Books · My Thoughts

Celebrate National Read a Book Day: September 6, 2024!

Larada Horner-Miller
Woman reading - National Read a Book Day

National Read a Book Day was Friday, September 6, and I want to share what book I’m reading with you. I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s a page-turner! Why is reading so important to me? What are you reading?

Right now, my newest book is The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez. I saw her at the Santa Fe International Literary Festival in May and bought it. She enticed me with the title and her sharing about this unusual title.

The protagonist, a writer, has numerous unfinished manuscripts she plans to bury in the cemetery of untold stories. Unusual concept? Yes, but as a writer I relate! I know there’s twists and turns coming and I wait with anticipation!

My Untold Stories—Almost

Stories matter - National Read a Book Day

For decades, two of my manuscripts lay in my computer, whispering to me, “Finish me. Come back. Please come back!” Finally, I did and self-published them in 2014 and 2015. But I still have some I’ve let sit and not finish yet.

Right now, I have several books in the queue: three more poetry books in my Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry series, three-four in a poetry book series—poems I wrote with my students, a how to write a biography book, another book of This Tumbleweed Landed poems and a women’s fiction I wrote in 2016.

Here’s a list of poems I want to add to the continuation of This Tumbleweed Landed, #2:

  • Dad’s smooth swing of saddle up on a horse
  • Grandma Dickerson’s embroidered edge for towels & washcloths
  • Mom’s embroidery of t-towels
  • My hope chest
  • 435 cattle—12 trucks inspected and lined up when we sold out because of the drought
  • Prince Albert in a can all over the ranch
  • The distinctive ring of the school bell
  • Mom’s cedar chest
  • “Taking up food” vs. serving something in a pan
  • Granddad & Grandma Horner’s slide night after one of their trips
  • Dad telling Maynard Bowen dancing was like clapping your feet
  • Folsom Falls adventures
  • Mom’s Christmas fruitcake with Granddad Horner’s sherry
  • Phrases from Mom and Dad – loaded for bear, faunching at the bit, it’s raining like a cow peeing on a flat rock
  • Doing the Bunny Hop at midnight at the Branson dances as a child
  • Dad & Millard Warner—best friends in high school, then us living next door to each other
  • Travis Patton—exchanged water for fresh eggs

I have a couple of short stories that I’ve played with and had fun writing, but I haven’t published yet. So many unfinished stories to share!

Celebrating National Read a Book Day, why is reading so important?

Reading has been a passion of mine for most of my life. From the moment I learned that letters strung together created words, I saw worlds unfold before me. I remember sitting on our porch swing in the summer and reading. Because we didn’t have a large family library, I depended on our school library and the library in Trinidad. So, I re-read Nancy Drew books and thoroughly enjoyed them, even when I knew what was coming.

I have kept at least one book going my whole life. Right now, I have three going:

  • The Cemetery of Untold Stories, Julia Alvarez
  • Paul, A Biography, N. T. Wright
  • The Language of Life: A Festival of Poetry, Bill Moyer

National Read a Book Day 2024

Finally, are you a reader? What are you reading now? Are you reading more than one book?

Multiple Christian Book Giveaway – until Tuesday, September 10, 2024!

Podcasts & My Interviews

Buy My Audio Books:

This Tumbleweed Landed

This Tumbleweed Landed audiobook cover

Let Me Tell You a Story 

Let Me Tell You a Story audiobook cover

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Memoir Audiobook

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir audiobook cover

Published by Larada Horner-Miller

Larada Horner-Miller is a poet, essayist and accomplished multi-genre author who holds a bachelor’s degree in English, with a minor in Spanish and a master of education degree in Integrating Technology into the Classroom. She is the accomplished author of eight award-winning biographies, historical fiction, memoir, and poetry works and three audiobook’s plus three self-published cookbooks. Her most recent book, Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry is a finalist in the Global Book Awards. As is our book released last year, Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir. Horner-Miller has also been a past national presenter at the Women Writing the West Conference and is currently the creator of Memoir Workshops for others who want to share their family’s legacies through words. Larada and her husband, Lin, enjoy being nestled in the mountains above Albuquerque, New Mexico, near the village of Tijeras. When not writing books, this passionate, energetic, and enthusiastic woman loves to spend time kicking up her heels at square dancing gatherings, traveling, knitting, and reading. As co-manager of her family’s southeastern Colorado ranch, she enjoys spending time exploring her family’s historic ranch and reminiscing with her brother and his children about their mom, dad, and granddad.

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