List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?

I have to start with the story of Helen Keller and her teacher in The Miracle Worker although I thought the book was called The Story of Helen Keller. I’d have to go research that one to be sure. I read it when I was around 12 and it probably lead me to a life of service to others.

I was a precocious pre-teen with a voracious appetite for reading, that I got from my mother, I’m sure. I asked her around the age of 13 if I could read Coffe, Tea, or Me…or maybe I didn’t ask and she caught me reading the book. Anyway, it made me wonder what the big deal was about because she had said that I was too young to read it. So it had a little sex and some promiscuous stewardesses. Of course, to my young, developing mind, it probably lead me to make some horrible decisions later in life.

The last book that had a profound impact on me was Sleepers and I don’t mean the Woody Allen movie. It was so disgusting what those poor boys went through in prison that at times I wondered what the heck I was doing reading it. Then I went and saw the movie too. That just made it even more real and horrifying. Now, I can unfortunately handle anything I read or watch and have become sort of desensitized to violence and graphic nature. The other book that did the same thing to me was Sybil. That will give you nightmares. It still bothers me to this day, actually both of them do.

I try to stay away from these types of books, but am still drawn to intense story telling of a criminal nature, mysteries and horror tales like Stephen King writes, but also love a plain old great story like Wher The Crawdads Sing, or epics like Why the Caged Bird Sings. I hate to admit it, but I also like romance on a level with 50 Shades of Grey and the sequels or that genre period. Does that make me weird? Maybe. However, my husband knows all this about me and doesn’t seem to mind. We are about to celebrate our 40th anniversary so that’s saying something.