Overdue

Falling in Love with Reading (Again)

I taught myself to read by asking my mom, “What does that say?” Stop signs, cereal boxes, the back of shampoo bottles. That’s the actual story, not the family lore version where I never learned how to read, I just “knew.” As much as I love how “born a good witch” that sounds, the truth is I was just enamored with words and relentless about understanding them. By kindergarten I was reading to the class. By first grade I was tutoring kindergartners, and in second grade, I did the same for the first graders. Reading was the key that unlocked the doorway to the world of stories, and I couldn’t stand the idea of others being left out of the magic.

By third or fourth grade, I’d figured out that the glow from my clock radio was just bright enough to read by after lights out. I devoured everything in the Beverly Cleary canon and Peggy Parish’s Amelia Bedelia series book. I graduated to the world of Judy Blume, starting with Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Otherwise Known as Shelia the Great, moving quickly on to Deenie, Starring Sally J. Freedman As Herself, and then of course Tiger Eyes and Forever. If that girl only knew that years and years later, this would happen…

A story for another time.

Lois Lowry was in heavy rotation, too (I think I’ve read A Summer to Die over a dozen times). And yes, I’ll admit it, loads of V.C. Andrews — I was a sucker for those dang peephole covers! I did ALL the summer reading challenges at my library, every single year, straight through middle school, and I still have some of my certificates earned. Reading was my Olympic sport, and these were my gold medals. In middle and high school, I read in the bathtub until the water went cold and the pages warped, and I’d just refill the tub and keep going. Some might claim I ruined a lot of books that way. I’d argue it’s the greatest sign of love.

I don’t know exactly when that kid disappeared. There wasn’t a specific day or incident, but by the time I was graduating from college, the internet was already becoming a thing, and when we moved from slow-ass loading web pages on Netscape and those free AOL dial-up discs to the explosion of websites, smartphones, wifi everywhere, and social media, attention spans became obliterated. Simultaneously, as my corporate titles got bigger, creative time for both reading and writing got smaller and smaller with the go-go-go of life. Somewhere in there, reading turned into something I meant to do instead of something I actually did, and a phone that pretended to fill the gap with memes and reels that were fleeting and temporary, leaving me mostly empty.

I left corporate years ago to focus on creative full time, but the books have primarily remained in pretty stacks. So this summer I’m in search of that girl who not only knew how to slow down and immerse herself in story… she coveted it.

The stack happens to be almost entirely secondhand. Don’t get me wrong, I do my fair share of placing pre-orders and buying new to support fellow authors. But there’s also something special about a book that’s already been somewhere before it gets to me. I recently came across Nora Ephron’s Heartburn at a thrift store and nearly passed out when I realized it was a first edition. Jesmyn Ward’s Let Us Descend and Michelle Tea’s How to Grow Up came from the same thrift haul. Ward is a two-time National Book Award winner and has been at the top of my reading list for years. Finding this gem felt like a nod from the universe to get going. And on a related woo-woo note, I’ve carried Tea’s Modern Tarot book around religiously for years – her take on what all 78 cards mean goes well beyond any typical guide book – so I can’t wait to dive into her memoir about figuring out adulthood on your own unconventional terms. Sobriety and creativity and making a life that actually fits you? Me thinks I’ll relate.

The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht and Ann Packer’s Songs Without Words arrived via Poshmark (yes, you can buy books on Poshmark!). Obreht’s debut won the Orange Prize and came highly recommended by the Posh seller (I’m guessing because pretty much everyone on Posh knows I’m obsessed with tigers?). It’s set in the Balkans and follows a woman piecing together her grandfather’s mysterious life through myth and folktale, including a tiger that escaped from a zoo during wartime.

Packer’s novel is about two women whose lifelong friendship fractures when one’s teenage daughter falls into crisis. Have a strong feeling that one’s going to wreck me in the most beautiful of ways, based on previous experience with her work.

I also scored a brand new copy of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Atmosphere at a different local thrift store. I’ve never read any of her books yet, but I saw her speak at last year’s Las Vegas Book Festival. The room was absolutely packed and after about fifteen seconds of hearing her talk, I understood why. The one new book I bought on purpose, no secondhand version to hunt for, is Nine Persimmons, the latest poetry collection by Kerry James Evans. I had the pleasure of meeting him in person at the 2025 AWP in Los Angeles, where he spoke about sobriety in a way that hasn’t left me since.

There’s a signed copy of David Sedaris’ A Carnival of Snackery on the stack, which deserves its own footnote. I had tickets to see him at the Smith Center in Vegas in May, but a family emergency in Michigan pulled me away at the last minute. My partner, who had not yet joined me in the midwest, went with his aunt instead, and surprised me with an autographed copy. Because yes, he’s that good.

I’ve got two recent pick ups from my local library: Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist by Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, a biography built on 150 interviews that makes the case that Miranda’s success wasn’t about prodigy or lightning in a bottle, but about relentless curiosity, collaboration, and the willingness to keep learning from everyone around him. As someone deep in my own creative endeavors right now, this feels… timely.

I also snagged a copy of Parks and Rec: The Underdog TV Show That Lit’rally Inspired a Vision for a Better America by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, which is doing double duty as pure joy reading and actual research. I’m currently in the process of shopping my own scripted series, and the behind-the-scenes story of how an underdog show survives a rough first season, finds its voice, and becomes a cultural touchstone? That’s not just a good read. That’s a road map.

And yes, I prefer printed and bound books. I’ll never read on a Kindle. To each their own, but just not my jam. Sometimes I’ll go with an audiobook depending on who’s narrating and mostly for nonfiction, but even then, I often get the hard copy or paperback as well. I want it in my hands. I want the weight of it. I want to see how far I’ve gotten just by looking at which side is thicker.

My stack, she a mighty start, ain’t she? And that’s just a partial listing! Updates to follow.

Now I want to hear from you. Have you read any of these? What’s on your summer reading stack? Drop it in the comments, and consider this your official certificate of participation.

xo,
SG

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