The Great Summer Re-Reading Project

First, about Missing Sarah by Maggie de Vries. It was a really wonderful book. It was well written, informative and poignant. I will admit to being one of those who never very much considered the missing women from Vancouver. They were a mass, a rather sordid mass at that. And this book brought one of them very much to life. She was a person, with a family that loved her terribly, and miss her still. And we have to know that, beyond the sensationalist tabloid articles. What a journey it was to, to learn where Sarah de Vries came from and how she ended up where she did. That one of these murdered women was Jean Little's niece. This book forced me to put aside my gut reactions to these issues and to understand how truly complicated and difficult they are to consider. It was a really sad and wonderful story. Not bad for a book bought just because it had a Penguin on its spine.

And tomorrow is the first day of the The Great Summer Re-Reading Project. I got the idea last fall, when I was contemplating all the books I want to read, and was bowled over by the books I want to re-read on top of that. Which is my priority for the next three months. I am going to re-read all those books I should have read more carefully before, the books that my older self will interpret differently, the books I read for class that I may have missed the point of, books I've read but only so long ago that I don't remember anymore, and books I feel I am in a better place to understand now. This is exciting because it means I am not going to spend any money on books this summer, which is a good thing at the moment, and also because it's a really interesting way to approach a book. I am only going to read books I the circumstances of having read the first time, and compare those, on top of the actual reading experience. And hopefully the books are going to open up whole new stories I never even considered before.

(In mini break news, we are going away for our first wedding anniversary, which is in three weeks! I am so excited. We're renting a car and hitting the road, and spending the weekend in Prince Edward County!)