Joy of Reading - Left Neglected

...from Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

We kiss good-bye.  It’s our typical morning good-bye kiss.  A quick peck.  A well-intentioned habit.  I look down and notice Lucy’s round, blue eyes paying close attention.  I flash to studying my own parents kissing when I was little.  They kissed each other hello and good-bye and good night like I would have kissed one of my aunts, and it terribly disappointed me.  There was no drama to it at all.  I promised myself that when I got married some day, I would have kisses that meant something.  Kisses that would make me weak in the knees.  Kisses that would embarrass the kids.  Kisses like Han Solo kissing Princess Leia.  I never saw my father kiss my mother like that.  What was the point of it?  I never got it.  Now I get it.  We aren’t living in some George Lucas blockbuster adventure.  Our morning kiss good-bye isn’t romantic, and it certainly isn’t sexual.  It’s a routine kiss, but I’m glad we do it.  It does mean something.  It’s enough.

Joy of Reading

...from Joy for Beginners

Marion’s fascination with tattoos had always come from the stories that were held within the ink—the ones that were obvious, slamming into your vision with the force of a well-aimed fist, or the secret messages that hid, slipping out only for the moment it took for a shirtsleeve to move, a skirt to flutter.