making friends with books

It’s day three and the prompt is “currently reading.” I added two books to the picture because, under the circumstances, that seemed like the right choice. So, I’m stretching the “currently” a bit. I just finished reading “The Boy Who Ran Away to Sea,” by Barry Gifford. It’s actually a series of short stories, all about the same main character, whose name is Roy. Even before I read the book, I knew that I was going to like the main character because my father’s name was Roy. I used to joke with him that if had married a lady named Pearl, he and his wife could have been Roy Boy and Pearl Girl. Or, if he had married a lady named Regina, which means queen, he and his wife would have been royalty because Roy means king. This Roy in the story knew that his name meant king. Yes, I did finish reading the book, but I consider it a current book because it will be the topic of discussion in my on-line book club meeting tonight via zoom. It’s kind of a wild and crazy group, and it starts late, but we’re meeting on central time, and I live in eastern time so there is that… But wild and crazy is definitely my type of group. We are all characters and we’re kind of a good fit with each other.

The book about Roy’s adventures was a really interesting, well-written and compelling story. Although it was considered to be a series of short stories, it felt like one story that jumped back and forward in time. The jumping was graceful because I never lost my sense of who Roy was, no matter how young or old he was in the telling of any particular chapter. I liked Roy as a character so much. The people around him were fascinating and sometimes, were wild characters, which just added to their charm.

The other book is one I started a while ago but never finished. I think that I can finish it pretty soon. It’s very mouth watering. It’s called “Rosalia’s Bittersweet Pastry Shop,” and the author is Ronsanna Chiofalo. It’s set in Italy, and it’s about food and the people who make food and their lives. It’s a very sweet (pun intended) novel. At the end, there are recipes. One is for the famous cassata cake. My friends’ mom used to make that cake for Easter every year. It was a real treat and a Big Project. Hence, she made that cake annually.

These stories remind me of why books are such great friends to have. It’s a way to travel around the world without having to deal with the tediousness of airports or bus terminals or other methods of transport or the unpredictability of the weather. When I can’t travel very far in person, the books offer me a chance to travel in my imagination. They take me to other lands and other times. They offer me images and stories and even taste sensation. If I were to write this same post in a month, my story would be completely different. Which means that I will do the “current reading” post again at some point!!!

Today’s question: What are you reading?