It’s Memorial Day weekend and that puts me in the mind of
summer being right around the corner. It’s been a splendid spring
of color–great year for the daffodils, azaleas–but the rhododendrons
were pretty hard hit by winter this year. Don’t ask about the
Dutchman’s Pipe vine!
But let’s talk about books—and the summer reading plan.
If you would like a good one for yourself– to get your list going,
I would suggest The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka, written
in 1962. In 2013 it was the book selected for “One Book, One
Philadelphia” reading program—for the whole city to read as
a community activity.
It is short–only 129 pages and has powerful appraisals for its
writing: winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction; the
National Book Award and Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist;
and a New York Times Notable Book.
The book is about Japanese “picture brides”–a similar idea to
mail order brides–and is termed “exceptional”, “spare, incisive,”
“a beautiful little book” from the blurbs on the back jacket.
It is our selection for June in our book club. Why not read it, too,
and join us on the third Tuesday evening of June to discuss it?
Here’s my tentative–well, here’s my planned reading list: (It’s
kind of jumpy, margin-wise, but I have a robin knocking on my
window and he/she won’t give up—so I’m frazzled.)
Summer Reading List 2015 starred * are read as the summer progresses:
* —The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal
* —We Took to the Woods Louise Dickinson Rich
Short Stories William Humphrey
*–The Ordways William Humphrey
drama: (some of these are rereading . . .)
*–A Raisin in the Sun Lorraine Hansberry
*–The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams
*–The Little Foxes Lillian Hellman
A Moon for the Misbegotten Eugene O’Neill
*–Fences August Wilson
*–Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw
*–The Seagull Anton Chekhov
*–Uncle Vanya Anton Chekhov
*–Three Sisters Anton Chekhov
* –The Cherry Orchard Anton Chekhov
*–The Buddha in the Attic Julie Otsuko—– bookclub June
*–Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak —-bookclub July
*–Faces of the Gone Brad Park — bookclub Aug
The Confessions of St. Augustine (St. A) bookclub Sept
from U Cal at Berkeley list for incoming freshmen:
Love and Longing in Bombay Vikram Chandra (not available)***
French Lessons Alice Kaplan (not available)
*–The Story of Stuff Annie Leonard
*** not available in library or library loan system, so will skip
Look them all up on the internet and decide if you’d like to read any
of these, too. Would love to hear about your own list planned . . .
Looks like you have some good reading planned for the summer!
Hi Stefanie–yes, I do, and I’m busy at it!