Bookworms and Words

Tell us about the last book you read (Why did you choose it? Would you recommend it?). To go further, write a post based on its subject matter.

Photographers, artists, poets: show us WORDS.  By Michelle W. on June 16, 2013

BOOKWORMS

Every month I like to feature a book that opens with a great first line.  I quote the line, share a few of my memories about reading the book and include recommendations from past reviewers; my past choices are posted here.  For May I decided to take a slightly different approach and instead of selecting a book based on the authors opening sentences I chose one based on how those words made me feel.  I have read Terry Kay’s To Dance With The White Dog countless times and it always makes me cry but I thought my emotional reaction to the story would make a good beginning for a new post.

Well, June is half way through and I have yet to post my re-read review of To Dance With the White Dog as this time around the story hit too close to home.  It is still a wonderful novel but my life experiences have changed since my last read and the connections I feel with the characters and story line are not something I want to write about now.  I still recommend it though and will likely pick it up to read again in a few years if my old, well read copy holds together.

Sam Peek’s children are worried. Since that “saddest day” when Cora, his beloved wife of fifty-seven good years, died, no one knows how he will survive. How can this elderly man live alone on his farm? How can he keep driving his dilapidated truck down to the fields to care for his few rows of pecan trees? And when Sam begins telling his children about a dog as white as the pure driven snow — that seems invisible to everyone but him — his children think that grief and old age have finally taken their toll.

But whether the dog is real or not, Sam Peek — “one of the smartest men in the South when it comes to trees” — outsmarts them all. Sam and the White Dog will dance from the pages of this bittersweet novel and into your heart, as they share the mystery of life, and begin together a warm and moving final rite of passage.  From the back cover.

“Terry Kay is a perfect writer for those who love to read. His prose contains
music and passion and fire. His work is tender and heartbreaking and memorable.”
(New York Times bestselling author Pat Conroy)

“This short book moves
like poetry….A loving eulogy to old age….A tender celebration of life, made
poignant by death being so close at hand.” (Los Angeles
Times)

“To Dance with the White Dog is what literature
is — or should be — all about….Kay is simply a miraculous writer….This
book…burns with life.” (Anne Rivers Siddons)

“A hauntingly beautiful
story about love, family, and relationships” (The Most Reverend Desmond M.
Tutu)

“A master storyteller.” (The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution)

WORDS

My photograph for “Words” is an image of the box Ryan gave me for my birthday last week.  I love the simple yet heartfelt message and will use it to store the small gifts he has given me for birthdays and Mother’s Day.