[In the interest of full disclosure, I started this post in February of 2021 and never got back to give it a final spit-shine to send it out into the void.]

Have you seen the wonderful 2001 film Amelie*? The scene below entered my mind yesterday as I drove to work listing to the “Ten Minutes With” episodes of The Coode Street Podcast. To set up the scene, the main protagonist, Amelie, is on a mission to do good and she comes upon a local man, who is blind, and guides him to the metro while painting a picture with her words of all that is going on around him.

It amazes me, even after four decades of reading, the feeling of euphoria and sense of wonder that can come upon me suddenly when people are talking about, or I am thinking about, books.

As I listened to the podcasts and authors and editors like Sheila Williams, Max Gladstone, Delia Sherman, Jason Sizemore, and Terri Windling talked about what they were reading during these months of the pandemic, it wasn’t so much what they were reading that excited me but simply the fact that they were reading…the fact that books exist and that reading is a delight.

The more that I listened, the more I found myself getting distracted with images that burst upon me like the revelation of the blind man after his experience with Amelie: book after book after book that fill my (virtual and physical) shelves–books read and books not-yet read–flooded my brain and the endorphin/dopamine rush was intense:

The Doomsday Book (Connie Willis), The Snow Queen (Vonda McIntyre), Network Effect (Martha Wells), The Ten Thousand Doors of January (Alix E. Harrow), The Cuckoo’s Boys (Robert Reed), Great North Road (Peter F. Hamilton), several novels in the Liaden Universe (Sharon Lee/Steve Miller), The Starless Sea (Erin Morgenstern), Rise of Empire (Michael J. Sullivan), and so many more.

There are several Agatha Christie novels, more Rex Stout Nero Wolfe mysteries, classics I’ve not read by Asimov, Heinlein, Norton, Harrison. I have nonfiction books about space travel, autobiographies from astronauts, books about the Civil War, about past Presidents; books by J.R.R. Tolkien and about J.R.R. Tolkien and his universe, literary classics.

I have stacks of books that I picked up on my pilgrimage to Uncle Hugo’s in Minnesota before it was burned down (and is now back open and in business!). Whenever I enter the living room, the bedroom, the library, the basement, I see books and books and books, ones I want to read, and ones I want to reread, and a couple of times a year I just get flooded with this magical, marvelous feeling of just how wonderful it is to own books, to be able to read, and to be blessed with a desire to read.

Some combination of eye-catching cover art, the smell of ink and paper, the look of the font, the design of the physical object, and the knowledge that therein lies knowledge and adventure and wonder, comes together in a glorious, euphoric high. While I wish that was always my experience, I suspect that if it were, it would become normal and diminish the sense of wonder that occurs whenever this book high strikes.

How about you? Does what I am describing make any sense to you at all? How does the love of books and reading (or some other hobby/interest of yours) manifest in your life?

*A disclaimer: while Amelie is a truly beautiful, marvelous feel-good film, it does have some brief but graphic nudity/sexual content. And it is a subtitled film…so reading will be involved.

Crenshaw is a young adult novel by author Katherine Applegate that examines food insecurity, financial insecurity, and housing instability through the eyes of a ten-year-old boy named Jackson and his former imaginary friend Crenshaw, an enormous cat who has suddenly returned, much to Jackson’s chagrin.

At first glance the idea of reading a book about such serious topics might not appeal. It certainly wouldn’t have appealed to me had I not read and loved her Newbury Medal winning novel The One and Only Ivan just recently. The story was so good that when I was looking for a shorter audio book to accompany me on a weekend trip out of state, I quickly snatched up Crenshaw with an Audible credit.

The narrator had to grow on me, but the period of time in which that happened was very brief and soon I was really enjoying listening to him voice the story.

I work in the mental health field and over my years as a social worker have helped people with the very issues that Jackson’s family has faced and is facing once again. I know from the experiences of people I have helped and from friends and family how quickly you can go from having a stable job, plenty to eat, and a place to live to having difficulty in one or more of these areas. So it surprised me how easily I found myself feeling judgmental towards Jackson’s parents. It is a testament to Katherine Applegate’s writing skills that seeing things from Jackson’s point of view, and also that of his younger sister, exposed prejudices and stereotypes regarding poverty that are hurtful and ignorant and yet rise up all too easily in our human nature.

Crenshaw is a fun, sweet book that tackles difficult subjects with such grace that you end up really pulling for this family and grateful for their ability to love one another through the hard times. Katherine Applegate did a marvelous job of telling a hopeful story without sugar-coating the trauma of poverty and without ending the story in an unrealistic manner. I was very impressed.

Jackson is an enjoyable character and all of the supporting characters in the book help to make both Jackson and the reader realize the importance of holding on to the magic that happens in life, and not simply abandoning it because one grows older.

Whether you pick up the novel to read for yourself or choose to enjoy it on audio as I did, Crenshaw is a book that I recommend being added to your TBR (or listened to) list.

This was my first book finished for #VentureForth2021 and #20BooksofSummer21.

Welcome fair June! Looking back I did a lot of things in the month of May: read a handful of books, took a day trip to one of my favorite Missouri towns and walked the Katy Trail, started trail running again, celebrated my 32nd wedding anniversary, and went up to Nebraska for the first time since early 2019 and visited my sister and her family. It was an immensely enjoyable and satisfying month, and I expect that to continue for June.

In addition to my recently announced plan to do my own Summer Reading Program again this year, #VentureForth2021, which begins today and ends September 22nd, I am participating for a second year in a row in Cath’s 20 Books of Summer event.

Last year I posted a pile of potential reads and while I started to do that again this year, I decided to forgo my usual picture or list habit and just read where the whims take me. I started a young adult audio book this morning, have a couple of graphic novels on hold at the local library that I will pick up today, and have several volumes of fiction and nonfiction on my shelves that are all clamoring for my attention. There will no doubt be new reads and re-reads, children’s picture books, poetry collections and more. It promises to be a fun Summer of reading mixed in with a lot of outdoor activities and other adventures.

I also decided last night that I will be participating in Faith Simmons’ #stayintunethisjune challenge, which is a challenge to journal one page each day and she will be offering a daily prompt to guide the journaling process. I journal semi-regularly already (average 4 out of 7 days a week) but I want it to be a daily habit, so I look forward to participating in this to build it into my morning routine. More information can be found about this on Faith’s Instagram account: @thesunalsoreads

Again I say, “Welcome June”! I hope everyone has a lovely and memorable month ahead.

I started the #VentureForth Summer Reading Program last year when I found my love of reading fueled by an increase in pandemic-inspired “free time”. I was reading more often and it led to nostalgic feelings of childhood Summer reading programs hosted by local libraries. I wanted to stoke that nostalgia and so I created this.

I have been open in this forum in the past that I often struggle during the Summer months with a heat-induced malaise that spits me out the other end when signs of Autumn return. It is like I am ejected into a world of pumpkin spice and orange hues and wonder what I just did with the last three to four months.

One of the ways I have found to counteract this time snatcher experience is to intentionally do outdoor activities despite the heat and humidity: walk, run, play outdoor games, spend mornings on the deck. The other is to read. Read with engagement, read for fun, read with the reckless abandon I had as a kid when I would check out tons of books from the library and read and re-read them. I had favorites that remain favorites today that I would get from the library over and over again during the Summer.

I will be combining this with Cath’s “20 Books of Summer ’21” event, which I will post about soon.

#VentureForth is not something to “join” per se. If you want to use the graphic and do your own Summer Reading Program, that would be awesome. If you want to post links to reviews of books in the comments here, you are more than welcome.

But what I really want, especially if you have long been a reader and want to continue on with or return to a passion for reading, is for you to enter this season with childlike joy and just enjoy the heck out of whatever you choose to read.

On a final note, I start #VentureForth on the 25th (and yes, I know today is the 26th, but I was reading yesterday) because May 25th, 1977 was the release of Star Wars, and reading Star Wars novelizations and books by Alan Dean Foster and Brian Daley fueled many a Summer. And also it is my dear friend Jeff Smith’s birthday, and we share a great love of reading, so it makes me happy to start it on May 25th.

Venture Forth, happy reading!

Elsie Bainbridge knew that life was looking up. She had married a wealthy, eligible bachelor, was pregnant with child, and would soon join her husband at his ancestral home, The Bridge, where he had went to prepare it for her arrival.

Now she is a widow, alone but for her younger brother who must remain in London to run their family match factory, and a female relative of her deceased husband, and headed to live in a run-down manor house in a country where the people do not seem inclined to welcome her.

Suspicion and gloom abound, which turns to mistrust and fear, as soon after her arrival strange things seem to be happening, things that only she and Miss Sarah Bainbridge are experiencing.

Continue reading The Silent Companions ~Laura Purcell →