When Books Become Boomerangs

How to Re-Discover a Compelling Read Again and Again

Some books don’t just sit forever on shelves. They wait. Quietly. Patiently. Until we’re ready to hear them again.

That’s what happened to me recently at Hermitage Bookshop, tucked into the elegant Cherry Creek North District of Denver. Amid aisles of rare and curious finds, Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston by Valerie Boyd practically leapt into my hands like an old friend who remembered something about me that I had forgotten.

It wasn’t the first time I’d read this book. But it was the first time I was truly ready for what it had to offer.

The Magic of Wrapped in Rainbows

Published in 2003, Wrapped in Rainbows is a landmark biography of Zora Neale Hurston, the fiercely independent, wildly brilliant, and often misunderstood literary force behind Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Written by the late Valerie Boyd—herself a trailblazing Black woman journalist, editor, and professor—the book is more than a chronology. It is a soulful excavation of Hurston’s vibrant, complicated life: her upbringing in Eatonville, Florida; her anthropological fieldwork across the American South and the Caribbean; her Harlem Renaissance connections; and her relentless pursuit of truth, beauty, and freedom.

Boyd doesn’t write about Zora; she channels her. The prose is warm but precise, intimate but unsparing. Zora comes alive—not as a one-dimensional literary heroine but as a shapeshifter, rebel, folklorist, wanderer, and woman of depth who refused to be caged by societal expectations.

On this second read, I’m finding layers I completely missed the first time—maybe because this time, I’m reading with a deeper hunger, a sharper ear, and a more weathered soul.

Why My Second Reading Hits Different

The first time I read Wrapped in Rainbows, I admired Zora’s journey. This time, I feel it. I see myself in her zigzagging path, her wandering spirit, her refusal to be boxed in—even when it cost her dearly.

In a world that often demands we choose one label or lane, Zora remained gloriously uncategorizable. She was, as Boyd beautifully notes, “always both artist and anthropologist, seeker and skeptic, radical and rooted.”

Isn’t that the mark of a true icon? To live a life that, even decades later, still whispers to you: Stay wild. Stay open. Keep going.

We read books once for the story. We read them again for what the story reveals about us.

Valerie Boyd: A Biographer as Bridge

It would be impossible to talk about this book without acknowledging the brilliance of Valerie Boyd. Her recent passing makes this reread even more poignant.

Boyd devoted nearly a decade to researching Zora’s life, and her own voice—anchored, respectful, and quietly daring—serves as a bridge between past and present. She didn’t just document Zora’s story; she lit a torch for all of us seeking our way in the dark.

Boyd’s work reminds me that some books are not just books. They are acts of cultural restoration. Of ancestral homage. They carry us home.

Cherry Creek Serendipity

Finding Wrapped in Rainbows again at the Hermitage Bookstore felt like a moment of alignment. I wasn’t looking for it—but I was ready for it.

There’s something poetic about discovering it in Denver, a city that, like Zora, resists being pigeonholed. And at The Hermitage—where old meets new, and timeless stories await rediscovery—I understood something: timing isn’t just everything; it’s the thing.

Books, like people, show up when the Tao says it’s time.

The Wisdom of Re-Reading

We live in a culture obsessed with the new: new books, new headlines, new hot takes. But sometimes the deepest revelations come from circling back. Revisiting. Rehearing.

There’s Taoist wisdom in that. Zhuangzi reminds us that the journey isn’t always forward. Sometimes it spirals. Sometimes the path winds back to where we began—but we’re not the same person standing there this time.

Reading Wrapped in Rainbows again didn’t just connect me to Zora—it reconnected me to myself. To the wandering writer in me. To the restless seeker. To the anthropologist of my own becoming.

Wrapped in More Than Just Rainbows

This isn’t just a biography. It’s a portal. It’s a sacred conversation across time and space between two brilliant Black women—Zora and Valerie—and anyone willing to listen deeply. It’s about creativity, loneliness, resistance, joy, and the fierce hunger to live authentically no matter the cost.

If you’ve ever had a book whisper your name from a shelf then answer it. Sit with it again. Especially the ones that shaped you. They may have more to say now. They may hold the key to something you’re only just beginning to understand.

And if you’re lucky, as I was, it may come wrapped in rainbows.

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