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Summertime Reading

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Let’s talk about books, shall we? It’s been awhile and I know summertime reading is often some of the best reading around–regardless of the type of books one chooses. There’s just something about the very phrase ‘summertime reading’. *sigh* Here are my thoughts on a few of my most recent hammock companions.

The best compliment I can ever give a book is when I want to buy a copy to look at again from time to time. That is the mark of a wonderful work of art, to me.

This story was enlightening and refreshing to read in that twas about women taking on things they want to do in life but have not due to fear or apathy but it didn’t involve breaking up marriages to accomplish these things. It’s exhausting and depressing how many books about women making big changes or taking exciting risks in their lives involve the breaking up of marriages. Not so with this wonderful cast of characters.

Each character addresses ‘an elephant in the room’ in their lives with determination and bravery, enriching their lives despite initial fear and misgivings. Lyrical, beautiful and authentic page-turner, this one.

As usual, I cannot recall where I heard about the novel The World Without You by Joshua Henkin, but I’m sure it was somewhere out here among the legions of fellow avid readers that touch my world. Consider yourself acknowledged. *nods*

This was the story of a family’s grief a year after the loss of the one they individually considered the center of the family. He was each person’s private favorite. The book is about how each person learns to accept one another’s choices, not only in grieving but also in living their own lives–how they can find togetherness as a family amid their separateness as individuals. They learn that a person typically doesn’t have to fight for their independence amid a family, that it is okay to think, act and be your own person while still being very much intertwined with the rest of the family members.

Nothing earth-shattering or amazing in this novel, twas a good read about a family’s journey to a new groove with each other.

When I checked The World Without You out of the library, I also picked up the other novel by Joshua Henkin that was there on the shelf. Sometimes I get all adventurous like that!
About halfway or so through Swimming Across the Hudson, I decided this book was too…unsettled or something, I couldn’t put a word to just how it was making me feel. I felt that Ben was an anxious, unsettled person and I wasn’t looking for such a book today.

This n that about the story kept knocking about in my head even after I’d decided I was done with it. Then it hit me: that was IT! I was feeling so uncomfortable and unsettled because Ben was feeling this way. The author was supremely successful in getting me, the reader, into this story!  He made me acutely feel exactly what his main character was feeling…well, then I HAD to know more. Good book, I really enjoyed it.

So tell me, what have you been reading lately?