"Books are the way that
we communicate with the dead."
Neil Gaiman
from his essay:
"Why our future depends on libraries,
reading and daydreaming"
Playing Chess & Daydreaming in Auntie Jan's Library
"I am not solitary whilst I read and write,
though nobody is with me."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
from his essay
"Nature"
Combining these two thoughts, from Gaiman and Emerson, I love the idea that we are not solitary when reading, because we are communicating with the dead!Take the Cannoli (part memoir, about growing up in the Midwest: Oklahoma, Montana, then Chicago; part American History, tons of wit)
When my son Sam asked for some reading recommendations to have on hand, here is the initial batch of titles that immediately sprang to mind:
The Partly Cloudy Patriot (how to love the United States of America, even when you're feeling sad and worried)
Assassination Vacation (about Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley)
All three by Sarah Vowell
(see American Historians)
Washington Schlepped Here: Walking in the Nation's Capital
by Christopher Buckley
Perfect for airplane reading if you're on your way to Wash DC, or perhaps as a follow - up to your trip. I read it in just a couple days and learned a lot of U.S. history, even though Buckley couldn't resist bragging about being a Republican (after all, he is the son of the late Wm F Buckley, Jr.), plus the occasional sexist innuendo that I could have done without.
(see Highlights 2003)
Mythology
by Edith Hamilton
(see SSR)
Playing for Pizza
by John Grisham
An American / Italian football novel. In addition to detailed play by play narratives of the game, it is also filled with mouth - watering descriptions of gourmet dining that will have you planning your next vacation to Italy if at all possible.
(see Thanks Dave)
The Last Picture Show
by Larry McMurtry
One of the saddest lines in all of American literature: "He was sweeping . . ."
(also the movie)
And the following from my long-standing
ECLECTIC COURSE OF MUST READS:
Bright Lights, Big City
Brightness Falls
both by Jay McInerney
The Little Prince
by Antoine de Saint Exupery
Summer’s Lease
by John Mortimer
The Daughter of Time
by Josephine Tey
"Tolstoy thought well of you
– he believed that his own notions
about life here on earth would be
discernible to you, and would move you.
"Tolstoy imagined you generously,
you rose to the occasion."
~ George Saunders ~
