Books I Read in February

 Only four books read this month, but that last one was the size of four alone! 

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury is the first book I've read of his since Fahrenheit 451 probably fifty years ago. I wasn't even aware that Bradbury wrote anything other than Sci-Fi until I happened upon this quote from Dandelion Wine: "Hold summer in your hand, pour summer in a glass. Change the season in your veins by raising a glass to lip and tilting summer in." That sent me in search of the book, which my library had, so...

At first I thought the poetic prose was a little too much, but I got used to it and enjoyed the story based on Bradbury's own memories of growing up in Waukegan, IL.

Farewell Summer is Bradury's sequel to Dandelion Wine published 49 years later. I didn't care as much for this book. 

Eye Of The Needle by Ken Follett is a spy thriller set during WWII in the time leading up to D-Day. Published first under the title Storm Island in 1978, it won the Edgar Award for Best Novel. 

World Without End by Ken Follett is the second book in The Kingsbridge Series. It takes place 157 years after The Pillars of the Earth and intertwines the historical Edwardian War (the first phase of The Hundred Years' War) and the Black Death. It was thought provoking to be reading about the bubonic plague of the 1300's in the midst of our current pandemic.

I am learning more history about early Great Britain from this series than I ever did in school. And I'm loving it!

With only four books to report upon, I have room for this poem about books and reading:

                    I Opened A Book by Julia Donaldson

I opened a book and in I strode

Now nobody can find me.

I've left my chair, my house, my road,

My town and my world behind me.

I'm wearing the cloak, I've slipped on the ring,

I've swallowed the magic potion.

I've fought with a dragon, dined with a king

And dived in a bottomless ocean.

I opened a book and made some friends.

I shared their tears and laughter

And followed their road with its bumps and bends

To the happily ever after.

I finished my book and out I came.

The cloak can no longer hide me.

My chair and my house are just the same,

But I have a book inside me.

And that is why I love to read.