Remarkable Reads

Rather than asking writers to tell
about their favorite book or requesting
authors to provide a grocery list
of favorites, the clever
editor of this book asked writers to
pick one book and one adjective describing
the book and then to write about their
experience with the book. Cutting to the
chase, I'll say I loved this book and,
further, at the risk of sending my fellow
readers even deeper into our book obsessions,
I recommend it to others. (Bias noted:
the essays were originally published in a
newspaper in North Carolina; the book
is heavily weighted with Southerners.)
Favorite Quote: “...I...delighted in the knowledge apprehended in childhood that some books reverberated like gongs or sirens or trumpet calls to action. They ignited fuses, ripped rugs out from under us, were like thumbtacks planted in our chairs
or Whoopee Cushions.” (p. 96)

And who hasn't felt this: “In my windbreaker's
side pocket I've got my talisman, my Bible,
my lucky charm: my current copy of The Little
Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway....It
first came to me here, two years ago, when
I really needed it—as books so often do.”
(p. 250)