I traditionally read a boat load of books in the summer. Some dificult, some important, some mysteries, some silly. I am usually sorry when I try to read "women's novels." Last week I read one by Karen White and I was sorry. Then read Never Change by Elizabeth Berg. It was good - and dealt with the serious issue of euthanasia in a sensitive and realistic way:
As you know, I'm currently reading a meditation book called In the Sanctuary of Women by my friend, Jan Richardson. Extremely meaningful. Also rereading the New Testament.
And I've just started a John Sanford novel, Shadow Prey. His second in a long list of "Prey" mysteries. They're set in the Twin Cities. I've read most of them since I started spending summers here in 2006.
But the most interesting and different books are a series of graphic novels I stumbled on to by accident. Many of you may be familiar with Art Spiegleman and his Pulitzer Prize winning Maus series but I was not.
They are brutally moving works of art. Art Spiegleman tells the terrifying story - in cartoon form - of his parents' life in Nazi Germany. I'm moved by the drawings themselves and the stark honesty. The Nazis are cats, the Jews mice. Spiegleman, who was born after the war, has a tortured relationship with his father. But I can understand his father's actions after what he's been through.
I found the first volume in Dave's house as we were cleaning out boxes. I searched for the second in a used bookstore close by and was thrilled to find it. I think, when I finish the second, I'll donate them to the Holocaust Center close to my house in Florida. The Center is dedicated to help all of us ... not forget.
The first Maus book opens with this quote:
The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human - Adolf Hitler Scary and upsetting. But we need to remember.
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