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 I like to have three books going at once: one challenging, one light, and one book of poems.

I've started on the novels of Jean Rhys, and that's my challenging one-- not in the sense that she's hard to understand, but that her topics are serious. I'm just beginning, but my first impression is that her style is similar to J.D. Salinger's. I love her use of repetition.

My light one is Dewey by Vicki Myron, the story of a library cat and the woman who cares for him. It's not overly sentimental, but there are a lot of Awww… moments.

And my book of poetry is a rereading of The Essential Rumi translated by Coleman Barks. Rumi is remarkably accessible, considering he lived in Persia 800 years ago.

It's a good idea to read poems at different times in your life. The poem you loved as a teenager and the poem that strikes you as an adult are seldom the same.