What about new suggestions for this summer's reading?

I think one of the best books I’ve ever read is Stephen King’s The Stand. And its so long, it might take you all summer to read it.

Anything, as long as it is out doors. People are staying inside too much.

Anything by John Crowley: Little, Big is excellent, as is the collection of short stories whose name I have forgotten. And the series starting with The Solitudes.

a New Earth by Tolle. it kinda changed my life.

I just finished The Unlikely Disciple, and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the religious dimension of the Culture Wars. It was written by a journalism undergrad from Brown who enrolled for a semester at Liberty University, Jerry Falwell’s “Bible boot camp”, to get an undercover inside perspective on evangelical youth culture.

This is not, as you might expect, a liberal’s cynical exposé of conservative absurdities. The author (20-year-old Kevin Roose) delivers a beautifully compassionate and even-handed narrative of his sincere attempt at living a fundamentalist Christian life over these few months. Wonderful stuff.

Harry Potter movie coming out in July… RE-READ THEM ALL :) at least thats what ill be doing :)

What about The Secret by Rhonda Byrne?
Eats, Shoots and leaves by Lynne Truss?
If you’re horny: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley?

Michelle Richmond is a young and very talented author whom I recently heard speak to a group of writers. She made a very good impression on me. I enjoyed her The Year of Fog and am about to start No One You Know.

I recently stumbled upon Linda Barnes because we are both Chris Smither fans and she makes a point of mentioning his name in each of her books. Her Carlotta Carlyle series of mysteries is suffused with Cambridge-Boston flavor and feels to me like a trip home. I used to be a big mystery reader (practically cut my teeth on Sherlock Holmes) but haven’t spent much time in the genre lately. After reading one out of her series, I decided to go back to the start and take the books in order. They’re pretty light reading, but well written and fun.

For nonfiction I recommend Mlodinow’s The Drunkard’s Walk and Shorto’s Descartes’ Bones as intelligent and thought-provoking explorations of their topics.

Well…. everything depends of what kind of books do you like. If you like self help New Earth is a good option. There’s a couple of books really good that I can recommend you but first I would like to know what was the last book that you read that you loved it.

One of my favorites books is SPUTNIK, SWEETHEART by Haruki Murakami.

http://www.amazon.com/Sputnik-Sweetheart-Haruki-Murakami/dp/0375726055/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244053675&sr=1-1}

In short stories the master is Julio Cortázar. Is kind of difficult to find Cortázar in English… but it worth.. believe me is probably one of the best writers ever.

Crime in Punishment by Fedor Dostoevsky
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Breakfast in Tiffany´s by Truman Capote

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet.

If anyone would have told me that I would be unable to put down a 1000+ page book about feudalism and medieval architecture I would have called them crazy. An absolutely fantastic read and unlike any of Follet’s other work.

I haven’t read it yet, but several people have enthusiastically recommended The Book Thief to me.

@Blondesjon I just finished Pillars of the Earth yesterday – absolutely amazing! I think I’m in a little bit of withdrawal now – nothing else is going to be quite as good for a while…

Next up on my large stack of unread books:

Ignore Everybody – and 39 other keys to creativity – by one of my favorite cartoonists
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
Women Who Run with the Wolves

The stack is about 30 books high, but those are the ones I’m starting on this week…

Song Yet Sung – James McBride
Still Alice – Lisa Genova
A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving (A re-read)

and I’m going to tread warily into The Omnivores Dilemma and In Defense of Food.

Hi Gail, long time no post. I would highly recommend Bill Bryson’s Short History of Nearly Everything. Very good read. I might also recommend anything by John Irving for a taste of the perverse. I did just read World War Z, which is an oral history of the Zombie War – kind of a more modern War of the Worlds, told in narrative form.

If you’re going for a more non-fiction route, I might read Your Inner Fish, What the Nose Knows, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, or The Making of the Atomic Bomb.

For fiction I would try Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, and of course, one of my favorites, Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates by Tom Robbins.

Happy reading!