Revisiting the Summer Reading List

Back in June, I put 5 books on my summer reading list. They were:

1. Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
2. Samaritan by Richard Price
3. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
4. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5. The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket

Here’s what I actually read, and some quick comments:

Desert Solitaire: The first line of this book says it all:
“This is the most beautiful place on earth.” As many of my loyal readers know, I love the desert southwest. Abbey not only loved the area, he made it his life’s mission to do whatever it took to save as much of the land as possible from government intervention. In Desert Solitaire, Abbey spends time all around southern Utah and northern Arizona and discusses his escapades with a dry wit as he perfectly captures the essence and beauty of the desert. I can’t wait to read more of Abbey’s musings toward “the most beautiful place on earth.”

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling: Okay, when I put my reading list together, I simply looked at my “to read” pile, and since the latest HP book wasn’t in the pile, I had a complete brain cramp and forgot to include it. Per an earlier blog of mine, I put HBP at #2 in the HP pantheon. A great read, and a even better set-up for book #7.

Samaritan: Price’s book about a failed TV writer who returns to his ghetto roots in New Jersey only to be beaten almost to death had potential, but I think fell just short of being a great novel. The writer won’t tell the police who beat him up, and the police officer on the case (an old friend from the housing projects) wants to do good on an old favor and find the person responsible. I found the plot a bit too clichéd, and the who-done-it mystery I figured out within the first 75 pages. But Price is a great writer and created a very interesting world…I just thought the story could have used some work.

The Plot Against America: Roth, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, crafts an ingenious tale: What if Charles Lindbergh beat FDR as President in 1940 and made a deal with Hitler to keep the US out of World War II? That is the backdrop of the story, told by an 8 year old Philip Roth, a Jewish kid growing up in an increasingly anti-semetic United States. What I loved about this book was how Roth got what it’s like being an 8 to 10 year old perfect. The story is great too, but the ending was a bit of a let down.

The Hostile Hospital: Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Event’s is a very popular children’s series, but they have plenty of whimsy to be enjoyed by a kid of any age. (And considering I’ve got a maturity level of about a 7th grader, they’re right up my alley.) After the first four books, I was getting a bit dulled by the same storyline, but starting with Book the 5th, and the entry into the story of the Quagmire Triplets, the stories have become increasingly more interesting. The Hostile Hospital is no different, as some questions are answered, but even more come to light in the mystery of the Baudelaire orphans and what really happened to their parents.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to One Hundred Years of Solitude this year. I have a feeling this will be one of those books that keep getting pushed aside for something else, just like Ulysses. So don’t be surprised if you see it on next year’s summer reading list as well.

What’s next on my list? Here’s what’s in my pile, in order:

Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
About a Boy by Nick Hornby
The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey
The Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket
A Widow for One Year by John Irving
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez