Fiction has always been a sanctuary for me. When life is to much, I burry myself in fiction. Maybe it’s not that good to share a major coping method with an ostrich, but hey those birds are fierce. Life has been a lot, for a long time, and this summer I’ve found myself leaning heavy on the re-reads. I thought I would share some books worth a re-read, as well as a first read. Here’s six books for August to read, or if your like me re-read.
The Importance of Being Earnest: Oscar Wilde
This is one of my favorite plays. It’s a new love, I admit, but how can you not love the mind that produced.
It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.”
― Oscar Wilde
The Importance of Being Earnest is searing satire of Victorian High Society, or a mad cap rom-com of increasingly bizarre behavior. Either way it’s a hysterical light summer read, for lounging by the pool, or the ac vents, whichever you have access too.
Girl In Hyacinth Blue: Susan Vreeland
Girl in Hyacinth Blue is the story of a painting. It starts at the end, then each chapter is a short story, and a step in the past, to the paintings beginning. I’ve never re-read Girl in Hyacinth Blue. Even though each chapter is it’s own narrative, they are so vivid, that a glance at the cover has me on the streets of Amsterdam. It isn’t a light lounging read, but the perfect book for a stormy summer day, and too many cups of tea.
The Perfume Collector: Kathleen Tessaro
The Perfume Collector is novel in two narratives, separated by three decades. Each of these narratives, one set in the 1920’s, the other in the 1950’s, focuses on a woman, and two questions. The first “What is the role of scent in our memory?” and the second is “Are we the product of our circumstances, or the culmination of our choices?”.
The Perfume Collector is everything I love in a summer read. Along with vivid, expressive language, it also has multifaceted female characters, and a little mystery. It can stand up to a day beating the heat, or a week of rainstorms.
The Wedding Bees: Sarah Kate Lynch
I have re-read The Wedding Bees this summer. When I think about all Ms Lynch’s books this is the one is the just the right amount of challenge versus fluff. It’s centered, like all of Ms Lynch’s books, on a women with a choice. Also there’s food, in The Wedding Bees it’s honey. On top of those two enticing qualities, it also has a colorful cast of supporting characters that are incredibly fleshed out, and well rounded.
The Little Prince: Antoine De Saint~Exupery
Of all the books I’ve read in my life, The Little Prince is, and will always be on my must read list. I re-read it every few years. Even though I’ve read it four or five times in the last few years, it still moves me. Even though it’s a children’s book, it is a rich, complex story.
I don’t know if I’ll read it to the Tiny Human, or wait until she’s off to university. If you haven’t read The Little Prince yet, it’s a great book for a thoughtful afternoon.
The Little Paris Bookshop: Nina George
It took me a while to decide whether or not I wanted to add The Little Paris Bookshop to this list. Nina George has such a mastery of illustrative writing. I was completely suspended from reality in a world of her weaving.
Despite it’s melancholy, I know I’ll re-read The Little Paris Bookshop again. Reading it is nearly a cathartic experience. In the end I added it, because it is shatteringly hopeful. We could all use a well of hope.
I’ll be delving into The Importance of Being Earnest this weekend, and maybe get around to finishing the last few chapters of The Bookshop of Yesterday, which I’ve been savoring for a few weeks.
What’s your weekend fiction distraction?
