Happy Reading

I've currently got my nose in three books: Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," a contemporary fiction book, "Shelter Me," and still Jane Jacob's "The Death and Life of Great American Cities."

About the first, I will say that I ALWAYS love an autobiography about growing up black in the South, since I have no expertise whatsoever on the topic. I am reading this book in order to teach a reading workshop for the public high schoolers' mandatory summer reading. Summer reading is a nice thought on the schools' part, but I've got to say, the infrastructure for such a program just simply is not in place. There are 30,000 readers, k-12, across Jackson, and the schools do not provide books. Public libraries have about 65 copies per grade level, with extremely strict check out and due date parameters. You do the math. Anyways, "Caged Bird" is especially great because Angelou has that special ability to both critique and see through ugly truths about the adult worl (well, she did write this as an adult, I guess, looking back), while simultaneously maintaining a rather merciful, loving stance towards family and others who have hurt her. That is, she doesn't tip into the outward territories of naiveté or bitterness. This book is a lot like Janneatee Wall's "Glass Castle" or Anne Moody's "Coming of Age in Mississippi."

"Shelter Me" is a book I can read without thinking too hard. It's about a young mother whose husband died in a bike accident. She's left with two kids. The author does an excellent job tracking the mourning process in a step-by-step, day-by-day way. Also a main point of the book is how surprising it is to find out who helps you most in your worst times-- not always the people you'd expect to be there for you the most.

Jane Jacob's book continues to be an inspiration to me. I don't know how she can talk about sidewalks for 100 pages and keep my interest, but she does! T. is an architect, so I love to torture him by reading aloud long excerpts of her observations on what urban planning ought to be, but isn't.