Thursday, May 31, 2012

Summer Reading

The other day I asked about summer reading lists, and said I'd be back soon with mine. Here's  bit of what I hope to read this summer (although when I'm writing a book, I don't always get a lot of pleasure reading done, and my actual To-Be-Read stack is ridiculously large.)


On my list:

Shirt of Flame by Heather King
Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters by Meg Meeker
Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos
Quiet, The Power of Introverts In a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

Atticus plans to read*:

Watergate, by Thomas Mallon
The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien by Oscar Hijuelos
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
The Book of J by Harold Bloom and David Rosenberg
Nothing Like the Sun (a reread by Anthony Burgess)
Henry Adams and the Making of America by Garry Wills
A Godly Hero, The Life of William Jennings Bryan, by Michael Kazin
The Memoirs of General Grant, by the guy buried in Grant's tomb
And whatever intriguing British police procedurals cross his path (along the lines of the Resnick novels by John Harvey)

This morning I'll be on Relevant Radio at 8 a.m. central time, talking books and summer reading. Some of my recommendations will come from our all-time favorite reads:

Picture Books:

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
Only Opal by Barbara Cooney
Jim Arnosky's books
Josephine Nobisso's The Weight of a Mass, Take It To The Queen and Francis Woke Up Early
All things Magic School Bus
Most things Tomie de Paola
All things Mr. Putter and Tabby by Cynthia Rylant
How My Parents Learned to Eat by Ina R. Friedman and Allen Say
Tea With Milk by Allen Say
How To Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman

For Ramona's age (9-12)**:

Frindle by Andrew Clements
All things Andrew Clements
All things Encyclopedia Brown by Donald Sobol
All things Little House
All things Betsy-Tacy
All things Hilda van Stockum
All things E.B. White
All things Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
The Penderwicks series by Jeanne Birdsall
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

And, I'll be back later with favorites for teens!

*Atticus says: "Some of these contain material that some might find offensive, so beware."

** Varying levels of maturity -- be sure to check them out for yourself before handing them to your child, especially a very sensitive child.

5 comments:

Haley @ Carrots for Michaelmas said...

This is delightful. I've been meaning to read The End of the Affair forever. I just seem to like Waugh better than Greene so I always opt for a Waugh novel instead. And I've never read any L.M. Montgomery except for the Anne books and I keep hearing that the Blue Castle is fantastic. I love your picture book list. Now I'm inspired to go to the library and pick them all up for B :)

Kelly said...

Oh, my heck!!! I do so love book lists!

I, too, have Graham Greene's The End of the Affair on my summer list. And guess what?! Colin Firth just recorded the audio book (unabridged) for Audible.com! I've become very fond of Audible over the past year or so when I found my knitting time was infringing on my reading time. Now it's a win-win. I get to knit AND enjoy a book at the same time. Heaven! Also, it allows me to take on more books at one time. Something has to be done. My ridiculous leaning tower of books in my bedroom is threatening to topple over. I'm afraid one of these days it's going to take out my toddler. ;)

Great post. Thanks for sharing, Karen!

nancyo said...

Thanks so much for posting this! I've got some of the same books on my list (am halfway through Shirt of Flame on my Kindle). I've decided to read some more Sigrid Undset this summer. I read her Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy many years ago and am thinking about reading it again, but this time in the new translation. But first I'll read her Catherine of Siena (on Kindle) and the book of saints essays, Stages of the Road (hard copy). The forward by Elizabeth Scalia hooked me in!

Beth said...

Your list for Ramona looks remarkably familiar -- a lot like my list for "my" Ramona here. One writer we've not read (though I've been hearing more about her) is Hilda Van Stockum. Where would you recommend starting with her -- or does it matter? :)

Karen Edmisten said...

Beth, The Mitchells are a delightful place to start with Hilda Van Stockum!

Nancy, I've got to get to Kristin one of these years -- it's been on my wish list forever.

Kelly, I love the idea of audio books while knitting -- why haven't I done that??

Haley, my friend Danae gave me The Blue Castle and my 15 yo just read it and adored it. I'll be taking it with me on vacation soon!