World Book Night 2014

 (Passing out copies of my book at the hospital)

When I was 12-years-old my Mom was diagnosed with Leukemia. Almost every night after school my Dad would take me and my siblings to the St. Vincent’s Hospital to visit her. Until that point we’d never spent more than a couple nights away from her, now we were lucky to get an hour with her before we had to head home to do our homework. The time we spent at the hospital with her became incredibly precious.

 

That's why I decided to give my World Book Night books away at that same St. Vincent's Hospital. I thought about how wonderful it would have been to receive an unexpected book while sitting in a waiting room counting the minutes until a doctor or nurse wrapped up a check-up. I thought about the days we sat in waiting rooms anxious to hear about how she was doing and wishing we could think about anything else, just for a moment.

(St. Vincent's Hospital where I passed out my World Book Night books) 

I have so many memories of that hospital. For two years my Mom spent weeks at a time in the oncology center. She would go in for chemotherapy and bone marrow test and we would cover her hospital room walls with our drawings and signs. I have wonderful memories of trying on dresses for my eighth-grade graduation in the hospital room bathroom and modeling them for my Mom. I have horrible memories of seeing her behind a clear glass wall, unable to touch her because her immune system was compromised. Once I even spent the night there, in a chair beside her bed, eating pudding cups while we played backgammon.

(Picking up my WBN Giver box at a Barnes and Noble)

Choosing this location for my very first time giving World Book Night books was deeply personal. As I passed out copies of “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” to tired nurses at the end of their shifts and family members visiting their loved ones I remembered my mom. I thought about how kind my Mom’s nurses had been to me. They did everything they could to make us feel welcome and comfortable. I thought about how this story of a mother and daughter might bring a smile to the faces of some of those nurses.

 

Most of all I thought about how much my Mom would love the concept of a night to celebrate reading. She was an avid reader and she taught me to love reading from a young age. She encouraged me to choose books that challenged me and made me think, not just “bubblegum books” as she called them. She even helped me write my speech for my eighth grade speech competition about the dangers of illiteracy. After fighting it for two years my Mom lost her battle with cancer in 1998. I am so proud to have been a part of World Book Night and I think my Mom would have been incredibly proud of the part she played in it as well.  

Photos by moi.

Life Is So Good

Life Is So Good
One Man's Extraordinary Journey through the 20th Century and How he
Learned to Read at Age 98
by George Dawson and Richard Glaubman
★★★★

George Dawson is more than 100 years old as he reflects back on his life. He worked on his family’s farm at an incredibly young age. At 12 he was sent to live on another farm so he could help make money to support his family. He has such a sincere and wonderful view of life. The man who wrote the book with him, Glaubman, has “book learning,” but he doesn’t know everything George knows about the way the world works, etc.

He always wanted to learn how to read, but instead he worked so his younger siblings could go to school. The race issues in the book are heartbreaking. He knew how dangerous it was to be a black man growing up in the newly freed south. He grew up listening to the stories of slavery from his grandmother who lived through the Civil War. At one point he meets as soldier that has just returned from fighting in France during WWII. The man tells George that in Paris you could eat in a restaurant right next to a white man, but he couldn’t do that in the country that he was fighting for.

The book is more about his entire life than it is about him learning to read, which is what makes it so fascinating. He worked in dozens of jobs, moved about, tried new things, etc. He just lived such a full and generous life. It wasn’t that he did anything that remarkable, it‘s the sheer fact that he lived such a long life and saw so much. The book is full of the simple wisdom that can only come from a life of experiences.

BOTTOM LINE: It’s a quick read and a beautiful reminder that life really is so good.

“Unless a man asks for advice, he don’t really want it. He isn’t gonna thank you for something he don’t need yet. See, I might think I know what’s best for him, but I don’t know what is really in that man’s heart.”

“People forget that a picture ain’t made from just one color. Life ain’t all good or all bad. It’s full of everything.”

“A man is supposed to work and take pride in what he does no matter what the work is.”

“People that wouldn’t even be speaking to each other can talk on a train.”

“Be generous in your dealings, but always have something saved for rainy weather.”

Image from here.