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Recently, I\u2019ve started doing something I haven\u2019t done since college. Lying in bed with a book, I\u2019ll find myself clutching my heart over a sentence \u2014 and then feeling compelled to root around for a pen in my bedside table so I can underline an especially good sentence. Do you ever do this? Here are three parts I marked (and tell me what you\u2019ve loved lately!)\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know how to be mad at people yet, so I just aped the behavior I had seen at home: speaking to someone in tight, terse little sentences until they went insane.\u201d \u201c[My father and grandfather] both had thick, coarse beards that they cared for rigorously\u2026 it seemed that this was a kind of sacrifice made in the name of loving well, of having something that a small child could bury their hands in, something closer to the ground those hands might be reaching up from.\u201d \u201cMy curiosity about Grey is a huge, violent dog on a very tight leash.\u201d In the third one, a man, in the midst of an affair, is wondering about his lover\u2019s spouse. (Caveat, since someone asked why I read about affairs: I\u2019m not into actual affairs, but I\u2019m fine reading<\/em> about affairs, in the same way that I\u2019ll watch The Sopranos<\/a> even though I\u2019m not a huge fan of murder and money laundering. I am just really interested in different people\u2019s lives and why they do what they do.)<\/p>\n Anyway, this line struck me because \u2014 I can\u2019t decide if this is embarrassing to admit! \u2014 it describes how I feel about any woman who previously dated the guy I\u2019m currently dating. I\u2019m curious about his romantic past, but I will not probe because I know even the smallest tidbit will make me nuts \u2014\u00a0hence, a huge dog on a tight leash. Have you ever felt this way? I know it\u2019s uncool, but what a perfect way to describe it.<\/p>\n Sometimes a book will get it right in a way that feels like a forehead slap. A while ago, I was at a bookstore with a friend, who said he read only non-fiction because he always wanted to learn something when he read. I pointed out that you can learn a lot from fiction. \u201cOh, for sure \u2014\u00a0about sentence structure, syntax, etc,\u201d he replied. \u201cNo, about the human condition!<\/em>\u201d I said.<\/p>\n Remember Ethan Hawke\u2019s wise words<\/a>? \u201cMost people don\u2019t spend a lot of time thinking about poetry\u2026 They have a life to live, and they\u2019re not really that concerned with Allen Ginsberg\u2019s poems or anybody\u2019s poems, until their father dies, they go to a funeral, you lose a child, somebody breaks your heart, they don\u2019t love you anymore, and all of a sudden, you\u2019re desperate for making sense out of this life, and, \u2018Has anybody ever felt this bad before? How did they come out of this cloud?\u2019\u201d And that\u2019s when you need it.<\/p>\n Tell me: What have you been reading lately? What lines have stayed with you? Novels, poetry, non-fiction, memoirs, I\u2019d love to hear! <\/strong><\/p>\n P.S. This poem is so romantic<\/a>, and the darkly funny book I can\u2019t stop thinking about<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\u2014 The Rachel Incident<\/a> by Caroline O\u2019Donoghue<\/em><\/p>\n
\u2014 There\u2019s Always This Year<\/a> by Hanif Abdurraqib<\/em><\/p>\n
\u2014 Another Marvelous Thing<\/a> by Laurie Colwin<\/em><\/p>\n