Summer Reading: Part One
Have you read any good books lately? By yourself…or to others? Today we offer summer reading suggestions. On Monday, we will offer a suggestion on how you can change a life by becoming involved in teaching literacy.
We asked a few readers we know to recommend books we all might enjoy this summer. Please add to that list by posting your own suggestions via our Comment option at the bottom of this entry. You can order these books online via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but we hope you will also consider supporting your local independent bookseller.
Erika: I recommend WATER, ICE & STONE: Science and Memory on the Antarctic Lakes by Bill Green. A classic of contemporary nature writing, this book is about seven field seasons spent in Antarctica—a key continent for charting the effects of climate change—by a geochemist who writes like a poet. What better way to keep cool in the summer than to take an imaginative voyage to this starkly beautiful icy wilderness?
George: Ian McEwan’s ON CHESIL BEACH will be released in paperback June 10, eponymously timely for beach season. As readers of ATONEMENT and his other novels know, Ian McEwan is a fine storyteller, an acute observer of character and an exquisite writer. He is the master of the defining moment. On Chesil Beach, a short novel, tells the story of a sweet, promising young English couple, virgins in the quaint summer of 1962: their courtship, disastrous wedding night and its brutal aftermath. The ingredient which makes the most compelling love stories so achingly tragic is inevitablity: Couldn’t Aeneas have stayed with Dido, what if the messenger had reached Romeo in time, and, in On Chesil Beach, why did Edward and Florence find it so impossible to talk about it?
David: Jeffrey Toobin’s superb book about the Supreme Court, THE NINE. Just in case we are all lulled into a
stupor in the dog days of the presidential campaign, this colorful examination inside the secret world of the Court reminds voters why their vote this November matters, not just for the next four years, but for the next generation.
Ruth: WHEN A CROCODILE ATE THE SUN: A Memoir of Africa, by Peter Godwin. The New Yorker wrote: “Godwin, the author of a previous memoir about growing up during Zimbabwe’s war of independence, has written a sequel of sorts, tracing the collapse of his country in the course of the past decade.. in tandem with the decline of his father.” I found this book fascinating–with a surprising twist near the end. With the Mugabe saga unfolding there now, it’s even more interesting. Godwin’s writing makes the story come alive. One definitely feels they’re part of the happenings.
Larry: TIME AND AGAIN by Jack Finney. A blend of mystery and science fiction in which a man who can travel back and forth in time discovers even the slightest contact can have profound changes. I recommend this over the bestselling Time Traveller’s Wife. Other favorite mystery writers: Clive Cussler (start with Raise the Titanic); Robert Tannenbaum books with Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi; Dennis Lehane; John Sandford with Lucas Davenport; and Michael Deaver with Lincoln Rhyme.
In the Ampolo household Steve’s recent favorite is THE BLUE STAR, Tony Earley’s simple, lyrical tale about a teenager in rural North Carolina in 1941. This is a sequel to the equally wonderful JIM, THE BOY. Critics who have raved about these books describe them as “children’s stories for adults.” Also for fans of political writing, check out Matt Bai’s, insightful and witty, THE ARGUMENT. What’s it about? The subtitle says it all: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics.
Sharon says, “Amy Bloom is a wonderful writer whose short stories take readers to unexpected places. But none of her stories prepared me for the ‘unexpectedness’ of her most recent novel, AWAY. I can’t think of a more compelling summer read–or listen–since it’s read on CD by Barbara Rosenblatt, a champion reader/narrator/actress, in my opinion. I began listening to the novel in the car and when my trip ended, I had to pull out the hardcover book and read it myself until I was finished, so I can vouch for both methods. I loved this book.
“And for an intellectual, yet mystical, magical, and often hilarious summer book? Anything by Stephen Millhauser. MARTIN DRESSLER is probably his most well-known, but for sheer brilliance, his first novel, EDWIN MULLHOUSE: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF AN AMERICAN WRITER, is a gem. And if your summer vacation isn’t as long as you’d like? Pick up LITTLE KINGDOMS, a volume containing three of his novellas–each of which are mini-vacations in themselves.”
Now it’s your turn. What ya’ recommend?
The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender is a great summer read - fun, quirky short stories.
On my “to read” list are: Incubation: A Space for Monsters by Bhanu Kapil and The Impossibly by Laird Hunt.
“Some of Us Did Not Die” by June Jordan
A compilation of essays published posthumously, some derived from notable speeches and memoirs. June Jordan was an influential poet, novelist, playwright, and journalist who — throughout her career — brought art and politics together to inspire social change. Active in the Civil Rights Movement, Jordan challenged the status quo of segregation while simultaneously taking on the inequitable power dynamics within the movement. She taught at University of California Berkeley and Yale University.
Is it too blatant to recommend a book you’ve written?
Summer is the perfect time for “The Gerfnit Chronicles,” an alien’s adventure attending summer camp on Earth. Originally written to my daughter and delivered as letters to her at camp, the story brings laughs and life lessons. Perfect for a teen, a teen at heart, or a family read.
Richard Russo’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, EMPIRE FALLS, was great. I’ve just completed his latest, BRIDGE OF SIGHS. It is also terrific. He’s a master at chronicling life in small town America.
We note that Studs Terkel turns 96 today. He’s a treasure for those who appreciate the written and spoken word. His most recent work is his memoir, TOUCH AND GO. Classic oral histories include, WORKING, THE GOOD WAR, HARD TIMES, and DIVISION STREET:AMERICA. Happy Birthday, Studs.
“Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life,” by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. You can pick it up and put it down all summer long. It’s light, humorous, and touching. it also makes a great gift.
Here’s an oldie you’ll have to dig for. “Runaway Home” by Elizabeth Coatsworth is an old sixth grade reader from the Alice and Jerry Series. It was a departure from a dick-and-jane type format–it’s an adventure novel of a family who travels from the coast of Maine to the Pacific Northwest in what I like to think of as an early airstream camper. It’s nostalgic, sure, but incredibly informative and interesting and written like a dream by an award winning Maine writer. Compare the America of then to the America of now. The Gustav Tengrin illustrations are a bonus. This is the definition of summer reading–it takes you on a journey, it teaches, it pleases, and you’ll have fun looking for a vintage copy at flea markets–or on eBay if it’s raining outside. Reflect on gas prices, then hit the literary road with this book. You won’t regret the effort you put in to finding it!
Ready for some Serious Reading? This blockbuster - From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life by Jacques Barzun - discusses every book you’ve always meant to read, every play you’ve always meant to see, every idea you’ve always wanted to know more about. Call it Western Civ in a box. At 877 pages, it’s too long to read cover to cover, but you’ll have fun fishing for odd topics in the brilliant index. “Laughter, none in utopias.” “Dada, jokes.” “Love affairs, Henry VIII’s 9.” “Art, sophomoric.” “Costume, ragged on purpose.” “Gastronomy, English maligned.” “Sex, ubiquitous.” Frere Jacques can also turn a phrase: “The blow that hurled the modern world on its course of self-destruction was the Great War of 1914-18. It was called great on account of its size rather than for any notable merit.”
I agree, Sharon– “Away” is my most-recent most-favorite also! (AND the audio, so well read, as you mentioned.) So I will recommend another recent favorite. After throughly enjoying Ann Patchett’s “Bel Canto” years ago, I just finished “Run” and loved it as well. In an author interview, Patchett states it’s about politics, while the interviewer thought it was about family. It’s both and then some. PW says: “”Run” is a novel with timeless concerns at its heart—class and belonging, parenthood and love—and if it wears that heart on its sleeve, then it does so with confidence. And so it should: the book is lovely to read and is satisfyingly bold in its attempt to say something patient and true about family.”
A wonderful new historical novel, -Song of the Tides- by Tom Joseph, is a 16th century story of Florida’s now-extinct tribe of Calusa Indians and the impact the invading Spaniards had on that extraordinary and beautiful culture. The characters are so believable–native and Spanish alike–and their conflicts and cultural clashes make for a great page-turner. Lots of research must have gone into this work, but the facts are woven so skillfully and lyrically into the story that everything just flows. The author obviously knows a lot about Florida as the descriptions of a pre-European invasion paint pictures of a rich natural world revolving around the bounty of the sea. A mesmerizing, exciting work that I’d recommend to everyone.
I’ve read quite a few books lately that I would recommend to you all: Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum, The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak (often considered a young adult novel, but all adults I know who have read it LOVE it - very interesting narrator - Death), and last but not least Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (a must read - even my husband finished it)!
Thanks to all who have suggested books (so far. we hope there will be more). What a wide array of recommendations.
Moloka’i by Alan Brennert. It’s fiction based on historical circumstances. As Publisher’s Weekly (PW) noted, the book “tracks the grim struggle of a Hawaiian woman who contracts leprosy as a child in Honolulu during the 1890s and is deported to the island of Moloka’i, where she grows to adulthood at the quarantined settlement of Kalaupapa.” It tells about the deplorable conditions that these people had to endure. Yet through it all they maintained their humanity. More from PW: “Brennert transforms the material into a touching, lovely account of a woman’s journey as she rises above the limitations of a devastating illness.”
In the NY Times of May 23, William Grimes has an essay/review of an interest work, He writes:
“An odd book fell into my hands recently, a doorstopper with the irresistible title “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.” That sounds like a challenge, with a subtle insult embedded in the premise. It suggests that you, the supposedly educated reader, might have read half the list at best. Like one of those carnival strength-testers, it dares you to find out whether your reading powers rate as He-Man or Limp Wrist.”
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/23/books/23read.html?em&ex=1211688000&en=18d5ebf7c4c52e16&ei=5087%0A
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