Summer Reading

National Public Radio (NPR) got a jump-start this week on summer reading.  Check it out:  Nancy Pearl Unearths Great Summer Reads.

More summer reading lists forthcoming.

Bringing Up Bebe

You don't have to have children to enjoy Pamela Druckerman's newest work of non-fiction, Bringing Up Bebe:  One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting. 

Druckerman is an American, married to a Brit, living in Paris, and like most first-time parents, trying to figure out the basics of raising a healthy happy family.  However, upon becoming pregnant with her first child, she notices there are some big differences between American and French philosophies on the matter.  For example, she observes that French children, as a whole, are much better behaved than their American counterparts:  they eat healthily, they sleep through the night around 3 months of age, and they pleasantly engage with other children, as well as their elders.  Loads of research, combined with Druckerman's own personal narrative of parenting in Paris, makes this an informative, eye-opening, significant work.  Most importantly, she demonstrates what's possible when you think outside your own culture.  Parents, grandparents, and readers interested in cultural contrasts will find much to think about.

Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power

Anyone interested in American political history, the military, or current events must read Rachel Maddow's fascinating new book, Drift:  The Unmooring of American Military Power. 

Maddow may be most well-known for her hosting of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show, than she is for her academic prowess (she has a PhD in politics from Oxford).  But that last fact makes this work all the more intriguing:  the work extends well past her usual political commentary to a more in-depth, well-researched and well-written thesis on the current state of the American military that people on all sides of the political spectrum should appreciate.  In Drift, Maddow provides a detailed history explaining how far current military policy, beginning with the Vietnam War and continuing through present day, has strayed from the ideals of our Founding Fathers.  From granting the President the power to go to war without calling on Reserves and the National Guard, to outsourcing and contracting for military services, rather than using our own men to carry out the same work, Maddow argues that such policies have escalated our national debt, undermined our national security, and altered our perception of war.  Smart, thought-provoking work.  Highly recommended.

Last Night at the Lobster

Last Night at the Lobster is a brilliant and timely novella that examines the last night before a New York based Red Lobster closes its doors, as told through the eyes of store manager, Manny. 

Author, Stewart O’Nan (The Odds; Emily Alone), has an uncanny ability to create a microcosm of a world that completely absorbs its readers.  In Last Night…, he exposes us to the hidden workings of the restaurant business, from kitchen prep, to the inner circles of the wait staff.   And he highlights the various recognizable characters who dine there, from the coupon clipper to the annoying child who won’t stay seated.  It’s because of this raw glimpse that readers will likely find themselves empathetic to the wait staff, despite their many flaws.  Of course, the book isn’t only about business.  Manny is a very real narrator, and his closing of the Lobster parallels his closing of many other metaphorical doors, as well.  To add to the whole ambience is the backdrop of a blizzard, complicating Manny’s expectations for his last night at the Lobster, and creating a growing sense of isolation.  Loved every minute of it.

American Dervish

In American Dervish, first-time novelist, Ayad Akhtar, tells the story of a young American boy of Pakistani heritage growing up in the Midwest during the 1970s.

Our narrator, young Hayat Shah, is in love with his "Auntie" Mina:  a friend of his mother's who has escaped an abusive marriage in Pakistan to live with her young son in the Shah home.  During that time, she and Hayat develop a complex and endearing relationship that resembles many others:  mother-son, teacher-student, religious guide-follower.  Beautiful Mina is also an unknowing catalyst for young Hayat's budding, though innocent, sexuality.  Eventually, however, Mina meets and falls in love with Nathan, a friend of the Shah family.  According to religious law and the rules of her parents, Mina may not marry Nathan unless he converts from his long heritage of Judaism to the Muslim faith.  Is is this very circumstance, in addition to the subtle triangle between Mina, Nathan and Hayat, that sets up the heartbreaking events which follow.

American Dervish is a beautiful and beautifully rendered story that will leave your heart stuck in your throat in at least a few of the novel's scenes. Highly recommended.

The Odds

I love falling in love with an author I've never before read.  Stewart O'Nan, author of The Odds, is my newest crush. 

O'Nan's latest work takes the form of a love story, stripped bare, void of the usual cliches.  It focuses on a long-married couple, nearly bankrupt, Marion and Art Fowler, who take their life savings to Niagara Falls to see if they can beat the odds at their hotel-casino, win enough cash to save their home, and salvage their relationship.  O'Nan paints both Niagara Falls and the Casino beautifully, and the Fowler's relationship with a realism that readers (especially those married) will undoubtedly find themselves relating to on some level.  He gets the subtle ways couples can simultaneously pick at, resent, support and adore. And he does so with a conciseness that leaves readers wholly satisfied.  Highly recommended.  I can't wait to read his other work.

The Year We Left Home

The Year We Left Home is a beautifully rendered portrait of an Iowan family from 1973 to 2003.

With the conflict in Vietnam, the Farm Crisis and the Persian Gulf War as the novel's backdrop, the narrative focuses on character development over three decades, in the form of what some readers may see as disconnected chapter-vignettes.  As the title suggests, however, these characters are tied together not merely because they leave home in some form or another, but rather, because they are forever connected to both their family and, thus, their native Iowa. 

While impatient readers may not appreciate Jean Thompson's narrative approach, or fully comprehend the scope of her theme, they must certainly admire her intelligent and lucid prose.  Recommended for readers interested in realistically, yet sensitively, rendered family dynamics.

Free E-Books

That's right:  I said FREE.  Check out these websites for FREE E-Books:

eReaderIQ.com

Feedbooks

DigiLibraries

Manybooks.net

eBookFling

Lendink.com

What Our Library Groups Are Reading

One of my avid reading group participants asked me if I had kept a list of our Adult Book Club selections for 2011.  I hadn't.  But I thought it was a great idea to show the variety of titles our readers were reading and discussing so enthusiastically each month at the library.  This is why I decided to include in the list not only what we read for our Adult Book Club, but also our Short & Sweets (short story discussion group), Great Reads, and One Community, One Book.

Here is the collected list for 2011:

Adult Book Club

January 2011:  The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell (NF)

February 2011:  The Last Chinese Chef, by Nicole Mones (F)

March 2011:  Down the Nile:  Alone In a Fisherman’s Skiff, by Rosemary Mahoney (NF)

April 2011:  Bloodroot, by Amy Greene (F)

May 2011:  Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of the Mona Lisa, by R.A. Scotti (NF)
June 2011:  The Piano Turner, by Daniel Phillippe Mason (F)

July 2011:  The Gerbil Farmer’s Daughter, by Holly Robinson (NF)

August 2011:  The Heights, by Peter Hedges (F)

September 2011:  The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon (NF)

October 2011:  The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield (F)

November 2011:  Growing Up Amish: A Memoir, by Ira Wagler (NF)

December 2011:  Faith, by Jennifer Haigh (F)

Short & Sweets

January 2011:  “White Horse,” by Margaret Atwood

February 2011:  “Chip Off the Old Block,” by Wallace Stegner

March 2011:  “The Real Thing,” by Henry James

April 2011:  “Araby,” & “Eveline,” by James Joyce

May 2011:  “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson

June 2011:  “That Evening Sun Go Down,” by William Faulkner

July 2011:  “Hills Like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemmingway

August 2011:  “Looking for Mr. Green,” by Saul Bellow

September 2011:  “The Elephant Vanishes,” by Haruki Murakami

October 2011:  “The Masque of the Red Death” & “The Cask of Amontillado,” by E. A. Poe

November 2011:  “When We Rise,” Shann Ray

December 2011:  “Christmas Is A Sad Season for the Poor,” by John Cheever

Great Reads

January 2011:  Creative Non-Fiction

February 2011:  Food Writing

March 2011:  The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton

April 2011:  The Poetry of Emily Dickinson

May 2011:  American Nature Writers

July 2011:  The Ballad of the Sad Café & The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers

September 2011:  My Antonia, by Willa Cather

October 2011:  The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

One Community, One Book

June 2011:  The Lotus Eaters, by Tatjana Soli

Lost In Shangri-La

History, as told through a series of page-turning events, make Lost In Shangri-La:  A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of WWII a perfect mid-winter read.

Award winning journalist and professor of journalism at Boston University, Mitchell Zuckoff, tells the story of a military plane crash on the island of New Guinea in the exotic (and little known) region of Shangri-La.  Of the 24 Americans on board, only 3 survived, including a WAC named Margaret Hastings, whose journal provides a detailed account of the events that follow the crash, including their encounter with a primitive tribe, struggles with injury and infection, and dangerous rescue.  Hastings' journal, in combination with a plethora of newspaper articles, military reports, interviews and photographs create a fascinating story that reads like fiction and makes for great discussion.