Posted Sexy Scholar blog article: Beyond the Pages: Exploring the...
Reading With Hope
By JLNicky
Have you ever closed a book and thought that was ‘Perfect’? And when you remember that book you feel satisfied and happy? Maybe you shared a discussion with someone about it? Did it really make a good impression on you? Yes, yes it did. Essentially, the book gave you a positive mindset, which spurred you to believe in something positive, and set you on a happy path. This is what a book can do. Reading positive books can build hope inside you, keeping your life in a positive space, creating thoughts full of adventure and creativity, and helping you strive to find a compelling future.
As a child, we read books like ‘Charlotte’s Web’, ‘The Little Prince’, and “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe’. They give us reality and love and dreams. As young adults, we might read ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ or ‘Anne of Green Gables’. They give us expanding worlds, adventures, and goals to strive for. And all have a message of hope. If you read about hope, you will forever live with the idea of hope.
After finding the Newberry Award winners in my teen years, books like Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (1977), or The Giver by Lois Lowry (1993), I began finding more and more books that nourish the hope inside me. I love reading books that entertain me and provide satisfaction and these two concepts are not always falling under the “happily ever after” category of reading. For example ‘Lord of the Flies’, or ‘The Lovely Bones’, are both easily identifiable in my heart and soul once I close that last page, and place the book back on the shelf. Or, in my case, file it in my kindle library.
I realized my reading selection is not only based on popularity, topics, and genres but on the delivery of hope in the story’s message. I want to feel hope that my characters are going to succeed in the adventures they take on. I want to feel ‘Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH’ (Robert C O’Brien, 1970) will be able to move her house and children with human capabilities and magic, and the power of will. How does this happen? How does a story make us feel this way?
Bridge to Terabithia By Katherine Paterson
Victor Frankel the Austrian psychiatrist that wrote the book ‘Mans Search for Meaning’ chronicling his experiences as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, clarified all human beings must have a compelling future to look forward to, or their will to live will decay. He wrote about mindset and its effect on our motivation to survive. Research has shown if you watch the news every night and obsess about all the bad things happening in the world you could begin to suffer from both physical and mental health problems, including anxiety and stress. I believe, as a reader, we need to look for books that give a positive value and add hope to our life.
After reading a good, strong, rewarding book you feel strong emotions. Maybe one of satisfaction, joy, stimulation, or even anger. The ability of a book to lead you down those emotional trails can influence you for the rest of your life. Remember the movies ‘Old Yeller’ or ‘Black Beauty’? Movies based on best-selling books. Black Beauty, written by Anna Sewell (1877), has sold over 50 million copies, according to Wikipedia. Fifty million copies! And you may be remembering what it’s about. Right now you can picture the main character without me telling you. You are remembering something he had to survive or attain, and the feelings that the book took you through. Reading influences how you feel and can not only entertain you but give you a new will to dream harder, reach farther, learn more, and feel new wellsprings of hope flow. This positivity can expand your life in ways that make you think differently.
Are there things that I can do to influence my book selection and enable me to increase the amount of hope I feel? How do we find books of hope?
Black Beauty By Anna Sewell
Hope is a dream, a whispered word of praise, a salutation to the greats. My search would start with authors that wrote books that made me feel so good I had to share them. Try Goodreads.com to find similar books. And check the favorites lists generated by other Goodreads readers who enjoyed the same book. Amazon, the number one seller of books, is primarily for marketing, so the top books you first see, may market well but may not be what you need to read. Check the book reviews, check for quantity sold, and check what others read similar to your favorites. Look on Wikipedia for resources on the most sold books ever: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books
And once you think you’ve found a great one, google the book reviews, read the synopsis, and hunt down the HEA ending only. I will be following up this blog with successful ways to avoid marketing ploys to distract you from finding the best books so make sure to sign up on my email list.
I’d also recommend making your own favorite book list. Right now I have a book category on Kindle called “read-agains”. It only contains books I’ve read more than twice. When you find a book that gives hope, share it.
goodreads
Check out my LGBT historical romance Soldiers In Arms on Kindle Vella. This story tells the trials and realities of having to live in disguise and finding the other part of your heart between two women fighting in the Civil War.
Snippet:
“Quiet now me’lads, they’re a’ head’n this a’ways. Bide yer time ” First Sergeant MacGilmichael’s Scottish brogue whispered in the evening dimness. His three companions fell quiet. He glanced over the recruits he’d been sent to collect around the Virginia townships.
The biggest fellow, Bo Higgins who crouched behind a toppled wagon, was part Indian even if he didn’t claim it. Long face and jet-black hair, broad shoulders and trim waist; he was a silent hunter, still and ready. Sergeant Mac would have bet the Jack of Spades in a game of spade hunt; Bo was going to be a terror in a fight.
The middle youngster, Billy Pickard, was thin but definitely hard, a real tough biscuit. He was a scrapper to the roots of his red hair and obviously common class birthright. He as much proved his worth by insisting on helping unload the cargo box off the train car in Tucker Hob while he was waiting to meet up with his crew. He was restless, though. Unable to remain idle, his fists clenched tight, again and again, never still during the wait’n.
Sergeant Mac quickly turned to look at the last of the three lads. The fair-haired boy, Emmit Echols, was tucked into an overturned horse trough, probably tipped during a skirmish. By far, the youngest Mac had seen arrive yet, Emmit clung tightly to his leather carry pouch, features pale as his head tilted toward every twitch of a branch crackling in the breeze. The Sergeant gave an internal sigh. Just a bairn, they be send’n babes into the fray. Things must be bad… He blinked away that awful rising thought and spat a stream of black tobacco at the ground to belay the Earl O’ Hell’s trickery. With regard, Sergeant Mac recognized the good qualities. The sprat was tall, a definite plus for fightin’; tall and thin as a reed. The lad barely fit in the trough, folded like an accordion to hide his lanky limbs. Mac shook his head. The boy’s face, so guileless. He looked like maybe high born, softer than a street rat and used to the feather pillow. He was probably a runner, far too young to enter into the war but entered illegally anyhow. His Ma is prolly hav’n conniptions, Mac chewed his ‘baccie. Of the three, Emmit seemed the weakest. Mac was already fill’n out the paperwork in his head to send the boy home.
Soldiers In Arms By JL Nicky
As if hearing the cynical thoughts of the war vet, young Emmit Echols turned his wide-eyed gaze toward the stocky soldier in his sleeve striped dark blue coat, his bulky figure laying down low in the nearby ditch; Sgt Mac met the curious gaze. The Sergeant was hard pressed to hide his surprise when the young lad managed a small grin. Not a shred of fear lurked in those steady pale blue eyes. The corner of Mac’s mouth curled upward with respect for the young’un but became a frown as he felt a chill of unease race over his neck. As his dear Pappy used to say, “someone twas roll’n in der grave, boy. Bes’ to keep yourn eyes crack’n, for dey roll on ov’r yous.”
Only two times previous in his life had Stuart MacGilmicheal borne the weight of his Da’s ominous words. Once, on a night with the chill of death spoken clear in his head, when his younger brother had been shot in a hunting accident. Mac remembered the family dog break into a deep baying howl that lasted into the midnight hour. An ta other when he heared his dear auld’ Da tell’n him he was belov’d half-ways across’d the world, only to learn weeks later his elder passed in the nigh to a better place. The memories struck him wary, as did this brush of the ghoulie that tickled his bones now. Jus a git of a boy, looking upon him with such a steady gaze; he caught himself still before he shifted in his hiding place.
That sprites stare was like the devil casting an eye toward a weak soul, how the weight did lie upon him. Sgt Mac masticated a few bitter bites of his ‘baccie and narrowed his eyes at the fledgling. The boy has a smarts about em, you could tell by look’n. Maybe he was more like an angel check’n to make sure I’m doin my part in it all. And as if Emmit could hear his thoughts, he gave a wink to the Sergeant, then broke his conspirator look as he lifted his head to check beyond the edge of the trough.
Believer in romance.
And I am a true believer in romance with the idea of falling head over heels for someone(s), soul mate(s). And I crave science fiction and fantasy, the excitement and adventure, giving me possible creative glimpses of the future, and expanding my galactic view. And I love to learn new things, so dystopia is my survival jam. All that being said, my book reading selection is quite wide open, with diversity. This is because I choose to read books that give me hope for life. But even if the selection was smaller, more select, like cozy mystery, Amish Romance, or shape-shifting girl lions, I’d still want to read with hope embedded in the pages. I still want to see obscure possibilities become solid realities. When that happens I am incredibly grateful to that author for fulfilling my wishes.
Please check out my Kindle Vella Lesbian romance serial novel Soldiers In Arms, a historical romance set during the Civil War between two women who are disguised and living the soldiers’ life. Please subscribe to my website if you want to be notified when I’ll be publishing or to get free samples of my work. Also, see my Patreon to sign-up for exclusive content throughout the year and chapter sneak peeks of my ongoing work.
JLNicky, LGBT Romance Author
Free Download
A popular list of 20 books offering hope and positive energy. And a How To check out digital library books so you can read some of these for free. Fill out the form to download your copy.
If you enjoy this article and want to check out my latest hope reads in the LGBT romance genre, check out these Amazon-offered books on my Affiliate links below. Note: Purchasing from these links at Amazon will enable me a small commission as an Amazon affiliate.
The amazing book The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo a historical fiction novel by American author Taylor Jenkins Reid, is offered in both Kindle and Audible. I was enthralled by the ongoing plot and the twist. I rank this as my top read of 2022.
Can’t Fight Love by K.C. Luck is an enemies-to-lovers romance intertwined with the thrill of sports.
Tea Leaves & Tourniquets by Sienna Waters is a women-loving-women romance about finding your soulmate.
Innocent Hearts by Radclyffe is a historical wild Montana Territory lesbian romance of the 1860s, an oldie but a goodie favorite.