Summer reading for the well-read
July 18, 2008 at 12:56 pm by Helen Herbst in A&E, News
The Fulton County High School summer reading list is 18 pages long (already about 15 more pages than the average Atlanta-area high-schooler cares to make time for, I reckon), and if you’re looking for a great young adult novel, or you haven’t read Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees* yet, that list is a great place to start. However, if you’re a serious reader of discerning taste, then why are you surfing this blog? then we’ve got some fine recommendations for you.
I asked six local book-reading (and some book-writing) types which books were best to get lost in, and the response was overwhelming (by which I mean to say they responded. To little old me). The respondents come from various areas of the Atlanta literary scene, so the books they recommend are all quite different.
Best book to keep in the bathroom:
Terry Kay, author — “The Verse by the Side of the Road, compiled by Frank Rowsome, Jr., with drawings by Carl Rose. Book contains all 600 of the roadside Burma Shave jingles, and it is an absolute joy.”
Peter Hardy, artistic director, Essential Theatre — “5001 Nights at the Movies, by Pauline Kael.”
Frank Reiss, owner, A Cappella Books — “Plato & a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes. It’s actually very funny and, occasionally, profound.”
Jon Goode, poet — “No pun intended, but Dark Matter: Speculative fiction from the African Diaspora.”
David Fulmer, author — “Made in America by Bill Bryson. This is one amazing, crazy-ass country we got here, and no one delivers more great tales about its true fabric than Bryson. But be careful; you could be in there all day. Second choice: Mother Tongue by BB.”
Russ Marshalek, director of marketing, Wordsmiths Books — “This is really a gross question. There’s an entire industry of books and publications that have sprung up around the idea of ‘bathroom reading,’ and I just… ugh. I shudder at the thought of fingering through a dirty old copy of Modern Money kept on top of someone’s toilet. Though I have to say a lot of the Times bestseller list kinda belongs there.”
Best book to keep on the nightstand:
Kay — “Flannery O’Connor’s The Complete Stories. If a reader cannot find some pleasure — and a little frustration — in O’Connor’s stories, he/she should take up graphic novels (come to think of it, a graphic novel translation of A Good Man is Hard to Find might be engaging).”
Hardy — “In the Night Room, by Peter Straub.”
Reiss — “Genius and Heroin by Michael Largo. It’s not out until the fall, but I got an early copy and it’s perfect bedtime reading. Short entries, encyclopedia-style,
profiling hundreds of creative artists in all fields with a focus on their self-destructive habits.”
Goode — “The Devil and Dave Chappelle, by William Jelani Cobb.”
Fulmer — “The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud. You can drop in anywhere and be surprised and moved. That goes alongside Dubliners by James Joyce. Read the last sentence of the title story in the Malamud collection or the last one in ‘The Dead’ in the Joyce volume and then turn out the lights.”
Marshalek — “Apparently the best book to keep on a nightstand is Consilience, by Edward O. Wilson. I’ve had it on my nightstand for like three years now, and have never once read it. Sometimes, whilst wine-drunk, I pretend like I’m going to read it. Mostly it just reconfirms, at a glance, that I like to pretend to be scholarly.”
Best book to take on vacation:
Kay — “The graphic novel of your choice. Vacation should be for seeing what’s around you, rather than what’s in a book in front of you.”
Hardy — “Breakheart Hill, by Thomas H. Cook.”
Reiss — “America America by Ethan Canin. Big, juicy historically-based novel that invites you to lose yourself amongst its characters and ponder the interplay of class and power; progress and community. Great reading.”
Goode — “Survivor, by Chuck Palahniuk.”
Fulmer — “For a trip to New Orleans or anywhere close, James Lee Burke’s first few and last few Dave Robicheaux novels and Rob Walker’s Letter from New Orleans. For the beach, Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams by Nick Tosches. Anywhere else: Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey by Isabel Fonseca.”
Marshalek — “Barbara Walters, Audition. This is as tawdry of a beach novel as the Danielle Steel-esque cover would lead one to believe. Nearly every page has Barbara, in her acid-wrapped-in-silk tongue, lacerating some member of the media or someone with celebrity, or proclaiming, in the most understated the-gold-is-underneath way, how utterly vital to the existence of anything that may be called modern civilization she has been. That said? It’s incredibly readable, and I found myself many a time doing my best Brian-Griffin-as-Truman Capote impression and shrieking, ‘Oooohhh, YOU BIIITCH!’ as the highest compliment. Pick this up if you’re getting on a plane, a boat, a train, a bus or headed for a few days somewhere sandy and sunny.”
Best book to keep on your person at all times, until you finish it:
Kay — “Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, simply because it’s the sort of book that, once read, should be read again immediately. Especially profound for young writers or anyone with a passionate regard for life.”
Hardy — “Theophilus North, by Thornton Wilder.”
Reiss — “Al Gore’s The Assault on Reason. In addition to being an unusually candid condemnation of the Bush administration, it’s an extremely penetrating analysis of how our culture has evolved, or devolved, over the past century to allow such blatant abuse of political power to have happened. But, it requires a lot of background in human brain research and technological analysis, so it can be slow going.”
Goode — “The Bible.”
Fulmer — “Beyond Belief by Elaine Pagels. The mystery of the Gospel of Thomas leads to a rumination on what lies at the heart of transcendent faith. Not nearly as heavy or as Christian as it sounds, and the scholarly baggage doesn’t slow the voyage much at all.”
Marshalek — “Marcel Proust, Swann’s Way. This book is really heavy, wordy and worth the pretentious lugging around of it that’s required. My favorite of anything he’s done, it’s just a giant piece of language candy.”
What I’m reading right now:
Kay — “Just finished Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ Memories of My Melancholy Whores. It was superb. The man is the finest writer in the world.”
Hardy — “The Way Some People Die, by Ross MacDonald.”
Reiss — “2 books:
1. David Sirota’s The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street & Washington
2. Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World, by David Maraniss.
Both books are loaded with factual detail. Sirota’s speculates about the future based on what’s going on now politically whereas Maraniss interprets the modern world through what was going on a half century ago.”
Goode — “Tempest Tale, by Walter Mosley.”
Fulmer — “Big Beat Heat: Alan Freed and the Early Years of Rock and Roll. The sometimes lurid, sometimes mundane behind-the-scenes skinny about how America’s new music rode the ether into the ears of an army of alien creatures called ‘teenagers’ and created an earthquake.”
Marshalek — “I just recently finished one of the best pieces of fiction I’ve read in a long time, Andrew Davidson’s The Gargoyle. I mean, seriously, the back-copy premise, all ‘love survives forever’ and ‘love can conquer even the fires of hell’ and romantic backwash crap like that, really initially put me off — but this book is one of the most well-written, fantastic love stories I’ve ever read. It’s a warts (or rather burn scars)-and-all tale of love, insanity and deep, deep personal hatred… it’s just great. A great, epic love story for those of us who kinda choke on our own bile at the thought of great, epic love stories.”
About our Panel of Experts:
Terry Kay is an award-winning local novelist and screenwriter. He will be at the Margaret Mitchell House on Sat., Sept. 20, at 6 p.m. to sign his latest novel, The Book of Marie.
Peter Hardy is a local director and playwright. He is artistic director for the Essential Theatre. The 2008 Essential Theatre Power Plays Festival continues at the Backstage Theatre at 7 Stages through July 29.
Frank Reiss owns A Cappella Books in Little Five Points.
Jon Goode is an award-winning local poet. He has appeared on “Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry” and has twice represented Atlanta at the National Poetry Slam. He is featured in “CNN Presents: Black in America,” which will air July 23 and 24 at 9 p.m. on CNN.
David Fulmer is an award-winning local novelist. His latest book is The Blue Door. He will be appearing at the AJC Decatur Book Festival next month.
Russ Marshalek is the marketing and publicity director for Wordsmiths Books,
located in Decatur’s Downtown Square.
*Actually a very good book. I recommend it.
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