Summer is for Reading

When I was young, my Mom would take my brother and I to the library every other week during the summer. I LOVED going and browsing through the aisles and aisles of books. I would check out 15 at a time and my Mom would write down how many because I inevitably lost one under my bed every time. So, for me, reading is just as much a part of summer as playing in sprinklers, eating outdoors and strawberry shortcake.

Recently, I started going to our neighborhood library. It is a 15 minute walk away and it's a nice trip to take with Baby Z. I just finished reading Jane Austen's Persuasion. If Jane Austen were published today, her books would have a hot pink cover and a close up of a pair of high heeled boots and a man's shadow in the background. Seriously, Jane Austen is some serious chick lit. You know this already if you have read Sense and Sensibility, or seen the movie version (with Emma Thomson and Kate Winslet), and the scene where the maiden with a twisted ankle (oh no!) in the rain (she'll catch her death!) is saved by the handsome stranger on the horse.

Now, lest you think I am mocking the illustrious Jane Austen, let me tell you that I highly recommend any Jane Austen book. You get all the romance and suspense of a hot pink girlie book, but you look really smart while doing it! You may even get away with asking your husband to change the baby's diaper because you're almost at the end of your literary novel (didn't work with mine, but hey, it might with yours!).

So go to your neighborhood library and pick up some good, juicy 19th-century British literature.