Recently completed reading
- On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, by Stephen King
- Juliet, Naked, by Nick Hornby
- The Creative Habit, by Twyla Tharp
- Committed, by Elizabeth Gilbert
Reading right now (In media re[ad]s)
- War Dances, by Sherman Alexie
- The Calligrapher’s Daughter, by Eugenia Kim
- The Guardians, by Ana Castillo
Reading returned to the library, without reading in its entirety
- South of Broad, by Pat Conroy (I like his books, but tire of his one protagonist with the same mother issues.)
- Sparkle Life, by Kara Lindstrom (Beware the book that needs “sex” on its book jacket description, twice.)
Reading on the bedside table: on deck
- The Surrendered, by Chang-Rae Lee
- Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire, by David Mura
- Shadow Tag, by Louise Erdrich
Reading that may require more quiet and commitment than I’ve got right now (and that I hope to get to eventually)
- Baltasar and Blimunda, by José Saramago
- The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver
Reading I haven’t bought yet
- The Stieg generic ventolin albuterol Larsson novels (anyone want to loan me these?)
- I-Hotel, by Karen Tei Yamashita
- Medium Raw, by Anthony Bourdain
On my hold list at the library
- The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, by Aimee Bender
A few favorite rereadings in bits and pieces:
- Three Junes, by Julia Glass
- The Sum of Our Days, by Isabel Allende
- Comfort Me With Apples, by Ruth Reichl
Books to reread soon for the book project
- To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
- Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
Books to buy soon
- Honoring Juanita, by Hans Ostrom
- The Atlas of Love, by Laurie Frankel
A bit of recommended online reading
- “U.S. Public Libraries: We lose them at our peril” (Los Angeles Times)
- Dear Sugar, The Rumpus Advice Column #44, How You Get Unstuck (The Rumpus)
- “The Creativity Crisis” (Newsweek)
I’m happy to answer questions or comment more on any of these, by request. And you? (as Shauna likes to ask) What do your summer reading lists look like?
Read this summer:
Annabel Scheme by Robin Sloan
A Common Pornography by Kevin Sampsell
The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton
Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays by Zadie Smith
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT READ ANY STIEG LARSSON)
The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris
A Model World by Michael Chabon
The Push Man and Other Stories and Abandon the Old in Tokyo by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
The Ask by Sam Lipsyte
Bed by Tao Lin
Currently in the middle of:
Role Models by John Waters
Mad Men Unbuttoned by Natasha Vargas-Cooper
The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard
The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
And I’ll probably just put all those off and buy the new David Mitchell.
Hey Kevin–
De Botton is on my wish list–any good?
Zadie Smith–I read bits and pieces (forgot to put it on my list!), but didn’t make it all the way through.
Vargas-Cooper: same thing: any good?
Larsson–darn, really? I might’ve felt this way about Dan Brown; I could understand why people liked it, but wasn’t all that thrilled.
Any “you must read this,” as opposed to “you must not read this”? I liked the King a lot more than I expected, and I really like the Alexie collection so far.
The best thing I read this summer by far was “The Unnamed” by Joshua Ferris. Zadie Smith’s essays were quite good too. You’d also really enjoy Tao Lin’s short stories. My favorite quote:
Just finished Mad Men Unbuttoned too. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s getting me really excited for this season.