Summer reading, had me a bla-ast ...

What I read this summer ...

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel

Having loved Life of Pi and The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, I was thrilled to hear that Yann Martel had put out a new book. Reviews were mixed on this one though.

What is it about?

Oh, a writer. And a taxidermist ... writing a play ... about a stuffed donkey and a howler monkey ... in the Holocaust.

Beg your pardon?

Yeah, I know, right? Martel studied philosophy in college. It's a very different sort of book. But I give it my thumbs up.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

FAVORITED! Oh my goodness, I read this for the first time in the summer of 2009, and in the last year, I think I must have read it something like 8-10 times. It is really THAT good. One of my top ten favorite books.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

I was interested to hear that the American version of this book (and Stanley Kubrick's film) only had or used 20 of the 21 chapters that Burgess wrote. I read the full 21 chapters.

Very jarring book about a 15-year-old criminal. It was shocking, as I said, but totally worth the read. Burgess uses a lot of slang, so that you almost have to learn a new lingo, but I was surprised to see how--as I was nearing the end
of the book--I was actually thinking in these terms! I was going to viddy the veck's malenky litso in the car next to mine, ya know? :-)

Brainwashing plays a role in this book, and it's neat how the reader is--in a sense--brainwashed into learning this new Nadsat-speak.

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

Beagle is brilliant. This is one of my top ten favorite books, and I don't care if that makes me a total geek. It is really just so, so lovely. If you are a sucker for beautiful imagery, READ IT NOW.

"Wonder and love and great sorrow shook Schmendrick the Magician then, and came together inside him and filled him, filled him until he felt himself brimming and flowing with something that was none of these. He did not believe it, but it came to him anyway, as it had touched him twice before and left him more barren than he had been. This time, there was too much of it for him to hold; it spilled through his fingers and toes, welled up equally in his eyes and his hair and the hollows of his shoulders. There was too much to hold — too much ever to use; and still he found himself weeping with the pain of his impossible greed. He thought, or said, or sang, I did not know that I was so empty, to be so full."

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Another one of my very favorites. I read through the Chronicles of Narnia the way you swallow your prescription drugs ... routinely. I listen to LWW, then back to Magician's Nephew, then Horse and His Boy, and on. The Last Battle is my favorite.

This is for sure my favorite series. If you haven't read them yet, what is wrong with you?

The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

Reading these through for the second time was so interesting because I caught a lot of stuff that I hadn't before. Rowling is brilliant.

Why can I not be brilliant?

And British?












Devil in the Details by Jennifer Traig

This was a hilarious book about obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is, of course, what my own novel is about. It was interesting to compare Traig's scrupulosity to my own and to my main character Neely's.

A very funny book. You know, one of those that makes you jealous that you can't write such funny things. Then you have to convince yourself that you don't actually want to write such funny things--it's just not your angle. Then you can finally feel better about your loathsome, boring, unfunny self because you know how to write poignant things. Which is way better ... right? Bueller?

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

This is another book that I read on repeat. It's delightful.

Stargirl is the book I recommended to Nicole from my small group, who does not like to read.

Did she like it?

Of course she did.

You people need to learn to trust me.

The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis

Brilliant, brilliant. Lewis chews on the old "problem of evil." If God is good and all-powerful, then why do bad things happen? Is God not powerful enough to stop them? Or is He powerful enough to stop them but not good enough to do so?

This question used to trip me up in the past. But the way that Lewis just calmly peels back the layers of the onion is incredible. I love this man.

Identical by Ellen Hopkins

Not as quality as many of the other books I read this summer, but it was interesting, nevertheless. A young adult book dealing with incest and sexual abuse. I listened to it on the 4.5 hour drive to a wedding and the 4.5 hour drive back, so it was really just unloaded on me. Very disturbing.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

My co-worker Kyle read this book then began to read it again. Repeat. Four times. I'm not even joking. He read it four times in a row.

Now, if you haven't noticed yet, I am a repeat offender myself. I read through Narnia and The Book Thief as if I got amnesia every six weeks, but I don't usually read straight through a book and then re-read it immediately.

So I knew something was up with this book.

It was incredible writing. And terribly sad. And chilling.

You should read it.

What I could not stomach this summer ...

The Shack by William P. Young

I tried. I really did. I endured the absolutely terrible writing quality for 5 whole chapters, but at the end of 5 chapters, I really threw in the towel. I'd be interested to hear what people liked so well about it.