Reading

At the Decatur Book Festival, the largest independent book festival in the US, I snapped up a stack of classics from a used book tent. Find out more about these selections and other staff and contributor picks.

As summer comes to a close, must our reading passion also wane with the season? I am happy to report the opposite to be true this month for me. The kids are back in school but not yet inundated with projects; thus, my mounting stack of books topples over with new selections now more than ever. Check out our recent favorites, some of which are hot off the presses.

We’re now a month past the solstice, and summer is in full swing. If you’re reaching the end of a book or bottom of your stack, our writers and editors offer you some smart and award-worthy titles to round out and refresh your summer reading selections.

In June, we Literary Mamas read on, certain that reading will carry us forward with the reminder that there is more out there in the world than our own hustling hive.

This time of year brings delightful signs of rebirth and change. I find myself seeking commencement speeches to read in the hope I might soak up their heady optimism for positive growth. But while I have my head in the clouds, I am happy to learn that literary mamas back on earth have been reading lengthier pieces they can share with us.

Brief moments of delightful silence during spring break have summoned my pen to paper; I am drafting a summer reading list. This month we recommend titles to kick off your summer reading list.

There are times you pick up a book that becomes a fast friend you can’t imagine letting go. I haven’t read a book in a while that I couldn’t put down, but I do so love that feeling. Literary Mama contributors shared what they’re reading, which might just enchant you enough to become your next best friend.

I used to fantasize that if I ever met Nora Ephron, I’d invite her to supper, at which she would taste my meatballs and declare me her new best friend. I pleased to report after laughing and crying my way through Delia Ephron’s Sister Mother Husband Dog: (Etc.), I have a new Ephron to invite to my table.

A new year tends to make me want to revisit Verlyn Klinkenborg’s The Rural Life. Organized by months, January through December, it’s a collection of small meditations on life in the world—a world that those who lived in the United States 100 years ago could recognize, the one that includes pigs, bees, potatoes, horses.

December is such a busy month for most of us, a book might well struggle to get a word in edgewise.

I’m beginning to think that in my case, a regular infusion of fiction is required for both psychological and social health.