Sunday Salon: The Blessing of Books

Because it is the spring, it is, of course, a busy time for me in general.  The kids have lots of sports stuff going on. School is winding down by having more frequent events before the end of the year. My own tennis seasons have been in full swing. The yard is blooming again and really should have some attention. The herb garden needs planting. I have a few trips coming up for which I need to prepare. Meetings are called (or should be called--I need to get on that). It is also a busy time in terms of books. So many wonderful books come out in the spring and I am happy as a pig in swill when they are offered to me for review. So without even paying the slightest bit of attention, I manage to overschedule myself. My calendar is full. I have four consecutive days of reviews to post. But first to read four books in the space of six days. And never mind the other books sitting there clamoring for my attention.

As busy as I am, as behind the eight ball as anyone can see with one glance at my calendar, I am still blessed to be able to sit down and to sink into motionlessness with a book. Only my eyes are moving, devouring words, shutting out everything else that competes for my attention (sorry kids!). The very best stories can do that: immobilize you in their worlds so that when you come back to your own world blinking owlishly, you have a moment of forgetting how much rushing about you need to do, how many things lay unscratched off on that eternal to do list. This is the gift of a well-written book that just hits you perfectly. And in these days of rush and tumble, countless commitments, never-ending jobs, and everything else, this is a gift indeed. Those four books I needed to read in six days? Three of the four are done and I look forward to sinking into the world of the fourth next. I still have three and a half days to get through this one so I may be a bit scarce here between the reading world and my rushed, real world. But I'll be back and life will settle down just has it has always done. And in the meantime when I need an escape, I'll be deep inside the blessings of books.

This past week I followed the life of a French woman race car driver who dressed like a man and betrayed her fellow people to the Nazis. I was along for the ride as a young woman with an extraordinary palate came to grips with her past and uncovered a wonderful food tale from WWII. I spent four days in Chechnya during the war in 2004 as characters who were all surprisingly intertwined tried to survive and to hold fast to their deepest held beliefs and morals. Where have you spent the past week?