Summer Reading
What's on your TBR list?
In case you hadn’t noticed it, it’s officially summer. The temperatures are soaring, the evenings are long and schools are out. It’s time to put away the sweaters and slather on the sunblock and bug repellent. Break out the ice cream sandwiches and cold beer, put your feet up and crack open a summer read. When I was a kid, I loved being a part of the public library’s summer reading program. I don’t remember the prizes but I do have vivid memories of filling out the list and proudly turning it into the librarian.
As for summer reading as an adult, here’s a news flash. Your summer read doesn’t have to be a torrid romance or a fast paced thriller or something that lets your mind rest. Those are all fine choices but what I really appreciate about the recent summer reading list from the New York Times, is that it’s more about committing to reading than to keeping up with whatever titles are favored by Booktok, Oprah, or the New York Review of Books.
This approach is similar to that of Politics and Prose, the wonderful independent book store where I’m a member. The image below is for their yearlong challenge. P&P does have a summer reading list but annoyingly you have to watch it on Youtube.
Personally I also like this approach because it coincides with my other to-do list item: winnowing down the volumes that I’ve picked up here and there, in Little Free Libraries and used book sales, as well as gifts from friends and family. There is a large stack on my nightstand but the TBR list has also taken over several shelves in my bedroom.
This shouldn’t be such a daunting task — after all these are books that I’ve chosen. The problem is that the bookstore and particularly the public library are always tempting me with other titles. So far this year, I’ve read 34 books and not one of them came from this collection. So help me decide; given this lot, what should I read next?
And let me know — what’s on your summer reading list? I am interested in your recommendations even if it diverts me from my task.
A postscript on life in DC. The National Guard is still here; actually the number of troops is surging for the summer from 2,800 to 5,000 for no particular reason other than the Trump Administration’s chest thumping. It’s all ridiculous. Per the Niskanen Center, a nonprofit think tank that describes itself as neither right or left, over the first six months of deployment of federal law enforcement last year, there was a 24 percent reduction in opportunistic property crime but no measurable effect on violent crime. The study also found that more targeted deployment of local police would have had the same effect without the expense and frankly uncomfortable presence of uniformed military standing on street corners.
My challenge is to make a dent in the pile on my bedstand.
(this is Elizabeth, not Christopher) I’d give a big thumbs up to the absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian. Hilarious, moving. And for a bonus, I think it would make a good summer weight read.
I’d also highly recommend the immortal life of Henrietta lacks, which was a tremendous eye-opener for me on racial distinctions within medicine. That makes it sound awfully dry, but it’s not at all— the writing isn’t particularly smooth, but the story carries itself. Once you read it, you’ll definitely want to take a look at recent developments involving the case.
I don’t know if it would be your cup of tea, but secondhand time was a fascinating look at how Soviet citizens saw the pros and cons of the fall of the Soviet Union and the transition to… something more democratic… sort of. I found it helped me see how much Americans, too, bought into a lot of propaganda during the Cold War.