From One Book Lover

My young friends Alex and Philip have begun their summer vacation — which, for me, always meant books. Scads and piles and armfuls of books. I'd go to the library a couple of times a week to return the ones I had inhaled and come home with more. It was a gorgeous week in Los Angeles when, as a fourth grader, I holed myself up in my room and read the the entire  Chronicles of Narnia . (It was five days, really.) I still remember shivering from the cold of the eternal winter and the White Witch. But this is today. What do — no, should — the kids of today read? Well, I'm glad you asked. Here are a few suggestions. (People of an age may recognize a title or two.) Up the Down Staircase — a New York City high school teacher new to the education system experiences life in a big-city high school. The Graveyard Book — A toddler wanders into a graveyard one tumultuous night and is raised by its residents. To Kill a Mockingbird — This classic page-turner is one of my...

The lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer are supposed to be book-filled and hot — the perfect combination to get you to lounge and work on reducing that pile of books on the nightstand. I've had a combination of things come along and reduce the nightstand pile without a word being read: putting a house on the market and the reading blahs. The house on the market was my own fault: if one wants to sell a house, one must make it seem spacious and inviting — not insufficient for one's book collection.  With mere days to make a home a showpiece, my husband David and I grabbed belongings off shelves, counters and from inside closets, jammed them into boxes and put them in someone else's space. I was told to reduce my library by 50 percent. (Yes, I gasped, too.) I think I managed 35 percent before I had to surrender.  Actually, David did most of the "heavy lifting" of books, and they went into boxes with no rhyme or reason.  Poetry mixed with biography mixed with f...