After today’s 5th grade choir competition, my daughter and I made our usual weekend trip to the bookstore.
Bettyville by George Hodgman was front and center in the featured titles, with a 20 percent off sticker no less. I first read about the memoir on Betsey Lerner’s blog, but couldn’t remember any of the story details. The only thing I remembered about it was how I thought the book’s title would have made a great name for Betsy’s site back when I followed her every post.
Also, the cover art begs you to pick it up with the floral wallpaper, the old time dresser, the dog in the mirror. So I got it.
Once home, I did my usual pre-read reading: the author’s bio, blurbs, acknowledgements and dedication. On the page after the dedication, Hodgman has included a passage from another author:
If only one knew what to remember or pretend to remember. Make a decision and what you want from the lost things will present itself. You can take it down like a can from shelf.
-Elizabeth Hardwick, Sleepless Nights
About the time I was finished with my pre-reading, I noticed a package on the kitchen table with the rest of today’s mail. I was expecting Mark Salzman’s Lying Awake, a book I ordered last week.
When I opened the package, I forgot, I had also ordered Sleepless Nights. It had showed up as a recommendation when I had searched Lying Awake – no doubt because the similarity in titles versus content.
Some times thing unfold as if the world is waiting to delight you, like one book happily opening to another.
Amy Gesenhues 
What do you think?