Summer Reads 2008

Hi all,

I'll be posting the books recommended by callers on today's edition of The Exchange right here. Feel free to share your own below.

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Porter in Manchester recommended "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" by Michael Pollan, which he says "definitely changed my life."

Eric in Manchester recommended Will Thomas's detective books. Michael then suggested "Three Bags Full" by Leonie Swann as "the best sheep detective novel" he's ever read.

An e-mailer recommended Meredith Hall's memoir "Without a Map," which Dan and Michael both said was a top seller among New Hampshire authors.

Laura mentioned that Bill Bryson has a new book about William Shakespeare - it's titled "Shakespeare: The World As Stage." Michael said he's looking forward to "Unpacking The Boxes" by Donald Hall. Dan brought up Nam Le's novel

Judy in Holderness called in to suggest "The Turkey Farm," a new memoir by a local author.

Robert in Hanover recommended "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell, which he says was assigned to Hanover high school students and, subsequently, the whole town of Hanover is reading!

Responding to Erica's comment, Michael said he highly recommended "No Country For Old Men" by Cormac McCarthy.

Just before the second break, Laura, Dan and Michael noted that Salman Rushdie just released a new novel, called "The Enchantress of Florence."

Donna in Concord listens to audiobooks while working. She said she'd recently listened to "The Tale of Despereaux" by Kate DiCamillo and "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. She's currently listening to "The Mermaid Chair" by Sue Monk Kidd, which she said was "pleasantly entertaining."

Susan from Wakefield suggested "Child 44," a mystery by Tom Rob Smith about a serial killer in Stalin-era Soviet Union.

A caller asked for good science fiction recommendations. Michael suggested a series of books by Dan Simmons, including "Ilium" and "Olympos." Dan recommended "old-school" sci-fi including Philip K. Dick, and Seacoast author James Patrick Kelly.

Lynn sent an e-mail saying she read "Hawaii" and "Poland" by James Michener when she was younger, associating summer with what Dan calls "nice, thick sagas." Dan said he would be working through Paul Scott's "The Raj Quartet" during the summer, while Michael said "Anna Karenina" is a great choice for classics and noted there was a new translation out.

An e-mail asked for summer reading for children. Michael noted two items from his list: "Skulduggery Pleasant" by Derek Landy and "Perfect" by Natasha Friend. He also suggested finding books that have won the Isinglass Award, the Flume Award and the Great Stone Face Award, as they're chosen by kids.

Dan's recommendations for kids include the Pendragon Series by D.J. MacHale; the Emily Windsnap series by Liz Kessler; Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books and "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart. He also mentioned that Rick Riordan has a new work, "39 Clues: Maze of Bones," coming out this fall, which he says is a good book for kids who like games with trading cards. Michael said the publisher of the "Maze of Bones" series is "very high" on the books.

Michelle from Newington called to suggest "The Sparrow" as a good sci-fi choice, and she's about to re-read "Madame Bovary." She added her voice to the pro-James Michener chorus, saying that every high school student should read Michener's "Chesapeake."

Virginia from Norwich recommended "The World Made By Hand" by James Howard Kunstler as a good novel about the potential effects of climate change on the world. Dan said it was "well-written" and "wonderful."

Michael mentioned a new Philip Roth novel is coming soon, as publishers "save up the big books for fall." He and Dan both again mentioned Donald Hall's upcoming memoir, "Unpacking the Boxes." Michael also added one last summer read, "The Downhill Lie" by Carl Hiassen as a good choice if you're taking Dad golfing for Father's Day.

I plan to read "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini, which our bookstore owners and many others have raved about for several years now. No matter who I talk to, everyone seems utterly entranced by this book.

Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography by David Michaelis

This tomb of a book (672 pages) is the first full length biography of the man who is arguably the most influential comic strip writer of the last century. For fifty years, Schulz’s comic made us laugh, made us think and made us feel good about ourselves. I remember as a child… a teenager for that matter, opening up the comics page of the newspaper and Peanuts was always the first one I turned to. The half-hour holiday cartoons I’ve almost memorized by heart and I was even “Linus” in “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown”. I feel like I know the Peanuts characters so well; yet I hardly know a thing about the man behind the ink. Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography explains in fascinating detail about the man whose life, mind and feelings many times paralleled that of his lead character Charlie Brown. Schultz was the son of a barber, had a crazy dog Spike, and had many of the insecurities that his comic strip protagonist had… loneliness, melancholy, awkwardness and feelings of inadequacy… emotions many of us can identify with. This is a fascinating book and I’m learning so much about a man whose comics shaped my own life.

I’ll be reading “Liar’s Poker” this summer. It’s the first book written by Michael Lewis, who later went on to write “Moneyball,” the great analysis of Major League Baseball that first made Kevin Youkilis famous. “Liar’s Poker” is an unvarnished look at the culture and the machinery of Wall Street. Lewis writes using one of the most effective techniques in modern journalism: long-form storytelling. In reporting on a work environment in which counting and calculating is key, Lewis avoids simply laying down numbers and statistics. He weaves them into well-researched anecdotes and a larger, more compelling narrative. And that’s how a book with heavy subject matter can fit so nicely on a summer reading list.

I went Mount Everest-crazy after seeing a presentation at the library about a Concord resident's trek to Everest Base Camp in Nepal, so I read "High Crimes" by Michael Kodas and "Dark Summit" by Nick Heil. There's an endless supply of Everest books these days, but I found both to be interesting reads.

I don't have any specific books on my summer reading list. Mysteries, biographies,
history appeal to me so I will pick up whatever is available at my local library.
Often in the summer, I reread old favorites - Dorothy L. Sayers mysteries are always
fun. There was also a book that I read several months ago, "See You In a Hundred
Years" about a young couple who gave up careers in New York City and moved
to an old farm in Virginia to live with amenities that were available in 1900.

I am thrilled that I have gotten my hands on “The Translator” for a summer read. It was recommended to me after I expressed my disappointment that we don’t hear enough about the genocide in Darfur. It looks like a short read, but I’ve been told that it tells a gripping first hand account of Darfur.

I was wondering what your guests thought of the book "No Country for Old Men" by Cormac McCarthy. I loved "All the pretty horses" and would like to read this new book. I did see the movie and I feel that the book will be poetic and thought provoking despite the action in the book based on his style of writing. I was thinking about recommending it to my book club this week when we pick our upcomming year's selections but I have not read it yet. So, any comments?

I'll be reading One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey this summer. It's a book that came out in 1973. I read a description about it on the web and it sounded fascinating, so I picked it up at the Candia library.

Whatever I read this summer, I'm likely to read it electronically. (I use an iRex iLiad.) I can carry a large number of books in a small, lightweight package without needing any paper from trees. However, I'd still like to support local bookstores. Do your guests see themselves being able to sell ebooks and ebook readers anytime soon?

I like to pick from international book prize lists. One that was just announced yesterday, actually the winner, was De Niro's Game by Rawi Hage. It won the International IMPAC Dublin prize for fiction, it looks like a great book to experience Bierut during it's civil war, young boys' friendship and choices we make that determine where our lives go.
I'm excited to read this!

HI,

I'd like to recommend a book called The Secret of Me, a novel-in-verse
for teens by Meg Kearney ("car-nee"). Kearney lives in New Hampshire. I
met her at a writers' conference several years ago and -- even as an
adult -- love this book. It's written in the voice of a girl who is 14
and adopted. She tells her story through poems and it's really well
written and very compelling. It came out in paperback late last year.

Here's a way to cool off in your imagination during a heat wave AND read
something produced locally:

SEASON OF ICE, a new novel by Concord writer Diane Les Becquets. Diane
is on the faculty of the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Southern New
Hampshire University, along with other New Hampshire writers Robert
Begiebing, Richard Adams Carey, Merle Drown, Kim Ponders, Katherine
Towler, and Maine writer Gretchen Legler.

I recommend "Child of My Heart" by Alice McDermott and "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd. They are both evocative of summer.
Julia Spencer Fleming has a good mystery series. Michener always satisfies, I especially liked "Hawaii".