Since I haven't written in forever and it's almost the end of June already, I thought I might get all crazy and write my traveling through books post for the month of May. Got it? Okay.
I read eight books in the month of May.
1.) The first book I traveled with was Jane Austen's "Persuasion". What a great trip it was. I always thought that "Pride and Prejudice" was going to be my favorite Jane Austen novel, but I think now I love "Persuasion" even more. It was another lovely trip to England in Jane Austen's world.
2.) "A Horse Walks into a Bar", by David Grossman was my second trip of the month and it wasn't all that great. The premise was that a comedian invites an old acquaintance to his stand-up act in Israel. The novel takes place during his act, which was an interesting concept, but it seemed to go on and on and on and on...So, it just dragged a little for me. I did like reading a novel that took place in Israel. I haven't gone on very many book journeys there before.
3.) The third trip I took was through a suggestion from my brother. It was a non-fiction book about a woman who grew up with fundamentalist Mormon parents who didn't really educate her and were super messed-up and abusive. "Educated" by TaraWestover was really engaging. She basically educated herself in spite of how her parents raised her. Her parents are now saying that the book is untrue, but of course they don't want people to think they're abusive. My aunt once said that if any of us wrote a book about her like "Mommy Dearest" she would be furious. That's how you know when people are abusive. It wouldn't even occur to me to worry about my kids writing a book about me saying I was abusive. I might have to worry about them writing a book about how spacey I am or how loud and embarrassing I can be, though...
4.) I went to my favorite places on my fourth book adventure - San Francisco in the 1980's in Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City # 5, "Significant Others". It mostly took place closer to the Russian River at a womyn's music festival and old rich guy lodge retreat. It was full of wacky hijinks and perfect for light, Summer reading.
5.) My fifth book trip in May was "What We Lose", by Zinzi Clemmons. It was an artistic look at a woman dealing with her South African mother's death and how she herself fit into the world. It was sad and beautiful all at the same time.
6.) "Washington Black" by Esi Edugyan was one of my favorite journeys this month. It took place in the early/mid 1800's on Barbados. It was the story about a slave who's master lends him out to his brother and after a series of unfortunate events, the master's brother and the slave flee in a hot air balloon kind of thingy. Washington Black ends up traveling all over and his artistic skills and deep intelligence helps him rise above his circumstances. This kind of adventure novel is my favorite type of Summer reading.
7.) I decided to read the last of the original "Tales of the City" books by Armistead Maupin. "Sure of You" took place in San Francisco and Greece in 1988. I wanted to finish the original 6 books in the series before the Netflix series came out. I did really enjoy all of the books. I guess there are three more books written later that I will try to get to as well.
8.) I finished May by reading "A Spool of Blue Thread" by Anne Tyler. Strangely enough, I've never read anything by her before and I really enjoyed it. It took place in Baltimore during the course of a few generations of a family. It was not big drama, but I liked its quiet pace and the look at the things children never find out about their parents.
I've been much better about choosing more appropriate books for Summer reading this year. I hope you all are finding great adventures in books as well.
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