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Books That Surprise Me

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Blogger: Wendy Lawton

I read many books. Pre-published books, published books, bestsellers. But there’s nothing that delights me more than books that surprise me. Let me talk about a few.

Several years ago I was in an airport with my friend and colleague, Janet Grant. Pre-Kindle days meant we had to detour by the bookstore since we were fresh out of books and the plane ride home would be a long one. Janet carefully read back covers and selected the perfect book based on the back cover copy, the author and the genre. I happened upon a book featured on a gondola and the cover 91Blk-erMkL._SL1500_took my breath away. I’m almost ashamed to admit I bought the pricey hardcover book because of the cover. But the surprise came in the story–The Nature of Monsters by Clare Clark– it was as compelling as the cover.

Another book that surprised me was Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. I had heard people describe the book of 365 devotions in superlatives. Yawn. Any book that is the new hot thing is generally not my thing. When I finally succumbed out of curiosity and opened the cover, I was hooked. I’ll humbly admit I’m on my third year through the book myself and have watched it change lives.

Many friends, knowing I love character-driven historical mysteries, recommended the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. I didn’t jump on the series immediately because it took place following WWI and I tend to avoid that awful aftermath. But when I finally dipped into the first book, titled simply Maisie Dobbs, I was hooked. So much richer and more challenging than anything I’d read. An investigator who was also a psychologist who took listening to a whole new level? It definitely belongs in my books that surprise me category. I’ve devoured all ten books and am waiting for mid March when the 11th will be out.

My most recent surprise came with the least likely book I might ever pick up. Written in 1939 and virtually unchanged in every edition since then, this book has sold some 30 million copies. Time magazine named it one of the 100 best and most influential books written in English since 1923 (the birth of the magazine). The Library of Congress designated it one of the 88 books that shaped America. The book? The Big Book (Alcoholics Anonymous). A friend challenged me to read it. She said that we all need to understand the twelve steps if we are to change and grow. In a thought-provoking talk she offered the premise that Christians tend to do steps one, two and three and then jump to steps eleven and twelve. We skip over things like “make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” Bingo. Reading this richly inspired book puts The Big Book high up on the books that surprise me list.

And of course, aside from books, there’s nothing that I enjoy discovering more than a manuscript that surprises me. 🙂

So how about you? what books have surprised you lately?

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  1. I have the feeling that being surprised by a book tells us more about who we are, whom we have been, the the person we are in the process of becoming than it says about the book in question.

    The advantage of reading with an open heart, perhaps.

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  2. Five Days in Skye surprised me. It had me discovering Scotland on Google Earth. I’m so ready for a European tour!

    And I can understand your love of The Nature of Monster’s cover … looks like the face of cherubim on paintings, maybe.

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  3. Took me awhile, but I remember now the book that surprised me most – “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”.

    I’d read Bach’s three previous books (“Stranger To The Ground”, “Biplane”, and “Nothing By Chance”) and loved them – they were thoughtful meditations on flying.

    And then he went and wrote that hippie book. All the longhairs and freaks were reading it.

    I thought that if I read it I would burn a flag, forget to bathe, scorn the barbershop, move to a commune, and spend my days saying “ooommmmmm, man, like, dig it, it’s groovy” between puffs on a hand-rolled cigarette that smelled like burning horse manure.

    And one day I picked it up, and was entranced by the simple yet profound story.

    Man…like, dig it. It’s groovy.

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  4. Fablehaven and The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull. Such good books and when I was reading The Candy Shop War and the kids were taking candy from this strange lady and then magical candy and then giving their parents mind numbing fudge…oh the inner mother in me was just screaming at Mr. Mull “You better have this candy lady be evil, or my kids will learn to do all of this, complete with the mind numbing fudge!” But when I looked in the back of the book and saw that he had 4 children of his own I had hope. And yes, the candy lady was the epitome of evil and it took the kids at least half the book to realize the danger and they did all sorts of dumb things but then the consequences began to fall and they learned and they grew and they overcame. Loved it!!! So many times I read kid characters that only think about doing the dumb thing and then they don’t. How can we live and grow with a story character like that? Oh how I loved that Brandon Mull made those kids be so stupid and then pick themselves off the ground and do the right thing to save their parents and the town from the evil candy lady. It was surprising, but in such a good way.

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  5. I read a lot of Middle Grade (although, Wendy, I think I will get the Big Book – sounds wonderful!).
    I picked up “The True Meaning of Smekday” and honestly expected to hate it (I picked it up because I am trying to get a picture of what is succeeding in kidlit). Instead, I loved, loved, loved that book. It was truly laugh out loud funny. And I will add to my list of recent loves “When You Reach Me” by Rebecca Stead.

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  6. Wendy, your example of picking up a book because of its beautiful and intriguing cover is an excellent reminder for us to make sure our own books are reflected well in their appearance. I know I tend to judge a book by its cover.

    I just finished a book written in first person’s POV of only one character. Someone had suggested it as a comparable for my project, so I took a look. Normally I prefer several POVs, but once I got past the first chapter I was hooked and read it within a few evenings. That surprised me. The whole book was full of surprises. Now I’m a fan of Christy Barritt after reading Hazardous Duty.

    You just never know.

    Blessings ~ Wendy Mac ❀

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  7. Perhaps parenthetical to the topic, perhaps not…

    I’m reading John MacManus’ “Deadly Sky”, a description of the life of the combat airman in WW2.

    MacManus is not an aviation expert, and early on some errors made me cringe; I nearly quit. But I made an effort to get past that, writing it off to “he’s not as smart as ME”, and I’m glad I did.

    He uses a lot of written and oral histories to tell a story infused with the details of a life that was mundane on the ground, and terrifying in the air. His care for the details, of how these men lived and ate and slept and played in between being the heroes that saved the world (truly) makes for a compelling read, and a record that should not be forgotten.

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  8. I have an opposite story about picking a book by the cover. For Valentines my public library had books wrapped in brown paper–A Blind Date with a Book. I got A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. My blind date goes with me on the exercise bike–not the best book I ever read, but I laughed out loud several times. I could have done worse, much worse.

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  9. I’ve been listening lately to “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ” by Lew Wallace. (Yes this is the book that the movie Ben-Hur was based on) When I ordered the book, I saw that it had 21 CD which made it over 21+ hours. Forget the movie (which doesn’t cover the whole book and is much different) it’s an amazing and facinating book. The time listening to this book seems so short and I am already more than half way done. This book was tops on the best seller list until “Gone with the Wind” came along. It was the most influential Christian book of the 19 Century. This book will become one of my favorite books to listen to.

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  10. I often end up reading books I would never pick because I belong to a book club, and the books with the most votes are the ones we read in the ensuing year. What gems have come my way as a result: The Orphan Master’s Son (who wants to read about the horrific life in North Korea); The End of Money (such a rich education in how currency works and why it’s in major trouble. Sounds like a yawner but completely engaged me); The Imperfectionists (a series of short stories each told from the POV of someone working at an English language newspaper in Italy–masterfully told).
    We all love the treasure hunt for those books we love, but when we first open a book and are pretty sure it isn’t for us, only to find out it’s breathtaking, well, it doesn’t get any better than that.

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  12. Farming: A Handbook by Wendell Berry. I used to raid my father’s bookshelf when I ran out of my own reading material. I learned to enjoy Louis L’Amour, short story collections from Alfred Hitchcock and Ray Bradbury and finally, Wendell Berry. That was after I realized the slim volume wasn’t a how-to manual, but the best poetry EVER.

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  13. Wendy,

    Great topic. I picked up an ARC of The Girl on the Train at the Mountain Trade Show several months ago. The sales rep raved about it. I tried reading it and was so bored I quit about a third of the way through it. Now it is one of the hottest selling novels in the general market. I figured the book wasn’t for me but was surprised at the sales.

    At the same trade show, I picked up a copy of Dead Wake by Erik Larson (Crown Books). I have been seeing notices in the trades about this book but it is 494 pages. in the last few weeks, I read in the trades that Crown is printing 500,000 hardcovers of Dead Wake next month. I know people love history but that level of commitment (a large first printing) was another surprise to me.

    Terry

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  14. I was surprised by the nonfiction “The Girl in the Green Sweater.” It was hard to read of the horrors of that period of history. It surprised me that I stuck it out to the end. The writing was a little rambling. But I felt what the girl experienced despite the dramatic differences in our worlds. I read it while eating food she didn’t have, in safety she didn’t know, with bright light which was forbidden for her hiding underground, warm and dry of which she was deprived for an unconscionable length of time . But the overarching story compelled me to keep subjecting myself to enter into her world to hear the rest, to ache with her and fear with her and persevere with her. It surprised me that anyone survived. It surprised me that her memories were so vivid although she put her story to paper decades after the fact. It shouldn’t have but did surprise me that humans could do that to one another. What undulations of hope and despair! And how little it took to rekindle hope!

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  15. I read many Beverly Cleary books as a kid, but when my daughter and I listened to the books about Ramona and each of her parents recently I warmed from the inside out. Such poignant, sweet moments between parent and child made me laugh and cry (this is what really took me by surprise). Ramona’s experiences reminded me of the positive relationship I had (and still have) with my parents. Sometimes I need a nudge to linger in and cherish each season with my daughter rather than rush through life.

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    • Beautiful!
      I have sons, who won’t read Beverly Cleary, but we read Red Wall books together and How To Train Your Dragon and The Ranger’s Apprentice. Priceless times together!

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  16. I love your reference to The Big Book. I read that book more than 25 years ago while in the throes of marriage to an alcoholic. I had no idea the impact it would have on me. Although I’ve never struggled with alcohol addiction, the 12-step program can be applied to anything in our lives. I have tremendous respect for the wisdom and inspiration in this book.

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  17. Welllll, YOU just added some books to my list! Thank you! Re books that surprised me … A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg. Had to read it for a book club, wasn’t enthused, ended up falling in love with it. 🙂

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  18. Listed as a Young Adult Novel, The Book Thief, surprised me both with its depth of content, and as a bonus, with its beautiful writing.

    By the way, Wendy, I plan on reading a book based on its beautiful cover. However, I have to find the library flyer first because I don’t remember either the name of the book or the author. 🙂

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  19. I was surprised by Susanna Kearsley’s The Winter Sea. The cover caught my attention–all that glorious red hair!–and the discounted price on Book Bub swayed me to give this author I’d not heard of a try. Oh. My. From the dual time lines to the story question regarding inherited memories, the Scottish highlands, and the Jacobite Rebellion combined to create a story that has remained on my top ten best books ever list. Susanna Kearsley has also become a go-to author for me. Nice surprise indeed.

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