When I was a kid, I participated in summer reading programs at the library nearly every year.
In the stifling Mississippi humidity, a good book could drown out the rest of the world, even the oppressive heat, and transport me to some other place entirely.
We had planned to close on the sale of our house last Tuesday, but it was postponed due to a buyer/lender issue.
Since then, we’ve been in a holding pattern.
However, my husband and I had both already scheduled to be off these last six days and, after recovering from our disappointment on Tuesday into Wednesday, we decided to keep our vacation days as scheduled and take some much-needed reprieves from our jobs. Even if we weren’t going to be able to use them as originally planned – to move into our rental house.
Thursday was a bit of a workday as my husband did some chores outside and Reagan and I packed a few boxes.
On Friday, we finally whisked Shey off to see Avengers: Endgame, and to pick up a few things from the big box hardware store.
Saturday, we cleaned out our storage building and had it moved close to our house site, and then filled it back up with our stuff. I braved the crowds at Walmart that afternoon, and by the end of the day we were all completely depleted from the searing heat.
So we kicked up with takeout and no-bake cheesecake and settled in with a good movie. “Murder on the Orient Express” did not disappoint. I had read the Agatha Christie classic ages ago, but have never seen any of the film adaptations. The most recent was a good place to start.
And it rekindled my desire to kick off my planned summer of reading so, after spending yesterday cleaning and prepping the rental for move-in day (hopefully happening Saturday), I have declared today as the day I will begin my first of many books on my summer reading list.
Book Club is set to resume soon, so I’m starting with the last book selected that most of us are just now reading.
I’m hooked, and not nearly even a quarter of the way finished. I do love a good memoir and this one is eerily similar in many ways to Hillbilly Elegy, which is another autobiographical tale that I read a few years ago. I look forward to seeing how the two stories compare and contrast. Different perspectives entirely, different circumstances, but the roots of the stories are quite similar.
I am also about halfway through this one:
A title I saw recommended to a friend of mine, I decided to check out this very thought-provoking read. I have taken to reading it at night, giving me some time to ruminate on its truths as I reflect on my day.
I’m not Buddhist, but the practices of Buddhism are very interesting, and I’m a firm believer that knowledge is waiting for us in many hidden places, if we only have the courage to look beyond our comfortable mindsets.
As the summer arrives in full force next month, I will be looking for books to distract me from the fact the my child will be gone more than she is home, and there will be a home-building process happening that I can neither speed up nor control with my over-anxious brain working double time.
So, I will read. Here are just a few other titles I hope to finish by the time the leaves change. Thank goodness for bargain book stores and Amazon Kindle.
Book Club led me to Maria Semple and her bestseller, “Where’d you go, Bernadette?”
Easily one of my favorites from our most recent selections, I found one of Semple’s other novels during a book store browse back in January. I’m eager to see if this one can hold a candle to “Bernadette”.
This one just looked interesting. I want to say I had read a review of it somewhere and had it on my list to look for when we visited McKay’s Book Warehouse. Nothing like taking a chance on something unfamiliar.
Three books in one, for $2? Yes, please! Especially when they are 3 Maeve Binchy stories. Not to mention three that I haven’t read.
My cousin and aunt turned me on to Binchy’s writing many years ago and I have never NOT liked any of her books. They don’t always have “happy” endings, but the emotion and authenticity of the human condition with which she created her characters was utterly unique and worth every tug at my heart.
This one is on loan from my mom, who finally, some months ago, finally stopped asking me if I’d read it yet.
At this point, she’s probably forgotten she loaned it to me!
So, that’s 6 books in all, not counting the 3 that I’m currently reading. Or the next book club selection, whatever that may be.
My reading time is definitely limited, but since summer hasn’t even “officially” arrived on the calendar and I already loathe living in the south again, I anticipate that I’ll spend many lunch hours and lazy weekends with these selections, waiting for cooler days, our new home to be completed, and for all of my crew to be back under one roof.