I've always been a book worm.  I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't have a book going.  As an only child, on many a rainy day they were my playmates and companions.  As a teen, books took me to faraway places that I could only hope to visit.  As a young mom, they provided a nice diversion from diapers and Sesame Street.  And as an adult, they've allowed me to learn about different cultures, different opinions and different ways of looking at life and human nature.  Although I always have a book going, sometimes I get into reading frenzies.  Reading a few books a week and that's what I've been doing for the past month.  Here's two that I recently finished......

Has anybody read this one?  Because if you have, I'll be interested in your opinion of it.  As for mine....well, it was different.  Very different from most anything I've ever read.  Mainly because the story is told from the viewpoint of a 15 year old boy with autism.  What was utterly amazing was how the author truly seemed to get into the "skin" of the main character.  Obviously, the author isn't autistic and yet.....it was remarkable how he captured what it must be like.  The anxiety, the compulsion for repetition, fear of being touched, fear of people and crowds, etc.  Humorous in parts, the story was also poignant.  And very original, which probably accounts for becoming a national bestseller.  Would I recommend it?  Only if you're looking for something unusual. 

The next book I recently read has a special story to it.  My cousin, Maria, had recommended it to me last summer and said when she got it back from somebody she'd loaned it to, she'd mail it off to me.  It never came and I forgot about it. (IF you could see my stack of to-be-read books waiting for me, you'd understand why)  A few weeks ago a book arrived from Barnes & Noble.....I normally order all my books from Amazon. I opened it and couldn't figure out where it came from and then I began to glance through it and realized.....my cousin bought a new copy for me and had it delivered.  She never did get hers back.  When somebody goes out of their way like this to make sure I get a book....you have to know how special that is to me.

The reason Maria wanted me to read it was because first of all it's a good book.  But secondly, she thought I'd enjoy it because of my Polish heritage and she was right.  I devoured it.....and at 496 pages, it was a lot of reading.

What really intrigued me was the authors note in the front of the book, "The cornerstone of this novel is the unpublished diary of Countess Anna Maria Berezowska, translated into English from the Polish by her descendant John A. Stelnicki."  So it's fiction based on fact, which I love.  The time period is the 1780's and the Third of May Constitution years.....when the uprisings between the nobles and peasants was occurring.  It's the romantic epic of the young countess's coming-of-age during the upheaval of eighteenth-century Poland. If you enjoy historical novels, then I do recommend this one.  I loved it.....and I especially loved it and will treasure it because of what my cousin did to insure that I had a copy of this book.

And right now I'm reading "Time Was Soft There" by Jeremy Mercer....a memoir about him living at Shakespeare and Company, the famous book store in Paris.  I've been to that book store a million times and have personally met the eccentric owner, George Whitman.  So stay tuned for not only a review of Mercer's book, but also a blog entry about when I met George and got personally invited to his infamous Sunday tea party.

See you tomorrow.......