As I've done summers past (see 2013 & 2012 lists), here are 15 books I'm planning on reading this summer!! As always, I will be working on Modern Library's Choices (why Modern Library? explanation here). Posts with a (100) represent books on this list.
This post will update and most likely change as the summer goes on.
Any suggestions, feel free to comment...
- Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart: The novel is the story of Misha, an obscenely fat, rich, Russian antihero who desires to return to the States. The story follows his attempt to secure a bogus passport in the tiny post-Soviet country of Absurdistan, a country descending into civil war. POST (3★)
- Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson (100): a collection of short stories set in the fictional town of Winesburg, Ohio. The stories themselves can stand independently, but they all weave together for a stunning portrait of this small town. READ! (4★)
- Deathless by Catherynne Valente: "Twentieth-century Russian history provides a background for Valente's lush reimagining of folkloric villain Koschei the Deathless and his dalliance with Marya Morevna, a clever but troubled young woman" POST (5★)
- Salvage The Bones by Jesmyn Ward (added late) POST (5★)
- xo Orpheus ed. Kate Bernheimer: "a collection of fifty short stories that reinterpret classic myths from ancient Greek, Indian, and other traditions" POST (4 or 5★)
- Futebol Nation: The Story of Brazil Through Soccer by David Goldblatt: "illuminates both Brazilian soccer and Brazil itself; its brilliance, its magic, its style, and the fabulous myths that have been constructed around it; as well as its tragedies, its miseries, and its economic and political injustices. It is the story of Brazil told through its chosen national game." POST (4★)
- Gods and Beasts by Denise Mina: a mystery novel about a bank robbery in Glasgow where the detective uncovers a "sinister political network" (3★)
- An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (100): "Clyde Griffiths finds his social-climbing aspirations and love for a rich and beautiful debutante threatened when his lower-class pregnant girlfriend gives him an ultimatum."
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou: Angelou's autobiography of her childhood in Arkansas
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë: "Classic novel of consuming passions, played out against the lonely moors of northern England, recounts the turbulent and tempestuous love story of Cathy and Heathcliff."
- The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford (100): story of a tragic love affair of a soldier's marriage.
- Even Silence Has An End by Ingrid Betancourt: a memoir telling the tale of Betancourt's capture by the FARC, a Colombian terrorist organization.
- A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra: " A story of the transcendent power of love in wartime," thanks to my Grandma for this recommendation
- Ulysses by James Joyce (100): inspired by the Odyssey, written as a stream of conscious; Joyce's most famous work.
- The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman: the final book in the Magicians trilogy.
- The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl: "Boston, 1865. A series of murders, all of them inspired by scenes in Dante’s Inferno. Only an elite group of America’s first Dante scholars can solve the mystery. With the police baffled, more lives endangered, and Dante’s literary future at stake, the Dante Club must shed its sheltered literary existence and find the killer."
Have a wonderful summer & happy reading!
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