WWW.WEDNESDAY

This meme is no more. And yet I persist in answering the three questions it asked each week. Stubborn, ain't I?

• What are you currently reading? Frank: The Voice by James Kaplan. A biography of Sinatra I bought at the annual library book sale and am just now getting around to. I like considering this my way of celebrating Ol' Blue Eyes' centennial. (His 100th birthday is this December.)

It took me a while to land on this book. After I finished Wake, I tried a mystery - All Shots by Susan Conant - but I just couldn't get into it. I just didn't like the characters, so I gave it away. Then I tried a fictionalized biography of the Bronte sisters. I just couldn't lose myself in it. That one I put aside for later.

Then I stumbled upon Frank. Almost literally. It's about 800 pages and hardcover and I left it in the middle of the room when I was sorting through my books. I'm glad I did. Kaplan writes well - rather terse and with fast pacing - and his style fits the subject. And oh! What a subject! Sinatra's life was as outsized as his talent.

 

• What did you recently finish reading? Wake by Anna Hope. A well-written but very sad, very intense book about three women living in London and dealing with the aftermath of WWI. It takes a while for us to discover how their lives are connected, but when we finally get it, it's very effecting. Part of what makes this book so painful to read is that we know these women - sister, lover and mother, respectively - will still be alive and still trying to heal when WWII breaks out and hits much closer to home.

• What will you read next? Whatever it is, it'll be probably be from my own private library. Maybe I'll revisit a book from long ago, like The Cracker Factory by Joyce Rebeta-Burditt. Or maybe it will be one that's been untouched, like Frank. At any rate, I'm enjoying the books I find in my den.