7.14.2014

Traveling With Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story



I've made it known, a few times, that I don't read the back nor the inside sleeve of books. I don't read the summary/watch the preview of a movie. When I watch So You Think You Can Dance?, the only reality show I watch, I don't watch the practice session video where the choreographers explain what their dance is about... the dance should tell me what it is about. And maybe, how I interpret the presentation, maybe it is different than the author, the director, the choreographer intended it to be seen; but it is how I interpret what I need to be reading or watching in that moment.

A few years back I read the book Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicholas Sparks. While I do not like his books that he writes in recent years (so predictable, love story + death/terminal illness by main character + overcoming difficult situation/escaping past... same thing in each story,) I did enjoy his first few books - the books which took more than a year to write, and he did not already have a million dollar bonus for writing.  Back to Three Weeks with My Brother.  The story was written by Sparks and his brother... so Sparks and Sparks. I enjoyed this book as Sparks tells of his life and where his inspiration came from in writing his first few books. Sometimes, it is nice to know that a book has meaning to the author, that their own life or experiences influence the characters in the story.


Traveling with Pomegranates is a similar story to Three Weeks... except, in this case, the book is written by a mother and daughter. Kidd, if you are not familiar with her, wrote The Secret Life of Bees.  I loved that book.  Hearing of this book, I thought it might be similar to Three Weeks... I wish I had enjoyed it as much as I did Three Weeks...

I did like this book. I want to be sure that is known.  It was interesting to read of where another author received inspiration for characters and story lines. But in this case, I'm glad I didn't read this book before Bees. While I liked realizing she was starting to talk about something that inspired her writing, I have different beliefs than Kidd - and I interpreted the story line of Bees in a different fashion than she wrote the characters to be. (I prefer my interpretation.)

People need something to believe in.  Kidd, and her daughter, found what they believe in, they found something to get them through their trials. And I am glad they found what they were looking for to bring them happiness. I've added another book to my library queue that she wrote, we'll see how I like it. Hopefully I can read with my own mind and not think of what I now know influences the author.

While I recommend this book, let me read the other books to see if having read this spoils the other books.

Enjoy

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