Happy Summer! I'm still enjoying the afterglow of the great turnout and enthusiastic debate for
Never Let Me Go last week. I'm convinced that our best and most memorable discussions occur around books that evoke such mixed and strongly held opinions. It seems that as our shared reading experiences continue to grow, the depth of the conversation continues to improve. Then again, maybe I'm just remembering the quality of the whisky!
After a short Summer hiatus, our next meeting is set for Wednesday, September 6th. We'll be reading
Tree of Smoke by
Denis Johnson. As in the last few years with
Barbarian Days and
The Son, this Summer's book is a little longer than our typical selections given the extended break. An ambitious book, but one that flows easily,
Tree of Smoke won the National Book Award in 2007. It's set primarily in the Philippines during the Vietnam War. Think Graham Greene meets John Le Carre meets Hunter S. Thompson. Dennis Johnson died just recently.
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| Bookmark |
When you come into the store to pick up your copy, be sure to ask for our new bookmark which features staff selections for Summer reading. As for other suggestions,
Dennis Noonan posted a great list on the blog. Got anything that you are excited about reading or you think the group my find interesting? You can comment on Dennis's post or this one. By the way, if you would be interested in posting new content, let me know and I'll set you up as a contributor.
I've read some very good non-fiction recently. Some you might want to consider this summer:
- Lab Girl by Hope Jahren - I've been recommending this to everyone I know. It's so great on so many levels - wonderful writing that's full of science explained simply, an empowering story of a woman battling through a male dominated field, quirky characters and a desperate plea for Earth.
- The Lost City of Z by David Grann - If, like my entire family, you loved Candice Millard's River of Doubt.
- The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery - Fascinating, easy to read, and highly informative. There are several new books out on octopuses (not octopi) and lots of recent research on their intelligence and neural processing.
- Theft by Finding: Diaries by David Sedaris - A great diversion from any reading rut.
As for fiction, I overwhelmingly recommend
News of the World by Paulette Jiles. The only reason I won't pick this short piece of historical fiction for our group meeting is because I don't think we'd get much debate. In the Frontier West of the late 1800s, an old war veteran travels from town to town providing dramatic readings of recent newspaper publications to the locals who have no access. During the course of his travels, he's commissioned to return a young orphan girl who was captured and raised by the Kiowa to her distant relatives in San Antonio. It's evocative, action packed, and beautifully told. It's the story you might imagine if Peter Heller had written
The Son.
Until September then, I hope you have a safe, sunny, and enriching Summer! Happy reading.
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| My Current Summer Objectives |
What a great turnout and an enthusiastic debate last night! As
always, the more divided the opinions on the book, the better the
discussion. Thumbs up or down, I think everyone could find something of
value from the evening. It was great to see so many new faces in the room. If it was your first visit, I posted an updated list of the books we've read over the last 4 years or so on our (lightly curated) blog. You can get a flavor for the spirit of the group and the types of books we favor (they're not all as tough as Blood Meridian.) You can also find the syllabus on the Wellesley Books website.
