Laura Bloxham’s
Recommended Reading for Summer 2011
and Other Mental Vacations (35th edition)
“Wear the old coat and buy the new book.”
--Austin Phelps
THE ALL-STAR TEAM
- Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (biography of Louis Zamperini; one of my two favorite books—Peace Like a River is the other—of the past ten years)
- Louise Penny, Bury Your Dead (French Canadian mystery; start the series with Still Life)
- Marilynne Robinson, Home (even better a second time; sequel to Gilead)
- George Eliot, Middlemarch (a privilege to re-read)
- Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries (Pulitzer Prize; National Book Critics Award about 15 years ago)
- Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone (Ethiopia; doctors)
- Jo Walton, Farthing (mystery in revisionist post-WWII setting)
- Elizabeth Jenkins, The Tortoise and the Hare (odd, but worth reading)
“She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain.”
--Louisa May Alcott
OTHER FICTION
- Bohumil Hrabal, Too Loud a Solitude (one of Vic Bobb’s favorite books; Czech author of Closely Watched Trains)
- Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped
- Jan Karon, In the Company of Others (Father Tim series)
- Nick Hornby, How to be Good (coarse, but hilarious and thought-provoking)
- Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah’s Key (Holocaust/France)
- Tom Rachman, The Imperfectionists (English language newspaper in Rome)
- Sherley Anne Williams, Dessa Rose (19thc. slave uprising from the perspective of two women; explicit)
- Anne Lamott, Imperfect Birds (sequel to Rosie; raw)
- Baroness Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel (French Revolution; one of my childhood favorites)
“Nothing was truly unbearable if you had something to read.”
--Amy Gallup, a character in Jincy Willett’s The Writing Class
MYSTERIES
- Joanne Dobson, Death without Tenure (Karen Pelletier, English Professor)
- Jacqueline Winspear, The Mapping of Love and Death; A Lesson in Secrets (Maisie Dobbs, WW I nurse)
- Alan Bradley, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (young girl chemist-detective)
- Julia Spencer-Fleming, One Was a Soldier (Rev. Clare Fergusson)
- Alexander McCall Smith, The Double Comfort Safari Club (#1 Ladies Detective)
- P.D. James, The Private Patient (Adam Dalgliesh)
- Janet Evanovich, Sizzling Sixteen
- Joe Gores, Spade & Archer: The Prequel to The Maltese Falcon
- Jeffery Deaver, The Cool Moon; The Broken Window (Lincoln Rhyme)
- Mark Schweizer, The Organist Wore Pumps: A Liturgical Mystery (hilarious series)
- James Brady, Further Lane (Beecher Stowe/Alix Dunraven in the Hamptons)
- Jincy Willett, The Writing Class
- Margaret Maron, Christmas Mourning (Judge Deborah Knott)
- Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind (Spain)
- Charles Finch, A Beautiful Blue Death (Charles Lenox/Victorian)
- Karin Fossum, The Indian Bride (Inspector Sejer; Norway)
- Barbara Nadel, The Ottoman Cage (2nd Inspector Ikmen mystery)
“Everywhere I have sought rest and not found it, except sitting in a corner by myself with a book.”
--Thomas a Kempis, cited by Jan Karon, In the Company of Others
NON-FICTION
- Raymond E. Brown, A Coming Christ in Advent (commentary on Matthew 1 and Luke 1)
- James C. Cobb, Away Down South: A History of Southern Identity
- Michael Ferber, Romanticism: A Very Short Introduction
- Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz (fresh look at the church)
POETRY
- Cynthia Rylant, God Went to Beauty School
(Sans Serif font in honor of Father Tim, a character in Jan Karon’s Home to Holly Springs)
