Woody’s new book STRAWBERRIES IN WINTERTIME: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter is available for Pre-Order HERE NOW! In time for the holidays!
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Turning the Pages Through 2015
Good things, sometimes, must come to an end. After doing an annual column for the past six years recommending some of my favorite books, I was of the mind to end the tradition – or at least take a hiatus.
The short reason was that my reading list was too short on this trip around the sun. My yearly goal is to read 52 books, but I fell far shy of averaging one a week in 2015. My tally to date, in fact, is only 29. Writing a new book, it seems, interferes greatly with reading them.
Catching up with Drew Daywalt, author of “The Day the Crayons Quit” and “The Day the Crayons Came Home.”
But I changed my mind the other day when I was in a bookstore picking up a copy of “The Day the Crayons Came Home” as a gift. A woman recognized me – and also said I was much taller in person than my column picture suggests, although I have no idea how a tiny mug shot can suggest height one way or the other – and asked when I was going to share my annual book recommendations.
When I answered I was passing on the book column this year, she begged me to reconsider. I did. Here goes.
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I will begin with none other than “The Day the Crayons Came Home” by my friend and Oak Park resident, Drew Daywalt. (Which means I am also recommending Drew’s debut children’s book, “The Day the Crayons Quit.”)
As with the best of children’s literature, one need not be a kid to enjoy these two mega-award winners – the first is even being made into a big-budget movie. So pick up a copy of each for a child you know – but read them yourself first!
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Another surprise recommendation is a YA – Young Adult – novel.
“All the Bright Places” is also written by a friend of mine, Jennifer Niven, and has won a wheelbarrow full of 2015 honors – and is also being made into a movie, starring Elle Flanning.
Despite being YA, “All the Bright Places” is dark and gritty and mysterious enough to captivate OA – Older Adult – readers.
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After reading John L. Parker’s newest novel, “Racing the Rain,” I felt compelled to re-read the other two books in the trilogy about Quenton Cassidy: “Once a Runner” and “Again To Carthage.”
“Racing the Rain” is the prequel to “Once a Runner,” which was originally published in paperback in 1978 in such limited numbers that its cult following caused tattered copies to sell for $200 and higher on eBay until it was finally reprinted in hardcover in 2010.
Reading the entire story in chronological order – “Again to Carthage” was the second to come out, but is the finale – enriched all three.
By the way, one need not be a runner to enjoy Parker’s storytelling because Cassidy’s running quest is a metaphor for the journey of life.
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“The Yosemite” by John Muir. Enough said.
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David McCullough again makes my top shelf, as the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner does pretty much any year he comes out with a new historical gem, this time with “The Wright Brothers.”
The most obvious, accurate and shortest blurb to describe this latest effort is: “ ‘The Wright Brothers’ soars!”
My enjoyment of this text was enriched by seeing McCullough give a talk in Santa Barbara about the Wright Brothers.
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Similarly, I read “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban” after seeing the Nobel Peace Prize’s youngest-ever winner – at age 17 – speak at the Arlington Theatre this summer.
Rest assured, her story is equally inspiring on the written page as over a microphone.
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After beginning this column with a couple friends, it seems fitting to end with one more.
Recommended to me by my pal Clint Garman, who as a pastor and owner of Garman’s Restaurant & Irish Pub in Santa Paula is an expert on both topics covered in the pages, “The Search for God and Guinness: A Biography of the Beer that Changed the World” by Stephen Mansfield was as enjoyably rich in education as a pint of “the good stuff” is rich in flavor.
Cheers! And happy reading in 2016.
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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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