Summer Reading List
(I'm shamelessly co-opting this from Jassy and a number of other bloggers ... various versions are making the rounds ...)
One (OK, two) book(s) that you wish you had written (and may still write someday):
A book version of this blog, in which the subtitle would include the words "life and love" and "20-something". I also fantasize about writing a Bridget-Jones-meets-Peter-Mayle account of my two years in Spain.
AND I wish I’d authored the fabulous Prep, by Curtis Sittenfeld.
One book you wish had been written:
It Totally Sucks, It’s Not Your Fault, and You Will Survive It: A Junior High Survival Guide.
And, perhaps a sequel: You Need More Than The Bell: Saving Yourself from the High School Years.
I would also put in a vote for Jassy's fantasy book: How to Find Lasting Love ASAP: A Guaranteed Strategy.
One book you wish had never been written:
I acknowledge these are good books, so I'm just going to say I wish I'd never read them: The Prince of Tides, The Kite Runner, and My Sister's Keeper, all of which deeply upset me.
One (OK, two) book(s) that changed your life:
Two books about the reality of urban poverty, which really woke me up:
There are No Children Here
Aint No Makin It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood.
One book you have read more than once:
I'm pretty ruthless about culling my collection (if I'm feeling meh about a book, I usually give it away/donate it). Thus, most of the books I own, I really love, and re-read constantly. The books I've read millions of times include: River Town (which I've mentioned before--it's the memoir of a Peace Corps volunteer stationed in a remote Chinese province); This is My Daughter, a masterful fictional account of a blended family (I don't understand why this book isn't famous, it's so so good and beautifully written); Random Family (which is famous--a true account of about 5 years in a South Bronx community); Truth and Beauty, a memoir of author Ann Patchett's friendship with her poet friend Lucy Greeley (I identify both with slow-and-steady Ann and madcap-but-afflicted Lucy); and ...
... Let's be real, Maeve Binchy's Scarlet Feather, which is fiction about two friends who start a catering company. I am going to own the fact that I am a Maeve Binchy junkie. She's a very prolific Irish writer, who produces book after book about plucky Irish characters, all of whom, the reader learns by the end of each story, are somehow are connected. It's all so happy and engaging and you know everything's going to turn out just fine in the end.
One book you would want on a desert island:
I'm torn on this one. Either a long important book like War and Peace (that I'd never read otherwise), or something delightful like Anne of Green Gables, which inspired much of my own early “work”.
One book you are currently reading:
Does the Fall 2006 Ikea catalog count? No? Well, I just finished reading American Evita, which traces Hillary Rodham Clinton's rise to power. I was a huge Hillary fan until I read this startling book. Now I'm conflicted. (I would love to hear Melinda's take on it--hint hint.) The next real book on my nightstand is a memoir of a Greek-American woman who moves to a little random Island in Greece.
One book (OK, two) you have been meaning to read:
Freakonomics.
Blink: the Power to Think Without Thinking.
Posted by Dori at 1:13 PM
3 Comments
Dori, I have Freakonomics on CD if you'd like a "listen while you drive" book. Just say the word, and I'll bring it in!
As for "my" book, I guess I'd better get writing...of course, this assumes that I have all the answers ;-)
PS: I don't.
Ooooh, ok, so of course I'm totally biased here, but re: American Evita, I say: don't ever trust a book written *about* a politician who is currently running for office/reelection. You won't be getting facts -- you'll be getting that author's agenda. I haven't read American Evita (and I probably won't, due to my own blatant agenda) but I think this stands for all books in this genre. I have the dubious task of ordering all the poly-sci/current events books for my library, so I see a million of these come in. They all claim to have some kind of inside scoop full of unbiased facts, yet every one of them presents either a whitewashed positive account (i.e. "The Case for Hillary Clinton") or a nit-pickingly negative account. They never seem to offer any balance.
I do remember, though, that the reviews of American Evita all talked about how the author revealed how "calculated" Hillary's moves towards the White House are/were. And to that (yes, I acknowledge, without reading the book) I say a big resounding "big whoop." Like every other *male* politician hasn't shaped their every action around achieving their career goals -- when they do it, we don't call it calculating; we call it smart and ambitious. If we call it anything at all.
And just for the record, some of my Hill's political positions as of late have left me wanting. Yet still, I love. :)
"Price of Tides" is one of my favorite books--and I weep every time I read it. Most of Pat Conroy's reflect a childhood so full of pain. They disturb me but they are so beautiful at the same time. I just referenced one of his books last week in a post.
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