Woody’s highly anticipated new book “STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” is NOW available! Order your signed copy HERE!
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Another Year for the Books
“The worst thing about new books,” said 18th-century French essayist Joseph Joubert, “is that they keep us from reading the old ones.”
Heeding this wisdom, I read quite a few old books in 2016. More accurately, I re-read some old friends. This included “The Known World,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward Jones, which tells a powerful story of slavery and freedom, cruelty and courage, family and much more.
This novel of historical fiction was originally, and enthusiastically, recommended to me when I was browsing the “New Releases” at Barnes & Noble back in 2003 – not by a staff worker, but by a perfect stranger.
Remarkably, it proved every bit as terrific as she promised – then and when I re-read it 13 years later. And so it lands a deserving spot in my seventh annual column of books I recommend.
My goal is to read 52 books each calendar year and with three weeks to go in 2016, I am on pace precisely to hit that mark with 49 books under my belt. However, I must admit this figure is inflated with the inclusion of 20 children’s books: specifically, “The Bedtime Story-Books” series written by Thornton W. Burgess beginning in 1910.
After visiting the Burgess Society Museum in East Sandwich, Mass., late last year, I was inspired to re-re-read these books from my childhood that I last re-read to my two children two decades ago. If you have a young child or grandchild, I recommend these adventures for out-loud reading.
Even subtracting the Burgess library, I believe I set a personal record for re-reading books this year. Robert Fulghum’s “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” led me to also revisit his collection of hilarious essays “What On Earth Have I Done.”
Similarly, after literally laughing out loud for a second time over Bill Bryon’s “A Walk in the Woods” I was inspired to re-read his comical “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid” about growing up in Middle America in the 1950s and “In a Sunburned Country” about his travels in Australia.
At the other end of the emotional spectrum, Mitch Albom’s memoir “Tuesdays With Morrie” once again tugged on my heartstrings and in turn led me to pick up his newest novel, “The Magic Strings of Frankie Pesto.” Imaginatively narrated by the character Music, these pages are as difficult to describe as they are to set down. Simply put, it is the work of a storytelling maestro.
If I could recommend only one book from my 2016 reading list, however, I believe it would be another new offering that landed in my hands quite similarly to how “The Known World” did: by recommendation.
More precisely, a gift copy of “Gloryland,” a novel by Shelton Johnson, came to me in the mail out of the blue and anonymously. I searched the Barnes & Noble box for a clue as to whom to thank, but there was no name on the receipt nor a gift note.
I even reached out on social media to learn my benefactor, again with no luck.
But what good luck to receive this book of historical fiction about the “Gloryland” of Yosemite, as told by buffalo soldier Elijah Yancy through his own life journey.
Yancy is born to sharecropping parents on January 1, 1863 – the day President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation. Freedom, however, is a long time in arriving in the Reconstructed South and this tale of cruelty and courage and family is heartbreaking – and heartwarming.
You may recognize its author, a real-life ranger at Yosemite, from Ken Burns’ documentary film “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” where he appears on camera numerous times speaking eloquently and passionately about the treasured valley.
Shelton Johnson is also an eloquent wordsmith whose writing is so beautiful I found myself re-reading sentences and passages, as one might behold Half Dome, savoring them before moving forward.
To my Secret Santa who sent me “Gloryland,” I send you a heartfelt thank you. Similar good cheer to the rest of you and happy reading in 2017.
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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.
Check out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”
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