Pattie's Picks

Here are the five books I believe best tell something about who Pattie is:

1. Fresh-Brewed Life by Nicole Johnson

This book totally changed my life and my view of life. It's a Christian nonfiction book by Nicole Johnson, the Women of Faith dramatist. She's an amazing woman and actress, and with the coffee metaphor woven throughout the book, it resonated with me on many levels. I still journal and attempt every day to live a "fresh-brewed life." My blog is named after this book, also (oh, and I LOVE coffee!).

2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I'm a hopeless romantic. I read this book at fifteen, because the director of my high school play based on P&P required it (even though I only had one line and maybe ten minutes of stage time--I was a dancer at the Netherfield ball named "Miss Belinda."). I did eventually find my Mr. Darcy, and for years he infuriated me--then I found my feelings changing toward him, and like Elizabeth, I was so very confused. The only difference between my own sweet husband and Mr. Darcy is the hefty 20,000 pounds per annum income and estate!

3. SAHM I Am by Meredith Efken

This is a Christian fiction, mom-lit, humorous novel. It's a mostly-humorous look at the life of an at-home-mom's email loop, told through emails. I just loved it! I've also lived parts of it. I am now a contributor on the author's blog, Violet Voices.

4. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

I read Anne Frank's diary at the age of eleven and started keeping a diary in response. I've loved the movies, the plays, the recent biography, and I've tried to keep up on the latest scholarship through the years. It's an amazing work in its own right; not only a study of life in close quarters during our world's darkest days, but also a study in the development of a writer.

5. The Awakening by Kate Chopin

I first read this book at the age of 27 (just a couple years younger than the protagonist of the novel), during an Advanced Placement teaching seminar week. I was away from my husband and infant daughter, still trying to find my way as a mother and a pastor's wife, AND a teacher. I stayed up late reading it in the dorm, and while it might have been the humidity of Hot Springs mimicking the heat and humidity of turn-of-the-century New Orleans, or the strong sense of connection I felt with the heroine, I felt I understood Edna. To this day, I do not agree with her choices; but I still understand why she made them. Chopin's prose is inimitable.