Vacation reading

Seriously...where is this beach?!  Maybe it's not too late to change my vacation destination....

Yesterday I mentioned the first two types of reading material essential for a good vacation...books on tape (technically I guess they are really books on CD but books on tape sounds better) and magazines.  I love to splurge on big, glossy home and garden magazines when I'm on vacation--the kind that is a little more than you should probably spend on a magazine, but hey, how often do you go on vacation?!  So far the following magazines have been tucked into my Mrs. Robinson's magic bag (see yesterday's post):

Don't you just want to climb inside this magazine and stroll through this garden? Maybe have a cup of tea in the backyard?  Maybe just move in?? It's been so hard not peeking at the magazines or browsing through just one little article.....! 

And now we come to the third type of reading material, the books.  I don't have a Kindle or a Nook or an Ipod or smartphone that allows me to download books.  No, I'm an old fashioned girl with old fashioned books, books that have been carefully vetted for just this trip.

Notice the book on the table?!

I guess I am a bit like Goldilocks...I don't want anything too heavy (literally or figuratively!), nothing too deep that makes me actually think too hard while I'm supposed to be de-stressing, and nothing too bizarre, creepy or scary.  I want a book that is...that is...JUST RIGHT.

So here is what I have so far, but there's six days before V-day, so the list is subject to change.  And I am, of course, open to suggestions!

For a mildly scary-but-won't-keep-me-awake-at-night book:
Mary Higgins Clark, On the Street Where You Live (I'm not sure how I missed this one, because I've read MHC for years, and maybe I already have but the plot description on the back cover doesn't sound familiar, and even if I have read it...I'm depressingly at that age where I don't always remember the end of a book I've read!)

For a really enjoyable detective story,
Will Thomas, The Limehouse Text

We're visiting Monticello for the first time, so this book seemed appropriate
Alan Pell Crawford, Twilight at Monticello

And I never leave home without a book or two of poetry!

Since Monticello is on our itinerary, here's a poem by Stephen Vincent Benet about its famous architect and owner.  Have a wonderful day!

Thomas Jefferson,

What do you say

Under the gravestone

Hidden away?

"I was a giver,

I was a molder,

I was a builder

With a strong shoulder."

Six feet and over,

Large-boned and ruddy,

The eyes grey-hazel

But bright with study.

The big hands clever

With pen and fiddle

And ready, ever,

For any riddle.

From buying empires

To planting 'taters,

From Declarations

To trick dumb-waiters.

"I liked the people,

The sweat and crowd of them,

Trusted them always

And spoke aloud or them.

"I liked all learning

And wished to share it

Abroad like pollen

For all who merit.

"I liked fine houses

With Greek pilasters,

And built them surely,

My touch a master's.

"I liked queer gadgets

And secret shelves,

And helping nations

To rule themselves.

"Jealous of others?

Not always candid?

But huge of vision

And open-handed.

"A wild-goose-chaser?

Now and again,

Build Monticello,

You little men!

"Design my plow, sirs,

They use it still,

Or found my college

At Charlottesville.

"And still go questing

New things and thinkers,

And keep as busy

As twenty tinkers.

"While always guarding

The people's freedom

You need more hands, sir?

I didn't need 'em.

"They call you rascal?

They called me worse.

You'd do grand things, sir,

But lack the purse?

"I got no riches.

I died a debtor.

I died free-hearted

And that was better.

"For life was freakish

But life was fervent,

And I was always

Life's willing servant.

"Life, life's too weighty?

Too long a haul, sir?

I lived past eighty.

I liked it all, sir."