I recently applied for a job as an administrator for the Supreme Court of the U.S. Virgin Islands. I would wear a seer-sucker suit. I would walk passed the palm trees on my way to work every morning. Or I might take my bicycle to work. But then I would risk staining the steer-sucker. You can see how this job would be full of conflicts of interest. Maybe it is for the best that they haven’t called.

After I was introduced to that recruiter at the Women in the Profession Summit I fantasized about turning the whole job search process over to her. I wouldn’t have to do anything at all. She would find the jobs and I would just show up for the interviews. What could be simpler?

That fanatasy didn’t work out, either. She was intimidated by my untraditional resume. “Law firms mostly look to recruiters to find associates with one to five years of experience,” she said, ignoring the fact that I fall within that bracket, “and then they jump to partners who can bring clients with them. I think you would be better off if you concentrated on networking.”

Thanks. I never would have thought of that.

Being rejected by one recruiter was a blow to my ego, but it was quickly assuaged when another came calling. A friend had forwarded her my resume.

“I am looking at this resume and I see litigation experience and I see environmental law experience. How would you feel about practicing environmental litigation? I know some people at a boutique firm. I could make some calls…”

Within thirty seconds I was on line looking at this boutique firm’s website (hyperlink intentionally neglected) and I was impressed. It was an Ivy League, white shoe law firm. I could bring out the seer-sucker from my Virgin Islands fantasy! At least until Labor Day.

I sent my resume and forwarded my transripts. We shall see if it leads to anything

Now that I have finished the book, I want Josh to read it so that he can enjoy it as much as I did. But books don’t work that way. You can give someone a book but you can’t give them the experience of reading and loving it. Books have to come into your life at just the right moment to be fully appreciated. It’s almost impossible for an omnivorous reader to predict her own literary itch, let alone try to scratch someone else’s.

I remember a conversation I had on an airplane many years ago. I was sitting next to a gentleman who was reading “The Seven Sisters” by Anthony Sampson. It’s not a book about women’s colleges, the sisters of the title refer to Exxon, Royal Dutch/Shell, Gulf, Texaco, Mobil, California Standard and British Petroleum. The book is out of print, but I found it on Amazon. It permanently changed the way I view the oil companies. That man on the plane will never know how much he influenced me.

Some time after that I was on another plane trip, this time reading a volume of Winston Churchill’s “History of the English Speaking Peoples”. The man sitting next to me asked me about it and we started talking about Churchill’s writings. I also told him a little bit about myself. Months later he tracked down my work email. He wrote to tell me that our conversation inspired him to read all six volumes of “The Second World War” and he wanted to thank me for pointing him in that direction.

“Gilead” is about an Iowa preacher, looking back on his life at the age of seventy-seven. He tells stories about his grandfather, a militant abolitionist, and about his father who became a pacifist. It’s about fatherhood and it’s about faith, and it’s written in a pitch-perfect mid-western voice. It is a sad story, since the narrator knows that he will not live long enough to see his young son grow up, but it is also full of joy.

If you have read it, please let me know what you thought . If you have another book to recommend, let me know that, too. I am about to return to America, land of libraries, land of used bookstores, and I could use a summer reading list.

I can’t promise that I will read a book just because someone out there makes an interesting comment about it. But I might. And you never know how your next favorite book will come to you.