In A House By The Sea

In a genre all her own, Sandy Gingras mixes prose, poetry and artwork to delight readers with witty observation, reflection, and a depth of feeling in her deceptively simple series of books. In a House by the Sea -- a collection of short essays, stories, prose and illustrated vignettes, inspired by a metaphorical beach house -- is about emotion and feeling as much as place, mood and memory as much as the beach. In the essay ''This is What Makes Me,'' she writes of being ''oriented in life by a beach (more emotional than geographic) that I keep walking on; a summer (more attitude than season) that I keep longing for.'' ''A is for Attitude'' offers a whimsical beach womans A-to-Z (A is for Away. Away, beach woman, away with you to the beach! You've had enough reality.). ''A Beach House -- What the Realtor Should Have Told You'' and ''What the Beach House is For'' remind us that what we really desire at the beach (or anywhere) can not be bought. This book is a sweet, gentle reminder that simplicity and happiness emerge from living in the moment, from finding beauty in one's surroundings and an awareness of the moods and feelings that make life whole.