The paperbacks curl in this humidity. I tell myself the
covers will flatten—they will—but the buckling pages make me panic a little.
All these beautiful words, sentences, paragraphs, transportation into the minds
of other people. What a strange way to make a life, reading, writing,
encouraging others to do the same. Sometimes I wonder why I don’t teach people
to make stuff, instead. Sometimes I DO teach people to make stuff, and often as
we make stuff, we talk about books.
Frederick Buechner says, “some of my best friends are books.”
I could ask why it’s so, for me, for him, or I could just nod.
What are you reading? What's next on your list?
My June reading list:
The Seamstress of Hollywood Boulevard, by Erin McGraw
Still, by Lauren Winner
Animal Vegetable Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver
Edge of Dark Water, Southern murder mystery, tense and terrifying writing. Will find the author name.
Bayham Street: Essays on Longing, by Robert Clark
Plus books for my classes: Cry the Beloved Country, Mere Christianity (it's been awhile), and a giant text about writing in higher education, titled Engaging Ideas. The latter title is surprisingly accessible, and even a little exciting.
I'm eager to get to the new Debra Dean book, plus my yard-sale book finds: What is the What by Dave Eggers, and The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett. It might be the summer for The Sparrow.
I'm also working to reacquaint myself with the Audubon Field Guide to
New England, so I can better name the flowers, birds, and river creatures. (Moon snails, ew. Egrets, lovely. Spotted jewelweed, an old favorite.)
What new book friends have you recently met?
3 comments:
Lauren Winner is on my list for this summer, too. Just finished Joan Didion's Blue Nights -- full of the fear of inevitable loss, amazing images, hopeful and hopeless in the same moment. Fred just gave me Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (don't know anything about it) and also in my stack is When I was a Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson. Happy summer reading and writing, Denise!
If it's not the summer for The Sparrow, let me know - I forgot to tell you it's a library book. :) I have a few renews left on it, though, which gives you six or eight weeks.
I wrote this A LONG TIME AGO. It WAS the summer of The Sparrow, and I've never recovered.
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