What else~Books! They excite me, inspire me, inform me, invigorate me, relax me, distract me from worries, and keep me company when I'm alone. My love affair with books began a when I was very small, and will last as long as I hold a book in front of me and read the words.
There are always at least two, sometimes three books piled on my nightstand~or more accurately, scattered throughout the house and even in my car! (Don't worry, I never read while driving, although I've been known to catch a paragraph or two at particularly long stop lights or stuck in a traffic jam.) I've usually got a novel going, along with a non-fiction book or two, plus at least one book on writing. Currently, my reading life is getting out of hand -in addition to all of the above, I've got some background material books to help me with revisions on my novel. I've been keeping a book journal since 1996, a list of all the books I read during a month, with a "top 10" review at the end of the year. Occasionally, I'll look back to certain time periods and see what I was reading, which author was helping me get through a stressful time, or what characters were celebrating with me when things were good.
Here's what's been on my list this summer:
- Sisters of My Heart, Vine of Desire, The Uncommon Errors of Our Lives...Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Echoes of the Dance...Marcia Willett
- The River Queen...Mary Morris
- The Divide...Nicholas Evans
- The Post Birthday World...Lionel Shriver
- The Emperor's Children...Claire Messeud
- The Chinese Chef...Nicole Moins
- Shaggy Muses...Maureen Adams
- The Shoe Queen...Anna Davis
- Stormy Weather...Paulette Jiles
- The Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes...Cathy Holt
- It's Always Something...Gilda Radner
- Eat, Pray, Love...Elizabeth Gilbert
- The Right to Write...Julia Cameron
- On Writing Well...William Zinsser
Update: Just got home from my monthly trip to the library, and what a haul! Here's what I grabbed up...
- One For the Money...Janet Evanovich. Lots of people have been recommending her Stephanie Plum mystery series, so I got one in paperback to read on my next plane trip
- Kabul Beauty School...Deborah Rodriguez
- The Maytrees...Annie Dillard
- Sheer Abandon...Penny Vincenzi. I've been waiting for this one...this British author has a series of big, fat, historical family sagas that I can't put down
- Peony In Love...Lisa See
- Keeping the House...Ellen Baker
- The Water's Lovely...Ruth Rendell
Can't you tell how excited I am??? I admit it~I'm a pathetic book-a-holic :)