The words I'm reading....the pages I'm turning

I love to read only what touches my soul.

I try to read fluff and get easily bored. Though since we are all so intricately different what constitutes to another as "fluff" won't be the same.

I like to read real words, I'm not an intellect, my eyes glaze quickly at language that does not sound familiar to my own every day thoughts and voice.

I've just recently finished this book

Dear me,

a novel

by Gaylynne Sword

I picked it up from a sale table, mostly because it was only 5 dollars, but why I chose to buy this over the rest piled high on clearance was these words on the back

Author Gaylynne Sword brilliantly weaves a story that is simultaneously heartbreaking and hopeful. A story for all have have struggled with choices, family, or faith.

Then on through the book blurb

We are drawn into the thoughts and feelings of someone we know. Serious, funny and unflinchingly honest, Vanessa (the main character in this book) compels us to follow her on a journey through the loves and losses that shaped her life-and to learn about God's unlimited ability to reach into the darkest places of our lives.

Me:  Hooked. Here's what I thought

This isn't a true story, but many, too many do live it out.
It begins introducing us the reader to the family of Vanessa and her feelings of inferiority and of being a disappointment to her parents particularly her father even from a very young age.
She learns to rely heavily on others, (at this stage her younger brother Jake), to avoid making her own decisions and or taking any personal responsibility for her own wants, needs or desires and the many consequences that
follow during her journey for freedom.

This girl goes through it all. A family tragedy. A personal soul destroying event that ultimately almost wrecks her emotional and physical life as well, through the use of drugs, sex, alcohol and new age spiritualism. Vanessa is extremely lost and the vices she uses, not always deliberate to numb her pain and fill the void in her heart could be recognisable to many who have walked through life in the dark at times.

Gaylynne Sword's writing is easily absorbed, she finds humour in the dark bits, I absolutely love her style and look forward to reading more of her work.

The only thought I had which kept it from being a 5 stars from me was a niggling reminder that this was a work of fiction, so slightly, over the top in events...though as I type this I am reminded that I have lead a pretty sheltered-ish life compared to many, so who am I to say? I haven't had personal experience with the issues that plagued Vanessa's life. Yet I have believed many of the lies she was burnt with that got the ball rolling.


This next one is borrowed from a friend

365 Words of Well-being for Women by Rachel Synder

Each page has it's own alphabetised word and snippet. Like this one which I just opened on

Bliss
Bliss out.
Bliss out on joy, bliss out on pleasure, bliss out on love. When you think you've reached the ceiling of your bliss, ride the bliss train right on through. Bliss out on nature.Bliss out on the smell of pine, the feel of moss on your cheek, the awesome, sweet tartness of wild mountain cherries......

Innovate
Do it new, do it different. Do it like nobody's ever done before. Come up with a new way that's smarter, faster, easier, cheaper. Develop a new style of management. Discover a new way to peel potatoes. Create a whole new model for bringing about social change. Innovate at the office, innovate at the legislature, innovate on the golf course. (could you be a little more innovative in the bedroom?) Invent something totally new that will erase pantyhose from the face of the Earth. Introduce an attitude that's utterly original and indescribably fresh....

to read what the rest of these say you'll need the book ;)