I count it as a credit to the Hattiesburg Public Schools that I kick into Summer Reading mode every June. If I don't have a stack of to-be-read volumes on my shelf by the end of May I tend to get a little panicky.
I confess that most of this summer's selections fall short of qualifying as great literature. Mostly, I ripped through an odd assortment of mysteries, booklist blockbusters and cheap purchases from the Barnes & Noble remainder trough that have kept me deliciously engaged while on the road. I got around to reading Love in the Time of Cholera and wished I had not waited so long to enjoy Marquez' timeless prose.
My favorite so far (we still have several weeks until school starts) is an interesting non-fiction piece about a woman who sold all her worldly goods, purchased a trawler, learned to sail it, then headed out to sea. The title, The Cure for Anything Is Salt Water: How I Threw My Life Overboard and Found Happiness at Sea, pretty much sums up the plot. Most memorable was the opening quote from Isak Dinesen:
"The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears...and the sea."