Journeys

Summer has definitely arrived; the last week or so has felt significantly warmer. We've had hazy, bright-white skies for the last few days. Soon the African dust will appear. It typically arrives in June. Every year the sight of it amazes me--to be able to see the particles that have been blown this far from the Sahara.

As sunlight begins to flood our balconies in the morning and our minimal clothing becomes almost non-existent, I turn toward a certain kind of reading. If I can't take a literal summer trip, I at least like to see where others can take me through their words.

In my reading stack right now:

River Horse - William Least Heat Moon
Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi
Small Wonder - Barbara Kingsolver
The Outermost House - Henry Beston

Also in the stack:

Child of My Heart - Alice McDermott (just finished)
Disobedience - Jane Hamilton (rereading it after it was recently returned to me two years after loaning it to someone)
The Quality of Life Report - Meghan Daum
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith (I started with the fourth book and figured I go back and read the others in order.)

Where will you be traveling this summer?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This morning I came across a small, slightly musty paperback squeezed in among the items on the bottom shelf of my bedside table. I pulled it out to discover it was Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. I was momentarily stumped since I had no recollection of buying that book. I looked at the yellowed edges of the pages and then gradually recalled visiting a friend's beachside cottage last summer where there'd been a small lending library on a bookshelf in the bedroom. I really must dust more often! :)