Friday, July 9, 2010

My favorite summertime read




"The sky is flesh.

The great blue belly arches

above the water and bends down

behind the line of the horizon.

It's a sight that has exhausted its magnificence

for me over the years,

but now I seem to be seeing it for the first time..."




image via flickr (crazyhorse)


So begins the book I Was Amelia Earheart

by Jane Mendelsohn,

a story I turn to as the heat of summer


slams into this part of the country like a

merciless wave.




image via flickr (drp)


From the opening sentence I was hooked.

The book tells the rest of her story,

the one not reported in the papers or

on the radio.





image via flickr (ecstaticist)

"More and more now, I remember things.

Images, my life, the sky...

Whether life is more real than death, I don't know.

What I know is that the life I have lived since I died

feels more real to me than the one I lived before..."

This book has the languid pace of a humid summer day.

The lyrical prose is to be savored slowly,

allowed to percolate into one's consciousness

like the residue of a dream.

There is a seasonal pattern to my reading,

which I have gradually come to realize over the years.

This book is one I turn to only in high summer,

and it has become a launching pad for my latest reverie.

Until next time...
Anne





3 comments:

  1. I just finished Summer At Tiffany, which is a memoir and really takes you back in time ~ loved it! I haven't read this one and will have to look for it. Thank you for your great suggestion on my giveaway post! I am keeping track of them all and looking forward to pouring a big glass of iced tea and surfing all the suggestions on my computer one hot day next week : ) Hope you are staying cool!
    xx Suzanne

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  2. It sounds like a fabulous book ~ I will definately put it on my summer read list. I love when I'm drawn into the character and the setting to where I want the novel to run over into my real life. I just finished The Outlander by Gil Adamson - it had me hooked at the thought of "retreating into the wilds of my own mind...." That was such a vivid image to me, I had to read it. When I think my life is hard sometimes, I refer back to what Mary Boulton would do in 1903.
    Thanks for the suggestion and hope you are having a wonderful summer.
    Sarah

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  3. That first line draws me in too...makes me want to read more. I have not read it, but I did enjoy the movie.

    ReplyDelete

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