I think of them as book links, the way one book leads us to another. 

An author’s voice speaks to us and suddenly colors are brighter, the world makes sense again. We decide to pick up another novel she’s written, and we are even more enraptured this time.

Or maybe one book mentions another, a nonfiction happenstance. I just finished Hurry Down Sunshine by Michael Greenberg, which Oliver Sacks mentions in Everything in its Place. I was riveted by this memoir, a father’s story of his daughter’s mental illness. Here’s how he begins:

“On July 5, 1996, my daughter was struck mad. She was fifteen and her crack-up marked a turning point in both our lives.”

Now I’m on a mission to find another memoir by Greenberg. After a few minutes of googling, I locate a copy of his Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writers Life. I hope to have it by week’s end.

The book links continue …