2003 Readers and Writers on the Air Summer Reading List

2003 Readers and Writers on the Air Summer Reading List

By FeliciaF.Rose 4 years ago
2003 Readers and Writers on the Air Summer Reading List
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. . . humor in a living culture must not be put away in the
attic with the flag, but flaunted, like the flag, bravely. . .Every
time is a time for comedy in a world of tension that would languish
without it.”

— James Thurber

I came across this quote in the introduction to Mirth of a Nation:
The Best Contemporary Humor, edited by Michael J. Rosen. We
are certainly living in tense times. Humor is more important than
ever. You’ll find a mix of titles on this year’s summer reading
list: from light and frothy to dark and deep. Thanks to everyone
who helped us compile the list. Special thanks to Chris Robinson
of Clarkson University’s School of Arts and Sciences, my frequent
co-host on Readers & Writers on the Air. Thanks, also,
to Lenny Golay, who joined Chris and me for the summer reading call
in. Lenny is the owner of The Corner Bookstore in Manhattan; she
summers in the Adirondacks. You may find it interesting to get on
the Bookstore’s mailing list—regular reviews and suggestions—or
stop by when you’re in New York (1313 Madison Avenue at 93rd, NY,
NY 10128 or email, [email protected].

Throughout the year, feel free to contact me with titles of books
you’ve enjoyed reading and wish to recommend to others (there’s
always a new list in the making). Email me at [email protected],
or send your suggestions and comments to Ellen Rocco, North Country
Public Radio, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY 13617, or call
me at 315-229-5356.

I’ve sprinkled the list with some of the winners from The Washington
Post’s most recent style invitational contest, in which readers
are challenged to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by
adding, subtracting or changing one letter, and then supply a new
definition. A bit of leavening… per Thurber’s admonition… Hope your
summer is filled with good reading, some real belly laughs and,
of course, great radio listening.

Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund,
which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

FROM NCPR STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS

Ellen Rocco, Station Manager

First, two recent novels to recommend:

  • The Dive From Clausen’s Pier, Ann Packer.
  • Three Junes, Julia Glass. National Book Award winner.
  • Now, the subject of my most recent “cluster” reading: Cambodia.
  • Buddha Wept, Rocco Lo Bosco. A short, quiet and unromanticized
    tale of emergence from the dark tunnel of the Cambodian holocaust.
  • A Blessing Over Ashes: The Remarkable Odyseey of My Unlikely
    Brother    , Adam Fifield. This book, a true story, corroborates
    the perception of the Cambodian holocaust in Buddha Wept,
    and then takes us into present time with the journey of a young
    Cambodian who is adopted by an American family.
  • First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of CambodiaRemembers,
    Loung Ung.
  • A History of Cambodia, David Chandler.
  • Soul Survivors: Stories of Women and Children in Cambodia,
    Carol Wagner, et al.
  • Children of Cambodia’s Killing Fields: Memoirs by Survivors,
    Dith Pran. This is a collection put together by the Cambodian
    made famous in the film, The Killing Fields.
  • The Caged Birds of Phnom Penh, Frederick Lipp and Ronald
    Himler (illustrator). This is a good one to introduce Cambodia
    to younger readers.
  • NPR News Special: War Crimes, Neal Conan, producer. A
    one-hour radio documentary now available from audible.com.

By the way, when Rocco Lo Bosco joined us for the summer reading
call in, he recommended the following book as helpful in understanding
the humankind’s genocidal behavior in the 20th century:

  • The Problem From Hell: America and The Age of Genocide,
    Samantha Power.
Chris Robinson, Literature program guest host/Clarkson University

This summer I find myself working on two book manuscripts. Don’t
try this at home. The main consequence (other than the stress) is
that I spend a lot of time reading things I would not recommend
to an enemy. But here are some good things that served to preserve
my sanity these past couple of months.

Fiction:

  • The First Man, Albert Camus. 1994.
  • Great Neck, Jay Cantor.
  • Gilligan’s Wake, Tom Carson.
  • Hopeful Monsters, Nicholas Moseley.

Non-fiction:

  • When Smoke Ran Like Water, Devra Davis. A biographical
    and epidemiological account of why clean air is important.
  • The Nat Hentoff Reader, Nat Hentoff. A nice collection
    of articles on jazz and the first amendment—cornerstones of free
    expression.
  • Journeys of Simplicity, Phil Harnden.
  • Epicurean Simplicity, Stephanie Mills.
  • The Miner’s Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming
    Democracy    , Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres.
  • Brown, Richard Rodriguez.
  • The Unconquerable World, Jonathan Schell.
  • The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace,
    Howard Zinn.

Poetry:

  • Collected Poems, Robert Lowell.
  • The Voice at 3 A.M., Charles Simic.
  • Poetry for Young People: Wallace Stevens, John Serio,
    ed.

Philosophy:

  • Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jean Grondin. To some, Gadamer was
    a quiet adherent of Nazism; to others, he acted heroically on
    behalf of Jewish friends and colleagues.
  • Nietzsche, Rudiger Safranski. This is a great biography
    of a most interesting philosopher and historical figure.

Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

Lenny Golay, Literature call-in guest host/Proprietor,
The Corner Bookstore

  • The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown. Fiction.
  • The Quality of Life Report, Meghan Daum. Fiction.
  • Bangkok 8, John Burdett. Fiction.
  • The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a
    Race Against an Epidemic    , Gay Salisbury and Laney Salisbury.
  • Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival, Bernd
    Heinrich. The veteran natural history author and University of
    Vermont biology professor uses the New England winter as a laboratory
    for investigating the adaptability and evolution of animals.
  • A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson.
  • Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, Azar Nafisi.
Jackie Sauter, Program Director

  • Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden,
    Diane Ackerman. Anyone who loves flowers, birds, and the rest
    of the natural world will enjoy this beautifully written book,
    organized by season. This is not a book about how to plant a garden;
    it’s about how to truly experience nature through the senses.
    The author is a poet, teacher and naturalist, who lives near Ithaca
    (Zone 5-ish) so North Country gardeners will know at least most
    of the plants and birds she writes about.
  • Ahab’s Wife, Sena Jeter Naslund. I recommend this one
    to everyone all the time. Set mostly on Nantucket in the days
    of whaling, this is great writing that stays with you a long time.
    If you don’t remember it well, first re-read one of the great
    American novels, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Then, this
    one, which is another great American novel, a huge, gorgeous,
    sweeping tale about a fascinating woman hero, and the issues of
    her time, including slavery, women’s rights, and religion. It
    plays off the Captain Ahab story in some surprising ways.
  • Atonement, Ian McEwan. Nominated for the Booker Prize.
    Great writing. Set mostly in summertime England between the world
    wars, it’s a big, rich book to get lost in, with a story and characters
    you wil keep thinking about.

Two books I’m reading this summer:

  • John Adams, David McCullough. A Pulitzer Prize-winner.
  • New World Kitchen, Norman Van Aken. The perfect cookbook
    for summertime, by one of the most interesting contemporary chefs—he
    invented the concept of tropical fusion cuisine. He’s also a good
    writer. Nice photos, some history and great recipes grounded in
    the New World cuisines of the Caribbean, Central America and South
    America.
Jody Tosti, News Reporter/Announcer

  • Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Tom Robbins.
  • Connie Meng, Announcer/Theatre Critic
  • The Bad Beginning, Lemony Snickett. Book One of the saga
    of the Beaudelaire orphans. Great melodramatic stories for kids
    with plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor for adults.
Kathleen Fitzgerald, Membership Director

  • Fortune’s Rocks, Anita Shreve. I picked this up after
    reading The Pilot’s Wife. I hand’t expected the Victorian
    dialogue, and was at first disappointed, but found myself drawn
    into it. It’as a great summer read—kind of slow and hot. Lots
    of ocean scenes. A classic story, with researched historical content.
    The end disappointed me, but the read was rich.

Bozone: The substance surrounding stupid people
that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately,
shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

David Sommerstein, News Reporter

Two good ones:

  • The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael
    Chabon. I think I was a little late on the bandwagon with this
    one, but it’s a great story of love, imagination and creativity,
    the life of immigrants, New York City in the WWII era, and the
    history of comic books. By the way, I’m NOT a comic book fan at
    all, and I loved this.
  • Puro Border: Dispatches, Snapshots & Graffiti from the
    U.S.-Mexico Border    , Luis Humberto Crosthwaite, ed. A compilation
    of writings from the best (mostly) latino writers on the border—writers
    a little less familiar to us. Compelling and evocative stories,
    cutting edge writing, and bold political statements on what life
    is really like in El Norte.
Shelly Pike, Operations Manager/Announcer

  • Surviving Pregnancy Loss: A Complete Sourcebook for Women
    and Their Families    , Rochelle Friendman and Bonnie Gradstein.
    Well-written and informative, it addresses pregnancy loss due
    to miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, and stillbirth—both the physiological
    aspects and the emotional impacts. It’s great for adults who are
    dealing—directly or indirectly—with these types of losses. Those
    who have personally experienced pregnancy loss, partners (opposite-
    and same-sex), friends and family members can all find something
    to take away from the book. Also, there’s a chapter on helping
    children cope with a parent’s pregnancy loss. The chapters are
    stand-alone, so one can read only the chapters which apply to
    her/his situation.
Guy Berard, Jazz at the Ten Spot Host/St. Lawrence University
Art Professor

  • Faceless Killers, Firewall, One Step Behind and The
    White Lioness    , Henning Mankell. Four books in the dark, Swedish
    detective series, featuring Inspector Kurt Wallender of the Ystad
    Police Force. They are all police procedural stories set in a
    climate not unlike our own, with long winters and too short summers.
    Inspector Wallender is divorced, frequently in trouble with one
    or more members of the department, alienated from his only daughter,
    overweight, addicted to caffeine, and in the most recent book
    I read he has discovered that he is diabetic.
  • Detective Inspector Huss, Helene Tursten. Another Swedish
    detective: married, mother of twins who is an investigator in
    the Violent Crimes Unit in Goteborg, Sweden.

Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about youself for
the purpose of getting laid.

Tim Brookes, Author/Commentator

  • The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael
    Chabon.
  • The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith.
  • (List editor’s note: If you like Smith’s first book, you may
    want to check out the two subsequent books in the series: Tears
    of the Giraffe     and Morality for Beautiful Girls.)
Jill Vaughan, NCPR Commentator

(Jill called in during the program to share a group of titles about
“home.”)

  • Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette, Bill Kauffman.
  • The Road to Home, Vartan Gregorian.
  • Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood,
    Alexandra Fuller.
  • Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time,
    Michael Perry.

FROM LISTENERS AND FRIENDS, VIA EMAIL AND LETTERS

John Casserly, Canton

  • Founding Brothers, Joseph Ellis.
Barbara Tiel, Canton

  • You Can’t Be Neutral On A Moving Train, Howard Zinn.
    Memoir.
Tom Langen

  • Reflections in Bullough’s Pond: Economy and Ecosystem in
    New England    , Diana Muir.
Sheila Weiss

  • The Third Reich: A New History, Michael Burleigh.
Anne Mamary, Potsdam.

  • The Peloponnesian War, Donald Kagan.
  • White Teeth, Zadie Smith.
  • Rick Welsh
  • Shakey, Mark McDonough. Biography of Neil Young.
  • Universities in the Marketplace, Derek Bok.
  • Academic Capitalism, Sheila Slaughter and Larry L. Leslie.
Faye Serio, Potsdam.

  • Daughter of Fortune and Portrait in Sepia, Isabel
    Allende.
  • The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Amy Tan.
  • The Orchid Thief, Susan Orlean.
  • The Passion of Artemisia and Firl in Hyacinth Blue,
    Susan Vreeland.
  • Girl With a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier.
  • The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks.
  • Angels & Demons, Dan Brown.
Dan and Ann Bradburd

  • Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, Marjane Satrapi.
  • Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,
    Gregory Maguire.
  • The novels of Alan Furst.
Sunhee Sohn-Robinson, Potsdam

Cashtration: The act of buying a house, which renders
the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

Owen Brady

  • Six Easy Pieces, Walter Moseley.
  • A Good Walk Spoiled, John Feinstein.
David Craig

  • Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy, Jane Leavy.
  • July, July: A Novel, Tim O’Brien.
SSgt Kenneth Knodle

  • For summer reading, nothing beats a book of Ray Bradbury short
    stories—perfect for stormy summer nights.
Georgie Mallett, St. Simon’s Island, GA (formerly of Canton)

  • Daughters of Joy, Deepak Chopra.
  • Everyday Karma, Carmen Harra.
John Boyle, Portland, Ontario

  • The Piano Shop on the Left Bank, T.E. Carhart. Very interesting
    story about an American in Paris and his friendship with the owner
    of a used piano atelier. Of particular interest to anyone who
    has played the piano or aspires to do so. Very well written non-fiction.
  • Uncle Tungsten, Oliver Sacks. The noted neurologist and
    author writes about his youth in wartime London and his chemical
    explorations.
George O. Nagle

  • Isaac Newton, James Gleick. With keen insight and an
    economy of words, Gleick introduces us to the man who fashioned
    many concepts we now take for granted and who set a standard for
    establishing scientific fact that still eludes many disciplines.
    As Gleick writes, “What Newton learned entered the marrow of what
    we know without knowing how we know it.” Freeman Dyson has a fine
    essay in response to Gleick’s book in the July 3, 2002 New
    York Review of Books.
Meghan Tiernan

  • The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd.
Elise Widlund, North River

  • Strip Tease, Carl Hiaasen. Fiction.
  • The Family Tree, Sheri Tepper. Fiction.
  • The Lovely Bones, Alice Sibold. Fiction.
  • Fifth Life of the Cat Woman, Kathleen Dexter. Fiction.
  • Beyond the Last Village, Alan Rabvinowitz. Biography.

Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

Mary Lou Cole, North Creek (Town of Johnsburg Librarian)

My picks:

  • A Cold Heart, Jonathon Kellerman.
  • In the Bleak Midwinter and A Fountain Filled With
    Blood    , Julia Spencer-Fleming. A new author and I am now anxiously
    awaiting her next book.
  • Naked Prey, John Sandford.
  • Crumbtown, Joe Connelly.

Flying off the shelves at our library:

  • If Looks Could Kill and A Body to Die For, Kate
    White.
  • Best Revenge, Stephen White.
  • Lost Light, Michael Connelly.
  • Dead Ringer, Lisa Scottoline.
  • Forever, Pete Hamill.
  • The Guardian, Nicholas Sparks.
  • John Glenn: A Memoir, John Glenn with Nick Taylor.
  • Dead Aim, Iris Johansen.
  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling.
Carol Pearsall, North Creek

  • Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown.
    Sometime ago there was an interview with the author on NPR. Because
    of that, I looked up The Da Vinci Code. However, before
    that was available, I read the other. Both would be “can’t put
    down” summer books.
Dorothy Federman, Saranac Lake

  • Tepper Isn’t Going Out, Calvin Trillin. Just read. Such
    satisfying, dry, sensitive humor, in a NYC vein. Short, warms
    the soul, makes you nod in agreement while you laugh. Anyone who
    is familiar with Trillin, will know his approach to life and won’t
    be disappointed.
Carlyn Matthews

  • The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty. I pull out my
    well-worn copy of this every June during the first week of nice
    hot weather. Welty’s old fashioned southern characters and great
    descriptions of hot steamy summer weather have been part of my
    summer for many years.
Margaret Hooper, Ogdensburg

  • My summer reading suggestion is the Harry Potter series. These
    books really need to be read in order. Even with a busy schedule,
    I made time to read the latest, Harry Potter and the Order
    of the Phoenix    . It was thrilling.
Gerald Varnicke, Jay

These are all well-written mysteries that I’ve enjoyed recently:

  • In a Dry Season, Peter Robinson. Inspector Banks discovers
    a long-dead body when a reservoir dries up during a drought.
  • Take the Bait, S.W. Hubbard. Set in the High Peaks area
    of the Adirondacks, this mystery about a missing teenager really
    kept me guessing. Very suspenseful; great local color.
  • Basket Case, Carl Hiasson. Witty, engaging, with a quirky
    obituary-writer as a protagonist.
Lucy Carson, Long Lake

  • Atonement, Ian McEwan. Fiction.
  • Here on Earth, Alice Hoffman. Fiction.
  • Fragrant Harbor, John Lanchester. Set in Hong Kong. Fiction.
  • Passionate Nomad: The Life of Freya Stark, Jane F. Geniesse.
    About an amazing woman who traveled alone around the mid-East
    in the 1930s and 40s.
Calista Harder, Lake Clear

Here is our list of books from our spot on Upper Saranac Lake:

  • The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown. The “smile” is more mysterious
    than you can imagine.
  • The Fig Eater, Jody Shields. Murder myster—Vienna 1910.
    Shaeds of Freud’s famous patient, Dora.
  • Blue Latitudes, Tony Horowitz. Go everywhere Cook went.
  • White Rock, Hugh Thompson. Mountain mysteries.

From my visiting daugher, a librarian in Yarmouth, Maine:

  • Gilgamesh, Joan Landon. A broad, sweeping multi-generational
    story of love and loss.
  • Life Skills, Wild Designs and Second Thyme Around,
    Katie Fforde. Lighthearted British romantic comedies. (Ed. Note:
    Yes, author’s name has two “fs”…this is not a misprint.)

Non-fiction:

  • The Crisis of Islam: Bernard Lewis. Roots of conflict
    in the Middle East.

Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic
wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

Lorin Young

The first two are very appropriate for what is currently happening
our country:

  • My Argument with the Gestapo, Thomas Merton.
  • 1984, George Orwell.
  • Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein. One of my
    favorites. I read it last summer and I will probably reread it
    soon. I am about to start another of his, I Will Fear No Evil.

Some books to bring you laughter:

  • Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady, Florence King.
  • Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris.
  • Full Exposure, Susie Bright. Some hard truths mixed with
    humor.
Harriet Singer, Brant Lake

  • I have to admit that the book I finished most recently and couldn’t
    put down was the latest Harry Potter. I think it’s the best of
    the series to date.
  • No Ordinary Time, Doris Kearns Goodwin. I loved the combination
    of a very close look at the Roosevelts—both as a very dysfunctional
    couple, and as a very important partnership that led the country
    in the prewar years and beyond. Eleanor, in particular, was tireless
    in her activism for women’s rights and civil rights, issues that
    obviously continue to be a challenge today and really began to
    be addressed because of the war.
  • The Human Stain, Philip Wroth.
  • The Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden Life of Muslim Women,
    Geraldine Brooks.
  • Empire Falls, Richard Russo.
Phil Newton

  • The Partly-Cloudy Patriot, Sarah Vowell. I strongly recommend
    this one, from the frequent This American Life contributor,
    to anyone interested in contemporary American society, as well
    as a large number of good laughs. I liked this book because, like
    the author, I am a real American history junky who is not particularly
    happy with a lot of the American history being made today. Her
    essays about visiting famous historic shrines like Salem, MA,
    Gettysburg or even Washington DC during the Bush inauguration
    are both funny and insightful. Vowell admits to being a liberal
    with a lot of issues with our country’s past and present but,
    unlike many liberals, she does not bury her unabashed fascination
    and love of America, in spite of all, in favor of gripes and moans.
    There are also funny essays about other topics, usually involving
    her life and times growing up an oddball nerd in a family of midwestern
    Christian fundamentalists, and her experiences as a young would-be
    writer in a number of large American cities. Think of a straight,
    very political, female David Sedaris. I would have more to say
    except I have given away all five copies I purchased at Christmas.
Susan Baker, Hammond

I read with a group of women during the summer; we choose our titles
from previous NCPR lists. Time to return the favor. Here are my
offerings:

  • The Breadwinner: An Afghan Child in a War Torn Land,
    Deobrah Ellis. Tells the story of a young girl passing as a boy
    to support her family of women. It’s actually a juvenile novel
    but important for all of us.
  • The Matisse Stories, A.S. Byatt. She’s the author of
    Possession of recent movie fame. These are three stories
    dealing with universal emotions and frustrations.
  • No-No Boy, John Okada. The story of a Nisei (first generation
    Japanese) boy dealing with the draft and prison and its aftermath
    during and after WWII. Very important story.
  • The Power of One, Bryce Courtenay. Great movie (1989)
    and more expansive book about one boy/man’s experience in South
    Africa.

Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease.

Susie Wood, Hammond and points along the St. Lawrence River

Our summer book group out on the river did a neat thing this year
for the first meeting. We talked about books we’d read over the
winter, rather than having an assigned book. Here are some of the
books folks recommended:

  • Any food books by Ruth Reichl.
  • Matisse Stories, A.S. Byatt.
  • Buffalo Soldier and Water Witches (especially),
    Chris Bohjalian.
  • On Writing, Stephen King.
  • Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver.
  • Empire Falls, Richard Russo.
  • Seasoned Timber, Dorothy Canfield Fisher.
  • The Country of Pointed Firs, Sarah Orne Jewett.
  • Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and Wicked,
    Gregory McGuire.
  • The Glass Palace, Amitav Ghosh.
  • The Alexandrian Quartet, Lawrence Durell.

This summer, we’re reading from past NCPR booklists:

  • Crow Lake, Mary Lawson.
  • Small Wonder: Essays, Barbara Kingsolver.
  • Stone by Stone: The Magnificent History in New England’s
    Stone Walls    , Robert Thorson.
  • The Life of Pi, Yann Martel.
  • Servants of the Map, Andrea Barrett.
John and Connie Cannon, Long Lake

  • Dalva, The Road Home and Off to the Side, Jim
    Harrison. All by the greatest American fiction writer alive. (The
    last is a recent memoir.) I regard Dalva as damn near a
    masterpiece.
  • White Doves at Morning, James Lee Burke. The author has
    always written good suspense, but his latest effort is an historical
    novel about the Civil War.
  • The Company of Strangers and (especially) A Small
    Death in Lisbon    , Robert Wilson. If you are a LeCarre fan awaiting
    his next, try these.
Edward Matthews, S. Burlington

  • Man Walks Into a Room, Nicole Krauss. Fiction. About
    memory loss.
  • Good Wives, Laurel Ulrich. About the history of wives.
  • The Hydrogen Economy, Jeremy Rifkin. Oil-based economy
    compared to a hydrogen-based economy.
  • The Threatening Storm, Kenneth M. Pollack. A business
    case for invading Iraq—not one iota of consideration for people.
  • A Great Silly Grin, Humphrey Carpenter. Humor.
  • Bet Your Life, Richard Dooling. Satirizes the insurance
    industry.
  • Lord of Discipline, Pat Conroy. Or any of his other novels.
  • The Captain, Jan De Hartog. Excellent book about a WWII
    tugboat captain.
Linda Gutmann, Lake Placid

  • Uncle Tungsten: Memoirs of a Chemical Boyhood and Island
    of the Color Blind    , Oliver Sachs. Both autobiographical. The
    first incorporates history of early chemistry—totally mesmerizing.
    The second incorporates elements of travel, medicine and botany.
    Riveting. The author is best known for his work on neurological
    cases, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.
  • Elegy for Iris and Iris and Her Friends, John
    Bayley. My latest and greatest reading experience. These two accounts
    of the meeting, marriage and previous lives of Oxford professors
    Iris Murdoch, the famous British author, and her husband, John
    Bayley. Two brilliant and eccentric souls. The books are beautifully
    written, and together provide a matchless glimpse into two special
    lives.
  • Unlce Bon’s in the Yukon and Other Shaggy Dog Stories,
    Daniel Pinkwater. A series of autobiographical vignettes in the
    offbeat life of author Daniel Pinkwater. Hilarious and sometimes
    poignant.
  • The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas,
    Paul Theroux. A thick, engrossing almost-diary of the author’s
    actual train trip as a young man, from a Boston rail station to
    the southernmost part of Argentina. Quirky and opinionated in
    outlook.
  • Travels on a Donkey Through the Cervennes, Robert Louis
    Stevenson. This is a slim volume which takes the reader along
    on an actual trip made on foot by R.L.S. and his donkey, Modestine,
    through the rural villages of the Cevennes Mountains in France.
  • I also recommend anything by Madeleine L’Engle (fiction for
    children and teens, autobiographical accounts and philosophical
    musings for adults). Anything by C.S. Lewis. And, the fiction
    of E.M.Forster and Thomas Hardy.
Karl

  • Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan, Norma
    Khouri.
Doris Waterstraat, Redwood

  • Blessings, Anna Quindlen.
Lisa Cania, Potsdam

  • Those Who Give, Rosemary Cania Maio. About the life of
    several teachers in an urban high school. The setting is education,
    but the themes of work ethic, sacrifice, apathy, frustration,
    idealism and more apply to every workplace.

Decaflon: The grueling event of getting through
the day consuming only things that are good for you.

Mary Jane Glauber

  • The Good Journey, Micaela Gilchrist. One of those books
    that I could not put down. The author did a lot of research into
    the history of the opening up of the midwest for white settlers,
    and she has skillfully interwoven a true personal story from Mary
    Bullitt’s diary into this fictional love and mystery story.  Set
    in the 1830s.
  • Clay’s Quilt, Silas House. An excellent first novel set
    in the Applachians of Eastern Kentucky. Another one I could not
    put down.
  • Bel Canto, Ann Patchett. I liked this book because it
    made me look at things in a different way.
  • A Girl Named Zippy, Haven Kimmel. Fun and entertaining
    from start to finish. A memoir of growing up in a small Indiana
    town. Plenty of universal truths of childhood.
Kay Briggs, Canton

  • The Seven Daughters of Eve, Bryan Sykes. I was skeptical
    of the usual hype on the book jacket: “A lovely, rollicking book,
    direct and clear…” How could a book about science that reveals
    our genetic ancestry be “rollicking”? Not exactly rollicking,
    but the book is fun to read. The author makes it a story of adventure
    and discovery.
  • Dustin Smith, NYC/Occasional north country visitor
  • The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, RW Emerson.
  • Mythologies, Roland Barthes.
Frances Miller, Cranberry Lake

As grandmother of two adopted Chinese girls, I have been reading
some books about China.

  • River Town, Peter Hessler. The author went to China to
    teach and his book is a beautifully written story that sheds light
    on the people and their feelings, as well as the beauty of the
    country.
Lyle Dye, North Creek

  • Once Upon A Town, Bob Greene. A fairly new, wee book
    about a 24/7 WWII canteen for the troop trains that came through
    North Platte, Nebraska. Terrific!
Sue Cypert, Canton

  • My Dream of You, Nuala O’Faolain.
Sam Sanders, somewhere in Vermont

  • At Swim, Two Boys, Jamie O’Neill. A poignant story with
    two teen-age boys at its center, set in Ireland in 1915-16. Heart
    is a key word for this book—it has plenty of heart. The growing
    friendship between the two boys, which has a sexual component,
    is handled with extreme gentleness and delicacy. I loved it: re-read
    it to savor it a second time.
  • Bel Canto, Ann Patchett. The author creates an irresistable
    reality that feels timeless and places the reader squarely inside.
    To read this book is to have the experience of living in the present
    moment.
Laura Von Rosk

  • Elle and Bad News of the Heart, Douglas Glover.
    The Canadian author has been twice-nominated for Canada’s Governor
    General’s Award. The first title is his latest—an historical novel,
    set among the French nobility. The second title is his much acclaimed
    collection of stories. The author has taught at upstate NY and
    Vermont colleges, and hosted a book program on WAMC in Albany.
Eileen Egan Mack

Here are a few titles which make great reading any time of year,
and for summer visitors and residents alike, the books will help
them take a look at the unique place they reside. The books all
have to do with Adirondack born writer/model/editor-and-more Jeanne
Robert Foster.

  • Neighbors of Yesterday, Jeanne Robert Foster. First published
    in 1916, republished in 1963 and again last year by Locust Hill
    Press thanks to the efforts of former Potsdam State English professor
    Richard Londraville and his wife Janis.
  • Adirondack Portraits: A Piece of Time, Jeanne Robert
    Foster. Published posthumously in 1986. It contains many interesting
    portraits/poems about the people and places Jeanne knew when she
    was growing up.
  • Dear Yeats, Dear Pound, Dear Ford, Richard Londraville,
    Janis Londraville. A biography of Foster, published two years
    ago by Syracuse University Press.

These are books you can read and re-read and then think about the
people you know in your own neighborhood.

(Ed.’s note: Don’t miss Eileen’s performance of Foster’s work,
touring around the Adirondack North Country this summer and fall.)

Glibido: All talk and no action.

Jackie Pray

  • Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Sijie Dai.
    Set in China during the Cultural Revolution. Two teenage boys
    are banished to a backward mountain village to be re-educated
    because their parents are intellectuals. It’s a hard life. But
    the two discover that a boy in another village has a forbidden
    treasure—a suitcase full of books! Very short, beautifully told
    story.
  • Dancer, Colum McCann. A “re-imagined” life of the great
    dancer Rudolph Nureyev, told by the people around him—from his
    first dance teacher in the industrial town of his youth to his
    dance partners, rivals and lovers. A hundred voices tell his story
    from a hundred different perspectives. Rich, breathtaking prose.
    Absolutely sumptuous writing—whether the topic is war, dance,
    debauchery or Nureyev’s feet!
  • 47th Street Black, Bayo Ojikutu. Ojikutu—truly an incendiary
    new voice in literature—tells the tall of the passing of power
    from the Italian gangsters to the black gangsters on the South
    Side of Chicago in the 1960s. Forget politically correct language
    and behavior. Be ready for violence, electrifying prose and insightful
    social history.
  • To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf. Makes vividly clear
    what all the fuss is about Virginia Woolf. A family summerhouse
    before WWI is the setting. Little actually happens—an afternoon
    at the shore, dinner, the return years later of an older, more
    cynical family. But it’s Woolf’s ability to reveal the complex
    emotions behind mundane exchanges that puts a searing hand on
    the soul. Not to be missed. Not to be forgotten.
Don Purcell, Potsdam

  • The Prime Minister, Phineas Redux and The Eustace
    Diamonds    , Anthony Trollope. The political novels.
  • No More Parades, Ford Madox Ford. Amost quit, stuck with
    it and am glad I did. Of historical interest but view of war from
    “the inside” good for the whole thing ever since Troy.
  • The Apprentice, Jacques Pepin. The geniality and Mediterranean
    ebullience of the person is even better than the food.
  • Disgrace, J.M.Coetzee. Philosophical about sexual and
    other aspects of morality by a questioning, independent thoughtful
    person. For me, a good example of not “liking” the author yet
    liking the experience of having read the book. Set in South Africa.
  • I reread the Bronte sisters, Wuthering Hieghts and Jane
    Eyre    . They really are as great as the high school teachers
    urged us to believe and we were too dumb really to “get.”
Betsy Folwell, Blue Mountain Lake

  • I’m sure Montrealer Yann Martell’s Life of Pi is on your
    list, but it is a superb book on tape, read by Jeff Woodman, whose
    South Indian accent is great. You catch subtle funny things because
    of his delivery that a ready may overlook.
Cynthia Randi, Potsdam

  • Fortune’s Rock and Sea Glass, Anita Shreve.
  • Winterkill, C.J. Box.
  • Cane River, Lalita Tademy.
  • Burning Marguerite, Elizabeth Inness Brown.
  • The Color of Water, James McBride.
  • A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest J. Gaines.
  • The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd.
Robert Foss, Malone

  • Risky Business, Dave Barry.
  • Jackdaws and Hornet Flight, Ken Follett. Certainly
    meet my definition of summer reading.
  • Dark Eagle, John Ensor Harr. An historical novel about
    Benedict Arnold, paints a sympathetic picture of this tragic character
    in our history. Stories of battles on Lake Champlain and Lake
    George add local interest.
  • Carry Me Home, John DelVecchio.
  • A Map of the World, Jane Hamilton.
  • East of the Mountain, David Guterson.
  • Blessings, Anna Quindlen.
  • The Smoke Jumper, Nicholas Evans.
Kenyon Wells, Sackets Harbor

A porch, a deck, a beach, a boat
A hammock, a chaise, a blanket, a cushion
A breeze, a storm, the sun, becalmed
A jug, a glass, a cooler, a bottle
A book, the paper, a mag, a chart
Ah, summer reading!

  • The Piano Tuner, Daniel Mason. Just finished this sort
    of mystical yarn in the tradition of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness,
    set in colonial Burma in the 1880s where a Kurtz-like figure,
    a Surgeon Major in Her Majesty’s Army, at the isolated outpost
    is having success taming the locals with, of all things, Western
    music peformed on an esoteric grand piano. But has he “gone native”
    in the process? Finding that out is the implicit agenda of the
    piano tuner of the title. What really gets tuned? That’s the tale.
  • What I Loved, Siri Justevedt. The author is the wife
    of Paul Auster. Her book is a subtle and sad love story bolstered
    by an interesting description of the contemporary New York City
    art world.

Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to
seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

Chris Dunn, Potsdam

  • The main one you won’t find in bookstores, but may be on shelves
    of some library you’re lucky enough to live near. If so, you can
    read about “Life in the Cannibal Islands”; you can experience
    (almost) “The Wonders of the Yellowstone”—five years before Custer’s
    defeat, too—or read a report on “Breakfast with Alexandre Dumas”;
    or, go for an adventure in Imperial Japan. There’s a long tale
    by Hans Christian Andersen; and, any number of articles on scientific
    and literary subjects of great interest—in 1871.
  • Well, what I’m getting to is the big, heavy 1971 printing of
    Scribner’s Monthly magazine, January-December 1871. This
    was a magazine of high quality, and very popular in its time.
    It’s all in one volume: heavy, and something near 1,000 pages.

And these:

  • God’s Secretaries, Adam Nicholson. A fine study of the
    creation of the King James Bible, just published: how a committee
    created a great work of literature. For anyone who loves language,
    I think it shouldn’t be missed.
  • Wee Free Men, Terry Prachett. A new discworld story.
    Like all and any of his it should be sought out.
  • The Space Child’s Mother Goose, frederick Winsor and
    Marian Perry (illustrator). Published in 1958 and just reissued.
    It’s clever (even witty) and funny and generally charming, and
    in hardly any way outdated. Recommended for pure fun. Here are
    some excerpts:

Little Bo-Peep
Has lost her sheep,
The radar has failed to find them.
They’ll all, face to face,
Meet in parallel space,
Proceeding their leaders behind them.

Or,

Probable-Possible, my black hen
She lays eggs in the Relative When.
She doesn’t lay eggs in the Positive Now
Because she’s unable to Postulate How.

And,

Orientable planes
Their stresses and strains—
And my story is well on its way;
An erudite thesis
On Psychokinesis
And that will be all for today.

FROM LISTENERS WE HEARD FROM DURING THE CALL-IN

Art, Burlington

  • The Dive From Clausen’s Pier, Ann Packer.
  • The Romantics: A Novel, Pankaj Mishra.
  • The Story of My Father: A Memoir, Sue Miller.
  • Good Morning, Midnight: Life and Death in the Wild, Chip
    Brown. A portrait of the enigmatic outdoorsman, Guy Waterman.
Jake, North Creek

  • Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everyting Your American History
    Textbook Got Wrong,     James Loewen.
Richard, Burlington

  • Featherstone: A Novel, Kirsty Gunn.
  • In the Absence of Men, Philippe Besson, Frank Wynne.
  • The Marriage of the Sea: A Novel, Jane Alison.
  • The Probable Future, Alice Hoffman.
  • Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath, Kate Moses.
  • Il Gigante: Michelangelo, Florence, and the David 1492-1504,
    Anton Gill.
Claire, Tupper Lake

  • The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth
    of Modern Geology    , Simon Winchester.
  • In the Memory of the Forest: A Novel, Charles T. Powers.
Whitney, Bombay

  • Collected Stories, Joseph Mitchell.
  • Technics & Civilization, Lewis Mumford.
Rob, Chestertown

  • Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883,
    Simon Winchester.
  • The Twenty-one Balloons, William Pene du Bois. A children’s
    book.
Leona, Upper Saranac Lake and Ohio

  • Voyage of the Narwhal, Andrea Barrett.
  • Anil’s Ghost, Michael Ondaatje.
Dick, Blue Mountain Lake

  • Sinister Pig, Tony Hillerman.
  • Every Drop for Sale: Our Desperate Battle Over Water,
    Jeffrey Rothfeder.

Beelzebug: Satan in the form of a mosquito that
gets into your bedroom at 3 in the morning and cannot be cast out.

Jane, Jericho, VT

  • A Fine Kind of Madness: Mountain Adventures Tall and True,
    Laura Waterman and Guy Waterman.
  • Burning Marguerite, Elizabeth Inness-Brown.
  • The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd.
  • The Colour, Rose Tremain.
  • The Piano Tuner, Daniel Mason.
  • Among Stone Giants: The Life of Katherine Routledge and Her
    Remarkable Expedition to Easter Island    , Jo Anne Van Tilburg.
  • Easter Island, Jennifer Vanderbes. A novel.

A FEW FROM THE VOICES YOU HEAR ON NPR AND OTHER NATIONALLY-PRODUCED
PROGRAMS

Christopher Lyden, Host of The Whole Wide World

Lyden suggests these titles to expand on his series about globalization
and related issues:

  • Globalization and Its Discontents, Joseph Stiglitz.
  • The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Tom Friedman.
  • Development as Freedom, Amartya Sen.
  • Jihad vs. McWorld, Benjamin Barber.
  • No Logo, Naomi Klein.

In learning about the world consciousness out there, I have revelled
in a marvelous website (originating at the National University of
Singapore) on Post-Colonial Literature: http://www.postcolonialweb.org/

Jamaica prompted my own course of post-colonial reading with these
titles:

  • Beyond a Boundary, C.L.R. James. A masterpiece, using
    his beloved game of cricket as a metaphor of everything good and
    bad in the legacy of empire. James led my reading backward to
    Thackery, Dickens, Conrad, Kipling and Maugham, and forward to
    people like the Cuban novelist, Alejo Carpentier, the Dominican
    Junot Diaz, the Somalian Nuruddin Farah, the dreaded V.S. Naipaul,
    the vital Edward Said, the “beyond category” Zadie Smith.

Contemporary writers are a huge part of my travelling education,
and some of them have become real friends, like Kwadwo Opoku Agyemang
in Ghana, Colin Channer in Jamaica, and Philip Jeyaretnam in Singapore.
The new joy of my reading is Amin Maalouf, a French-Lebanese novelist,
historian and brilliant illuminator of the identity riddle.

And, the pick of The Washington Post’s Style Invitational
Contest:

Ignoranus: A person who’s both stupid and an
asshole.

Susan Stamberg, NPR Special Correspondent

  • Embers, Sandor Marai. It’s a brilliant, short novel written
    in Budapest in 1942 and only recently translated into English.
    It’s a tour de force about love, life, and the end of the Austro-Hungarian
    Empire.
  • Bel Canto, Ann Patchett. Another favorite. A PEN/Faulkner
    Fiction Award-winner.
  • Liane Hansen, NPR Host for Weekend Edition Sunday
  • The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon.
    The best book I’ve read in the past year.
Fred Child, NPR Host of Performance Today

  • Baudolino, Umberto Eco. The newest novel from Eco. His
    writing has always been smart—sometimes a little too smart for
    his own good. While Baudolino is set in medieval Europe,
    like earlier works, you don’t have to know the history of the
    Knights Templar or read Latin to get throug this one. There’s
    quite a bit of history, but it’s simply woven into a wonderful
    narrative. It’s convincing and entertaining storytelling. I may
    have to read it again this summer, I liked it so much.

Thanks to all who contributed to this list. Contact Ellen Rocco
year-round with your recommended reading:

Ellen Rocco
North Country Public Radio
St. Lawrence University
Canton, NY 13617

[email protected]

Visit North Country Public Radio on line for updated lists and
Readers & Writers on the Air program schedules:
www.ncpr.org/readers

 

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