A recent New York Times preview of books to read this summer prompted a memory of Bluffton University (College) president, Dr. Lee Snyder, asking faculty and staff to send her suggestions of favorite books to read during the summer. I knew immediately what two books I'd suggest -- like me, she'd majored in English and I knew she appreciated a wide variety of genres.
As a child, I spent hours in the children and youth books section of the Musselman Library at then-Bluffton College while my dad puttered around in his office or the lab at the science building. When I was 8 years old, I discovered two of my all-time favorite books: Gone-away Lake (1957) and Return to Gone-Away (1961) by Elizabeth Enright. Gone-away (1961) was a runner-up for the annual
Newbery Medal and was named to the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award list in 1970. It tells the story of cousins who spend a summer exploring and discover a lost lake and the two people who still live there. In 1961, Enright published the sequel, Return to Gone-Away, in which the children's family buys a house near Gone-Away.
As a college student in the 70s, I took a children's literature course taught by Dr. Elizabeth "Libby" Hostetler, with the idea I might someday write children's books. One of the requirements of the class was to write and illustrate a children's book, using the various forms of writing and illustration we had
studied. I still have the book, though the cover is torn and inside pages are falling apart.
Back to Goneaway, I began re-reading the books when I was in college, and have continued as an adult. About 15 years ago, I found them in a book sale at the university library and felt personally insulted that they would dispose of such an important set of books. Of course I bought them but later couldn't find them so now I have a digital copy of each on my iPad. More than 50 years later, summer isn't summer unless I've reread them. And every time, they transport me to another time when life was much more free and children could safely explore their surroundings for hours on their own.
As summer approaches, I wonder what interesting books are on other people's reading lists. According to the Times preview, there are some good ones soon to be published -- my initial choices include biographies by Paula Byrne and Miranda Seymour, The Last Resort by Sarah Stodola, and Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty, a collection that examines the consequences and merits of inheritance, and portrays a Native community.
Share your summer book reading list with me, please!