We were asked to write up some summer reading recommendations for Sun Press, and to include some classics as well as more recent titles.\u00a0 Thought we’d share that list here, too.\u00a0 Enjoy!<\/p>\n
We Are all Completely Beside Ourselves<\/em> by Karen Joy Fowler (2013)<\/b>, her newest novel, is possibly her best yet, is already receiving rave reviews.\u00a0 It\u2019s a beautifully written story about a family you will never forget.\u00a0\u00a0 To tell you what it\u2019s about will ruin the astonishing surprise.\u00a0 Full of Fowler\u2019s unique way of looking at the world, this book is about family, love and loss, and it\u2019s a story unlike any you have read before.<\/p>\n The Sisters Brothers<\/em> by Patrick DeWitt (2012), <\/b>one of last year\u2019s best sellers, is a quirky, oddly charming story about two brothers who are hired guns in the old west.\u00a0 Violent and humorous, as if Cormac McCarthy wrote satire, it made me laugh out loud.\u00a0 Not for the faint of heart, though.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Perennial staff favorites<\/b><\/p>\n Rebecca\u2019s Pick: \u00a0Middlemarch<\/i> by George Eliot (1874).<\/b> \u00a0You need\u00a0 a big fat novel \u00a0for reading by the pool this summer, don\u2019t you? This is the ONLY book in the world that makes me want to underline passages in pencil and write \u201chow true!!\u201d in the margins, a practice I normally despise.<\/p>\n Sarah\u2019s Pick:\u00a0 Doomsday Book<\/i> by Connie Willis (1992).<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0 Connie Willis\u2019s characters come alive on the page, and it\u2019s hard to put this book down.\u00a0 Kivrin, a college student, gets trapped in the medieval times, just before a great plague comes and wipes out most of the populace.\u00a0 Those in the future struggle to find a way to find and save her.<\/p>\n Sarah’s Pick:\u00a0 The Alienist<\/em> by Caleb <\/b>Carr (1994)<\/strong> is a classic historical mystery set in NYC in 1896.\u00a0 Dr. Laszlo Kreizler\u2014a psychologist, or an \u201calienist\u201d works with newspaper reporter John Schuyler to find a brutal murderer.\u00a0 It\u2019s a gripping page turner, rich with historical details.<\/p>\n Harriett\u2019s Pick:\u00a0 Rose<\/i> by Martin Cruz Smith (1996).<\/b> \u00a0Martin Cruz Smith describes the 19th-century English mines so well, you start to cough from the dust.\u00a0 And just when you think you know the circuitous paths through the underground tunnels, the plot curves unexpectedly and you find yourself back at the beginning, except everything is different.\u00a0 No way am I going to spoil that surprise for you.<\/p>\n Susan\u2019s Pick:\u00a0 Shoeless Joe<\/i><\/b> by<\/strong> W.P. Kinsella <\/i>(1982).\u00a0 <\/i><\/b>\u201cIf you build it, he will come.\u201d\u00a0 These mysterious words inspire Ray Kinsella to create a cornfield baseball diamond in honor of his hero, Shoeless Joe Jackson. What follows is a rich, nostalgic look at one of our most cherished national pastimes and a remarkable story about fathers and sons, love and family, and the inimitable joy of finding your way home.\u00a0 Part of our Classics Club reading group, which will discuss this title on Thursday, June 27, 2013, 7pm <\/i><\/p>\n Christine\u2019s Pick:\u00a0 The Sparrow<\/i><\/b> by<\/strong> Mary Doria Russell (1996).\u00a0 <\/i><\/b>In 2019, humanity finally finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post in Puerto Rico picks up exquisite singing from a planet which will come to be known as Rakhat. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible first contact mission, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an eight-person scientific expedition of its own. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question the meaning of being “human.” When the lone survivor of the expedition, Emilio Sandoz, returns to Earth in 2059, he will try to explain what went wrong.\u00a0 Part of our Classics Club reading group, which will discuss this title, with the author!<\/strong>, \u00a0on\u00a0 Thursday, July 25, 7-8:30pm. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We were asked to write up some summer reading recommendations for Sun Press, and to include some classics as well as more recent titles.\u00a0 Thought we’d share that list here, too.\u00a0 Enjoy! We Are all Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen … Continue reading