New Feature! A Guest Post by Madeline Sharples

Today I'm thrilled to begin a brand new feature on Suko's Notebook, original guest posts by writers.  Author, poet, and web journalist Madeline Sharples has written an exclusive guest post for my readers.  Her new book, published in 2011, Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother's Memoir of Living with Her Son's Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide, is a book I expect to find both affecting and insightful. 

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In Her Own Words: A Guest Post by Madeline Sharples 

Now that I’m a published author people are always asking me about what books I would recommend to everyone.  That is a tall order.  I think our reading choices are very personal.  Besides I’m not a very good person to ask.  I seem to fall in love with the book and author I am currently reading.

Right now I’m reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, and even though I find the character Steve Jobs someone I’d never want to meet personally – he was a little brusque to put it mildly – his story is incredibly uplifting and motivating. This man could make things happen that were not even possible.  He had that kind of attitude.  He’d tell his brilliant employees they could do something they totally believed they could not, and guess what?  They ended up doing it.  Since I grew up with computers – from the large ones that filled up huge rooms in the aerospace company where I worked, to the first cumbersome text editing systems I tested, and now to the marvels of the products Job’s created, this was definitely a book for me. I loved every word of it.

Another book I loved this year was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I think Foer is totally original. He uses graphics, he writes about very smart precocious children, and his story about Oskar’s search for the lock that his father’s key opens after his father dies during the September 11 attack makes me cry.  That Oskar is the narrator gives this book more poignancy.  Sure it is clever, it is gimmicky, but why not?  He’s a young author of the twenty-first century.  And old as I am, I can still relate.

A few years ago, I was very taken by Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, her story about her first year after her husband’s sudden death.  I experienced magical thinking after my son died in 1999 – even though I never for a minute believed he would or could really come back to me.  Didion’s book is raw, passionate, stunning.  I believe nothing less should be expected in a memoir.  She tells the truth and her inner thoughts and feelings.  I only wish she had done the same in her memoir about her daughter’s death, Blue Nights.

Others books I gravitate to are about strong women.  Even as a child I loved A Little Princess and The Secret Garden, both by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Then as I got older I raided my parents’ bookshelves and read Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor and my favorite book of all time, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind.  Amber and Scarlett – both great names – were strong-willed, feisty, and outspoken women who fought endlessly and ruthlessly to get what they wanted. Other books on that list are Mrs Dalloway and Lolita – Lolita mainly for the beauty of the writing although Lolita was a very strong-willed character.  And, if you haven’t heard Jeremy Irons read the audio version, you’re really missing out.

One other book stands out on my list. It is the book I’d suggest everyone read: Remember, Be Here Now by Ram Dass, in print since its initial release in 1977.  It’s about spirituality, yoga, and meditation.  But the lasting message for me is live in the now: don’t look back, the past is over; it is little more than story, and don’t look ahead.  The future doesn’t exist yet – except in your mind.  Such a simple message yet so hard to achieve.

So whatever you read, just enjoy.  Maybe you’ll also fall in love with the book you are reading now – until the next one comes along.

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Madeline, thanks for sharing some thoughts about books--the perfect topic for this site! You've given us some wonderful contemporary and classic recommendations.  I'd definitely like to read Steve Job's biography--I'm deeply interested in what makes a person excel, and I'm a huge Apple fan.  I've read a handful of the books you mention--including Mrs. Dalloway, The Secret Garden, Gone with the Wind--and I read Be Love Now, a more recent book by Ram Dass.  Best of luck with your book! 

Leaving the Hall Light On is available at many places, including Dream of Things.  Your comments are welcomed.  If you're an author and would like to write a guest post, please contact me by email.