Novel Tuesdays

If there is a day that should be called "Novel ___day," I think it is Tuesday. Its a rough day of the week. Mondays are hard to get through because you see the whole week ahead of you. Wednesdays, since I was a kid have always been marked by church in the evening and you know that the week is already half over by the time Wednesday rolls around. Thursdays are the day you push through, seeing Friday looming nearby. And Friday really speaks for itself.

Tuesdays, however, are the day that you see the whole week in front of you and nothing remarkable seems to happen on a Tuesday; because of all of that, I get my best reading done on Tuesdays.

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Two of the best books I've ever read and what I consider to be at the top of the "Must Read List" are girly to say the least. Stories of love, of course, but also of life and the chaos and order that it can simultaneously contain.

The first is a classic and the namesake of this blog:

The first time I tried to read the crowning jewel of British literature, I quit. I admit it. But knowing that I watch the movie, literally at least once every two weeks, I felt that I had to read the book. When I picked it up again, I fell in love. With Mr. Darcy, the pain, the complexity, and stunning moments that Ms. Austen paints, all of it. It is an absolute must-read.

The other book that everyone should read, men and women, is authored by the woman I consider to be the modern day Jane Austen, Francine Rivers.

Everything that she has written (with the exception of Leota's Garden, I really just didn't get into it, maybe it's my age) gives you insight into yourself at the same time that you are falling in love with and choosing sides of her brilliantly crafted characters. This particular story is quite possibly her most epic, and while you might feel some redundancy in the middle, it is worth pushing through until the end. Any book you pick up by Rivers will be worth the read, and then pass it to the man in your life because they will understand the heart and soul of a woman and the way real men should interact with them. Now, don't get scared and think this is a super chick-lit. It's not. There is love, but every guy that I have ever talked to who has read it, by choice or coercion, has said that with the exception of the "chick cover" as one brilliantly put it, is the one of the best books they ever read. 

So happy Novel Tuesday! Grab a cup of coconut-vanilla tea in an adorable teacup and settle in for a few hours of escape.