Whew!! It's hot out! Time for a hunker down with a a tall glass of something cool and minty, my large brim straw hat and a big fat book...
Here are some of my suggestions. I'd love to hear about yours, as of course, I've read all these...
The Blood Runs Like a River Through My Dreams by Nasdijj. Biography. Paper.
Nasdijj wrote the signature piece in this collection of personal essays while homeless, living on KOA campgrounds, on a manual typewriter he carried around with him. Esquire published it, and this thoroughly passionate memoir was born. He writes with haunting lyricism of growing up on the Navajo reservation, of fetal alcohol syndrome, poverty and abuse. Most importantly, he tells us of the story of Tommy Nothing Fancy, his six-year-old adopted son, destined to die from FAS. Here is a father’s heart scarred by anger and love, compassion and commitment. Please, please read this book.
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Science. Paper.
Ever want to be a know-it-all, but not have to slog through 12 years of college? This engaging, thorough and funny primer is the book for you. Bryson captures the personalities of researchers who’ve contributed to the advancement of inquiry, both well-known and obscure. We explore the world in which we live from the context of the cosmos to the shift of the tectonic plates, down to the cells we’re all made of. And well, what ARE we made of? WHY do we exist? The big and little questions are explored here in a book that reads like a caper through time and space.
The Charge by Patrick Donnelley. Poetry. Ausable Press. Paper.
Donnelley’s first collection offers up handfuls of prayer to those alone on the subway, bound to hospital beds, those with AIDS, and those that have passed through his heart on their exit from this world. His lyric is bittersweet and full-bodied, forgiving and well paced. Here is the voice of a man captivated by beauty’s pain and resilience. He has turned it into eloquent, restrained poetry.
The Lake, the River, and the Other Lake by Steve Amick. Fiction. Hardcover.
What better summer read than a book about the summer of 2001 in a small lake town in Michigan, where townies despise tourists, where neighbors feud, and rumors get started? A captivating, reassuring narrative delivers the quirks and complications of small town life, with its bushel full of characters, each as ripe as a pint of July cherries. As disparate as they seem, these people in the end remind us of ourselves—our ability to overcome the limitations of our pride—and how the human heart wants to lean towards love.
Ahab’s Wife, or the Stargazer by Sena Jeter Naslund. Fiction. Paper.
Una is a woman of resilience and passion and intellect. She skillfully narrates her girlhood and her flight into and then out of the brusque world of whaling with the poetry and patience of one who has thoughtfully examined her life. This is the story of a woman who adventured forward without care of consequences, a woman who loved by her own rules, and who lived for the sake of herself.
Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap. Fiction. Grove Press, Hardcover.
This collection of short stories places us in modern Thailand, in the houses of broken, exhausted families where secrets and yearnings either collide like cocks in a pit or are doled out by lottery to those who can’t afford avoiding them. The stories are at times, arrogant, innocent, remorseful, and endearing. Lapcharoensap is an author sure to engage our hearts in volumes to come.