I was looking at Salon.com's "What to read in August" item (link below if you're interested), and it inspired me to inquire of all of you what you are or plan to be reading for the duration of the summer. Don't be shy -- it can be a masterpiece, it can be beach reading. We don't make judgments here. Any recommendations? or turkeys that require public health warnings? Let's hear about it.




http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2002/08...gust/index.html

I went and bought the book "Twelve" by Nick McDonell
I head read about him somewhere. He's 18 and a first time writer.
Piece of "fluff" but horrific. It's about a drug dealer amongst the NY private school set. I found the whole thing completely unrealistic, unimaginative and I was just saddened that Mr. McDonell is a product of the private school system in NYC. The fact that he's been made an overnight "sensation" had his book optioned for a film is also a sad commentary on today's world, but... maybe New York Magazine will do a feature on him soon.

Otherwise, Margaret Atwood's "Blind Assasin" was good fun!

I always re-read in August. A corpse is nice, preferably on the premises of nuns, or academics. A little Rex Stout, or Ed McBain. Simenon. P.G. Wodehouse.Dorothy Sayers. Some years, Jane Austen. This year, Arlene Croce. And cookbooks, I read cookbooks. But Wodehouse is the best summer reading--the Blandings Castle stories. The sun shines, the breeze blows, the heart lifts, and the old prose improves, by association. Blitheness is all, in August.

For my school's summer reading list, the honors students had to read A Separate Peace and Dandelion Wine. SP was extremely haunting, and although I enjoyed DW, I thought it odd it didn't have a plot except to describe the summer of a boy.

Just for fun, I've become acutely interested in Truman Capote's short stories, especially the ones about his own life experiences.

Every ten years I read Barbara Tuchman's masterpiece of history: The March of Folly".
Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it ...Mr. Bush!

"The Crime Wave at Blandings" must be the most satisfying story written in the 20th century. I enjoy Wodehouse greatly during the summer. And fall, and winter, and spring.

The books currently beside my bed are Borges' _Collected Fictions_ and a collection of Lord Dunsany. After reading a Dunsany story I often have ideas for music or imagine ballets. This doesn't happen when I read Borges. This surprises me, because Borges is by far the superior writer.

Right now I'm reading 2 books, "Sophie's World" and "Kiss of the Spider Woman". You've probably all heard of Sophie's World. For me, it's a good introduction to western philosophy. I became interested after visiting Greece. The style and language make it easy to follow and still very interesting. Kiss... is by the Argentine writer Manuel Puig. I'm about half way through now. It's almost entirely dialogue which makes it fast paced and one quickly identifies with the 2 main characters. There are little stories within the main story, as one of the characters describes movies to the other (they share a jail cell). It's also been made into a play and a movie, though I haven't seen either.
I'd recommend both books.
I also went to the used book shop and bought:
~"Before Night Falls" Reinaldo Arenas
~ Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky
~ "La machine infernale" Jean Cocteau
But I haven't started those yet. Has anyone read them and what did you think?

I've just finished "Desolation island" by Patrick O'Brian (actually I had read several others in the same series which take place later, but that one was missing in the library): not one of my favorites, but it's still good to read about Aubrey and Maturin, and sometimes I found myself giggling in the metro. I'm reading "The three sons of Heart-of-Stone" by Mor Jokai (1825-1904), ranslated from Hungarian, which takes place around 1848 in the Austro-Hungarian empire, sometimes it's a bit melodramatic and also I'm a bit lost with some of the historical details, but on the whole it's very interesting. Also I've just started reading Julian Barnes' "Flaubert's parrot" (and now feel like reading more Flaubert).

In my reading list for the next weeks, there is Wilkie Collins' "Basil" (recently translated into French), Isaie Spiegel's "A ladder towards the sky" (translated from Yiddish),
re-reading some books by Edith Wharton and perhaps Raymond Queneau, and also some travel guides about Tuscany and Umbria. And cookbooks, like Nanatchka!

Paquita, several years ago I've read "Adios a mama" by Reinaldo Arenas and remember finding it a bit disappointing, but I don't know "Before night falls". I've heard some excerpts of Nijinsky's diaries (is it the recent uncensored version? In the previous version, some parts had been cut by his wife) in a public lecture by Redjep Mitrovitsa, and itr was extremely moving, some parts sounded very logical and "normal" and some others were really bizarre and crazy, also he seemed to be longing for affection and understanding so much... (But I admit being also a fan of Mitrovitsa, I think I'd be happy just hearing him read a phonebook.
:rolleyes: )

Tancos, it doesn't surprise me that Borges doesn't make you think of ballets: I love his books too, but to me they're generally so abstract that it's so different of the world of ballet for me...

Thanks for the great question!

I recently finished "Beautiful Bodies," a novel by Laura Shaine Cunningham, which I enjoyed very much. It's about six women friends who get together for a sort of baby shower on a dark and stormy night. Not exactly an original concept, and not the sort of thing an old geezer like me is expected to read, but Laura Cunningham is a wonderful writer. For those who don't know, she is the author of two memoirs, "Sleeping Arrangements" and "A Place in the Country." I recommend "Sleeping Arrangements." It's about being brought up by a pair of bachelor uncles, and is one of the most unforgettable American books of recent years.

Now I'm reading "Seabiscuit: An American Legend," by Laura Hillenbrand. This book is No. 1 on the New York Times Paperback Bestseller List, where it's been for 18 weeks. It restores one's faith in popular taste that such a good book is a bestseller. Oddly enough, I picked up a hardcover copy in Saratoga last month at the Lyrical Ballad Bookstore -- a new book at an antiquarian shop. But what better place to buy a book about horseracing than Saratoga? Anyhow, it's a remarkable story, and it's not just about horseracing. Set in the 1930s, it's really a portrait of an era.

I have a friend who works for Penguin International who gives me advance copies of books she thinks I'll like. So next I'll be reading the proofs of "The Terra-Cotta Dog," by the Italian writer Andrea Camilleri (a man). This is the second Inspector Montalbano mystery to be published in this country. They are set in small-town Sicily, a milieu with which I'm ancestrally familiar. The first, "The Shape of Water," got a nice little notice in the Times Book Review a couple of months ago.

My daughter and I have been reading memoirs of kids/teens around the time of the Holocaust. Two about a Hungarian Jewish girl who spends time in various concentrations camps (book 1) and then rebuilds her life (book 2). Of course, their titles and the author's name don't spring to mind. Another book by a woman who was a resistance fighter in Poland in her late teens. Her ingenuity and quick thinking really captivated me. And finally, "German Boy", about a 10-year-old German boy whose family flees the advancing Russian army. I was least sympathetic to the last one. For one thing, the amount of detail provided far exceeds what I believe a 10-year-old would take in, much less recall 50 years later. Second, although I wouldn't wish this kid's life on anyone -- and he was just a kid -- I have more trouble casting him in the role of victim. Third, when he finally gets around to protesting, at the end of the book, that he was just sick and horrified when he found out what the war was all about, it just feels like too little -- or maybe too much -- too late.

What I really want to get back to is "The Far Side of the World", MY next read in O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series. Estelle, I have to disagree with you, I really liked "Desolation Island".

Treefrog, actually I liked "Desolation Island", it's just that I liked some others of that series even more! (By the way, I once sent a letter to my boyfriend via the Kerguelen islands: I just put a fake address in the Kerguelen islands on the verso, and his address as the sender's address. It came back with a stamped message "that person doesn't live at that address" about... three months later. So even if I will probably never go to that place, at least that little piece of paper did! )

I just finished "Moscow Farewell"- by George Feifer. It is his account of a year he spent in Moscow in the seventies.... I enjoyed it immensely, although it was a little slow from time to time. However, I found his descriptions of Russian life very interesting, and he is a good storyteller.

My reading these days is geared towards a visit to Tuscany I'll be taking later this year. Right now I'm reading That Fine Italian Hand by Paul Hofmann, a German who lived in Rome for many years when he was a correspondent for the New York Times. It's a general overview of Italian society, a bit dated as it was published in 1990. Next on my list is Vanilla Beans and Brodo by Isabella Dusi, a memoir of an Australian couple who moved to Montalcino, and the Insight Guide to Tuscany. I've read Insight guides for other countries I've visited and found them to be a very helpful introduction to their history, geography, and culture. I also plan to pick up my old copy of Janson's History of Art and bone up on Italian Renaissance art.

Estelle, I'd be interested to know which guidebooks you are planning to read. There are so many that the trouble is choosing one!

Old Fashioned, I would look at Capote's "A Christmas Memory" if you haven't already. I think you'd like that.

I also dipped into Wodehouse this summer. This time around I re-read "Right Ho, Jeeves," which I recommend, especially for the episode in which Gussie Fink-Nottle gets tanked up on a combination of booze and orange juice to give out the scholastic awards at Market Snodsbury Grammar School. (Actually, the title might have been "Thank You, Jeeves." My only beef with Wodehouse is that sometimes his titles are a trifle generic, although that wasn't always his fault.)


I just finished Calvin Trillin's "Tepper Isn't Going Out," a novel concerned with one of the major issues of our day, hitherto largely ignored by literature -- that is, parking. If this were any lighter reading it would just float off the table, but as one who lives in an area where parking issues can get pretty intense, I enjoyed it.


I also re-read Wharton's "The House of Mirth" after a viewing of the recent film version. It's odd how even inferior movies can impose themselves on your imagination. I thought Gillian Anderson was all wrong for Lily, but it took several chapters before I was able to get her image out of my head.

dirac wrote:



Indeed. The same thing happened to me with "The Age of Innocence". Michelle Pffiefer (who I adore in some roles) was not right for Countess Olenska, a character I fell in love with years ago. But the visual/aural memory of Pffiefer in Martin Scorsese's adaption of Edith Wharton's novel is so strong that it can't be extinguished.

I am currently reading novels in hundred page gulps. I recently discovered Robert Wilson, a British author of literary spy fiction. He has written several novels but only two have been published in the U.S.

The "Company of Strangers" and "A Small Death in Lisbon" both take place in Portugal during the period from World War II until the Portugese Revolution of 1975. Border's was marketing "The Company of Strangers" with a separate wrapper that said "As good as John LeCarre or your money back." Great marketing, since LeCarre, of course, is one of the touchstones for this type of fiction.

Additionally "Anil's Ghost" by Michael Ondaatje, who also wrote "The English Patient". It is set in Sri Lanka during the early 1990s, a period of horrible chaos and confusion. Political, communal and ethnic violence were part of every day life, and two different civil wars raged. It is told from the point of view of a young forensic pathologist, a native of Sri Lanka, who returns to the island nation as part of a U. N team investigating political murders and disappearances. She has trained in the charnel houses of Central American and West Africa.

This type of fiction doesn't take the place of history but can make it come alive in unexpected ways. I know a bit about Portugal and its disasterous African colonial wars during the 1970s, wars which lead directly to the revolution. And I am essentially innocent of any knowledge of Sri Lanka, other than what I have read in the Times.

In each case they are nations on the periphery--the Portugese are aware that they are the westernmost part of continental Europe and that, along with the very long dictatorship Dr. Salazar, has kept them isolated, physically, socially and politically from the rest of Europe.

Sri Lanka is also on the edge of a larger and more powerful civilization and must make adjustments as it moves (possibly) from post-colonial rule to democracy.

Speaking of movies ruining books, I haven't yet read "The English Patient" and may have a hard time, since Juliet Binoche was such an indelible presence in the movie made from it.

Farrel Fan wrote:



This is a terrific book. I read it after some rapturous reviews, my wife read it immediately afterwards. It gives a good sense of slice of the 1930s and how Seabiscuit and the men and women around him were seen as real heroes. If I remember correctly, there were more column inches in newspapers in the U. S. about Seabiscuit during one year in the late 1930s than there were about Hitler, Mussolini and Franklin Delano Rosevelt--or something like that.

You don't have to know anything about horse racing or horses to enjoy this book.

I always have a few books on the go. Currently I'm working on Pilgrim's Progress . My U.S. history teacher thinks it is absolutly vital that we attempt it. I'm also reading the book The Design of Everyday Things . I hope to attack Sophie's World before school starts.

CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.) is currently broadcasting Orphan at my Door by Jean Little in installments. I'm making sure that I tune in everyday, since Jean Little is one of my favourite authors.

Ari: actually, so far I'm just reading a basic "Lonely planet" guide, because it's the only one that I've found at a not too expensive price including also Ombria (and part of our trip- our honeymoon, actually : )- will include Ombria).

dirac, I didn't find that Terence Davies's movie after "The House of Mirth" was "an inferior movie", actually I was prepared to be disappointed as very often it's hard not to be when seeing a movie after reading the book, and as at first I found that the choice of Gillian Anderson was so weird, but really liked it, and found that Anderson was quite good (even if not totally suited to the character). At least the story wasn't modified, unlike in many movies after novels (don't tell me about the numerous adaptations of Féval's "Le Bossu", my childhood's favorite book... )
For "The time of innocence", it was the opposite: I had seen the movie before reading the book, so I couldn't avoid imagining the characters with the faces of the actors.

Ed, about Portugal, if you have an opportunity to see it, you might be interested in the movie "Captains of April" by Maria de Medeiros, dealing with the Carnation revolution of 1975.

Estelle, I didn't mean "inferior" as in lousy, although the movie wasn't flawless and I didn't care for the Christianizing of Rosedale: only that any movie will be inferior when compared to the depth and social detail in the novel. But the movie is certainly no travesty, like the Demi Moore "The Scarlet Letter."

As for Gillian Anderson -- no, she's not bad at all, although I don't think she's the kind of actress who can carry a movie by herself, which she has to do here -- Stoltz isn't much help. Lily is a goddess. That's why all the men are after her, and why all the matrons hate her guts. If you don't get this across right away, all else fails. For the life of me, I couldn't understand why all those guys were so hot for Ms. Anderson, or why the other women were so threatened. And, at the risk of sounding catty, I thought she looked right at home making hats.

I agree with you about Pfeiffer, Ed, although I have no desire to extinguish the recollection of Daniel Day-Lewis. As for "The English Patient," you're not missing all that much, although it is very different from the movie in major respects.

Anyone reading Ian McEwan's "Atonement?" I'm almost to the end, and I've just loved it. The language is just ravishing! It's almost the opposite of a page-turner -- not that it isn't engaging, and I've been just gobbling through it to see what happens next, but that the writing is so beautiful that I find myself re-reading passages just to enjoy them again.

I'm also reading Suki Schorer's "Balanchine Technique." I'm a big Balanchine and NYCB fan, so I love the inside look at his classes and style. But I'm also slightly disturbed by it -- it advocates a number of things that I've always throught were verboten. (Heels coming slightly off the ground in demi-plie in some cases, for example.) I guess you have to buy into and train entirely in the entire Balanchine style, rather than just dabble and borrow from it. Fascinating, but not really useful for someone like me (adult ballet student).

Next on my list if I ever get more time (ever wish the New Yorker magazine would only publish monthly?!) is the novel "Lovely Bones," which is getting raves everywhere. Story is told in the voice of a young murder victim, which sounds like it would be totally gruesome but supposedly is quite wondrous.

"Lovely Bones" is Salon's August pick (see link I posted in the first message of this thread, if interested). Looks interesting.

I just started reading Salman Rushdie's novel "Fury". Like some other of his books (Moor's Last Sigh etc), the style of writing is so captivating from the very first few sentences.
Also, I'm currently reading "Balanchine's Tchaikovsky" by S. Volkov. Since I recently finished reading Tchaikovsky's(I guess partly controversial ) biography by Anthony Holden, it's interesting to see how Balanchine's views of the composer are much more kind and romantic, compared to ones by Holden, who sometimes appears to be judgmental and harsh (or at least very direct) in his interpretations of Tchaikovsky's traits of character. (I hope my English makes sense:eek: )

I'm not a big mystery fan but couldn't resist "A Small Death In Lisbon" , a city I have often enjoyed. It's a long book, 451 pages in paperback, got really great reviews and I'm not looking forward to the end. Maybe I can find something else by Robert Wilson. At Farrell Fan's behest I just finished "Holding on to the Air" by Suzanne Farrell and Toni Bentley, and loved it.

Thank you, Dirac. "A Christmas Memory" is one of my favorites.

Yes, when Capote was good, he was very, very good. Such a waste.

You must be kidding, folks, or you live on another planet!
For myself, I have hardly time to read the daily paper...
But, there is one book, I think I posted something on another thread.
"Ballet Russes" by Richard Shead.
Lovely stuff, I read a little bit every night before going to bed.

dirac wrote:



Alice Sebold, the author of "Lovely Bones" wrote a memoir, "Lucky". It is a wrenching story of her rape while a student at Syracuse University, her life the crime and her life afterwards.

The only reason I was able to continue reading this book (which is riveting) is that I knew the Sebold survived the attack. It is at least one indication how she was able to write a novel from the point of view of a murder victim

"Lovely Bones" is also on my list.

I've read the Pushkin biography, "Alexander Puskin: Master Teacher of Dance" by Gennady Albert and re-read, "Zen in the Art of Archery" by Eugen Herrigel.

This is a great thread! I read all the time (when I have the time;) ) I just got a couple of good books out of the library.
One of them is called He Sees You While You're Sleeping , it's by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins CLark. It's about a man who died and is given a second chance at life for a week.
The other one is called Ties That Bind; Ties That Break . It's by Lensey Namioka and it's about a Chinese girl and the decisions that she makes (and the ones that are made for her)and consequences that go with them. Both of these books made me cry they were so moving.
An author that I'm always on the lookout for is Terry Pratchett. He writes mild fantasy and he's always hilariously funny.
I'll be sure to look at the books that some of you are reading, they sound very good.

d_frog

I was going to say "Seabiscuit" but it has already been raved over.

I read, besides my stupid summer reading book, and interesting biography on Jackie O, called "Mrs. Kennedy." Very good, but also very eye opening and depressing.

And I am re-reading the Anne of Green Gables series. I always feel like it in the summer.

And for the ballet side of me, the autobiography of Alexandra Danilova. Fascinating stories about the Kirov Academy (not called that then).

I loved the Anne of Green Gables series, but I'm afraid to go back to many of the books I read growing up for fear they won't live up to my memory of them. I seriously regret going back to "Little Women," for example. (Although "The Wind in the Willows" held up just fine.)

Let's see. I seem to be on a Hemingway kick right now -- rereading "A Farewell to Arms" and I'm rereading Tolkien's "The Two Towers."

Earlier this summer I was on a biography kick: Vernon Jordan, Maria Tallchief and Judith Jamison.

I'm impressed by the range of your interests. It's not often you see Vernon Jordan mentioned in the same sentence with Tallchief and Jamison.

At the moment I'm reading:
'Pride and Prejudice', which, I've read so many times I can quote it in my sleep;
'Sophie's World' - a bit slow-going at first because it seemed to state the obvious (to me anyway) but it's getting really interesting
'Herodotus - The History' - not as heavy (literally too) as Thucydides and unintentionally comic.
A Mills and Boon book:o - I don't need to give the title as they are all the same.

just finished an inspector maigret mystery and making eyes at some henry james short stories....

I especially enjoy reading mysteries that take place in cities I know and love. I recently finished two by James Lantigua, "Player's Vendetta" and "The Ultimate Havana." They're set in Little Havana, an area with which I'm very familiar because we spend a week in Miami every December.

Another mystery I read this summer was Jane Dentiger's "Murder on Cue," which features backstage intrigue at a Broadway production and is often deliciously witty.

I've started reading my first Martha Grimes, "I Am the Only Running Footman." So far, so good.

I've just read "Tempest-Tost" by the well-known Canadian author Robertson Davies. It's about an amateur theatrical production of "The Tempest" being performed in a garden. It's hilarious. We had seen a delightful, dramatized version of it last year at the Stratford Festival.

And, for something completely different, I've been working my way slowly through the fascinating but dense "Constantine's Sword" by James Carroll, which, of course, is about the history of the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the Jews.

It's a good thing this thread is about SUMMER reading. I'm a teacher, and now that summer is over (alas), I won't have much time for reading (sigh).

There was an interview with the author of Lovely Bones in this Saturday's Guardian (UK) and I am now desperate to read it! I'm waiting for the paperback to come out here though as we've only just had the hardback.

I am a constant reader. Living in university accomodation over the summer means I spend a lot of time alone, so I am reading more than ever. I'm quite into biographies at the moment - I've been reading about Jane Austen and Darwin, and I'd like to find some dancer's biographies too. Recently I've read "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan and "Extra Virgin" by Annie Hawes, both of which were fabulous. I'm re-reading "Dancing Away" by Deborah Bull (of the RB) and as always I have Harry Potter and Jane Austen on the go - I read these books cyclically and constantly! I love having books which I know really well. I can pick them up and open them at any page and be able to read for 5 minutes or 50 minutes and know exactly what's going on. I am a very fast reader, almost a skim reader, which means that every time I re-read a book, I see different things in it.

At the moment I am reading James Joyces' Ulysses, and a book called Life on Earth by David Attenborough. I had the last book for at least 15 years and never read it, althoguh now I'm glad I am, and Ulysses ..well I was intrigued. Lots of people had mentioned how difficult it was too read, but I am absolutely loving it, it makes me chuckle when I read it on a dreary monday morning on the train to work.

I was also going to read Lovely bones, but then read the first chapter that amazon gives you and with all the dreadful abductions over here in the US (and in the UK), it put me off reading it.

Jeanette

Right now I am reading J.R.R Tolkien's "The Fellowship of the Ring." It's very good.

I think Ulysses has developed such a rep as a famously impenetrable book that people forget how funny it is.


Perfect Performer, I envy you. The Ring books are so famous that I would like to be more familiar with them, but try as I might I can never get past the first third or so of "The Hobbit." I'm sure it's me.....

Skip _The Hobbit_ and go directly to _The Fellowship of the Ring_.

I'll try that. Thanks for the tip.

I’ve just started Jeffrey Hart’s “Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe,” a book about how the tension and interplay between Athens and Jerusalem shaped Western culture. Also, I’m finally reading – and laughing my way through -- a “classic” I’ve been meaning to get around to for years, G.K. Chesterton’s “The Man Who Was Thursday.” Sometimes when I’ve had just a minute or two to spare in the midst of other tasks recently I’ve been grabbing Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations,” in a new translation by one Gregory Hays. This was one of those, I-only-meant-to-go-hear-the-reading, not-get-the-book buys. And although I never read mysteries, I did read Stephen L. Carter’s “The Emperor of Ocean Park” this summer, because I’ve enjoyed his non-fiction. It’s 500-some pages long and I got a little tired of it about 2/3 of the way through, but only for a short while.

Ann Coulter's Book "Slander" Ann is so Connecticut!

"Jihad: the trail of political Islam" by Gilles Kepel. A very boring, authoritative, book on 20th century Islam.

MJ

I think the best way to read Ulysses is to go to Dublin on Bloomsday (someday in June) and follow other Joyce Fans from Pub to Pub. There are bronze plaques in the sidewalks to help you.The book truly is impenetrable, even to most comp lit professors. The more Guiness you imbibe, the eaiser it is to understand Joyce. This is one of the few books I would recommend using Cliff Notes along with the book.

MJ

That's an old favorite of mine, along with the Father Brown stories. It's probably about time to re-read it again.

I love the Father Brown stories. (There's a good movie, too, with Alec Guinness and Peter Finch, if you can track it down.)

A big "thanks" to whomever suggested "The Lovely Bones". I took it off on vacation and just loved it. Who would have thought that such a grisly topic could be handled so gently, so lovingly, so unexpectedly?

Following "Bones", I launched off into "Seabiscuit". Good, but not nearly as captivating as "Bones".

What a great resource you all are!

Thank you. We try Any other reading suggestions out there?

If you're into history/biography/WWII, then I suggest:

Leo Marks: Between Silk and Cyanide

Leo was a WWII code maker/breaker. An aspect I find fascinating is some connections to fairly well known people and events where Leo was initimately involved - but we never knew.

Example:

His father owned the bookshop at 84 Charing Cross Road

I won't spoil it by revealing anything else. It is a wonderful read. One of those books where laughter and tears follow in quick succession.

Leo's code making features with some fairly complete explanations - but not in a way which intrudes into the narrative. There is the opportunity to play with some of his coding exercises if you want to - or not, as you please.

A book full of compassion for the people sent to fight covert war and tinged with bitterness towards some of those who sent them there. It certainly had a profound impact on me - I'd be interested to hear how it affects other readers.