This is the first "real" summer I've had in years. I am usually working furiously through the weekends and think about the summers of yore where I actually bought a new bikini and had tan lines. But, thanks to all the hard work of the past I am finally hitting a stride at work and taking my weekends back. I not only have tan lines for the first time in years, I have multiple tan lines. This is super exciting stuff.
In addition to tan lines, books are an enormous part of my ideal summer. And I've started this summer off with a few good reads. And I'm planning my list for a few more.
First up I read "Geek Love" by Katherine Dunn.
This is the story of a carnie-owned travelling carnival. The story is told through the eyes of Ollie, an albino hunch-back dwarf who laments her lack of freakishness as compared to her other brothers and sisters. I enjoyed this book quite a bit but there was a distinct departure from the light-hearted book it began as to something very dark and twisted. I wouldn't recommend it to just anybody. The characters were all phenomenally developed but parts of the book physically made me sick to my stomach. Not for the weak of heart.
http://www.amazon.com/Geek-Love-Abacus-Books-Katherine/dp/0349100861
After my crazy carnie ride I needed to cleanse my pallet so I picked up John Krakauer's "Where Men Win Glory."
As with every Krakauer book I've had the pleasure to read, you walk away from this action-packed book with better knowledge of not just the main subject, in this case Pat Tillman, but the war on terror, Afghanistan geography and history, professional football and the Army Rangers. I am intrigued as to why Krakauer chose some of the specific entries from Pat Tillman's diary. He works hard to paint this true picture of Pat Tillman and the diary entries seem to work against the rest of the piece. For example, according to all of Pat Tillman's comrades and close friends he was an intellectual who stood up for the underdog, or anyone at all really. Yet there is a diary entry that talks about "not throwing frenchy against the wall" when speaking of a french doorman at his hotel. You don't soon forget this antidote and it leaves a sour taste in your mouth while reading the rest of the glowing accounts of Tillman.
http://www.amazon.com/Where-Men-Win-Glory-Odyssey/dp/0385522266
Next on the list was Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
Do I even need to review this book?? I could not put it down. And I also couldn't believe that I had taken so long to read such an amazing book. The witty banter between Elizabeth Bennet and her father was one of my favorite parts of this delicious book. I fully intend on watching the movie this weekend just to revisit the tale. I highly recommend this book to any woman. (For it is a tale after a woman's heart.)
http://www.amazon.com/Pride-Prejudice-Bantam-Classics-Austen/dp/0553213105
Next, I shall begin reading Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. But first there are a few other books I must finish.
http://www.amazon.com/Lolita-Anniversary-Edition-Vladimir-Nabokov/dp/0679723161
I have simultaneously been reading Pablo Neruda's "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair" along with "The Letters of Ernest Hemingway, Volume 1, 1907-1922." I am savoring Neruda's 21 poems and am only reading one a night to try and eek it out as long as possible. Neruda truly evokes every sense in each of these poems and it's almost as if you can smell the dirt, the trees and the air of his native homeland.
And reading the letters of Ernest Hemingway are such a treat! Of course I am biased as Hemingway is my favorite author of all time, but it is amazing how much of his personality shines through in even his earliest years. This is an in-depth collection of his writing which includes notes passed in class and letters written home from camps. He was an incredibly witty and extraordinary writer even in his quick letters to friends.
http://www.amazon.com/Twenty-Love-Poems-Song-Despair/dp/0143039962/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1341267367&sr=8-3&keywords=pablo+neruda
http://www.amazon.com/The-Letters-Ernest-Hemingway-1907-1922/dp/0521897335
So after Lolita... then what? So many options....
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