River Reading

OK, so I only read one book while on vacation these past 2 weeks. I actually started another, but realized wisely that if I read another delicious novel about lifelong unrequited love, I might have to hurl myself in the Tennessee River that flowed past our hotel room like some of my recent tragic heroines.

So I chose a different route. Craving the lighter, I read Melissa Bank's new release, The Wonder Spot. (Bibliophiles: she was the one who wrote The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing ) This one was about a girl, and then young woman, and then older-ish woman, who seemed to be stuck in mediocrity--never excelling at anything, barely keeping a job, always losing a boyfriend--every relationship she had seemed to be superficial--like her life. Reading it, you still had sympathy for her, though, and wanted to shake some sense into her at times, but feeling like reading her story was almost encouragement in the literary sense. It wasn't that she was lazy or apathetic necessarily. I think it was more of she was just perpetually waiting for something to happen to change her life.

Anyway, you'll have to read it to find out what happens, but not for the first time in my life I wondered if that waiting for something to happen theory isn't always the best course of non-action.

With so much sky and so much river, you couldn't help seeing the big picture. It was what you already knew, but crowding into the subway or rushing to a movie, you only saw it for a second, and close up. Now I take a good long look. I'd always heard you couldn't see stars in Manhattan because of all the lights. But here they all were. Here was my night in shining armor.