…hands down is a book (and don’t you just love that British-ism BTW :))?

Yes, I know we have established that I love TV, but a negative, unintellectual stigma was (& arguably still is) attached to watching TV when I was growing up (kind of like screen time and today’s kids) and I had to keep a handle on how much I watched lest I become the subject of parental scrutiny. Over the summer when my parents came home from work, it would never have done for me to respond to their daily, “how did you spend your day?” question with a response that involved TV watching. And living in a landlocked state, with no local pool in my neighborhood/vicinity, in a quiet suburban neighborhood with lots of elderly people but very few children and my parents not seeing any utility to sending us kids away to summer camp, the options for what to do with those endless summer days were not limitless. SO, that’s where reading comes into the picture.

There is so much that is positive that comes with reading that my parents could never say no to it, no matter how gluttonous I was about it. From the age of about 8 onwards, I would ask them or my babysitter to take me to our local library at least once a week. Once there I would spend an hour excitedly picking out anywhere from 10-20 books to read. With something good to read, something yummy to sip on and my favorite candy (Twizzlers, Jolly Ranchers, Red Hots & Hubba Bubba were my favorites) on a side table next to me or on a picnic blanket in our backyard, I was all set for hours a day. Between a summer vacation or two, some matinees and self-induced academic enrichment, those summers flew and were actually blissful unstructured, relaxed time for me that I remember wistfully and still miss.

Reading for me was another great escape from my circumscribed, fairly uneventful, but very love-filled, secure childhood and adolescence. I would bring a book with me everywhere. In the car. To Dollywood in Tennessee and a Stella Parton concert. To a restaurant. My sister would say, “you are the most boring person in the whole world” when I was in the backseat of the car going somewhere with her because she would want to talk, but I would be mute, just “reading away to glory,” to steal an expression from my Mom. I may have been a boring kid at the time, but reading about so many countries, conflicts, love stories, hardships, adventures and great historical events laid the groundwork for me to lead an exciting life. It exposed me to the great range of possibilities in life, some of which I would one day be lucky enough to experience and some of which I wished I’d never had to experience but at least could address better because of the insight I’d gained from a great novelist’s perspective. In short, reading fiction of all types has been one of the great joys and teachers in my life. I have been in at least 5 book clubs following college and since I am not currently in one, I look forward to sharing my favorite picks and insights with you all, here on Treat-A-Week. So, here we go…my first 2 choices.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

This book is hot right now (pun intended) and it should be because IT IS JUST THAT GOOD. Set in the upwardly mobile, suburban haven of Shaker Heights, Ohio the story revolves around a family that is the stuff of American dreams led by Elena Richardson, a matriarch who has made all the “right” choices and is living a seemingly perfect life. Trouble ensues in the form of a mother/daughter pair who rent a modest home from the Richardsons and who become involved in each of the Richardson family members’ lives in unexpected and life-changing ways. This book is an extremely easy read that makes one question his/her own life choices and perceptions and the real meaning of being true to oneself. There are also issues of class, race, and inequity that Ng effortlessly and skillfully raises that make it great for book club discussion. I was surprised to find that my favorite scene in the book was peripheral to the central plot-line. It takes place when Elena Richardson meets an old college friend for lunch 3/4 of the way through the book to ask for a favor that she really shouldn’t be asking for. The insight on human nature and what truly motivates some to help others was so keen, wry and unexpected that it took my breath away. Read it. I promise you will find something about this book that makes you look at life – yours and others with a fresh lens, and isn’t that in and of itself a treat?

One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This book is an unusual find – a thoughtful, sweet, somewhat suspenseful and nuanced, contemporary romance novel for the select few who are fans of this genre. It’s the equivalent of reading comfort food and the perfect book to read in front of the fireplace with your fuzzy socks on. One True Loves is the story of Emma Blair, a thirty-something woman who has just taken over running the town bookstore, a family business she never thought she would be interested in, but has surprisingly found that she loves. Emma is on the verge of marrying for the second time after her first husband was tragically killed in a plane crash. On the very evening that she announces to her parents and sister that she is engaged to old friend and new love Sam, happily and miraculously and thereby indicating that she has finally overcome the great tragedy of her life – losing her first husband Jesse, he calls her to tell her that he is actually ALIVE and has been fighting to survive and get back to her for years! What is a girl, wait, no, a woman, to do in this crazy, somewhat heartbreaking predicament??? Well, following Emma’s reunion with the love of her life who she thought she was dead while navigating the her relationship with the man she now also loves makes for some interesting reading. It also takes the reader a step deeper and makes her question the nature of romantic love — is there a single love of one’s life? Do we need different types of love at different times in our lives? What does it mean to truly love someone? The plot of the story being set in Acton, Massachusetts, where the author grew up creates some sweet local New England color as a backdrop to the story which serves as an added bonus in my view.

Happy reading and hope you have a treat-filled week!

Truly yours,

M