In the run up to my vacation I was completely focused on my travels. Since I've come home I'm still a little disoriented, but as I slowly come back to reality and get myself situated again I've discovered that my public library has been promoting this year's "Omaha Reads" title, Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. My mind has obviously been elsewhere as I completely missed the voting on the possible book choices this year. Like many other cities, Omaha Public Library chooses a book to read and coordinates various programs around it to help promote literacy.
The Age of Innocence is one of my favorite books and I've read it twice now (the last time in 2009). I have pulled out my copy, though I'm not sure I'll get to it as I have a number of other projects on the go and many books underway, but it's a book I could happily read again and again.
I'm still quite excited about the various events this month as two books that I already have on my reading pile and either have been reading or was preparing to read are involved in the program. I mentioned that I received an review copy of The Age of Desire by Jennie Fields which I had been ready to begin reading in earnest. Now I have discovered that the author is going to be in Omaha on September 13, so I am planning on attending. The novel is about Wharton's affair with journalist Morton Fullerton.
I recently dropped off a stack of library books, but I kept two back that I most wanted to read. One of them is The Innocents by Francesca Segal, which is a story inspired by Wharton's The Age of Innocence. The story is set in a Jewish neighborhood of contemporary London where the groom begins experiencing second thoughts about his upcoming nuptials. As it turns out Segal will be in Omaha on September 20, so I have another author event to look forward to.
How is that for serendipity? Perfect timing for two books I was going to be reading anyway. I am always complaining that Omaha rarely draws authors and that we never seem to have any appealing literary events and now there are two this month. I'm already enjoying The Age of Desire and hope to read The Innocents very soon as well. September is going to be a Edith Wharton sort of month I see.