I love to read. Always have. I got my library card when I was nine years old, frequenting the Covington Public Library on Scott Street. The children’s section was on the second floor. I am pretty sure I read everything they had on prehistoric times and Nancy Drew Mysteries.
Several decades later I am still a patron of our public library. Isn’t the system great? Nowadays I reserve regular books and e-books and pick them up in person, at the window or online. For the last five years I have belonged to a book club with five other women about my age. We have read and discussed over fifty books, mostly novels, but also memoirs and a couple that could be called fantasies. Reading opens a door for me to become acquainted with women and men whose experiences are so different from mine historically, geographically, culturally and in so many other ways. And I love the beauty of “a well-turned phrase”. I haven’t liked all of our book club reads, but I am glad that I read them because I feel enriched by each one. Reading draws me into the lives and realities of others and into the realm of holiness in pondering the great truths, beauty and goodness of God in these situations. With other club members I delight in sharing observations, the ways the stories and characters have affected us and engaged us in new ways of looking at things.
My list of recent favorites includes:
Frozen River by Ariel Lawhorn
The Book Woman’s Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Women Talking by Miriam Toews
West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Remarkable Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
