Oprah Book List

Summer reading roundup

‘Tis the season when everyone who has anything to do with books feels compelled to create a summer reading list. The redoubtable Oprah, newspapers, magazines, websites and even booksellers jump in with ideas about how you might while away several enjoyable hours in the next few months.

Not to be left out, I have a few suggestions. My only rule is that it has to be a trade paperback (the tall one), rather than mass market (the short one), because in order to read the short ones, you usually have to crack the spine to read what's in the gutters. Do that often enough and the book falls apart. It should be paper, so that when you spill your coffee, suntan lotion, wine or whatever, you will not ruin a major investment. No, I am not going to talk about e-books here; you can do your own homework on those. It's too detailed to sort out which books are available for which platforms at what cost. Just plain, ordinary, old-fashioned words-between-covers will be found here. I hope that I have listed some boy books, some chick lit and some where the writing transcends gender and appeals to all.

The reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico are custodians of a lost art. For centuries, they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. They are also blessed with uncanny health and serenity, leaving the Tarahumara immune to the diseases that plague modern existence. Read all about it.

Walter and Patty Berglund are navigating their way through their marriage, jobs, the daily news, a son who moves in with the right-wing next-door neighbors, Patty's ongoing infatuation with Walter's friend, rock musician Richard Katz - and their compass fails. Franzen somehow, magically, raises all of this out of the realm of the mundane and illuminates the 21st century for us.

In Kingsolver's book, "lacuna" is used actually and symbolically, as a foreshadowing of events to come, and in its larger meaning, as a symbol for the enormous chasm between truth and perception. Harrison Shepherd is accused of being a Communist because he served as general dogsbody for Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky in Mexico. Kingsolver uses this as a springboard for the exploration of a dark period in American history.

In the village of Edgecombe St. Mary in the English countryside lives Maj. Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the unlikely hero of this marvelous debut novel. Wry, courtly, opinionated and completely endearing, the major leads the quiet life of a proper Englishman. His brother's death is the occasion for an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, a Pakistani shopkeeper in the village. Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their spouses, the major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more. But village society insists on embracing him as the local and her as the foreigner. Can their relationship survive such risks to culture and tradition?

Book Group Buzz - Discussion of Book Clubs, Reading Lists, and ...

Every book group selection doesn’t have to be serious or depressing or controversial (i.e, an “Oprah” book).

I just stumbled upon a new award for literature and I’m finding some funny and discussable titles to consider for next year. The award is called the Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction . The winner was announced on June 9 and it went to American author Gary Shteyngart for Super Sad True Love Story , a book that has been mentioned on this blog.