Book Blog

You know how when you're reading a really good book (i.e., The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice), and as you near the end, you start slowing down because you're reluctant to be finished and have to start another one that you may not enjoy quite as much?

Well, that happened to me yesterday. Except I didn't slow down at the end, because I was eager to see how it was all going to come out. (It did not disappoint.) So then I was faced with the dilemma, Now what do I read? There are piles of books in my house -- at least one (pile) in every room. They're all things that I'm going to read some day -- if I live long enough. Some of them I've bought myself through the years (and yes, a lot of them during my short tenure as a book seller when I could get them at an extra 30% off); some were "loaned" to me by my sisters and my friends; some were "gifted" to me by same, and I hope I'll be able to remember which ones I'm expected to return! And of course I never come home from a trip to the library with Jordyn without at least one or two selections of my own...And that's where I usually start -- library books, because they have to be returned, eventually.

So yesterday, as I headed out the door to pick my Jordyn up from school, I grabbed one from the library pile -- Dear Zoe by Philip Beard. Bloggees, I don't know what I was worried about! I cried even as I read the set-up inside the jacket. (If you know me, you know that's a good thing. Nothing makes me happier than a book or a movie that brings me to tears!)

The entire book is a letter from Tess (who I'm guessing is around 16) to her three-year-old half-sister, Zoe, who was killed when she was hit by a car on September 11, 2001. Her death had nothing to do with the other events of 9/11, and that's part of Tess's personal grief. The following paragraph, which I read this morning, shot straight through my heart; if I had read it before I blogged on the anniversary of my dad's death (Jan. 4), I might have plagiarized!

"Even though it's been almost a year, sometimes I still miss you so much it feels like someone is pushing their finger into the base of my throat and I cry like it just happened yesterday. But now when I cry like that it kind of feels like it cleans me out, and each time it happens it feels like I'm going to have a little longer until it happens again and usually I do. It's not that I'm missing you less. It's more like I'm finding a place to keep you."

Maybe it's just me, but I love that. I'll have to really pace myself on this book, because it's not very long. I just hope I'll be able to find something else that I'll like as much when I've finished...