Reading

I've been wanting to read this book for a year.

I first saw it last August when I was birthday shopping for my sister-in-law. Intrigued by the cover initially, after reading the back of the jacket, I knew that both she and I would enjoy this novel.

To be honest, I can't remember if I bought it for her. But it has been on my radar ever since. My sister bought it, then, sometime within the year, and lent it to me after reading it herself. It's been gathering dust for months on the little rickety bookshelf between the dressers in my bedroom. I've wanted to read it, since having possession of it, but it's easy to pass over on that tiny, low, out-of-the-way bookshelf. Plus, Harry Potter and his gang side-swiped me mid-March and have usurped all my literary time since.

Last week, I began a list of "Things to Do" for the remainder of my August and the subsequent September. The defining factor of items on this list, what separates them from the many, similar lists I keep at work, is that this list is for fun. I make lists of what to do for fun. In my free time. (Does that somehow diminish the "free" part? Jury's out.)

In an ambitious gesture, I included 3 book titles on the list. What with school starting and thus working late, small group, and some other yet-to-be-defined activities, reading three books in a month seemed impossible even as I wrote it. Diligently, however, the very next day, I picked up The Memory Keeper's Daughter. A tale of loss, emptiness, longing and endless searching. A story of hopelessness, and yet, moments of redemption and all of it told in such beautiful language. An astounding work of art, this novel. Recommended to all.