The Reading List

by Sara Nisha Adams

no matter how terribly you have behaved in the past—you

should do everything

you can to b...

But The Kite Runner—she’d lived and breathed

this book for days.

“There’s a lot in that book. Making amends and meaning it before it’s too late.”

“Not taking people for granted,”

just think a list gives

you a little look into someone’s soul—like books, like art . . . It’s silly, I know.”

Even after all her reading, all her snooping, she wasn’t sure she

was any closer to the person who had written it, but she was enjoying the journey. She’d appreciated reading again—before

the list, it had been so long since she’d sat down and just allowed herself...

But the list had given her so much—she enjoyed speaking to people

here, and in this new city, where life never seemed to stand still, it had given her a place just to be.

“Aleisha,” Mukesh said softly. “Please try to remember that books aren’t always an escape;

sometimes books teach us things. They show us the world; they don’t hide it.”