Summer Reading List

[Corlyss_D]

Time for this perennial. So what are you taking on vacation, to the beach, for the 4th's long weekend?

[Richard]

On my way to Canada, on the train, I'm taking book 2 (The Wandering Hill) and book 3 (By Sorrow's River) of the "Berrybender" trilogy, by Larry McMurtry. I enjoyed "Lonesome Dove", but I am kind of luke-warm on the Berrybender books. so far. The first ("Sin Killer') was ok..but not nearly as good as Lonesome Dove. I understand "Wandering Hill" and "Sorrow's River" are a little better.

[Lark Ascending]

I have just finished reading Wild Swans by Jung Chang about the experiences of one family in China during the 20th Century, particularly the horrors of the Cultural Revolution. I'm not sure what I'll read next. I enjoy both fiction and non fiction - history ( especially anything to do with World War 2), travelogues (Bill Bryson, Paul Theroux, that kind of thing) Of late my favourite reading are biographies about the way life was lived in Britain's towns and cities prior to the 1930's.

[Corlyss_D]

Of late my favourite reading are biographies about the way life was lived in Britain's towns and cities prior to the 1930's.

You just made me think of my H. V. Morton collection and his In Search of series. I just loaned my treasured copy of In Search of Scotland to my baseball buddy in Ogden. She so enjoyed his Through the Lands of the Bible she wanted more. I'll have to pull down my copy of In Search of England.

What titles about life in England before the 1930s in particular have you enjoyed, Lark?

[Lark Ascending]

What titles about life in England before the 1930s in particular have you enjoyed, Lark?

Actually, I meant to type autobiograpies. Some of the ones I've enjoyed are:
Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee, and its 2 sequels, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Moment of War
Lark Rise To Candleford - Flora Thompson
Nab End and sequel Beyond Nab End - William Woodruff
A Child In The Forest - Winiford Foley
Drawn From Memory, Drawn from Life - Ernest H Shephard
Memories - Lucy M Boston

[mourningstar]

4 english books

Persuasion - Jane Austen
Principia Discordia
The devil's Dictionary - Ambroce Pierce
Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman.

and a whole list of dutch books. ( my room is a friggin library)

Een schitterend gebrek - Arthur Japin
Algemene kunstgeschiedenis - Hugh Honour & John Fleming
Hoe hoort het eigenlijk .... in Nederland? - J. van der Zaag & K. Snel
Encyclopedie van de Moderne Kunst - Amy Dempsey
De gemaskerde eeuw - Marita Mathijsen
Geschiedenis van de Russische literatuur - E. Waegemans ( wanna study russian literature..)
Het Symbolisme in de Nederlandse schilderkunst 1890-1900 - Bettina Spaanstra-Polak
Tekkels in Tokio - Freek Vossenaar
Sleutelboek Japan - Rien T. Segers
Algemene muziekleer - Theo Willemze
Muzikale stijlgeschiedenis + CD - W. Steffelaar
Klassieke muziek voor Dummies - David Pogue & Scott Speck
Niet bij Bach alleen -Martin Kaaij
De piano - Chris Coetzee
Die Zauberflote - Tjeu van den Berk ( a symbolic breakdown on zauberflote from mozart, i think it's going to be pretty interesting)

[BWV 1080]

Finishing Austerlitz by WG Sebald. Shaping up to be my candidate for best book about the Holocaust.

on deck:

The Mediterranean - Ferdinand Braudel (economic history of the 16th century mediterranean regions)
Sutree - Cormac McCarthy

[Kevin R]

While on the road I'm planning on reading:

Richard Epstein's "How Progressives Rewrote the Constitution"

"Witness: Voices from the Holocaust"

Mike Barone's "The New Americans: How the Melting Pot Can Work Again."

Balakian's "The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide And America's Response."

[Gary]

Maybe this.

[Auntie Lynn]

I just finished "La Belle Otero" in Honolulu. It was one helluva ride! This gal was quite a capitalist. She was probably the last great demimondaine. I calculate, in today's money, she was making about $1,000,000 per (shall we say) "encounter." Lost it all at the gaming tables in Monte Carlo...whatta way to go. Lived to be 97, died in 1965. She had Major Magnetism...

[miranda]

Returning to an old favorite: Complete Tales and Poems, by Edgar Allan Poe. Not everyone's idea of summer reading, but I've never read the whole book; to finish it is one of my goals for the summer.

[Corlyss_D]

I just finished "La Belle Otero" in Honolulu. It was one helluva ride! This gal was quite a capitalist. She was probably the last great demimondaine. I calculate, in today's money, she was making about $1,000,000 per (shall we say) "encounter." Lost it all at the gaming tables in Monte Carlo...whatta way to go. Lived to be 97, died in 1965. She had Major Magnetism...

I used to have a girlfriend
known as Elsie
With whom I shared
Four sordid rooms in Chelsea

She wasn't what you'd call
A blushing flower...
As a matter of fact
She rented by the hour.

The day she died the neighbors
came to snicker:
"Well, thats what comes
from too much pills and liquor."

But when I saw her laid out like a Queen
She was the happiest...corpse...
I'd ever seen.

I think of Elsie to this very day.
I'd remember how'd she turn to me and say:
"What good is sitting alone in your room?
Come hear the music play.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
Come to the Cabaret."

And as for me,
I made up my mind back in Chelsea,
When I go, I'm going like Elsie.

Start by admitting
From cradle to tomb
Isn't that long a stay.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
Only a Cabaret, old chum,
And I love a Cabaret!

[Brendan]

My reading list is far too long. Must redirect funds to music . . .

Only 11 volumes of Hans Urs Von Balthasar's theology to go (finished volume 5 last night).

Almost finished the Gospel of Mark with commentary on the Greek text. Only twenty five+ books of the New Testament to reread in Greek to go. And the Apostolic Fathers - a Greek/English version arrived awhile ago.

Just for fun, began N.T. Wright's first volume on New Testament scholarship. Just wanted to read the Introduction to get a feel for it. Couldn't put it down, so have the next 2 volumes on order.

David Bradshaw's Aristotle East and West also just arrived. I'll need to read Aquinas and Palamas again before beginning, so I'll have to read Rocca's Speaking the Incomprehensible God at last.

Dawkin's The Ancestor's Tale. Only just arrived, but I need some balance in my influences.

And I ducked into a bookstore to get out of the rain yesterday and couldn't not buy Anthology of Classical Myth - Primary Sources in Translation and Ovid's Metamorphoses.

And that's just tip-of-the-iceberg of the backlog, and my next Amazon order is growing daily. Gotta start read comic books instead or something.

[Corlyss_D]

My reading list is far too long. Must redirect funds to music . . .

Only 11 volumes of Hans Urs Von Balthasar's theology to go (finished volume 5 last night).

My, how ambitous.

Almost finished the Gospel of Mark with commentary on the Greek text. Only twenty five+ books of the New Testament to reread in Greek to go. And the Apostolic Fathers - a Greek/English version arrived awhile ago.

Okay. Now this is showin' off . . .

[Ralph]

I have piles of books to read and more on order! But I don't read more in the summer than any other time. I'm just as busy.

Next, "Mr. Lincoln Goes to War," a revisionist view of the President which promises to stir up a hornet's nest of rebuttals. Check out the reviews on Amazon.

[Brendan]

My reading list is far too long. Must redirect funds to music . . .

Only 11 volumes of Hans Urs Von Balthasar's theology to go (finished volume 5 last night).

My, how ambitious.

Almost finished the Gospel of Mark with commentary on the Greek text. Only twenty five+ books of the New Testament to reread in Greek to go. And the Apostolic Fathers - a Greek/English version arrived awhile ago.

Okay. Now this is showin' off . . .

Von Balthasar is not so much 'ambitious' as essential to understanding modern theology, IMHO. Not that von Balthasar is 'right' but that most understanding of theology post-Balthasar refers in some way, for or against, to his work. And it is beautifully written and a joy to read. I want to savour every page, and am disappointed there aren't a further dozen volumes to anticipate.

The Aposolic Fathers is showing off. One of those reference works I doubt I'll ever read, but had to have when it popped up on my Amazon recommendations.

[Madame]

Almost finished the Gospel of Mark with commentary on the Greek text. Only twenty five+ books of the New Testament to reread in Greek to go. And the Apostolic Fathers - a Greek/English version arrived awhile ago.

Okay. Now this is showin' off . . .

LOL, we the unwashed masses have to rely on books like "The Unvarnished Gospels" by Andy Gaus. It was so comforting to learn that my "sinning" really meant I had just "missed the mark"

[Madame]

Time for this perennial. So what are you taking on vacation, to the beach, for the 4th's long weekend?

Not sure whether I'll be reading them soon, but I've amassed a list of interesting sounding works:

Miracles on the Water : The Heroic Survivors of a World War II U-Boat Attack
by Tom Nagorski
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Nagorski, a senior producer at ABC's World News Tonight and winner of three Emmy Awards, scores a bull's-eye in his print debut with this riveting account of the sinking of a British passenger liner by a German submarine in World War II. Much of the power of the story—then and now—derives from the 90 children on board who were being carried to safety in Canada. The S.S. City of Benares, with 406 crew and passengers aboard, was 630 miles out in the North Atlantic on September 17, 1940, when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat.


Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Follow-up to Everything is Illuminated, it is about a precocious 9-year-old amateur inventor, jewelry designer, astrophysicist, tambourine player and pacifist. His father was killed in the 9/11 attacks, and in his things Oskar finds a mysterious key, simply labeled "black". He decides to go to New York City in search of the lock that the key fits. He meets colorful characters, and the author adds dimension with a subplot about his grandfather's survival from WWII bombing in Dresden.


Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond

From Library Journal
Most of this work deals with non-Europeans, but Diamond's thesis sheds light on why Western civilization became hegemonic: "History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves." Those who domesticated plants and animals early got a head start on developing writing, government, technology, weapons of war, and immunity to deadly germs.

(some reviews say he hasn't addressed other important variables, but that what he did write is quite good)

Passage to Juneau : A Sea and Its Meanings by Jonathan Raban
Amazon.com
British-born Jonathan Raban sets out on a passage from Seattle to Juneau in a small boat that is more a waterborne writing den, and as usual with the brilliant Raban, this journey becomes a vehicle for history and heart-stopping descriptions that will make readers want to hail him as one of the finest talents who's picked up a pen in the 20th century. The voyage through the Inside Passage from Washington's Puget Sound to Alaska churns up memories and stirs up hidden emotions and Raban dwells on many, including the death of his father and his own role of Daddy to his young daughter, Julia, left behind in Seattle. More than just a personal travelogue, however, Passage to Juneau deftly weaves in the stories of others before him--from Indians whom white men formerly greeted with baubles set afloat on logs, to Captain Vancouver, who risked mutiny on his ship when he banned visits with prostitutes, some of whom offered their services for bits of scrap metal. Pressed into every page are intimate descriptions of life at sea--the fog-shrouded coasts, the crackly radio that keeps him linked to the mainland, the salty marine air, and the fellow sailors who are likewise drawn by a life of tossing on water.

In the Company of Crows and Ravens John M. Marzluff, Tony Angell, Paul Ehrlich
From Booklist
Crows are one of the few birds that everyone can recognize. As ubiquitous members of the worldwide corvid family (which also includes the ravens, jays, magpies, and their kin), the more than 40 distinct species of crows have formed both practical and mythic relationships with their human neighbors. In this delightful blend of science, art, and anthropology, biologist Marzluff and illustrator Angell, both fascinated by the corvids, demonstrate why the crows and ravens are worthy of study and respect. Crows and ravens are adaptable, intelligent, and able to learn, remember, and use insight to solve problems.

There are some excellent children's books that escape the attention of most adults; I want to read these, for sure:

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Moe Willems
The bus driver has to leave for a while, and he makes one request of readers: "Don't let the pigeon drive the bus." It's the height of common sense, but the driver clearly knows this determined pigeon and readers do not-yet. "Hey, can I drive the bus?" asks the bird, at first all sweet reason, and then, having clearly been told no by readers, he begins his ever-escalating, increasingly silly bargaining. Pigeon is an unflinching and hilarious look at a child's potential for mischief. In a plain palette, with childishly elemental line drawings, Willems has captured the essence of unreasonableness in the very young. The genius of this book is that the very young will actually recognize themselves in it.

Dear Mrs. Larue : Letters From Obedience School by Mark Teague
From Publishers Weekly
A dog's life is hardly to be envied if one believes the words of Ike, a rambunctious pooch sentenced to obedience school by his exasperated owner, Mrs. LaRue. Having repeatedly terrorized the neighbors' cats and snatched one snack too many from the kitchen counter, Ike finds himself enrolled at Igor Brotweiler Canine Academy. The hero begins a clever letter-writing campaign to Mrs. LaRue that paints a grim (and hopefully guilt-inducing) picture of his Brotweiler experience. But readers are privy to the hilarious truth. Teague depicts the pampered pup at the spa-like academy in brightly colored vignettes, juxtaposed with black-and-white prison-like scenes that illustrate Ike's imagined hardship. He composes his correspondence with dramatic flair, whether describing his "inmate" experience ("The guards here are all caught up in this `good dog, bad dog' thing") or reflecting on his misdeeds back at home. All in all, a tail-wagger of a book that will have readers howling with amusement.

The Red Book (Caldecott Honor Book) by Barbara Lehman
This perfectly eloquent wordless book tells the complex story of a reader who gets lost, literally, in a little book that has the magic to move her to another place. On her winter-gray walk to school, a young girl spies a book's red cover sticking out of a snowdrift and picks it up. During class, she opens her treasure and finds a series of square illustrations showing a map, then an island, then a beach, and finally a boy. He finds a red book buried in the sand, picks it up, opens it, and sees a sequence of city scenes that eventually zoom in on the girl. As the youngsters view one another through the pages of their respective volumes, they are at first surprised and then break into smiles. After school, the girl buys bunches of helium balloons and floats off into the sky, accidentally dropping her book along the way. It lands on the street below and through its pages readers see the girl reach her destination and greet her new friend, and it isn't long before another child picks up that magical red book. Done in watercolor, gouache, and ink, the simple, streamlined pictures are rife with invitations to peek inside, to investigate further, and–like a hall of mirrors–reflect, refract, repeat, and reveal.

[Ralph]

Almost finished the Gospel of Mark with commentary on the Greek text. Only twenty five+ books of the New Testament to reread in Greek to go. And the Apostolic Fathers - a Greek/English version arrived awhile ago.

Okay. Now this is showin' off . . .

LOL, we the unwashed masses have to rely on books like "The Unvarnished Gospels" by Andy Gaus. It was so comforting to learn that my "sinning" really meant I had just "missed the mark"

*****

CMG is THE mark!!!

[Lark Ascending]

Today I went to the library and took out the following:

Notes From A Big Country - Bill Bryson. I hope his commentary on his home country is as hilarious as his Notes From A Small Island is about my country, that book had tears of laughter rolling down my cheeks.

Fenland Chronicle and A Pride Of Tigers both by Sybil Marshall, 2 autobiographies about life in the Cambridgeshire Fens at the turn of the 20th century (I live in a Cambridgeshire town).

Finally the delightfully titled Rule No.5: No Sex On The Bus by Brian Thacker, the confessions of a European tour bus guide. One to read on public transport

[Brendan]

Almost finished the Gospel of Mark with commentary on the Greek text. Only twenty five+ books of the New Testament to reread in Greek to go. And the Apostolic Fathers - a Greek/English version arrived awhile ago.

Okay. Now this is showin' off . . .

LOL, we the unwashed masses have to rely on books like "The Unvarnished Gospels" by Andy Gaus. It was so comforting to learn that my "sinning" really meant I had just "missed the mark"

Best thing I've done in recent years is get a copy of Mounce's Greek For The Rest Of Us, Black's It's Still Greek to Me, a decent lexicon and Marshall's Interlinear. After the NT, I'll have to pick up on Homeric and Attic to work through Homer, Pindar, Plato and Demosthenes before moving onto Latin (not looking forward to declensions there, but it isn't as hard as you first think - nor as easy as I make it sound).

So much of Western civilzation was created/expressed in Greek and Latin its a marvel to wander through one's culture's source material. Nice to know what we've rejected in favour of Hollywood and multicultural political correctness before the last vestiges are deconstructed forever.