On Her Nightstand

By Betty Stein

Emily Mossoian is the secretary for the guidance department at Northrop High School. She also is the coach for the girls swim team.

Introducing a new column for glo by Betty Stein.

Stein is a Fort Wayne native who has been an educator and newspaper columnist for over 30 years. She received her undergraduate degree at Ohio State University in social administration and her master’s from the University of St. Francis in education and English. She received an honorary doctorate, also from the University of St. Francis.

Stein has been a very active volunteer in our community and is currently serving as chairman of the Allen County Public Library Building Corporation, among other activities. And she is very much looking forward to being associated with glo

Oh, and did we mention she’s 102 years old!

On Her Nightstand will highlight local women and discuss what they are currently reading.

Here’s what she has been reading:

I have been reading ‘Fan Girl,’ written by Rainbow Rowell. It’s a young adult book; that’s my favorite genre these days, both to read and to write. It is similar to the Harry Potter series; only it is set in Nebraska, with someone obsessed by the Simon Snow series. Cath is the protagonist, going off to her first year of college, and she is filled with anxiety. How does she fit in, she asks? Her twin sister has no such problems.

Before that I read ‘Everything I Never Told You,’ by Celeste Ng. I took it with me when I went to Washington to participate in the Women’s March. It centers on a multi-racial family. The husband is Chinese American and the wife is American. When the middle daughter drowns, the family breaks apart and the wife goes back to med school. I learned a lot about the Chinese American culture. The problem that is posed is how does one want to assimilate yet still keep some of the old culture. I was very interested in the conflicts.

My favorite book? I can answer that right away. It’s ‘All the Light We Cannot See.’ The author is Anthony Doerr, whose prose is stunning. He does a great job weaving together two stories - two opposite sides of the coin. Both stories take place during the Occupation - when the Germans occupied France in 1936 during World War II. I always come back to this book and read it two or three times a year. It isn’t about the Holocaust or the Nazis; it’s what it was like for people when their country was being occupied. And oh, yes, I also love ‘Beowulf.’ I wrote a paper on it for a renaissance course and I learned to like Grendel’s mother. a