Resonance & Roasts

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Resonance - noun - the quality of being resonant
Resonant - (of sound) deep, clear and ringing; suggesting images, memories or emotions

For the purpose of this post, I'm interested in the second definition from the Pocket Oxford English Dictionary.

I love a book whose characters I can sympathise with and who remain with me for a while after their story ends. I like to think on the funny episodes, the poignant ones too, and what made a character so special that I took a three hundred page journey with them.  The one book I can point to immediately is The Women of Brewster Page by Gloria Naylor. See my review of the book here, if you're interested. I read this book in a few hours and no, it wasn't action adventure, nor was it a thriller.

To get back on track, I'd like to find out what makes a book or character resonate with you?  What makes you remember that particular novel long after you've completed it? Feel free the share the titles of the books you love, love, love and would read again.


Roast Pork
In Jamaica, we do a fair amount of roasting - chicken, beef, pork. Some is done in the oven, some is done on top of it. Anyway you slice it though, roasted meat is healthier for you and did I mention delicious?

Roast Beef
Roast Chicken








We eat all this good stuff with rice & peas, made with Kidney Beans (Red Peas) or Gungo Peas (Pigeon Peas). The peas are boiled with coconut milk and then seasoned with butter (optional) escallion, salt, thyme, green scotch bonnet pepper, pimento seeds. Lovely! I might have mentioned before that rice and peas is something that most of us eat every single Sunday of the year.
 
Gungo Rice & Peas

Red Peas Rice & Peas

9 comments:

  1. I love roasted meat! And roasted vegetables. So yummy!

    There are so many reasons certain books resonate with me. Usually it's the dynamic characters. Epic family or generational stories are amazing, too, because I can't help but marvel at how the author wrote all that.

    A few books I re-read every few years:
    "The Thorn Birds" by Colleen McCullough
    "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry
    "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
    "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell
    Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery
    Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
    "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
    "The Pillars of the Earth" and "World without End" by Ken Follett

    There are more, though! I'm a fast reader, so I like re-reading my favorite books at the same time I'm reading something new.

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  2. Laura, great list and yes, dynamic characters stick in my mind as well. I read To Kill a Mocking Bird in school. Also read The Thorn Birds and a couple of books by Ken Follet, but I don't remember which. I do want to read The Secret Life of Bees.

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  3. I love series of books where the author keeps adding another layer to the plot, so there's this depth that after a while feels like it was always there, you just didn't notice it in the beginning. Like Harry Potter :-) It started out quite simply, but with each book JKR added more details, more clues, more pieces to this ginormous puzzle that we eventually got to put together properly at the end.

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  4. Characters that are real but have something special about them.

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  5. The photos of those roasts are making me hungry!
    The characters, Wang Lung and Olan, in The Good Earth by Pearl Buck are two of my favorites, especially Olan. When I'm dealing with struggles, I think of Olan and how amazing she was. I've read The Good Earth several time. First time in 7th grade as an assignment, then when my kids were assigned to read it in HG, I read it with my two youngest.

    The latest book that I feel in love with the characters is The Hunger Games trilogy. I love Katniss especially and how strong she was in her survival skills, how she built up a wall to protect herself from needing others, how she wasn't perfect. She seemed so real and I'll see an herb growing somewhere and think how Katniss would appreciate that and make the most use of it. It's been a couple months and I still miss all the characters. I'm a slow reader, but I read the first book again. Then I had to return the trilogy to my friend who loaned me the books, but I'll buy them and read them again one day!

    I also loved the characters in the Twilight books. Yep, I really missed them, too, when I finished the last book.

    I read The Thorn Birds in high school, and those characters have stayed with me all these years, too. It's a wonderful thing when we can connect so strongly with the characters in a story.

    Another one, Charlie Gordon, in Flowers For Algernon. Powerful story!

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  6. oh this post left my mouth watering. I like that second definition of "resonate". One book I just read that really resonated was Girl with a Pearl Earring, and Possession, of course - thanks for passing on the word about it!

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  7. Okay I was going to post on your words but then I saw the roast and I forgot all about it. All I can think about now is roast and how good that looked :)

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  8. I am so hungry...and then you show this, lol!
    I am thinking...I'll be back with my answer..I need food!

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  9. Rachel, ya know those books that have a series must take a lot of work, but they're well worth the effort for both reader and writer.

    Holly, agree with you. There has to be something really special about characters to make me keep reading a book.

    Lyn, I've heard good things about the books you mentioned. So many books, so little time.

    No problem, Josh. I get distracted all the time. :)

    Ella, been to your blog. You're a foodie. No problem at all.

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Don't be shy, I'd love to hear what you think.