“I’ll drift about forever, all my atoms, til I find you again”

I know I promised a jumbo-sized book recommendation issue this week, but unfortunately that will have to wait. My family just lost someone very important to us and right now I’m not going to be able to finish what I was writing for today, which was, as it happens, a piece about families. That will come soon, in some form. I'm sorry to take a break so soon after starting this project but if there's one thing I know about life it's that you take care of yourself and the people you love.

So this week I’m just going to recommend one book – or really three, since it’s a trilogy. Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” series has been, since I was 13 years old, one of the pieces of art that has taught me how to live. One of my closest friendships was made when we discovered at a slumber party in ninth grade that we both loved the first book in the series, “The Golden Compass.” And when I explain my worldview to people, I often find myself quoting Pullman. It’s a modern classic and you may have already read it, but if you haven’t, I hope you can find as much strength and hope and love in its story as I have since I was a child.

Today I found comfort in this passage, which is from the last book in the trilogy, "The Amber Spyglass." I'll leave you with it.