Books, books, books.

I have been able to do a fair amount of reading since I got here. As a book lover, but also as someone who the past few years has made a point of so rigorously scheduling her time, so that even twenty minutes in a day without an allotted purpose needed to be filled with some sort of purposeful activity (reading, for some reason didn't really count...), this has been amazingly wonderful.

I was flipping through titles on my Kindle this morning, looking for something to read, when I realized that I have read about 17 books since I first got here - that's about one every 2-ish days. Not bad, right?

In the interest of sharing this wealth of books, I'll share a few titles. But you must share some back.

I am currently reading historian David McCullough's The Greater Journey. I only started it this morning, and according to Kindle, I am only 10 percent of the way through. However, I have to say that it is incredibly readable, and very enjoyable. It is the story of various people - writers, artists, doctors - who, between 1830 and 1900, set off from the "New World" and into the old - Paris - to gain the inspiration for their work, which they felt lacking in their too new country of America. Elizabeth Blackwell, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathanial Hawthorne, Mark Twain and many more make appearances through their diary entries and letters home.

Last night, as the skies opened and rain poured down, and thunder shook my cottage, I finished Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand. It tales the crazy tale of Louie Zamperini - Olympic runner turned war hero - who spent almost 50 days on a raft, beating away sharks, before he was captured by the Japanese and tortured on POW camps. What made me weep at various times during the book, was the tremendous hope and courage and generosity of not only Louie, but all the men he was surrounded with. They were savagely beaten and demoralized by Japanese soldiers who had been taught to see them as nothing more than animals. And yet, when the war ended, and care packages were dropped over the POW camps for all the military men waiting to be taken home, these unbelievable men distributed food items and clothing to the guards - the same ones who had beaten and starved them, and done everything possible to break their spirits - because they knew these brutal men had families who were just as hungry and cold as they were.

At another point, before the care packages had been delivered, and only a lone B-29 had made circles over the camp, messaging signals that the war was over and help was on the way, the pilot dropped a single chocolate bar and a pack of cigarettes. There were 700 POWS in the camp - all of whom had been subsisting - some for four years - on seaweed soup and the occasional dead dog. Did this break out a riot?

Commander John Fitzgerald, who was the highest ranking officer in the camp, and therefore in charge of the care and welfare of all the men, just as he would have been outside the camp, took the chocolate bar, and cut it into 700 slivers. Each man got a sliver of chocolate the size of an ant. Then he divided the 700 into 19 groups, and gave a cigarette to each group. Each man got a puff.

At this point, sitting in my bed, wrapped in blankets, I was sobbing. Be prepared to be disturbed though - there are many mind numbingly terrible tales of how the Japanese treated their prisoners. This book not only tells of the heights of human courage and virtue, but the absolute depths of depravity which human beings can reach.

Seabiscuit also by Laura Hillenbrand was a book I had heard so much about, but assumed I wouldn't like. It is beautifully written, and so exciting that I had to stop reading it before bed because it left me, heart racing, completely unable to sleep.

Lourdes, by Robert Hugh Benson, tells of a skeptic's journey to that place of miracles, and how his heart was changed. Very beautifully written.

Also well written, with simple yet almost poetic prose, and FABULOUS recipes to boot, is Mirielle Guiliano's French Women Don't get Fat. Again, a book that I had seen all over the place but shrugged off - an intelligent, funny presentation of the French way of life. It will make you want to take off for Paris, pronto.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Wonderful characters, a driving plot line, and rich detail. I will let the title pique your curiosity, and drive you to read more about it yourself.

And, for now, that is all you get.

What have you got to show me?