Hot Days + Summer Reads

I couldn’t figure out what was causing the pain on my leg. I felt as if I cut myself, but that wasn’t the case. As I kept twisting in bed it dawned on me that it’s far from being a cut, it’s a burn and from no other source but the sun. It’s been barely two weeks of beautiful sunshine here in Nor Cal and I’ve spent as many days as I could in the pool. We haven’t had many warm days in a long time that I forgot what a sunburn feels like, but it was all good in a few minutes thanks to the cooling Aloe Vera gel.

The warm placid summer days for some reason force me into reading. Sitting behind a computer screen on a hot day is a torture, but a book in a hammock with a refreshing drink, is just ideal. With the excitement of spending more time behind books, I decided to have a themed summer read and revisit some of my favorite books on one of favorite places in the whole world . . . Israel. The last time I was in Israel was four years ago and even though it would be wonderful to stroll the streets of Jerusalem in person, for now I have to do it through books. I started off with some archaeology review with Hershel Shanks’ Jerusalem an Archaeological Biography. Then this week I opened O Jerusalem and was completely emerged into the modern history of Israel. Today I added From Beirut to Jerusalem to my wishzilla list and am also thinking of flipping through the yellow pages of The Land and the Book from the eighteen hundreds. Yes, most of them have Jerusalem in the title, but the city is so remarkable that it can hardly be contained in just a few titles. There are a few others I’m still thinking of, but if you have good recommendations, make sure to pass them on!

Yuliya