Maggie Mulqueen: What does summer mean for my family and me? The beach — and books.
Growing up on Long Island, I went to the beach year-round along with weekly visits to my local library. As a young girl, I participated in the summer read-a-thons hosted by the library to encourage literacy. The reward for my efforts was a gift certificate for an ice cream cone at the local Baskin-Robbins. Summers during high school, I worked at the library in the daytime and waitressed at the beach at night. The rhythm of the ocean and the words on a page transported me across time and space and expanded my horizons.
When I was looking at colleges, my need for water and a library remained paramount. I landed at Northwestern University with a view of Lake Michigan from the library stacks. On warm, sunny days, I took my books to the beach to study.
When I met my husband, I wondered if he could blend harmoniously with my earlier loves and find pleasure in a day of sand, sun and reading. Happily, growing up on the north shore of Boston and spending summers on Cape Cod, he, too, shared a long history of going to the beach, book in hand.
Once we had children, the weight of the beach bag increased. More towels, more sunblock and more books joined the pails and shovels as we set off on our beach vacations. Eventually, pails and shovels were replaced by footballs and Frisbees, but the beach bag was still the repository for books, one for each of us.
Our three sons are now grown and live in various locations. Time together is hard to come by, and a family summer vacation is no longer guaranteed. With this natural evolution, I lamented the loss of shared experiences and struggled to think of how we could stay connected. Upon reflection, I recognized that the love for beach and books ran deep among us all, and so 'The Family Summer Read' was born.
The rules are simple. Starting with the oldest member of our family — me — once a year, a book is selected and copies sent to each person by Memorial Day with the expectation it will be read by Labor Day, the traditional bookends of summer. We set a day and time to meet on Zoom in September to discuss that year's selection. Throughout the summer, texts are sent with photos of people reading and updates on how far into the book they are. Competition runs strong in our family, so there is an underlying urge to be the first one to finish.
My initial selection was 'The Warmth of Other Suns' by Isabel Wilkerson, a hefty choice for a beach bag. The next year, my husband chose 'Walking with the Wind,' a memoir by John Lewis with Mike D'Orso, another sizable selection. By the time it was our youngest son's chance to pick, he rebelled and opted for a paperback fantasy, 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' by Scott Lynch. 'This,' he declared, 'is a summer read.' I admit it made for much easier trips to the beach than the previous tomes we had chosen, and it was a delight to be taken out of the darkness of our world for a brief time.
We are now at year nine of 'The Family Summer Read,' and we have welcomed a new member. Over time, we hope to be joined by others who are willing to pay the price of admission to our family, a love for books and the beach.
Volunteering to carry the beach bag doesn't hurt either.
Maggie Mulqueen is a psychologist who has written for outlets such as CNN Opinion, NBC NewsThink and The Boston Globe.
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