| Lazy, hazy reads >> This summer’s best reading, from nannies and hip mamas to stupid white men by JULIET WATERS
Good car or plane book: Tishomingo Blues by Elmore Leonard. If dialogue were underwear, Leonard’s would be a black thong. Long stretches of short and snappy repartée keep the pages turning as Dixie Mafia battle with Detroit drug czars. Just don’t get too hung up on the somewhat preposterous plot. Jonesin’ because there’s no new Harry Potter this summer: Anything from the A Series of Unfortunate Events serial by Lemony Snicket-except the just released Unauthorized Autobiography. Unless you’re already familiar with previous Snicket works, it may prove to be too cryptic. Historical fiction to take to your Caribbean paradise retreat: The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa. Based on the true story of the insane but fascinating dictator Rafael Trujillo, who ruled Dominican Republic between 1930 and 1960. Canadian fiction to take to your Great Lake-side retreat: Last Summer at Barebones by Diane Mason fulfills many of the summer reading requirements. There’s an impending murder, a family secret, some poignant tragedy and some very, very dark humour. Local fiction to take to your suburban backyard: Lures by Sue Goyette transforms ’70s-era South Shore into a teenage wasteland. Activists and ancients For the new activist: Jerusalem Calling: A Homeless Conscience in a Post-Everything World by Joel Schalit. This editor of the zine Punk Planet makes a strong case for taking the threat of religious fundamentalism seriously. Schalit (whose Israeli pedigree is so impressive he once received the same birthday present from Yitzhak Rabin and Jerusalem’s former mayor, Teddy Kollek-model F-4 Phantom jets) also has an interesting take on the Middle-East troubles. For the new mama: Two books brought to you by Ariel Gore, editor of Hip Mama, are essential reading for anyone raising kids in not quite the same way as everyone else. Breeder is a collection of funny, sad and provocative essays anthologized by Gore and her co-Hip Mama editor, Bee Lavender. The Mother Trip, a collection of essays by Gore herself is great bedside companion. A queen for Stephen King fans: After reading her first two books, The Trickster and The Furnace, Stephen King himself requested an advance copy of Muriel Gray’s latest, The Ancient. But this supernatural story that takes place on a doomed oil tanker may be a little too gruesome for even the most hardcore horror fans. Might be worth trying to find her earlier books. For people with bad
summer jobs, or just bad jobs Good for a chuckle: Neal Pollack’s Anthology of American Literature is a broad, but entertaining satire of the Great American Writer. Brought to us by those irony-gifted folk at McSweeney’s, the spoken word audio version is even funnier. Book that the critics hate and the people love: Michael Moore’s Stupid White Men. Mordecai’s gone, what should we read? Schmelvis: In Search of Elvis Presley’s Jewish Roots by Jonathan Goldstein and Max Wallace, the story of a bunch of Jewish men in a Winnebago going on a search for Elvis’s Jewish roots, is something akin to a post-modern Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. |
CalendarExerciseFoodSafetyMusicFilmShatnerTheatreBooksArtDance |
Everyone
is reading this, so you should too: Atonement by Ian McEwan. The master
of obsession has written a book that has obsessed critics as well as
readers. Set in World War II, a Merchant and Ivory-type British family
has a very dark problem. Hard to go wrong here.
Easy
beach book: The Nanny Diaries by Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin. What
Bridget Jones did to smug marrieds, these nannies do to rich Manhattan
parents. Also a good audiotape for a car trip, read by Julia Roberts.
period:
Ben Cheever, son of John Cheever, has written a gem of a book in Selling
Ben Cheever. Charming and authentic, Cheever recalls experiences from
five years of working in the service industry after his third novel
failed to find a publisher. Whether he’s working at Nobody Beats
the Wiz, making sandwiches or selling cars, Cheever is always a class
act.