The thing I love most about Frankenstein is how different it is from anything you might have pictured before reading it. It was such a surprise to me.

Continuing the exploration of my favorite books, inspired by National Book Lovers Day on August 9, I simply must highlight A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. It’s in my top 3 books of all time (as is Peace Like a River, from last post), and one of the few that I actually re-read. Because the experience of reading this book is nothing short of sublime.

In honor of one of my favorite national days (I’m a fan of national days in general), I thought I’d do a little series on some of my favorite books.

It was a wild and crazy apricot season, with my little tree netting 75 jars of jam. This meant picking apricots daily, checking the ground (some of which is the community greenbelt) for fallen fruit usually twice daily, and making 3 batches of jam per week. It was, by all accounts, exhausting, but the jam is delicious.