Everywhere I go and Everywhere that I went...

Everywhere I go and everywhere I went, I'd look for and/or talk about books.

Airports

Airplanes

Grocery stores

Drinks/dinner with friends

Drinks/dinner with strangers

Chicago

Denver

St. Louis

Phuket

London

Rome

Memphis...

Every bookstore I go to and every book store I went to,  I kept seeing this author: Lisa Scot-to-line, Lisa Scottoline, but I've never read her.  Author of twenty lawyer-esque mystery's based mostly in Philly, Ms. Scottoline has been quite successful both in and out of the literary world.

Twenty books. That's a lot.  If you've ever tried to write a book ( full disclosure, I have) it's not easy. It's downright hard. So twenty best sellers, she must be good, right.

You darn tootin' she's good. 

So, as I most often do, call it an addiction, I'll buy all the books of an author than categorically file them in my fiction section or non fiction based on the genre and subject matter, of my library (guesstimated to be 4,000) with the pleasurable intention of reading them some day.  So with Ms. Scottoline, I did just that. Well, over the course of a few years I did.

 I would pick up one or a few of her books at Barnes and Noble STORE, not a web site, or at HalfPrice Books, again a STORE not a website.  ( caps used for emphasis of the love of a book STORE and all that it entails). Until just this past spring I had all of hers. Yes all twenty of them. She has also written four non-fiction books which I've yet to pick up during my journey.

As I'm writing this blog and taking a photo to include, I discovered this shocking dilemma: I don't have all of them...yet!  I'm missing two. Everywhere that I went I was certain I had all of her books.

But until that next exciting trip to the bookstore( visited two today) to complete my Scottoline selection, I'll continue reading what I have, so that everywhere I go and everywhere that I went I can say I have read or at least have all of her books.

And...Everywhere That Mary Went she might have too.  Who's Mary? She's the character in Scottoline's first fictional tale, the title? Yep you guessed it:

Everywhere That Mary Went




For a complete and chronological list of books visit her website: Lisa Scottoline




Happy Reading,
Mike

PS. Teach a Child to read and their world will be endless.

Climbing a tree, hoping the circle will be unbroken?

 Over the 4th of July weekend I climbed a tree. It was tall, full of branches and leaves. Some branches old, but as strong as the truth of oak. Leaves in abundance, over 5000 at last count. Yes I scaled this tree in a journey to learn more about it. Ya see, this tree is one of my families history  stretching to the heavens for miles and miles, budding leaves of knowledge and heritage. Some I knew of, while others were foreign but held purpose.

 Back to the mid 1700s thus far, a part of this tree started to grow. Full of , "doctors and lawyers and such" , a verse from a song yet a lineage of my existence.

 As I studied this tree with my beautiful Mother, learning things of new and old, a  circle started to gather.  An arc of close and yet distant relatives, cousins and kin. Some not seen in years while others just a summer ago.  Some last seen have gone now, past on unexpectedly, but leaving us with memories of laughter, warmth and love. A void that reminds me of a song about a circle.

We start to form another circle under a tree, touching that "..green green grass of home.."  with a soft summer breeze of smiles blowing through our hair and a dusting or two of melancholy and remembrance.  

 Words spoken of laughter, traditions and trust.

 What I know of this tree I climbed has barely scratched its bark. Theres much more to learn, to absorb and to grow with.  I wish to revisit this tree in months and years to come and learn more to strengthen the trust that this family circle no matter how torn and tattered will continue to be unbroken.

There's a few iterations of a song, beginning with AP Carter, patriarch of the first family of country music, the Carter family, then in recent memory, the Nitty Gritty Dirt band who put an album together and subsequent video and kept it relevant in our society's consciousness. The video, includes Johnny Cash, Roy Acuff, Roger McGuinn, Rosanne Cash, John Haitt, Chet Atkins, Bruce Hornsby, June Carter Cash, Emmylou Harris,, Marty Stuart, Earl Scruggs, Levon Helm and many others. A link is included below.

It's a song of spirit and loss but also of strength, love and family. A song that my family, immediate and extended, holds dear. Dear as the limbs stretch to the heavens, the leaves abundant and full of memories, and a love that forms  a circle that will always remain...unbroken.

Will the circle be unbroken, bye and bye Lord bye and bye..

 

Will The Circle Be Unbroken