Summer 2007 Reading List

"What is the What" by Dave Eggars is an amazing first person ficitional/autobigraphical entwined narrative by one of the lost boys of Sudan which imparts the reality of life in Africa and in refugee camps, but is intriguing, personal, whimsical, well written and with profound insight about how it feels to be transported to America.
Another book I just read, "City on Fire" is an interesting historical account of a huge explosion in Texas City in 1946 and the petrochemical industry, also recommended.

I love this thread. I just bought several books for summer reading, some new ones and some I learned about on last year's SoWal summer reading list and am just getting around to reading this year. We have a great and grayt summer ahead for vacationing/reading. Lots of time for relaxing and reading. I'm going to love this summer.

Kabul Beauty School - haven't read it yet but bought it. It's about a woman who gets divorced in Michigan and then goes to Kabul to provide service and then opens a beauty shop with/for the women and it's life through the eyes of those women. I'll be buying a Thousand Splendid Suns too.

Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) - I bought this to read for work because I teach MBAs. It's supposed to be a fun and relevant book about why human beings tend to deny their own mistakes and the consequences of doing so. I'll let you know if it's worth reading after I read it (For me it's job related and possibly a good beach read as well).

Life Expectancy by Dean Koonz - I read this book last summer and thought it was hysterical. A good mystery and a fun read -- I laughed out loud a few times.

The Kite Runner (recommended on SoWal.com in the past)
Middlesex (recommended on SoWal.com in the past)
The Tender Bar (recommended on SoWal.com in the past)

I order used books on amazon.com because you can get some of them for about $1.00 plus 3.95 postage and handle -- most end up costing me about $5.00 a book (not the newer books, especially hard covers, though).

Peapod turned me on to this book last summer...it was awesome!!!
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert...
and now I see they are making a movie with Julia Roberts as Gilbert!!!



A celebrated writer's irresistible, candid, and eloquent account of her pursuit of worldly pleasure, spiritual devotion, and what she really wanted out of life

Around the time Elizabeth Gilbert turned thirty, she went through an early-onslaught midlife crisis. She had everything an educated, ambitious American woman was supposed to want?a husband, a house, a successful career. But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed with panic, grief, and confusion. She went through a divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love, and the eradication of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be.
To recover from all this, Gilbert took a radical step. In order to give herself the time and space to find out who she really was and what she really wanted, she got rid of her belongings, quit her job, and undertook a yearlong journey around the world?all alone. Eat, Pray, Love is the absorbing chronicle of that year. Her aim was to visit three places where she could examine one aspect of her own nature set against the backdrop of a culture that has traditionally done that one thing very well. In Rome, she studied the art of pleasure, learning to speak Italian and gaining the twenty-three happiest pounds of her life. India was for the art of devotion, and with the help of a native guru and a surprisingly wise cowboy from Texas, she embarked on four uninterrupted months of spiritual exploration. In Bali, she studied the art of balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. She became the pupil of an elderly medicine man and also fell in love the best way?unexpectedly.
An intensely articulate and moving memoir of self-discovery, Eat, Pray, Love is about what can happen when you claim responsibility for your own contentment and stop trying to live in imitation of society?s ideals. It is certain to touch anyone who has ever woken up to the unrelenting need for change.

That book sounds great! I am adding it to my list!

Apparently people are now having quarter life crises in their late 20s/early 30s in addition to the ol' mid-life crisis!

I've got quite a list going, and a big stack of books I haven't even gotten to yet.

Where the heck have you been hiding, anyway?

I also highly recommend:
Water for Elephants - hilarious quick read - several copies on the shelves at Ceruleans

Loved this book! Didn't expect to, but now I recommend it to people.

The Tender Bar (recommended on SoWal.com in the past)

Hurry hurry hurry--readitreaditreadit! I think I'm about ready for a reread; one of my all-time favorites ever.

Peapod turned me on to this book last summer...it was awesome!!!
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert...

Alli, I see people referring to this book all the time now; I bet she's sold a bagillion copies.

OKAY- the "Television is Killing Us" thread made me think about my summer reading list....what is on yours? Amazon.com is a dangerous place for me.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner, oneof my favorite books)

God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens. Now THIS should be interesting!

The Assault on Reason by Al Gore. Let's see what Big Al has to offer.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling. Duh! Can't wait!

I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris. Sounds hauntingly familiar.

I see you haven't forgotten me.

I see you haven't forgotten me.

This is a tangent, but you totally called it Friday night when you said Lindsey Lohan was way off the wagon and was headed for trouble again.

This is a tangent, but you totally called it Friday night when you said Lindsey Lohan was way off the wagon and was headed for trouble again.

Duh...late breaking. I know everything. In a little way the Skunk (Gladys) broke the news about the DUI before I did. I found out via text on the pontoon boat, but he verbally confirmed.

Another question, do corndogs happen when I'm not around?

Duh...late breaking. I know everything. In a little way the Skunk (Gladys) broke the news about the DUI before I did. I found out via text on the pontoon boat, but he verbally confirmed.

Another question, do corndogs happen when I'm not around?

Yes. I'm going to start mailing you the sand from my bathtub.

Yes. I'm going to start mailing you the sand from my bathtub.

She needs go come to summer camp in Hollywood. Maybe she and Vladi can be on the same flight!

I do! But some books just have to be mine.

I do like to do my browsing on Amazon and either go in with a list, or reserve in advance.

I am the same way! I must own the good ones.

I have to catch up on my reading, but a friend gave me book that he said was fascinating, so that's my next book to read.
It's called "Dark Back of Time" by Javier Marias. (2004)

Called by its author a "false novel," Dark Back of Time begins with the tale of the odd effects of publishing All Souls, his witty and sardonic 1989 Oxford novel. All Souls is a book Marias swears to be fiction, but which its "characters"--the real-life dons and professors and bookshop owners who have "recognized themselves"--fiercely maintain to be a roman a clef. With the sleepy world of Oxford set into fretful motion by a world that never "existed," Dark Back of Time begins an odyssey into the nature of identity ("we do not know anyone entirely, not even ourselves") and of time. Marias weaves together autobiography (the brother who died as a child; the loss of his mother), a legendary kingdom, strange ghostly literary figures, halls of mirrors, a one-eyed pilot, a curse in Havana, and a bullet lost in Mexico. Dark Back of Time has been acclaimed here as "superb" (Review of Contemporary Fiction), "fantastically original" (Talk), "brilliant" (Virginia Quarterly Review), and "a rare gift" (The New York Times Book Review). "In the best manner of Borges," The Hudson Review commented that this hybrid is "lush and mysterious."

mangy - I call this book when you are done. looks like my kind of reading.

paula recommended Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz a while back. I am not a koontz reader, but I gave it a try (cause paula's recommendations are always right on) and really liked it. very good story.

Bless Your Heart, Tramp and other Southern Endearments - given to me by a dear wench, is on my reading list for this summer. looks like a great beach book!

OKAY- the "Television is Killing Us" thread made me think about my summer reading list....what is on yours? Amazon.com is a dangerous place for me.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner, oneof my favorite books)

God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens. Now THIS should be interesting!

The Assault on Reason by Al Gore. Let's see what Big Al has to offer.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling. Duh! Can't wait!

I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris. Sounds hauntingly familiar.

I have "The Secret" and "A Year In The World" on my reading list, and a few nonsensical books "Savannah's Garden" and "A Salty Piece Of Land"

"Salty Piece of Land"--Loved it!

I've got quite a list going, and a big stack of books I haven't even gotten to yet. I've been on a quest to work my way through some of the classics.... you know, the ones we were pretty much forced to read in high school.

Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness
Ernest Hemingway - A Moveable Feast
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
J.D. Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye

As for some more recent ones, the new Harry Potter is definitely on the list, along with a re-read of What a Carve-Up! by Jonathan Coe.

It's funny to see your list; 2 of which I've bought for my 16 yo to read this summer: The Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. I also threw in Stephen King's The Stand for fun & G. Orwell's 1984. He'll really enjoy these!

The Walton County Comprehensive Plan

It's funny to see your list; 2 of which I've bought for my 16 yo to read this summer: The Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. I also threw in Stephen King's The Stand for fun & G. Orwell's 1984. He'll really enjoy these!

Just don't get caught with a dog-eared copy of Catcher in the Rye. ;-)

It's funny to see your list; 2 of which I've bought for my 16 yo to read this summer: The Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. I also threw in Stephen King's The Stand for fun & G. Orwell's 1984. He'll really enjoy these!

the stand is one of my all time faves, along with "it"

The book sounded kind of like a Pans Labryinth to me which I watched the other night, so I figured I'd give it a shot. If I can't make it past the first 10 pages, I'll break out the Robbins.

How did you like Pans Labryinth?? It's on my Netflix queue but haven't rec'd it yet...

How did you like Pans Labryinth?? It's on my Netflix queue but haven't rec'd it yet...

i know you didn't ask me but.... i liked this movie, but it definitely wasn't what i expected.

It's funny to see your list; 2 of which I've bought for my 16 yo to read this summer: The Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. I also threw in Stephen King's The Stand for fun & G. Orwell's 1984. He'll really enjoy these!

Just what are they reading in school these days?

Audie THX for yr opinion on Pans Lab. A good friend recommended it to me telling me: "THIS IS SO UP YOUR ALLEY"...

I'm currently reading SEE NO EVIL by Robert Baer. "The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terror." Apparently this is the book that the movie SYRIANA was based on. Syriana was so complex...I watched it about 5 times & still didn't "GET" all of it. Hoping for more enlightenment thru the book.

This thread..it's PURE GOLD . So many books currently on my list and many new ones to add.

Peapod turned me on to this book last summer...it was awesome!!!
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert...
and now I see they are making a movie with Julia Roberts as Gilbert!!!

I'm about 1/3 of the way through this one! I love it! (although, I'm not absolutely crazy about Julia..... I'd like to see someone like Jenna Fischer in this part.)

Where the heck have you been hiding, anyway?

At Work.;-)

Just what are they reading in school these days?

The IL sophomores just finished Oedipus, Inherit the Wind, Sophocles, Julius Caesar, and probably The Bell Jar (big yawn...)

The IL sophomores just finished Oedipus, Inherit the Wind, Sophocles, Julius Caesar, and probably The Bell Jar (big yawn...)

He will enjoy his summer reading then!

He will enjoy his summer reading then!

And I went to 2 bookstores to find Farenheit 451; no one had it. They acted as if they'd never heard of it. I remember it being pretty basic.