Summer reading

I read that book at the suggestion of someone here, a few years ago. It is EXCELLENT. I think it's one of the best books I've ever read.

I've been assigned The Epic of Gilgamesh for my freshman summer reading project. It's been very strange and confusing so far. I'm hoping I'll start to enjoy it soon.

I'm currently finishing up Erik Larson's "Dead Wake." He's probably my favorite historical non-fiction writer at the moment, and this story about the Lusitania's last journey has been another interesting read from him.

Books at the top of my "to read" list...

Fiction:
-"Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad
-"The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins
-I have a David Baldacci & a John Grisham sitting on my shelf that I'll get to sometime.

Non-Fiction:
-"The Boys in the Boat" by Daniel James Brown. This book about the '36 Olympic crew team was enthusiastically recommended to me.
-"The Yosemite" by John Muir. I love his writing. I've made sure to read one of his each summer over the last couple of years.
-I guess I need to add "Man's Search for Meaning" thanks to this thread

"To Set a Watchman" - This is written by Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird). It's only the 2nd book she's published...a mere 60 years after the first one. Comes out next week.

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
The Self-Aware Universe - Goswami
Metheny Manifesto
The Sociopath Next Door
The Universe in a Single Atom
Damned - Palanhiuk

My son really liked the Maze Runner series as well. The Maze Runner movie wasn't especially good, compared to the book, but don't let that throw you. I think all three series are good,but if your kid liked Hunger Games and you think they'd like Divergent, you should add the Maze Runner series to the list.

I loved "Boys in the Boat". It inspired me to go back and read "Seabiscuit", which I read a few years ago and really enjoyed a second time around. Same era, similar story.

I read the first two books in the Cormoran Strike mystery series by Robert Galbraith, called "The Cuckoo's Calling" and "The Silkworm". The author is actually JK Rowling, the Harry Potter series author, writing under what was supposed to have been a pseudonym, until it was inadvertanly revealed. They're both really good, and I can't wait for the next installment. There's nothing remotely related to Harry Potter in either of them, but she's a fun writer to read and if you like mysteries, both books are terrific.

Speaking of Harry Potter, the Magicians series, by Lev Grossman came out a couple of years ago, but I really enjoyed them. It's a bit of an oversimplification to say that they're "Harry Potter for Grownups", but that's kind of what they are-- a group of college age kids discover that they have magical abilities, and it follows their adventures in this world and others that they discover. It's sort of "Harry Potter meets Bright Lights Big City meets The Secret History meets Narnia". But the books are very much written for adults and wouldn't be appropriate for younger readers.

Speaking of the Secret History, it's Donna Tartt's, the author of The Goldfinch, first book, which she wrote about 25 years ago. I haven't read it in years, but I hear that it holds up pretty well.

Edited by jmk-brooklyn 2015-07-13 11:06 AM

Nothing fun unfortunately. Studying for my CMA exam. Almost as much fun as watching paint dry.

Two books that I have enjoyed this year:

Erik Larson's Dead Wake about the Lusitania
Christopher McDougall's Natural Born Runner

Honorable Mentions

Mike Matheny's Matheny Manifesto
Mike Lupica's Fathers & Sons & Sports

Just finished "All the Light We Cannot See", by Anthony Doerr. Enjoyed it from cover to cover. Beautifully written and a great story - authors don't always accomplish both it seems. It is set in WWII in occupied France and centers on a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths cross. It won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

Highly recommend it.

I just finished up The Martian yesterday & really enjoyed it. I have high hopes for the movie now. For a book so centered on science/engineering/problem solving, it's an easy-to-read, entertaining page-turner. As an engineer, I hope it's turning up on high school summer reading lists...it's the kind of book that just might inspire a kid to pursue those fields.

Since I loved "The Girl on the Train", most Baldacci and Grisham, and the "The Boys in the Boat", I will have to get the other two.

"The Martian" is one of the next ones on my list as well a "Goldfinch".

3/4 of the way thru with one I think that any triathlete will like. Different from tris but same mentality as us. "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed.