Posted in 2024, Books, family, life, Memories, Writing

Hearing Myself Talk

There’s an article today in the New York Times Wellness Section entitled “You’re Never Too Old for Story Time” that talks about why adults to read aloud to one another and how to get started. That brought back memories!

It must have been when Cody was still in elementary school, maybe middle school, that on a few occasions during long car rides I would read to him and my husband.

My two favorites were both by the same author, Richard Peck. A Long Way From Chicago and A Year Down Yonder. They were books I was introduced to while I was a library assistant in a K-5 school.

The first involves a brother and sister who go to their grandmother’s home one summer. It is described as short stories but they all blend right into one another.

The second, is about the sister who is living there on her own with her grandmother, her brother having joined the army.

I read them both on my own at first and, even now I’m tearing up thinking about the stories! I knew my husband and son would both enjoy them so on a trip I would bring along one of the books and read.

I clearly remember getting to a part and saying “ok, give me a minute to get weepy so I don’t do it while I’m reading!”. We usually managed to finish a book on the trip.

I still have those two books on my bookshelf. I think it’s time to read them again.

Posted in 2023, Books, Writing

Short Stories

May is Short Stories month and I enjoy reading them. This book caught my eye at the library last week so I checked it out.

The title doesn’t really seem to match the stories which all contain some type of illicit affair. A high school senior with her teacher, a couple of long distance relationships that get by between visits with phone or computer sex, and few, there are 11 stories in all, with the same characters at different stages over the course of a few years.

They were humorous for the most part and I actually enjoyed them (I spent most of the afternoon reading!), but in some of them I was fearful they would get caught, or annoyed that they could be so rotten to their spouse.

I cast no judgment but know it’s not something I’d ever do to my husband of 35 years! But in my 20s at the end of a couple of shitty relationships……

Posted in 2023, Books

Unaccustomed Earth

I fell in love with every story in this book, Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. I read Interpreter of Maladies but no other of hers since then. Shame on me because she is an incredible writer!

Most intriguing were the final three stories – they were a trilogy! First in one voice and then in another and then….read it and you’ll see.

I seem to find takeaways from books lately and in one story I found it. A character says, “…grieving freshly for my mother as neither my father nor I had done. Being with her through her illness day after day had denied us that privilege.”

That is something I’m unpacking in my Seasons of Betty series on my blog centered around family and, for me anyway, it spoke such truth to my memories of that time that I reached for my phone to take a picture so I wouldn’t forget it.

If you enjoy short stories and stories about families, I recommend this and I’m going to catch up on all her other books that I’ve missed since reading Interpreter of Maladies!