Thanks for reading…

I’ve always been a reader.

My parents’ house was full of books and, as a child, I read every Enid Blyton book I could get my hands on before graduating to other genres and authors. I still recall Mrs Whitesman, my Standard 4 teacher who read us ‘The Incredible Journey’ and that I was one of the privileged ones sometimes permitted to read aloud to the class. Mrs Gordon, the school librarian (who once threw a book at me for being cheeky!) would read us extracts from new books to encourage us to read. I remember her personal suggestions of life-changing books, like ‘Exodus’ and ‘Mila 18’ by Leon Uris…

In recent years, even with my family spread around the globe, many a conversation has included shared book discussions and recommendations. My mom and I would discuss what we were reading till almost the end of her 91 years…

It’s time to take a break from blogging over the summer, although it’s very much winter here in snowy Boston, where we are spending time with our gorgeous grandson and his parents. Before we left, I downloaded half a dozen books and chose some paperbacks (I still love ‘real books’ ) because the holidays are always a time for reading. I brought along ‘A Country Too Far’, writings on asylum seekers by well known Australian authors for my son and and have already started reading ‘The Rebirth of Education’ by Lant Pritchett, which he bought for me.

My grandson Shai is 4 months old and his ‘library’ includes ‘Ten little Fingers and Ten Little Toes’, one of my favourites by Mem Fox, and ‘VERY Little Red Riding Hood’, which he appears to be enjoying…

Happy holidays and thanks for reading the blog during the year. I’ll be back in 2014!