WWW Wednesday – June 23, 2021

WWW Wednesday is run by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently listening to The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult (2020). I have been reading her books since the early 90s when I was given a copy of Picture Perfect at work. Some criticize her fiction as being “straight from the headlines” but her books are almost always readable and fascinating. This one is both: the heroine was once an Egyptologist (or at least a Yale grad student in training to be) but when her mother died unexpectedly she gave up her career and ended up in hospice work. After surviving a plane crash, she is compelled to find out what that other life would have been like.

I just finished Hidden Depths by Ann Cleeves, the third Vera Stanhope mystery.  I started out with this as an audio for the car as I am now back in the office and Boston traffic has resumed. However, the seventh CD malfunctioned and I barely made it to the library before it closed at 6 pm to get the actual book. This series is growing on me - for a while, I was too annoyed with the author for killing off one of her protagonists in the Shetland Island series to try it. I suppose I should try listening to books on tape via Overdrive or Libby to avoid faulty CDs.

Clearly, I was misled by
the charming cover!

I also just finished In a Book Club Far Away by Tif Marcelo (2021). I must have read a great review because I put this on reserve at the library although most of my holds are frozen so I can read The 20 Books of Summer with less distraction. On paper, it sounded appealing – a book club for army wives and a promise that brings them together after estrangement. In fact, there was practically nothing about the books, I couldn’t keep the characters straight, and the one with the philandering husband blamed her friends instead of him. Not a good use of my time!

Next up is a lovely book about books, A de Grummond Primer: Highlights of the Children’s Literature Collection (2021). As some of you know, the University of Southern Mississippi, where I am a part-time graduate student, hosts one of the largest collections of children’s literature in North America. My friend Ellen Ruffin is the curator (I know there is no such thing as the perfect job but hers must be close) and one of the book's authors and I keep meaning to ask her how long it took to organize and create this book, which provides background on the origins of the de Grummond and descriptions of some of its most important collections: H.A. and Margaret Rey, creators of Curious George; Ezra Jack Keats, Tasha Tudor, and more. You can hear Ellen talk about the Reys here. I hope to visit USM and this amazing collection later this year.