Honey For A Woman’s Heart by Gladys Hunt.
Ballentine Books, 2002. $12.95 — 464 pp.

Books about books — books stuffed with book lists, with reviews and opinions, guides jammed with the author’s personal and enthusiastic selections — work on me the way a hypnotist works on a suggestible subject. I open one of those books about books, begin perusing various passages, and then lift my face from the pages to find that 10 minutes or so of my life have passed without me being conscious of it. It’s that startled feeling that I get driving to Asheville sometimes when, deep in thought, I am suddenly at Exit 44 on 240 with no memory of having driven the last 10 miles.

Gladys Hunt’s Honey For A Woman’s Heart is one of the best such books that has drifted into my life in a long time. Hunt, who is the author of Honey For A Child’s Heart and Honey For A Teen’s Heart (with Barbara Hampton), has in fact written a near perfect guide to books in terms of organization, content and access.

Let’s look first at that last quality: access. Hunt writes as a book lover rather than as an academic, and her joy in reading and her deep affection for the printed words are seen on every page of Honey For A Woman’s Heart. She writes simply and directly, as if personally addressing the reader. Here is Hunt, for example, on reasons for reading:

“I read to feel life. Reading heightens my awareness on many levels. What the writer says and the way she says it gives form and expression to my own feelings. When what I read is good prose or good poetry, it affects my own use of words. More than that, it makes my spirit soar. The right use of language is a gift for the heart.”

Hunt also offers some insightful remarks regarding reading and how it is occasionally viewed by our culture:

“We may pay lip service to the virtues of reading, but there is still a suspicion in our culture that those who read too much, whatever that means, are lazy, aimless dreamers, people who need to grow up and take part in real life.

“Let’s face it, reading can be a way to hide from the world. Life in a book can become more real than life outside ....

“But the other side of the argument urgently needs to be made. If we read well, good books do not let us cop-out of the real world. Instead they help us connect the material and the spiritual, the visible and the invisible, and thus make sense out of life.”

In terms of content, Hunt covers a wide range of authors and subjects, touching on everything from classics to modern religious fiction, from children’s literature to adult nonfiction. Besides reviewing hundreds of books, Hunt also includes a chapter titled “The Company Of Others: Sharing Books,” with ideas about starting book clubs, reading aloud as a family, sharing books with a spouse, and finding time to read.

Finally, Honey For A Woman’s Heart is wonderfully well organized. The books are divided into broad classifications, and within each chapter there are, in addition to the normal text, a plentitude of sidebars celebrating different authors and themes. Best of all, perhaps, Honey For A Woman’s Heart is indexed by author and by title at the back of the book so that book lovers will have no trouble finding their own personal favorites.

Good reading!

°°°

Summer and fall are the times when rising high school juniors and seniors begin looking at colleges. Choosing The Right College: The ISI Guide is just one of the many books and websites that will help students begin their search for the right school. The conservative Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) has in this volume gone to great lengths to speak with professors and students regarding their schools.

Although some of these colleges were chosen for review because of some unique aspect — there is a review of the all male Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, for example, and of several venerable black colleges — the book features most of the nation’s top universities and colleges, including state institutions with high academic reputations such as North Carolina and the University of Virginia. Besides the long review of each institution, there is a synopsis at the beginning of each college description that gives such vital statistics as application deadlines and tuition fees.

Parents and students will benefit greatly from studying books such as this one before driving to a particular college or university.

(Jeff Minick lives in Waynesville and can be reached at saintsbookco@aol.com)