot

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy - another period story of women in England, women who weren't nobility, and how they lived. It was a very important book in my life, and Tess is one of my favorite books, characters, and its so well written.
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell - Another classic, and favorite. A book about cruelty to animals, however also teaches us about loving, living and treating animals. Although fantastical it was a wonderful book to read as a child.

Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The Hunchback of Notre- Dame by Victor Hugo
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein
Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud
Paradise Lost by John Milton
The Bhagavad Gita
The I Ching
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
Medea by Euripides
The Mahabharata
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol
Selected Short Stories by Anton Chekhov

A Poem: Kindness and Caring

To be kind and to care

Is a gift I try to share,

It is difficult at times

To forgive others of their crimes.

My heart is big, brimming with love,

I come in peace, I fly the white dove,

I choose to be kind and nice

To both men and mice.

Some mistake my kindness

To be a great weakness,

Some think my sharing

Is something so daring.

These are my choices

To stand up for unheard voices,

This is who I am,

I wash myself in the blood of the lamb.

There is a joy in giving,

Service is the purpose for us living,

People fear giving,

For they often fear living.

Sometimes we become selfish

After being hurt by those who are devilish,

We close the doors to our heart

Keeping us apart.

There are those who take advantage of my kindness,

Often rendering in my mind and heart a huge mess,

I hope they learn and grow someday

Or else I fear their future is dark and grey.

Letting go of our egos

Loving our foes,

Are what religious books preach

For some these goals are so hard to reach.

I warn those who hurt me,

That I will give them a chance or will let them just be,

Cutting all ties,

I will not deal with lies.

I do not have swords or guns

And about me and my heart you may make fun,

I may be struck down,

But on my face you will never find a frown.

I'm not perfect, for I do falter,

But my shortcomings I always try and alter,

I try hard to keep my word,

I try to not let my anger be spurred.

My strength lies in my heart,

Which is wide as an ocean, and warm as a hearth,

My strength lies in my mind,

I realize to be sharing, caring and kind.

Breathe.

Painting with My Fingers

Pick up a book!

The spark of creativity
Thus unfolds
The innocence and naivete
That imagination often holds.

To frolic and dance,
To paint trees and mountains,
To play with unicorns perchance,
And to swim under magical fountains...

From my mind
To the paper or screen,
Do my fingers tap dance, in kind,
To make what never was, to have always been.

That spark of creativity,
Awakens my mind,
In my heart an raging energy,
With words giving vision to the blind.

Tingles in my fingers
Longing to paint and dance on paper with a pen,
Creating amazing imagery, and stories that linger,
Tales of fantasy, fright, women warriors and loyal men...

This spark of creative energy
What will I create today?
Where will I travel?
Who will I meet? What adventures will I embark on?
Will you share them with me...?





-Breathe-

Falling Water's reading room...

This is what I envision when I think of reading... oh and hot chocolate, the fireplace crackling...

The Wall - Jon's Lament

"You know nothing, Jon Snow." Yigrette
She would tell me many a time,
Then she betrayed me like I would never forget,
She did what she knew, I forgive her of her crime.

The wall it stands there,
Looming,
Just thick ice reflecting the sun's glare,
Throughout the North, where it is forever gloaming.

Shall we place the wall between us?
With you on the cold side
Me on the South side
It freezes our love and trust.

I was always true,
To my black brothers and to you.
Then there was that moment,
When I had to choose, and it was sealed in cmement.

I chose to forgive,
I chose mercy and honor,
For the old man to live,
We had him in a corner...

You killed the old man,
For what? He begged for mercy.
Then you shot me in the leg, woman!
I know all women are crazy...

You know nothing Jon Snow!
That's all you said,
South of the wall I knew all there is to know,
I loved you for more than just to take you to bed.

I knew we could have had a different life,
We could have started afresh,
Without sticking the man with the knife,
You went ahead and created a mess.

I know you would blame me,
Saying "you know nothing, Jon Snow",
I am not as naive as I seem to be,
You just didn't see the entirety of the show.

Now you are gone,
I shall miss you,
Remembering always all that was done,
However, everyday is begins anew.



For Jon Snow, of the Night's Watch, on the Wall...

Reject

Have you ever felt lonely in a crowded room
Everyone's laughing, talking, mingling,
The room is bright and yet you see only gloom
And in your ear the endless silence ringing.

Have you ever felt left out
Of a circle of smiling friends,
As they make plans without a doubt
Not inviting you, not even an apology to make amends.

Have you ever felt not good enough
Like you were not pretty, thin, or buff
That your friendship didn't count
They only wanted someone they could flaunt.

Have you ever felt hurt
More painful than the deepest cut,
When someone you love pushes you away
Even though they will need you once again, some day.

Have you ever felt abandoned
Not loved or cared for, instead only scorned,
Forgotten in lieu
Of someone new.

Have you ever felt replaced
When they replace you with another face,
What did your friendship mean
Or was this the worst yet to be seen.

Have you ever felt betrayed
Like what happened to Robb and Catelyn, at the hands of the Freys,
To be treated as family only to be stabbed in the back
Those types of people aren't worth jack.

Have you ever felt rejected
Like your own father won't accept you
Like Tyrion his who life, dejected,
Discriminated like a diseased ridden ewe.

It's good to know
These are just feelings
A chemical reaction that may pass.
It's sad to feel, however,
For these are people's feelings,
Of which we should be mindful of, or peace,
is the ultimate goal.



Breathe



Tribute to Tyrion and Penny.