Good Reading for Waiting
I never leave the house without a book. Before I started reading books I used to lug around clunky books I’d checked out from the library for those scenarios during which I am waiting for something else to happen. Now it all happens on my iPhone. Way smaller.
Sometimes I am sitting in my car in parking lots, reading while I wait to meet my husband after work. His work schedule is very hectic, and sometimes he gets snagged up in work when he’s trying to get out the door to meet me. I am not complaining. I don’t mind one bit. I can sit there and read for how ever long it takes. He arrives, mortified at me having waiting for so long. I shrug it off, “Nah, I am reading. It’s all good.”
Waiting for things is a part of life. Which is why I often look for books that are Good Reading for Waiting. These are books that are engaging enough that the time I spend waiting goes by without me feeling as though I’ve wasted it. But not so engrossing that I don’t notice things happening around me. Just yesterday I finished a good waiting book.
AM Willard just released Frosted Sweets. It’s about a woman named Morgan Lewis who owns a bakery. (The descriptions in this book have made me want cupcakes. A lot. All of them. Into my face. That muffin I ate this morning was NOT a cupcake.) Morgan learns 2 weeks before the wedding that her fiancé is messing around, and she calls it off. She decides that she’s spent enough time with him not being herself, and she decides that she’s going to focus on herself and figure out who she is and what she really wants.
I love stories like this. I love stories where the woman feels broken down a bit and then she finds it in herself to straighten her back and realize that she’s all that, and a bag of chips, even without the guy that she thought was supposed to be perfect.
The story resonated with me because when I was 23 I was with that guy. It was only for a few months, and he was “perfect.” He was so perfect that he had a plan to be married with child by 30, and he was 28 then, and dammit I had to get on board with his plan or else he would dump me and find someone else who would cooperate. The last time I saw him, he was still in his bed, I went there to pick him up because we were going to go somewhere together. His date from the night before had just left moments before I got there. I think he married that woman. Good for him.
Shortly after we broke up, Todd and I got together. Here we are 18 years later and I know I am way better off. I mean, I might wait in parking lots for him now and then, but whatever. At least I always bring a good book to read.
Check out Frosted Sweets on Amazon.
BJ Knapp is the author of Beside the Music, available for purchase here. Please sign up for the Backstage with BJ Knapp mailing list to get updates on events, signings, dog pictures and so much more.
added on 12.21.15