Another writer gone, but not forgotten

Pat Conroy

10-26-1945 - 3-4-2016

RIP

We lost another author and a good one, Pat Conroy.  He was the author of the Prince of Tides and other books that were made into movies.  I’m sure some of you saw some of his films, The Great Santini and Conrack, or perhaps read his books.  The movie for Conrack was titled The Water is Wide and was about teaching poor children on the isolated Daufiskie Island, not far from the resort of Hilton Head where the rich lived.  Mr. Conroy won a National Endowment for the Arts award for this book in 1972.

The movie, Prince of Tides, also won him an Academy Award nomination in 1991.

Conroy lived many places during his life, but called South Carolina home where he was born on October 26, 1945, the oldest of seven children.  The family moved extensively during his childhood because his dad was an aviator in the military.  He flew fighter planes and was very hard on Pat while he was growing up.  He made him attend the Citadel, which was the last thing he wanted to do, but he avoided the draft and wrote a blog at that time about being an anti-war activist.  He saw eight of his Citadel friends killed in the Vietnam War.  He said “they walked off the stage and directly into the Vietnam War.”

Pat Conroy’s memoir, The Death of Santini, reflects on the struggles between him and his father.  After the movie, The Great Santini, came out his father claimed responsibility for boosting the career of Robert Duvall, the main character.  Duvall had already starred in the “Godfather” movies so this wasn’t entirely true, but gives one a sense of what a controlling man his father was. 

Later the book did help to achieve peace between father and son.

The author was married three times and leaves behind two daughters.  He battled a number of health problems including diabetes, high blood pressure and a failing liver.  During his life, he suffered from depression, divorce, back surgery and the suicide of a younger brother.  But he succumbed to pancreatic cancer on Friday, March 4 2016.  He will be missed.

Read Across America

It’s Read Across America day and also the birthday of Dr. Seuss, children’s writer and illustrator.

It’s nice to have a day devoted to reading, but we should all read something everyday.  You’re never too old to read, whether it’s for fun or research.  I’m thankful I learned to read because there are many people in the world who’ve never had the chance to learn to read, or to write.

Dr Seuss left us with many great quotes that are good for all ages.  Below are some of my favorites.

                                 

A tribute to Harper Lee

April 28, 2926 – February 19, 2016
RIP

Not everyone can write a classic piece of literature, but this lady did it and did it well with To Kill a Mockingbird.  I read this book in high school, but that was many years ago.  I want to read it again now.  How many of you have read this classic book?

She had the guts to write a book about race when racial tension was high, especially in the south.  And even though the book was controversial and perhaps not about a pleasant subject, she won a Pulitzer Prize.  You can’t get much better than that.  I’m sure many people will read this book in the years to come.

We lost a great lady, but she lived a nice long life and still had her wits about her.  That’s more than some of us can say, or hope for.  I’m glad she lived long enough to see her second book Go Set a Watchman published in July 2015.  This book is supposedly the precursor to 'Mockingbird.'  I haven’t read it yet, but I doubt it will be half the book as the first one.  We’ll see.

Most of her life was lived in seclusion in the southern town of Monroeville, Alabama.  This was her choice.  I’m all for people living by their own rules.  She was the youngest of four children and never married.  To read more of her life story, click here.

Happy Valentines's Day Dear Friends

Let's make this a special day to be kinder to everyone we meet, not just our loved ones.  Everyone is probably fighting some kind of battle in his/her life.  Think how nice it would be just to make one day a little better.

What does this mean for people with degrees?

When this came across my news pages, I wondered if this is only the beginning of a new trend in the writing and publishing world.  It only takes one to break the ice and move in a new direction and others will follow. 

It looks to me like all the money and time put in for a degree and other credentials won’t hold the weight it once did and the playing field may be leveled to include people with life experience and not necessarily a degree.  This is an interesting turn of events.  If you’re interested, you can read the whole article here.  All comments are welcome.

Who doesn’t like FREE books?

Books are always high on my list.  I don’t think you can ever have too many.  Books are expensive so it’s great to find a big variety free of charge.

Here are twenty sites on the web to download free books.  You’ll be able to find any genre you’re looking for on this list.  Most of these places are easy to search using the book name or author name.  Some of them require you to sign up first.   I guarantee you won’t run out of reading material any time soon.

ReadPrint – this one has anything from classics to sci-fi to Shakespeare and more.  This site requires you to register but it’s free.

ManyBooks.net – over 20,000 books are available at this site

The Literature Network –most books on this one are free, but some require a small fee.  Authors are listed alphabetically by last name.

FreeComputerBooks.com – you’ll find everything to do with computers on this one, as well as some textbooks.

Librivox.org – this one has free audio books and gives you a choice whether to listen on your device or to download to CD.  You can also volunteer to be a reader for an audio book.

Authorama.com – find current and classic authors here in English as well as some German texts.  You can read these on your computer or print out pages to read later.

Project Gutenberg – most books are in English but there are some other languages available.  This site contains over 50,000 books in various formats.

Scribd – This site gives you a fourteen-day free trial and then it’s $8.99 a month.  They have ebooks, audio books, sheet music and comics.

International Digital Children’s Library – This site is organized by age, reading level, book length and genre.  English and other languages are available.

Ebooks and Text Archives – This one includes popular books, children’s books, historical and academic books.

World Public Library – This one is $8.95 a year for access to thousands of books in 100 different languages.  However, there are over 200 titles on a Give Away Page.  You also have to sign up to use this one.

Questia Public Library – this one contains classics, rarities and textbooks.

Wikisource – the works on this site are submitted and maintained by its users.

Wikibooks – most of the books on this one are textbooks and some cookbooks.

Bibliomania – this one has 200 classics, plus author notes, biographies, summaries and study guides.

The Open Library – over a million books in a variety of formats.

Sacred Texts – this one contains books on religion, mythology and folklore.

SlideShare – this one is for digital presentations on any subject.  Anyone can share ideas, or learn about new technology, by uploading or downloading presentations.  The sign up is free.

Free eBooks – this one has a wide variety of genres but there’s a limit on books per month unless you sign up for a VIP membership.

The Online Books Page – this one has over a million books to read and is maintained by the University of Pennsylvania.

Resolution time

From my house to yours...Happy New Year everyone.  

Raven

We have a blank page again to start new adventures.  What fun.  I haven't made any resolutions yet.  I just hope this will be a better year than 2015, although last year did have some nice moments in it.  

Let’s face it, most of the resolutions we make are broken before the month of January is over. What is called for is being more thoughtful and realistic about the goals we set for ourselves.  As we all know, life gets in the way of many things as the days go by.  

This year, I'm taking my time to think this over.  I think the usual items on the list, losing weight, eating healthier and exercising more are hard to keep because we need to be resolved to change our habits.  That isn't an easy thing to do, but it can be done.  I'm happy with myself in those areas anyway because I changed my habits long time ago where weight, diet and exercise are concerned.  

This year I think my goals will be smaller and more attainable. When I reach them I can make more, even if it isn't New Years.  Remember, you can do this too and may be happier with yourself if you take baby steps.  There's nothing at all wrong with that.  As we look to the future, it’s time to get serious with ourselves about the things important to us.  What do we really want to accomplish?  If you’re yearning for it, the resolution will be easier to keep.

Think about that as you make your list.  Until next time...