Category Archives: reading lists

summer reading

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IMG_0950June 1st, although not officially summer, is in my mind, which makes it time for summer reading!

My recommendations:

  1. The Earth Hums in B Flat (novel) by Mari Strachan. This is out now. I just read it….See my review forthcoming in July in the summer issue of Contrary Magazine!
  2. The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy (memoir) by Rachel Cusk. This is out now and is on my shelf waiting to be read. It’s reviewed in the NYT book review below.
  3. The Angels Game (novel) by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. This will be out on June 16th. I loved Shadow of the Wind. It’s reviewed in the WSJ book review below.
  4. That Old Cape Magic (novel) by Richard Russo. This will be out August 4th. I loved Bridge of Sighs. Also reviewed in the WSJ book review below.
  5. South of Broad (novel) by Pat Conroy. This will be out August 11th. I loved Prince of Tides and Beach Music. Also reviewed in the WSJ book review below.
  6. Pick a classic you haven’t read off the summer reading table at your local bookstore!

IMG_0987Other lists:

Please share any recommendations you have. Happy Summer and Happy Reading!

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I want something good to read

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IMG_2003How many times have you thought this or said this?

When I say it, I actually don’t mean good; I mean that will take my breath away. That will make me want to read it again. So I say this, I’m guessing, three or four times a year. I’m not the only one. I found a blog post last week that actually illustrated the problem.

When I read book after book and they’re all just okay or not good at all and I long for a book where I’m rereading lines over and over again or reading as slowly as possible, then I either resort to one of my all-time favorite books or to a classic–Jane Austin, Faulkner, Dickens, Fitzgerald.

Which takes me to the question of how I choose what book to read next anyway. Because if I chose better, perhaps I would never come to… I want something good to read.

I discovered another blog post last week (yes, guilty of too much time on the internet) where the writer/reader decided to become more intentional about choosing what to read. She came up with specific criteria about what constituted a good book. The problem, of course, with this approach is that you can’t know whether the book meets these criteria until you read it.

Taking a look at how I chose what I’ve read lately:

Don’t Cry-writing group pick (one a month)

Stop-Time-recommended by a writer for its form

Out Stealing Horses-recommended by an independent book store owner when I asked “if you could recommend one book in your store, what would it be?”

Tender is the Night-never read it before and a classic about a marriage (my novel-in-progress is about a marriage)

How do you choose what to read next?

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before and after

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img_17252Before and After by Rosellen Brown was published in 1992.  I read it in August of 2006 and gave it to everyone I knew for Christmas.  It’s about a marriage and a family. It’s narrated in alternating chapters primarily by the husband and wife, Ben and Carolyn, and also by one of the children, Judith.

You won’t be able to put it down.  And be sure to notice how the narrative is strung along this thing that happens, but the story–what it’s about–is the relationship between the members of the family, in particular the husband and the wife.

At the beginning of the novel, the wife’s voice, although in the past tense, is more immediate to the action.  She’s at work and then washing her hands at the sink.  We live through the events with her.  The husband’s voice, on the other hand, is distant to what happened, more reflective, beginning in the present tense, speaking to us from some future time:  “I’m going to talk about that day…I’m coming toward it slowly. I can’t rush up on the seam between before and after. (Not seam, no way. Excuse me.  Chasm.)”

Just discovered it was made into a film in 1996, starring Meryl Streep and Liam Neeson.

the dawning of a new day

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Sunrise Miami Beach.  The dawning of a new day.img_1371 

On the front page of yesterday’s New York Times was the headline, 

“From Books, New President Found Voice.”

In case you missed it, here are some of the highlights.  Michiko Kakutani wrote that Mr. Obama’s  ”appreciation of the magic of language and his ardent love of reading” have shaped his “sense of who he is.”

She also commented on Mr. Obama’s storytelling ability as evidenced in Dreams From My Father, and I agree with this.  I listened to Mr. Obama read his autobiography on a recent car trip.  But my favorite example of his storytelling abilities is listening and watching him tell the story of the power of one voice (fired up and ready to go). 

Kakutani said that Mr. Obama took what she called “the magpie approach to reading,” which she defined as ruminating upon writers’ ideas and picking and choosing those that flesh out his vision of the world or open promising new avenues of inquiry.”

Then she issued, whether knowingly or unknowingly, the following warning to people who count their books at the end of the year, competing with others or themselves (50 for me for 2008):  Mr. Bush “tended to race through books in competitions with Karl Rove,” who apparently beat the President in 2006, by 110 books to 95.  Yikes.  We know who we are.

Here’s what she called “A Reading List that Shaped a President”: img_1356

  • The Bible
  • Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch
  • Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Ghandhi’s autobiography
  • Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
  • Lincoln’s collected writings
  • Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
  • Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
  • Works of Reinhold Niebuhr
  • Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
  • Shakespeare’s tragedies.

Of these, I’ve read The Bible, The Golden Notebook, Song of Solomon, Gilead, and some of Shakespeare’s tragedies.

Kakutani concluded the article by making comparisons between Lincoln and Obama.  She quoted Fred Kaplan on Lincoln:  “He became what his language made him.”  Obama appears to be on the same track.  America and the world have a lot to look forward to.

the last day of October

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“The weather was unusually warm for the last day of October.  We didn’t even need jackets.  The wind was growing stronger, and Jem said it might be raining before we got home.  There was no moon.”  To Kill A Mockingbird  by Harper Lee

I read it in school.  I read it again in June of 2006.  I just finished listening to it on CD read by Sissy Spacek.  I think Sissy Spacek is Scout.  I cannot recommend it highly enough.  I listened to it in my car, and on more than one occasion, I would sit there listening even after arriving at my destination.  It is that good.  Listening to it made me want to read it again.