B is for Book #AtoZChallenge

A to Z Challenge – April 2016, Book reviews & recommendations, death, Thoughts 3 Minutes

B is for Book

I read the book, quickly, the way I devoured the likes of Harry Potter and other childhood favourites. It was the first time that I read an ebook and that on my phone. I suddenly had a hard time putting down that computer we call phone (I don’t actually use it that much for calling). While I read the book, about the three ghost children, who had way too early lost their lives and who were stuck in our world fighting evil entities and trying to figure out how to go to the nice place, I thought of my mom, because I was sure that this was the type of story she would love to read.

Book, From Cornflakes to Eternity by S.D.GatesThe book, From Cornflakes to Eternity (here’s my review of it), written by fellow blogger S.D. Gates, who I had the pleasure ‘meeting’ during last year’s A to Z Challenge, she was too late to sign up on the official website, but participated anyways, I am glad that she did, because I might not have found out about her first book. I found out after the challenge that she had a book out in the wild, waiting for reads and reviews, when she had a special offer for it on kindle. So yes, I read it for free, but reading it I longed to pay for what I was reading. So gifting it as physical book to my mother did seem like a great idea. The fact that I was reading such a well written and researched book lead me to talk to my mother about her books, which she had written but had left in boxes years ago, after a negative reply from a publisher, or in the middle of an editing spree. I wanted her to take the bull by its horns and finish editing those books and publish them traditionally, or self-publish, to send them onto their next adventure, being discovered by readers. I proposed that I would help her with all that, the editing, the formatting, the marketing, even though I had no knowledge at all.

Suddenly, I found myself hesitating. Should I give this book to my mother or not? My sudden change of heart came from the fact that she had been diagnosed with cancer, already at an advanced state. Was a book dealing about too early death, and the question of what comes after death really what she needed now?

I talked to her about the book, as the story had its hold on me, and eventually proceeded to purchase it. And I am glad that I did. She read it in the summer recovering from a chemo. It captivated her, she wanted to know what happened next. She told me that the book contained so much truth. So many lessons that we should all follow.

book dedicationIt was one of the very last books that she did read in her life. I am not sure how many more she read after that one, but I don’t think that it were too many. When I gave it to her I made sure to write a dedication into it, so that she would always remember who gave it to her. Last weekend, I took the book home with me, and placed it into my bookshelf, as my mother is very probably there where Allie, Vicky and Jose were trying to go in the book.

Beautiful Becky bought brown baguette bread behind a blue bus in Bahrain from Ben’s Bakery. 

During the month of April, I am participating in the A to Z Challenge, my theme is authenticity and eclecticism, which in my book go hand in hand.

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave a comment, to share this post on social media and to follow my blog and/or twitter @SolveigJW…

© Solveig Werner 2016. All rights reserved.

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31 thoughts on “B is for Book #AtoZChallenge”

    1. Thank you Sue, I think that I will. But for now all of her stories are in German. There is one book that is publishable in English as she did a printing of it when she wrote it. Some copies were given to my sister’s elementary school. But she didn’t try to get them more out into the open than that.

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  4. I’m so glad you got to share the book with your mother. I’m sure she is there, inside those pages.

    Have you thought of editing her books and self-publishing them? I think it would be a wonderful tribute to her and a beautiful gift to your little one to someday read a book her grandmother wrote.

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  6. I agree with everyone else, at some point you really need to read your mom’s papers. Maybe they will be too personal to share with the world, but at least you should know what she had to say. But I can also see why you might want to wait a while. There’s no rush.

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    1. Well some of her books she wrote for my sister and myself and thus read them to us while writing. There are quite a few illustrations that come with the stories too. One of her books is all ready, she did do a print in the past and gave a few copies to my sister’s primary school.

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  7. Hi there!

    I’m stopping by from the #AtoZChallenge. I have two blogs in this challenge…my author blog at THE STORY CATCHER (www.donnalmartin.com) and my KICKS Kids Club blog (www.kickskidsclub.blogspot.com.

    If you get a chance, check them out and good luck with the challenge!

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  8. interesting account. Glad you felt connectedness in the book. that’s often the best feeling. and glad your mother liked it too, what a way to connect in her last days too.

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  11. I adored that book, couldn’t put it down on my summer vacation (Ocean City, of course). I did not know it was available in paper format. I think it was a great gift for your mother as she was dying.

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    1. Dear Manee, I had no idea Solveig had posted this (I have been so caught up in work and all that other stuff, I have been remiss in reading my friends’ posts). Thank-you so much for the kind comments.

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      1. Don’t worry about not seeing it until now, I have been struggling to keep up with the replying to comments, and at the moment reading other blogs has been neglected a bit too…

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    2. It is so lovely, isn’t it? Actually I found you through the review that you did of it when SD Gates shared it on her blog. So in a way it connects us two too!

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  12. Dear Solveig, I am so sad to hear about your Mom. It brings tears to my eyes to think that one of the last books she read was mine. I hope the “Nice Place” is as beautiful as I dreamed it would be, and I hope your Mom is frolicking in the flowers with Allie, Vicky, Ian and little Jose.
    PS. I had no idea you had written something so beautiful about my book. This is really touching and means so much to me. Thank-you!!!!!!

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  13. Pingback: Reflections #AtoZChallenge 2016 | Solveig Werner

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