Summer Reading

First off, and unrelated to books, I am really digging Gnarls Barkley's cover of the Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy Gone" these days. Something about it just makes me feel like I'm 13 again listening to the Femmes and B-52s on my pink boom box on my parents' porch during a rousing game of pictionary or trivial pursuit with the neighborhood kids late into a sticky summer evening...Anyway...


I was counseling Massi yesterday on which Salman Rushdie books she should pick up when she's next in the Strand, and it got me thinking that I should do a dump of some of my favorite reads in recent years, because I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels lost in the bookstore at times. If you do have any interest in becoming a Rushdiephile, of those I've read, my order of preference goes:

The Moor's Last Sigh
Shalimar the Clown
The Satanic Verses
The Jaguar Smile (non-fiction about Sandinista Nicaragua)
The Ground Beneath Her Feet
Fury


If you just want a little taste of Rushdie, you can't go wrong with Shalimar the Clown or The Moor's Last Sigh. And if you have no interest in him whatsoever, some other books I've really enjoyed follow below in no particular order. I am currently a mere 32 pages in to Robert Fisk's: The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East, because I do, every now and again, feel compelled to gain a better understanding of our world. All other reading materials will be dropped; however, on July 21 when Harry Potter hits my doorstep!


March by Geraldine Brooks (an imagined tale of the absent father from Little Women - recounts his service as an army chaplain during the civil war and all the ghosts he faces as a result of this service interspersed with moments in the lives of Marmee and the girls. Just finished it last night. It's really quite compelling and creative. As is A Year of Wonders by Brooks - A novel about the plague, yes the plague and it's good.)


The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (a young boy's love affair with books leads him to a twisty, Gothic scavenger hunt in post-Franco Barcelona. Largely contributed to my insistence that we hit Barcelona on our recent trip to Spain.)


The History of Love: A Novel by Nicole Krauss (beautiful tale about the tangled web of connections that link two people and about the power of writing, words and yes, love.)


What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller (or, one could just rent the movie. The strength of Blanchett and Dench's acting captures the mood and tone better than any book to screen translation I've seen. A perverse, lonely, dowdy, psychologically controlling teacher tells of the fall from grace of a younger colleague resulting from an affair with a 15 year old student.)


Little Children by Tom Perrotta (I expect to watch the movie this weekend, so I'll report on how it matches up. Suburban angst and temptation amongst housewives/househusbands and the paranoia that strikes when a pedophile moves into said suburban community.)


The Ruins by Scott Smith (In a word - terrifying. And skin crawling - literally. Hang up any notions of an adventure tour of the Mayan ruins of Mexico - or to any jungle-like setting - after reading this one.


A Simple Plan by Scott Smith (Completely different from the Ruins, but equally horrifying and suspenseful. The devastating train-wreck and psychological unwinding that results from the decisions made after 3 men discover 4 million some dollars in wrecked plane in the snowy backwoods of middle America.)


American Gods by Neil Gaiman (one may have to be a bit of a sci-fi, and/or David Lynch geek to appreciate this one, but it blew me away. The gods of the old world face off with the gods of the modern age in this wild trip through America's roadside attractions.)


The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (as well as The Interpreter of Maladies. I know "Kumar" takes on the role of Gogol Ganguli in the movie version, but don't let that put you off. A tale of the multi-generational immigrant family experience and of coming to embrace one's name/heritage.)


The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (pure magic. Then again, I read this during the first trimester of pregnancy, so my emotional reaction may have been stronger than under normal circumstances, but I fell hard and fast in love with this one. And w/ Henry the time traveler.)


The Secret History by Donna Tartt (Somewhat in the mode of A Simple Plan. The psychological unwinding of a sometimes too tight knit group of college Classics students as a criminal situation spirals out of their control. And don't bother with Tartt's The Little Friend, that was a tedious one to get through!)


I could probably go on and on, but really should do something work related! Do feel free to contribute personal faves as I'm always looking for additional reading inspiration.