Gentry
"Peninsula FYI"
July, 2004 |
Summer Reading Gentry’s Christine VanDeVelde
discusses the joys of savoring a good book
I read books two and three, sometimes four, at a time. There are always
stacks of mysteries, biography, short stories, cookbooks, essays and even
compilations of quotations piled next to the bed, balanced on sidetables
and sliding around the backseat of the car. If it came to it, I would
adhere to the advice of one Austin Phelps to "Wear the old coat and buy
the new book." So, like all connoisseurs or addicts, I am always on the
lookout for new sources to insure a steady supply.
Of course, there are Book Review sections and library reading lists and
Amazon recommendations. The Books That Made A Difference feature in
Oprah's O magazine, where celebrities share their favorite books,
must have seemed like a good idea at the time, but apparently movie stars
and anchorwomen mostly read Ulysses and War and Peace. We
all need to get the great books under our belts, but I am of like mind
with the person who noted a little trash provides the necessary roughage
in a literary diet. Summer reading in particular requires a little bit of
serious literature, some big, juicy beach reads and a regular dose of
plain old good writing. For that perfect prescription of the truly good
and the frankly bad, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein, I consult the experts –
friends who are rarely without their own pile of good books on the night
table.
Terri Tiffany is a true fellow traveler in this way – she is always
happier when she has two or three books waiting in the wings to be enjoyed
and they inevitably have all the ingredients necessary for both personal
edification and sheer enjoyment. She recommends Ellen Feldman's Lucy,
a novel based on the letters of Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, and
her social secretary Lucy Mercer Rutherford, with whom Franklin had fallen
in love; Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl, the story of
Anne's sister who did not lose her head over Henry VIII; and I Should
Be Extremely Happy In Your Company: A Novel of Lewis and Clark, by
Brian Hall, a re-telling of the legendary expedition.
Carol MacCorkle exemplifies the generosity of book lovers – soon after she
tells you about a great book, you are likely to find it on your doorstep
or in your mailbox. She also always knows the backstory: how a novel came
to be written or where the author of a history lives now. She says not to
miss Reading Lolita in Teheran, the memoir of Azar Nafisi about
teaching Nabokov, Jane Austen, and F. Scott Fitzgerald in revolutionary
Iran, or The Kite Runner, a story of friendship, the immigrant
experience and the Taliban by the Mountain View physician and Afghan
émigré Khaled Hosseini. Her husband Mac, who is a history buff, is reading
In The Company of Soldiers : A Chronicle of Combat by Rick
Atkinson, an eyewitness account of the war in Iraq.
Globe trotters are usually avid readers and the Kamra family is always
running off to Machu Picchu or the Galapagos or somewhere where you have
to get on an airplane for fourteen hours. Christina wholeheartedly
recommends Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, the saga of a
hermaphrodite raised in a Greek American family in Michigan; Bel Canto
by Ann Patchett, a novel of an international hostage-taking; and two
psychological thrillers by Clare Francis, Deceit and Betrayal. Her
husband Deepak is reading Rick Atkinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning An
Army At Dawn: The War In North Africa, 1942-1943. Fourteen-year-old
Nicole recommends anything in the Agatha Christie series and everything by
Ann Rinaldi, the award-winning author of historical fiction; and for some
fun, something from Sarah Dessen, such as The Truth About Forever.
For 13-year-old Alec, it's Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card; T.A.
Barron's tales of Merlin's lost youth; and the fantasy Eragon by
15-year-old Christopher Paolini. .
For books for young children, there is no better resource than Judy Koch,
founder of Bring Me A Book Foundation, which promotes and provides quality
literature for teachers and parents. She and her literacy specialists have
a knack for picking out today's books that will become tomorrow's classics
and you will never go wrong if you pick up one of these to share with your
children on a summer evening: We All Went On Safari by Laurie
Krebs; The Magic Bed and Hushabye, both by John Burningham;
and This is San Francisco by M. Sasek.
As for my recommendations… Do not miss Queen of the Turtle Derby by
Vogue contributor Julia Reed, a collection of essays on the South
that will have you laughing out loud; revisit the classic A Tree Grows
In Brooklyn by Betty Smith, a story that on every page reminds you why
you love to read; and pick up what promises to be this summer's breakout
book, Crossing California by Adam Langer, a story of three families
on Chicago's north side. Don't waste your money on Plum Sykes' Bergdorf
Blondes, which is being touted as the beach read of the year – it's so
bad it's unreadable. Instead, indulge in some Olivia Goldsmith or Barbara
Delinsky or sit down with Elizabeth Berg's The Art of Mending or
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. And finally, you can do
double duty with Lilly Pulitzer's Essentially Lilly: A Guide to
Colorful Entertaining or Amanda Hesser's Cooking for Mr. Latte: A
Food Lover's Courtship with Recipes, now out in paperback, and savor
the ambience, as well as the prose. Enjoy!
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