What's Rosemary Yvonne Borel reading?

Nightstand

Rosemary Yvonne Borel

Borel's book, Thriving in the Care of Many Mothers, is a testament to how family is more than being related by blood. The author's mother was a hard-working single parent forced to rely on friends and relatives to raise Borel so she could manage a hotel in Jamaica, a job requiring the pair to often live apart. On Nov. 12 at the Times Festival of Reading, Borel, a graduate of the University of Leeds in England and a Carnegie Fellow who served at the Jamaican Mission to the United Nations, will discuss the memoir, her adventurous childhood in Jamaica and her years as a young wife and mother in Trinidad and Tobago. Borel, 76, is the mother of two adult children, Denise and Julian. She lives in Wesley Chapel with her husband, Charles Hull.

What's on your nightstand?

I just completed N.W. Manley and the Making of Modern Jamaica by Arnold Bertram. It could be a textbook, but it humanizes the man. Many people admired (Manley), including members of my family. He was a schoolboy athlete. He was a Rhodes scholar, but he also fought in World War I, and he was very instrumental in bringing about many of Jamaica's institutions. Then, I'm in between two books, Finding Florida: The True History of the Sunshine State by T.D. Allman and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I actually bought (Riggs' book) for my granddaughter, but I started to read it and then I said, "Oh my goodness. It is too dark for her." So I'm going to give it to my grandson. He's 12.

But, did you like it?

I'm not sure. I haven't finished it yet.

Your story is nonfiction but visual. I could see it turned into historical fiction easily.

I had to change my style because I'd write, and it was almost like I was an observer. When I'd discuss what I was doing in my writing groups, the others would say, "How do you feel at that point?" Then, I'd re-examine it. I was forced to examine my feelings, and something I hadn't bargained for happened.

Contact Piper Castillo at pcastillo@tampabay.com.