books books books
I was not a strong reader growing up, which I think upset my mother. My mother had diaries filled with plot lines, notes about books that she kept as a child. My mother was a genius; she got pulled over by the cops once on her way to buy more beer for her MENSA picnic. I think that is an accurate elevator pitch for my mother, although it still reflects only a prism of her magnitude.
I had a learning disability and could not track lines, maybe throw in a little Dyslexia. I did daily exercises, got stars on the chart, used an index card with a space cut out to read my chapter books and still, to my mother’s great disappointment I wasn’t that into books. Honestly, I really just thought I was too dumb to read books, that books were for smart people.
And then one day, I don’t know the day and I don’t know the book, but I fell in LOVE with books, like hard! I can still remember the feeling of reading Judy Blume’s Tiger Eyes in my bedroom all day, handed down by some other adolescent girl. So many of these days would follow, Song of Solomon, Written on the Body, Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid, Wide Sargasso Sea, The Bean Trees, so many plays; these books both helped me to escape and to find myself. Books have the ability to blow our minds and hearts wide open.
“The universe is made of stories, not atoms” Muriel Rukeyser
We need each other’s stories (preferably honest stories please!!) more than ever. In stories we can be drawn closer, we become intimate, compassionate, a part of, rather than separate; sometimes we can remember for an instant that we are all sunbeams from the same sun. We need to learn, to gather new perspectives about how we have harmed, are harming ourselves and others - to become historical. As my therapist says, This is all just my big fat opinion.
I thought it would be fun to highlight the books that have been mentioned in The What I Loved Interview, to see what we got going on and we got a lot going on!
Gimme your stories. Gimme your voice. I am trying to open my heart enough to listen.
I love you, Jenny
