Siesta Lane

I’ve always found joy in the pages of a good book and right now I feel particularly comforted by the stack of tomes on my nightstand. I have one by Annie Dillard, a “page turner” compliments of our lovely library and Tales of a Female Nomad which kept me up reading late last night. I just put down another good read titled Siesta Lane: or, The Good Intentions of Ten People, Two Cats, One Old Dog, Eight Acres, One Telephone, Three Cars, and Twenty Miles to the Nearest Town.

In this memoir, Portland writer Amy Minato details her year-long residence in one of several small cabins on land 20 minutes outside of Eugene. Here she distances herself from most of the things that complicate our lives to focus on the rhythms of nature, relationships with her immediate community and getting to know herself. I really appreciated Minato’s thoughtful observations and details of her physical and emotional “place.” Her language is elegant, but accessible and her joy seems rooted in the reality that life is not always perfect. After reading her book, I found myself wanting to linger in our backyard, marvel at the baby robins nested in our neighbor’s tree and observe the slow melting of day into night.