ullis - it's The Shadow of the Wind. I gave Joan Didion's book to my mom for Xmas, and was very happy to see that both my parents are reading it now. My father, who doesn't read, is 100 pages into it. He went to see King Kong in the afternoon on his birthday last week (my mom was working and in any case was not interested in that movie), and while he found it novel to be at the movies by himself, because he was reading that book he found himself wondering about life without my mom, and how he would feel, and I actually think this book is bringing them closer. They have been empty nesters for a year now, and there have been some rocky times as they are still learning to relate to each other without mediators........................................................................ I also gave my mom Oprah's 50th anniversary DVD, and there are some very moving interviews on that (with Nelson Mandela, for instance).

Lots of Golden Books (some from garage sales) that all had that brown horse, with the black main and tail...and little white mark on his head. Do you remember those? My husband blames all these books : ) Loved the Betsy books, Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and of course....A Wrinkle In Time. The book is amazing! And I'm still trying to figure out what Charles Wallace's model of a tesseract looks like. But the description of the shortest distance between two points being a line (with apron strings held out far apart from each other) then bringing the two ends of the strings together to step across....best explanation ever of how a worm hole works!

I've mentioned these before, but for gentle and sweet chapters, read the David Grayson books....they're available now for free on Project Gutenberg...Adventures in Contentment...Adventures in Friendship...like taking a mental vacation. https://www.amazon.com/David-Grayson-Complete-Collection-Contentment/dp/B089TWRXLV/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=david+grayson&qid=1618484006&sr=8-1

Nancy Farmer is a contemporary YA author who writes a book that you just cannot put down. I recommend "House of the Scorpion" and "The Sea of Trolls." Diana Wynne Jones is another must-stop-everything-and-read author. For her age I recommend "Dogsbody," "The Homeward Bounders," and "Fire and Hemlock." We also loved "City of the Plague God," by Sarwat Chadda and the Aru Shah series, starting with "Aru Shah and The End of Time." If she into dystopia, then "Unwind," by Neil Shusterman. If she is artistic then I recommend "The Journey is the Destination." These are the photocollage journals of Dan Eldon, a brilliant artist of many adventures who tragically died young. Did I mention that he looked like a member of a boy band?