Interludes

Check it out! The list of summer reads that we put together every spring is now online at http://library.bush.edu/news/summerreading08.htm

This year the theme is Interludes. I picked it inspired by my daughter Kitri. She called me one recent morning (before 9, in itself an amazing event) as she was sitting on the porch in the sun reading The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy, by Jeanne Birdsall. She was thoroughly enjoying herself and the only thing she was missing was her mommy to read it to her.

As I thought about how gratifying the phone call was, about my love for that particular book with its vacation theme, and about the wonderful respite that summer is, the light bulb went on: Books about interludes, books expressing a certain suspension of the mundane. So armed with a theme, we put together a terrific collection of suggested books! From fishing to Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest, from that creative trance of crafting to travel stories -- there's something for everyone here. With some titles you might have to reach a little to see how the theme fits, but I couldn't leave off Garth Stein's new book, The Art of Racing in the Rain, for example.

Mary Ann Gwinn, The Seattle Times book editor, recently referred to "that trancelike state you achieve when you get deep into a book"* -- may your summer be filled with trancelike interludes.

*Gwinn, Mary Ann. "Literary blogger Mark Sarvas ventures into the receiving end of critique." The Seattle Times, May 25, 2008. Accessed online 5/29/08