J-rap Posted December 14, 2014 Share Posted December 14, 2014 Title says it all. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trulycrabby Posted December 14, 2014 Share Posted December 14, 2014 I don't know if it is inspirational, but my mother, a prodigious reader in her early 80's just read "Blenheim And the Churchill Family: A Personal Portrait" by Henrietta Spencer-Churchill, about the Churchill family of England. She said it was a fascinating account of another time period and culture: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0847827402/ref=x_gr_w_bb_t1_x?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb_t1_x-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0847827402&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2 Have you looked at goodreads? I generally go there when looking for reviews and ideas about what to read next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Granny_Weatherwax Posted December 14, 2014 Share Posted December 14, 2014 Unsure as to what kind of inspiration you are looking for but this is a fun book Grandma Gatewood's Walk http://www.amazon.com/Grandma-Gatewoods-Walk-Inspiring-Appalachian/dp/1613747187 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Mungo Posted December 14, 2014 Share Posted December 14, 2014 I enjoyed this: http://www.amazon.com/My-Life-France-Julia-Child/dp/0307277690 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted December 14, 2014 Share Posted December 14, 2014 I don't know if a missionary biography would be interesting, but Grace Alyward's The Little Woman was a good read. It's an "as told to" autobiography. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love Posted December 14, 2014 Share Posted December 14, 2014 (edited) . Edited November 19, 2015 by Love Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted December 14, 2014 Share Posted December 14, 2014 I enjoyed House Calls and Hitching Posts as well. I also really enjoyed Having Our Say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love Posted December 14, 2014 Share Posted December 14, 2014 (edited) . Edited November 19, 2015 by Love Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennyD Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Not quite sure what you mean by inspirational, but my 70-something parents both loved What Makes Olga Run, by Bruce Grierson. My 72yo dad has, no joke, taken to doing wind sprints after reading that book. http://www.amazon.com/What-Makes-Olga-Run-90-Something/dp/0805097201/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418617425&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=what+makes+olgo+run Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Passionate Nomad: The Life of Freya Stark Never mind that upon her death in 1993, the then 100-year-old Dame Freya Stark rated a three-column obit in The New York Times. Mention her name to most Americans, and it will elicit a "Freya who?" The tales and travails of this romantic traveler, who marched alone into the Middle East from Persia to Yemen, discovering lost cities and creating an anti-Nazi intelligence system along the way, are captured in this compelling biography by former New York Times reporter Jane Fletcher Geniesse. The author unveils not the fearless wanderer whose mappings and 30 books brought Stark awards from the likes of the Royal Geographical Society and made her a darling of British society. Instead Stark is seen as humble, insecure, and forever caught in the role of perpetual alien--be it when the English-born child grows up in Italy, where her mother lives in scandal, or when she plunges alone into the East, a feat never before accomplished by a Westerner. An unwilling iconoclast whose love of travel, she would say, began as an infant when her father carried her in a basket over the Dolomites, Stark longed for the social security of the times: marriage and children. Proposals fell through, on occasion her beloved was married, or the romantic emotions she felt went unrequited--and besides, as a friend later pointed out, marriage would have spoiled her with its confinements. Rising above depression, self-imposed ostracism, and her numerous illnesses, Stark learned Arabic and how to climb mountains, map, partake in geographical digs, and find a niche in strange cultures. Initially ridiculed for her passionate fondness of the Middle East, her writings ultimately generated vast interest for that mysterious part of the world, where she was surprisingly embraced, made privy to political movements closed to most foreigners, and even shown precious Islamic documents. At times a nurse, a war correspondent, a negotiator, Stark was a one-woman revolution of her time. Geniesse's intoxicating documentation of her life not only serves to stir up new interest in Stark's many books; it also ensures that the name Freya Stark will live on long after her obituary is but a scrap of yellowed, crackling newsprint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted December 15, 2014 Author Share Posted December 15, 2014 I don't know if it is inspirational, but my mother, a prodigious reader in her early 80's just read "Blenheim And the Churchill Family: A Personal Portrait" by Henrietta Spencer-Churchill, about the Churchill family of England. She said it was a fascinating account of another time period and culture: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0847827402/ref=x_gr_w_bb_t1_x?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb_t1_x-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0847827402&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2 Have you looked at goodreads? I generally go there when looking for reviews and ideas about what to read next. This looks super interesting! It doesn't look like it's in print anymore, though looks like I could buy it used. You know, I never quite understood what goodreads was, but I often run across it on my searches. I'll have to check it out. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted December 15, 2014 Author Share Posted December 15, 2014 Unsure as to what kind of inspiration you are looking for but this is a fun book http://www.amazon.com/Grandma-Gatewoods-Walk-Inspiring-Appalachian/dp/1613747187 Oh my goodness! What an amazing woman! I can think of a couple people I'd like to get this for. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendy not in HI Posted December 15, 2014 Share Posted December 15, 2014 Grandma Gatewood's Walk - I am thinking about getting this for my sister for Christmas. Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than two hundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, 67-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, having survived a rattlesnake strike, two hurricanes, and a run-in with gangsters from Harlem, she stood atop Maine’s Mount Katahdin. There she sang the first verse of “America, the Beautiful†and proclaimed, “I said I’ll do it, and I’ve done it.†Grandma Gatewood, as the reporters called her, became the first woman to hike the entire Appalachian Trail alone, as well as the first person—man or woman—to walk it twice and three times. Gatewood became a hiking celebrity and appeared on TV and in the pages of Sports Illustrated. The public attention she brought to the little-known footpath was unprecedented. Her vocal criticism of the lousy, difficult stretches led to bolstered maintenance, and very likely saved the trail from extinction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted December 15, 2014 Author Share Posted December 15, 2014 I enjoyed this: http://www.amazon.com/My-Life-France-Julia-Child/dp/0307277690 Great suggestion. My daughter read this one and really enjoyed it. I wonder if I can sneakily find out if the woman I'm shopping for has read it yet... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted December 15, 2014 Author Share Posted December 15, 2014 I don't know if a missionary biography would be interesting, but Grace Alyward's The Little Woman was a good read. It's an "as told to" autobiography. As I read the description of this, I wondered if it was the book that the movie The Inn of the Sixth Happiness was based on, and indeed it is! I loved the movie. This book would be a great idea -- thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted December 15, 2014 Author Share Posted December 15, 2014 Do you think she's read The Hiding Place? I also really like House Calls and Hitching Posts. These are two books I can't put down, even though I know by now what happens next! Thanks! She's probably read The Hiding Place. I haven't heard of the others though -- will check them out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted December 15, 2014 Author Share Posted December 15, 2014 I enjoyed House Calls and Hitching Posts as well. I also really enjoyed Having Our Say. Having Our Say looks wonderful -- thank you! God's Smuggler is good too. I don't know if she's religious, but this is a can't-put-it-down book that our family likes to re-read. Yes, she is a Christian woman. This one looks very good -- thanks! Not quite sure what you mean by inspirational, but my 70-something parents both loved What Makes Olga Run, by Bruce Grierson. My 72yo dad has, no joke, taken to doing wind sprints after reading that book. http://www.amazon.com/What-Makes-Olga-Run-90-Something/dp/0805097201/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418617425&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=what+makes+olgo+run Oh my goodness, I remember hearing about this woman! Absolutely amazing, and hilarious (and very cool!) about your Dad. This gives me hope for myself... :) Passionate Nomad: The Life of Freya Stark I think I'll have to read this one myself! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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