Happiness is (a la “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”)… many things. In my case, it mainly involves my family, cats, books, plants, and many other moments of cheap little thrills. Don’t get me wrong; getting a huge windfall would make me happy (unless there are strings), but that has only happened a few times for me (which makes me very blessed, I know). Those small moments of joy though, they’re innumerable.
Since they’re brief and subtle, sometimes they fail to register, and I consequently fail to be grateful. If I were more conscious of them, no doubt about it, I would be a much more positive and nicer person. Unfortunately, my natural tendency is towards doom and gloom. As a child, I had the general vibe of a thundercloud. I’m much better these days, but it takes conscious effort.
Having said that, it’s quite easy to remember to be grateful (because I get so excited) when I get such delightful bookish encounters — when I find a new (to me) book written by one of my favorite authors, when I find other readers who also enjoy the books I love, when I chance upon books from my past that I’ve sadly lost since (or they weren’t mine in the first place, so I couldn’t reread them ad infinitum like I could with my own books)…
Anyway, I recently participated in a Bookish Wishlist Challenge on Bookstagram wherein we were supposed to share titles or book merch we wanted to acquire. Since my mind kind of went haywire with all of the books and bookish items I wanted to include, I just decided to narrow my post down to a specific category of books I wish for: books I want to reunite with.
Again, there are still so many that would fall under this category. To further contain the post, I chose to just go with the first five to come to mind. However, subcategories formed as I started to pick books and the selection criteria got narrower for it. Ultimately, I ended up featuring six romances: two from the Sweet Dreams series (Hello, ’80s girls! You know you cried reading P.S. I Love You. Anybody still mad about Paul Strobe dying?), two from Emilie Loring (romantic mysteries from the ’40s-’50s), and two from Essie Summers (wholesome Kiwi Mills & Boon stuff).
I picked The Right Combination and Love Lines because I discovered Emily Dickinson through them. They were both sweet and funny, and I don’t know which horrible childhood friends of mine borrowed them and never returned them. These two, my mom got for me, but my grandma gifted me with my first set of four, which included P.S. I Love You. Still, it was actually the St. S*********a’s Academy grade school library that got me started on the series.
That library is one of my happy places from childhood. To a bookworm like me, it was pure paradise. Not only did it have an extensive collection of appropriate literature (and inappropriate — GenX here! I borrowed Flowers in the Attic from that very library and read it way too young), it was also very warm and welcoming. It was an airy space surrounded by glass windows looking out to the garden playground and the terraced gardens with the giant rubber tree and the rolling knoll…
My school was located in the hills of my town, and the campus was beautiful. Sigh. I have a love-hate relationship with that place.
As for Emilie Loring and Essie Summers. I actually still have my copies of the books I featured. However, they are all dilapidated. The Shadow of Suspicion is moldy, while Fair Tomorrow. My Lady of the Fuchsias, and Summer in December are all falling apart and have several pages missing.
There’s another romance I want to get reunited with. The problem is I don’t remember the title. It’s an Australian romance, I believe, but I can’t recall if it was Harlequin or Silhouette. Anyway, I think the h’s name is Rowan. She was adopted and she was looking for her twin. The couple that took them in when they were babies and their parents died held on to her twin and then let herself get adopted. Anyway, there were several mentions of a gooney bird throughout the book. Apparently, they soar high and then fall hard? I might be remembering that wrong. Anyhow, if you know which book this is, I’d be grateful to be reminded.
What about you? Which books do you want to have a reunion with?
This Small Life 