What could be better at this time of year than lying on the beach and losing yourself in a good book?
From scholarly works to the latest bestsellers, summer is a great time to catch up on those books that you never seem to have time for during the rest of the year.
So what are you reading this summer? Share your summer reading list here! Let us know what you are reading, and why, and feel free to offer recommendations.
Click on the "comments" link below to share your thoughts and read what others are saying.
Happy reading!
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
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28 comments:
I just finished "The Cheese Monkeys" by Chip Kidd (wasn't thrilled with it) and now I'm reading "Round Ireland with a Fridge" by Tony Hawks just for fun and also "We Thought You Would Be Prettier" by Laurie Notaro for my book club book.
I just finished "All Marketers are Liars" by Seth Godin. It basically modernized the field of marketing, adopting a combination of many different world views. I highly recommend it. The book is available through Amazon.com
1. "The History Boys" and "Untold Stories," both by Alan Bennett. The prize-wining play will be this generation's "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," and its tear-jerking ending gets a standing ovation at every performance. The trick is to do a deathbed scene while you are still alive!
2. "Mayflower," by Nathaniel Philbrick. The Pilgrim Influence on America, past and present, stripped of its myth-making.
3. "The Sons of Providence: the Brown Brothers, the Slave Trade, and the American Revolution," by Charles Rappleye. My 9th grandfather was the first Chancellor of Brown (then Rhode Island College), a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and involved in the slave trade, like his brother, the notorious Esek Hopkins, the colonists' biggest souse, who sank half the Continental Navy before he was cashiered by the Continental Congress. Who says all the scandal is in Congress today?
4. "The Leonardo Code," by our own Margaret Finch! The nonsense stripped away, and the truth about the art history explained for the layman.
Nancy
I'm just finishing "American Colonies" by Alan Taylor, which puts the Puritans in the context of the history of America, from prehistory on. Great read...wonder if emeriti has read it?
I am reading "PUSH" by Sapphire. It's sad, funny and dearing to the heart. Many lessons if you can imagine and think from another's perspective. Makes you appreciate your own life and how we do take things for granted...how lucky we are not to be born into tougher situations and how we have the choice by LEARNING about the different choices from our family and peers.
Listening to unabridged "Angels & Demons" by Dan Brown on book-on-CD, as I have an hour commute. Written before "Da Vinci Code", featuring the same lead character, Robert Langdon. Can sometimes move a bit too slowly, then other times I'm sitting in Lot D or my own driveway with the engine idling while I listen through to the end of a chapter. Also think I may end up with the book in hand, as there are references to ambigram symbols, important plot point, that I'm hoping are actually shown in the book.
Finally reading The DaVinci Code but want to get through it because I'm eager to start Ron Suskind's The One Percent Doctrine and Javier Sierra's The Secret Supper.
Just received in the mail today from Vanderbilt University Press an intriguing new book from our own Professor Emerita Yvonne Jehenson called The Utopian Nexus in Don Quixote.
And I, too, want to read Margaret Finch's The Leonardo Code.
Speaking of faculty books, I recommend John Roderick's fascinating Shell Keepers, published by Connecticut River Press.
I'm currently reading Jonathan Safran Foer's wonderful novel "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," narrated by a nine year old boy who lost his father on 9/11. Oskar Schell is precocious and troubled in his search for meaning in world awry.
Also reading Princeton philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah's "Cosmopolitanism." Appiah's book is an attempt to find a way for people to reach across differences and boundaries to find what we have in common.
OK, I'll take the plunge and share my list:
Everyman, by Philip Roth (liked it a lot, even though I didn't expect to);
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (?) -- almost done. Beautifully written, if a little slow for a summer read;
The Alienist by Caleb Carr -- a lot of fun, and even a bit scary.
My book club just finished reading On Beauty by Zadie Smith. We all really enjoyed this novel about family, race and class. The story is staged in an academic environment in a fictitional town in Massachusetts. Zadie Smith pulls you in from the very start of the novel. Once invested, you're in it for the long haul because it is a long book, but worth the read. On Beauty is filled with lots of entertaining characters and lots of subplots.
The other two books I intend to read this summer are Sula and Love by Toni Morrison.
I just finished reading a wonderful book, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. Taking place in 19th century China, when girls had their feet bound, the story follows the friendship of 2 girls who use the secret women's writing nu shu to communicate.
I just finished "Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith" by Anne Lamott, who also wrote "Traveling Mercies". She writes about mixing liberal politics with both traditional and nontraditional religion. Her naked honesty about her own thorny spiritual path, and her educated, sarcastic sense of humor make this book both thought provoking and thoroughly satisfying.
~Gail
Just finished "Tipping Point" By Malcolm Gladwell interesting points on how behavior affects the market , small idea can change the world. Another book by Gladwell"Blink" explains thought process in understanding our reactions to situations.Valuable group dynamics and book group dicussions.
Presently reading "The Bookseller of Kabul" by Asne Seierstad- one mans bravery to bring books to the people of Kabul and the plight of womens daily life. A page turner.
Someone mentioned Push by Sapphire, a book I reread last month in preparation for an article I'm writing. It is a great book about the power of literacy. I'm teaching it this fall, too.
It's a huge "business book" summer for me, particularly in the marketing realm. Seth Godin is a tremendous author with some very great books out there about marketing. I am in the middle of "Spreading the Ideavirus". Check it out on Amazon (you can read a few pages for free).
I am reading GHost Wars, a history of U.S. intelligence operations in Afghanistan from the carter administration to Sept. 10, 2001. It shows that the Clinton administration's failures vis Afghanistan helped propel bin laden and set the stage of the 9/11 attacks.
Another Godin classic. I am in the middle of "Permission Marketing" by Seth Godin ... a HUGE shift in "textbook" marketing techniques. Check out his website at www.sethgodin.com
I am reading "This Book Will Save Your Life" by A.M. Homes. As usual, she takes us into a universe populated by people who are unlikely, but somehow familiar. She knows more about the psychology of the male than any woman I have ever read, met or known.
I'm finishing up "Christmas, Present" on book on CD during my commute to work. It seems to flow very smoothly, but isn't light 'reading'. I've caught my eyes watering up once or twice while driving.
I just finished reading "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey. I must admit the reason I wanted to read it was due to all the hype and controversy it had created (Oprah show a few months ago). The writer originally claimed the book was non-fiction, a true account of his own journey from the streets, to rehab, and then success. But alas, "The Smoking Gun" investigated several specifics given and it was determined the writer "wildly embellished details". While I was reading this book I just kept in mind the word -FICTION-, and I liked it. It truly kept my interest and was intense. Even if parts were completely fabricated, I’m sure there are addicts out there that have experienced first hand the situations described (in explicit detail), just remember James Frey didn’t experience them all himself.
I just finished reading "State of Fear" my M. Crichton. It is an exciting and controversial look at ecology, global warming, and El Nino. Politicians vs. science and how they lie in bed together. There are very clever murders that occur throughout, global travel to very remote parts of Earth, and a device that has the potential to control the elements. State of Fear is a great read that will leave you questioning all the ecological warnings so often agitated by the mass media.
I'm reading Carson McCullers "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter". So far I'm very much enjoying it.
The rest of the summer my list includes (if I finish these I will just have to head out and find some more):
"Tippin the Velvet, by Sarah Waters
"The Stone Diaries" by Carol Shield
"The Way the Crow Flies" by Ann-Marie MacDonald.
Just started "The Leadership Challenge -- Third Edition" by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner. I am only three chapters in, but I am already seeing characteristics within myself that I have, as well as characteristics I an improve upon. Once again, it is available on Amazon.
I just finished re-reading "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold. I actually got more out of it the second time around than the first, as I was able to focus more on the underlying themes and tensions than the plot. I find this story to be truly uplifting.
I am now re-reading "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger. This has always been one of my favorites and I like to revisit it every now and then. After I am through with that, I may revisit some more old classics.
I just finished reading "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close", written by Jonathan Safran Foer.
At first I thought this book would be too deep and depressing, given it is told by a 9 year old boy who’s lost his father on 9/11. The boy "Oskar Schell" is an imaginative, hysterical, curious, quirky and overall a really sensitive kid. He finds a key in his Father's things and decides he is going to find out what it opens (because his Dad, obviously, wouldn't have kept it without having a good reason).
Oskar meets the most unusual characters on his journey. This book had me crying one moment and laughing the next. I am usually a slow reader but this book had my undivided attention, I read in one weekend. I just wasn’t able to put it down.
I just finished reading "Prime Obsession" by John Derbyshire, and enjoyed it very much. It offers a history of the Prime Number Theorem and leads into the Riemann Hypothesis (currently the biggest open problem in mathematics, and carrying a $1,000,000 prize for it's solution!) Can be read either with or without the technical details. This is the best of the 4 books I have read on this topic.
If you've read "On Beauty" considering reading or re-reading "Howards End". Smith's novel is a 21st century version of E. M. Forster's story. Both make excellent choices for summer days.
I've also read "Until I Find You," by John Irving. After nearly putting it down, I decided to skim a few sections. A bit too heavy on the protagonist's sexual education. The novel proved rewarding and immensely satisfying.
I'm currently listening to Moby Dick on book on CD (during my commute to work).
The book is full of so much detail and description of the characters, scenery, and whaling life in general. Herman Melville really knew hot to reach into the inner mind and workings of his characters
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