What happens when the right book falls into the right reader’s hands?
Ruth Ozeki appears and vanishes and reappears in my life. This is fine. It is my experience generally. The difference is that generally I rummage around until I find whatever, or whomever, I’ve misplaced.
I never find Ruth Ozeki when I’m looking for her. (Not even when I try “Ozecki.”)
The problem isn’t so much finding her—there is Ozekiland, a website devoted to her books, complete with reviews and videos and audios of readings and a book trailer for the very book that . . . knocked me out. Twice.
The problem is that I never find my Ruth Ozeki when I’m looking for her. I cannot find the right words to explain to a particular person why I think that person should read her work. I have the missionary’s zeal without the missionary’s spiel.
However.
The next time I want to urge someone to read A Tale for the Time Being, I will be able to direct the someone to PJ Grath’s review. If I had found the words she uses I would have written them. If I had been spending any time on the internet in February 2013 when she wrote the review, I would have found it then and sent all the someones there immediately.
Pamela Grath’s review of A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Now I’m going to go look for the parts for the water heater.
Torch Lake Views 
P.j. grath
April 2, 2014
Thanks, Gerry. You have me laughing again, and I hope you find those water heater parts without having to turn the writing studio and bait shop upside-down. Miss Sadie and the Cowboy might not like that. In fact, I’m pretty sure they’d rather be going out for a walk on the beach.
Gerry
April 2, 2014
Ha. You should see the beach. We should all see the beach, but it’s buried under the glacier.
Craig
April 2, 2014
I’m not so sure that an absence of missionary spiel is a failing, even in a good cause. This looks like something good to look forward to during summer break.
Gerry
April 2, 2014
I am pretty sure you would like it a lot . . . and even if you didn’t, we could have a wonderful time “discussing” it.
tootlepedal
April 2, 2014
I admire someone who can find time for literary thoughts when parts for the water heater are required.
Gerry
April 2, 2014
Ah, I fear the admiration is misplaced. The issue in my case is always whether I manage to set aside sufficient memory cells to hold onto the need for water heater parts. I can always find time for literary thoughts.
Nannette
April 2, 2014
Excellent review, wonderful book. My latest good read was “Still Life With Bread Crumbs” by Anna Quindlen. It’s fiction by the woman who spoke to my soul with “Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake”.
Gerry
April 2, 2014
PJ is, in my opinion, an excellent reviewer indeed. She can tell you a great deal about a book without ever once spoiling it for you.
I have put Quindlen in the List. (I was in Elk Rapids today and somehow came home with an awful lot of books.)
uphilldowndale
April 3, 2014
Maybe if I could read books by osmosis… The pile of the unread is at my shoulder
Gerry
April 3, 2014
Zombie Books! The Unread. I have a little pile of those by my reading chair, one or two on the dining table, a few on my nightstand. I rearrange the piles. Sometimes I put a stake in a book and bury it in a metaphorical garlic bed. The right book, the right reader, at the right time.
uphilldowndale
April 3, 2014
Plus one that can stay awake!
sybil
April 3, 2014
Re: Looking for the parts for your water heater. I think I saw them behind the couch.
Gerry
April 3, 2014
Ah, those were the old, malfunctioning parts. New, functioning parts were required. And so it goes.