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Summer reading suggestions?
Hi everyone!
We are headed off for a 17-day vacation in about a week. I want to take 2 or 3 books with me to read - hopefully I will get some time to relax! I'm in a book club and do other reading on my own - seems like I'm almost always reading something depressing or REALLY heavy. I'm looking for suggestions for summer reading - something intelligent but also fun and thought-provoking! I'm sure you all have some great ideas! Thanks -
Andrea
Comments
A few ideas
I know I've mentioned this before, but I really really enjoyed Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. Really a beautiful book.
My book group is reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. I have not started it, but it sounds very good, but not depressing or heavy.
If you have not read Middlesex it is fun, intelligent, thought-provoking, and very well written. Not depressing or heavy either.
My MIL has been reading the recent books about Josephine (as in Napoleon and . . . ) and really liking them.
I want to start Reading Lolita in Tehran, which is supposed to be fantastic and which I received as a gift in my MOMS group Mystery Moms thing, but it does seem a bit heavy for summer fun.
Personally I love rereading Pride and Prejudice over and over, so if you have not read it in a while, or ever, I can recommend it highly!
If you like Jane Austen, I Capture the Castle is a recently republished book that is very charming. (Really, that is the best word for it.) It's set in England in the 1930s or 40s and is written from the perspective of a 17-yr-old young woman who is the daughter of a famous author with chronic writer's block, and who aspires to be an author herself, so keeps these diaries. Can't remember the author's name, but a nice novel. Do not see the video!
I read a very silly but entertaining book by Jasper Fforde called the Eyre Affair, which is funny and clever if you know your British authors (especially Charlotte Bronte).
I'm very curious about The Lady and the Unicorn, written by the author of Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier. Sounds pretty good but also not too heavy.
Shaun
just one
I've just started reading Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris (who wrote Chocolat). I haven't read Chocolat because I've heard it's quite different from the film and I've already seen the film. Anyway it's a bit odd but it seems like it could be quite fun. After all, when was the last tme you read anything narrated by a bottle of wine??
I think I shall have to have look out for some of those books Shaun - big Austen fan here and I too could read P&P over and over (have in fact!).
I have to admit I just gave up on a book... Lawrence Durrell, The Alexandria Quartet. Maybe it got more interesting, but it was all written very oddly, flitting backwards and forwards and not really making much sense.
Kerri.
books
Thanks Shaun and Kerri! Keep em coming guys!
I did pick up Shadow Baby and started it and am also interested in the Jodi Picoult books.
Andrea
Curious Incident . .
I finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, which I can now recommend highly! It is written from the perspective of an autistic teenage boy, and is often very funny, and sometimes sad. It is not depressing at all, however; really it's more hopeful, and not nearly as serious as you might think.
Shaun
My Favorites So Far This Summer
Have been:
Second Glance by Jodi Picoult
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud (really a kid's book, but I liked it)
The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
I read Plainsong by Kent Haruf, and thought it was OK. I also read Ten Big Ones by Janet Evanovich and thought it was cute.
Next up are several previews for school of kid's books, so I won't have any grown-up advice for awhile.
Later,
-Jo
Thanks Jo! Second Glance,
Thanks Jo!
Second Glance, I haven't heard of that one. I was considering the Plain Truth and also My Sister's Keeper. Interesting that you have read that, I just heard about her from a friend. I LOVED Plainsong, also read The Tie That Binds. We would also be interested in kids' books!
I am bringing Shadow Baby, Nights in Rodanthe (I know, he is cheesy, but fun to read), and Big Fish! Also plan to pick up The Five People You Meet in Heaven (book club), and maybe a magazine for fun. That should be enuf to keep me busy. Like I'll even have time LOL!
Andrea
just remembered
I went to the library yesterday or I wouldn't be able to tell you either the title or the author for this one, but it was intriguing and I have to find out whether there are more...
Changer, by Jane Lindskold
there must be more because she's worked out a whole elaborate subculture and world, which for one book seems a bit of a waste. It was weird to start with but thoroughly addictive by the end. Kind of sci-fi, but not really. Closer to Terry Pratchett but not funny, wich makes it sound dreadful! Oh yes, and with a healthy pinch of mythology through the ages included, like the Norse gods and King Arthur amongst others.
Kerri.
Nonfiction, and funny
A couple summers ago I read food writer Jeffrey Steingarten's "The Man Who Ate Everything," which is hysterical. This summer I'm reading the sequel, "It Must Have Been Something I Ate." It's hi-larious! If you're even a marginal foodie, you'd love either of these. And of course I am a massive foodie in more ways than one.
Lynn Siprelle, Editor
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