Books

When I was a child my Mom took me to the library every Thursday evening. I could get as many books as I wanted and any kind of book I wanted. Driving home in winter, I would read by the light of the corner streetlights - unable to wait until I got back to the house.  Both my parents were big readers, my Dad sitting cross-legged on the floor reading a paperback (usually sci-fi) with a cigarette in one hand and a beer at the ready.   

One summer evening when I was about nine years old, my parents called me into my brother’s bedroom - my Dad just climbing down from the attic with a cardboard box. He placed it on the bed and as both my parents stood back watching, I opened it to find all my mother’s books she’d had as a child. It was like finding a buried treasure enhanced by the fact that it was a complete surprise having had no clue that these books even existed. The entire Pollyanna series, Penny Parker mysteries, Little Women and Little Men both by Louisa May Alcott and my grandfather's illustrated copy of Heidi. I spent the whole summer staying up late eating saltine crackers, drinking sweetened iced tea devouring each and every book.

I'm happy to report that there are a bunch of kids in my family that love to read. My 16 year-old nephew read Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose while we drove through Ireland last February. We found a book store in Galway and bought him another Ambrose book for the long plane ride home. My niece, when visiting will head upstairs to bed to curl up with a book reading late into the night (shades of me!). All the kids in my family received their own copy of Harry Potter as soon as each installment came out.  Nothing gives me greater pleasure than seeing a child completely engrossed in a book, oblivious to the world around them. Here are a few of the books I’ve read  (and loved) recently:

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Doc by Mary Doria Russell

Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller

Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy - Forward by Caroline Kennedy