The place I’m staying at in Sonoma has one of those wide verandas that span the whole front of the house and has several seating options to choose from when 5 o’clock cocktail hour rolls around.  The owner of the house created this routine and so Anne and I feel we must respect her rules and continue in her absence, even if it’s just a glass of water or a diet coke we’re imbibing.  C’mon! Who am I kidding!  It’s Sonoma, the land of fantastic Pinot Noir and Zinfandel!  We’re having way too much fun trying out the wines!

Along with a number of great wineries, Anne’s taken me to an amazing place called Trader Joe’s where I’ve found wines that sell for $18 – $25 in Canada are on the shelves here UNDER 10 bucks!  I’m not going to turn this into a rant about our Canadian liquor taxes, et al, because that would just be too heavy for a Thursday morning before my first latte, and I’d be sad all day, so instead I think I’ll tell you about an incredible story I found while poking through the guestroom bookshelves.

The book is called The Glass Castle and it’s an autobiography by Jeannette Walls, a regular contributor to MSNBC.  It’s the story about how a woman and her siblings, who were raised by two very self-centered parents who were both incredibly intelligent, free-spirited and selfish (and mind-bogglingly poor), went on to successful careers while the parents became happy, homeless dumpster divers in New York city.

Though most of the book is about her childhood, it opens with Jeanette riding in a limo heading for a ‘gala gala-do’ (as my husband and I like to call them).  From the window of the car she spots her own mother, who she hasn’t seen in months, going through a Dumpster, contentedly looking for something worthwhile to scavenge in the cold.  She describes the terrifying feeling of being recognized, so she slinks into her seat and orders the driver to turn around and take her home – a luxury condo in Manhattan.

And it’s all true.  What would you think or feel if you were a well-known figure or a minor celebrity, or for that matter, just a regular person, and your family held a huge secret that you were terrified of having exposed?  What Jeanette did was come out in the open with it and turn it into a book.  A ‘can’t put it down’ book, to be more precise.  I can’t imagine allowing my kids to live the way Jeanette and her sisters and brother were forced to, but she tells the story with such natural humour and matter ‘0 fact honesty that you really feel that she thought her life was pretty normal.  Normal to be without food.  Normal to have an alcoholic father.  Normal to sleep in the car in the middle of the desert when the family had to do the ’skedaddle’ and run from bill collectors…

I was having a great trip before I found the book but a good read makes everything so much better! A summer holiday is the perfect time to indulge in a few Mayberry moments out on a porch with a lemonade, a book, and a good friend or two for company.

What are you reading this summer?  Anything to recommend?

Jacquie