Get Caught Reading Month Catches Me Reading

Sending a big welcome out to May this morning. Biographies, memoirs and other great reads await you this month at this Bookfunnel link, and I hope you check them out (including Crooked Lines: A Single Mom's Jewish Journey, if you haven't read it yet.

Why I'm talking about books is that May is Get Caught Reading Month, launched by the American Association of Publishers to get more people to experience the joy of reading and also let them know one of the best ways to become knowledgeable individuals who have the potential to change the world is -- you guessed it -- opening a book.

Lofty bookish reasons aside, I thought it might be fun to share what's on my reading list this week:

1. Lipstick Life Raft by Cheryl Ronning, a newish writer with one of the most distinct voices I've heard/read in a long, long time. Full disclosure: Cheryl acted in a few different readings of plays I wrote and I was supremely impressed with her then; plus, we have stayed in touch over the years. That still didn't prepare me for the exceptionally beautiful, keenly observant, exquisite prose I'm reading. 

Words like fresh, haunting, funny, graceful and resonant come close, but honestly, you need to read Lipstick Life Raft to understand. I recommend you do read it as soon as you can. I am going to start again as soon as I finish it.

2. Spare by Prince Harry, whatever his last name is, my guilty pleasure this spring, because his ghostwriter J. R. Moehringer is an exceptional writer, and reading this made me want to rush out and read The Tender Bar, which is Moehringer's own story. I found Spare to be everything you'd want in a royal memoir, though I don't know what that is, exactly. Honesty, warmth, a real subject's voice that you can hear and get to know? Whatever it is, I felt like I got to know Harry and his life a bit -- and am glad I read the book.

3. Silverview by John Le Carré found its way to me via a magazine (Atlantic, I think)? I don't usually read mystery writers (with the exception of two friends whose books are knockouts--Ellen Byron and Laurie Anne Marie). But this was written so well, I was hooked right away and had to buy it to find out where it lands. 

I'm reading one more book but I can't tell you what it is, since it involves research I'm doing for a possible play and if I tell you, well, that gives it away, doesn't it, and I'm just superstitious enough not to want to do that.

Happy May, though-- and please. Get caught reading.