“A good friend is like a four-leaf clover; hard to find and lucky to have.” —Irish Proverb

If it’s true a good friend is like a four-leaf clover, then a once-in-a-lifetime friend is like a 56-leaf clover—virtually impossible to find without Heavenly help and born-under-a-lucky-star fortunate to have. I’m sure you’re well aware by now that Rachel is my 56-leaf clover. Today is Rae’s birthday.  I’m celebrating the girl who is a good luck charm, as life is always better with her in it. Her friendship reassures me that the universe may well have my back. And she quietly reminds me, “where there is kindness, there is goodness, and where there is goodness, there is magic.” I see so much magic in you, birthday girl.

Of course, Rae and I believe books are handheld magic. Reading Hamnet (Waterstones’ Book of the Year) at December’s close was a serious source of enchantment for me. And not just because I’m literati. The fictional account about Shakespeare’s son who tragically died at age 11 has made more than a dozen Best Books of 2020 lists. NPR called Maggie O’Farrell’s latest novel “timeless.” I have a few adjectives of my own: compelling, lovely, immersive, and illuminating (to name a few), but they feel a little small. Honestly, I can’t wait to read Hamnet again. And I may not wait long. I’m with Dominic Dromgoole, author of Hamlet, Globe to Globe, “I don’t know how anyone could fail to love this book. It is a marvel: a great work of imaginative recreation and a great story. It is also a moral achievement to have transformed that young child from being a literary footnote into someone so tenderly alive that part of you wishes he had survived and Hamlet never been written.” Let’s be honest, it’s a moral achievement to unearth legitimate magic in the year 2020. Bravo Maggie, Bravo. As good luck would have it, we’re readers when you picked up your glorious pen.

Posted by Tracy