What's on your summer reading list?

[afraid_of_the_dark]

I just finished "The Working Poor," by David Shipler, which I highly recommend. If this book doesn't get you fired up to get Bush out of office (and get a true compassionate in the White House to help those who are struggling at the poverty line), I don't know what will.

What is everyone else reading? Anything you recommend? All genres welcome... I'm out of school and ready to hit the library!

[terrya]

1. I want to read the new Alexander Hamilton biography

That's on the New York Times bestseller list.

Also, David Sedaris' new book (I adore David Sedaris)

No anti-Bush books for awhile.

[afraid_of_the_dark]

4. The book isn't even really anti-Bush...

He criticizes both parties for not paying attention to the needs of these Americans. But I couldn't help linking Bush's policies to some of the problems discussed in this book. It really advocates for a systems change, regardless of party affiliation. In fact, he points out that both parties have advocated in some small way for these people, but that both have not truly made the commitment to help out those who are trying to support their families with the pittance they are given by their employers.

If anything, this book is anti-corporations (with quite a few nice jabs at Wal-Mart). :D

[sus]

2. More Margaret Atwood.

i'm OBSESSED!!

[terrya]

9. Read "Oryx and Crake", her latest one if you haven't.

Very good. Vintage Atwood.

[sus]

11. I'm reading that NOW! LOVE it.

[revree]

3. SOUL OF A CITIZEN

An awesome and inspiring book by Paul Rogat Loeb.About doing good in the world and not becoming a cynic.

Also, POWER VS. FORCE by David Hawkins, MD. About how the power of truth always wins out over using force. A groundbreaking book.

HIGH TIDE is great, too. Think the author's name is Mark Lyman??? It's about global warming. He traveled the world looking for global warming changes and found PLENTY. Also documents the farce that is the Kyoto Treaty.

If you like creepy stuff, there's a book called UNLEASHED about a poltergeist case that ended in murder. I lent it to my mom and now can't remember the author - some psychologist. Book is published by Paraview Pocket Books. REALLY CREEPY and a true story.

Happy reading!!!!!

[RebelOne]

5. The South Beach Diet for starters.

My doctor just put me on it, not for losing weight, but to bring my cholestrol and glucose counts down. I am in the danger zone on both.

[regularguy]

6. "The Illiad"

and maybe some porn......

[afraid_of_the_dark]

8. Ah... so you'll be hitting the romance novels then.

My coworker used to leave those lying around for others to read... I didn't realize how filthy some of those were!

[sybylla]

10. Oh, yeah. Shockingly filthy

Me, I'll be reading all those books I started during the last 7 or 8 summers and never finished. I seem to have too many things on my plate these days.

[noonwitch]

7. I'm planning to read Clinton's book

I'm hoping he goes on a book signing tour.

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

16. Top of my list, too

I'm also behind on a couple my "required reading" books -- Haven't read Al Franken's last book yet.

[Voltaire99]

17. Allow me to give you the 100-word condensed version today

"I was born, and special was I. Later I learned the importance of making policy like Republicans, while remaining Democrats in our hairstyles and musical tastes. But utlimately sorrow befell even me. Thankfully, Jesus was never more present in my life than after I went lurching into the warm, sticky maw of Temptation! Today, after much work and prayer, Hill and I have never been closer. Every day brings new challenges, such as how to rebuild an economy that saw eight years of unparalleled expansion. Say, here's a way: buy additional copies of this book for friends and family."

[Shananigans]

12. I'm not sure...does anyone have any suggestions?

[amandae]

13. Just finished "Why Girls are Weird" by Pamela Ribon

it was pretty funny ... actually had laugh out loud parts to it. I've also been reading a lot of Alice Hoffman. I like her books ... I enjoy authors who use rich detail and I feel that she's one of them.

For humor, I just picked up "Legally Correct Fairy Tales" by David Fisher. It discusses the legal side to the fairy tales (like Jack and Jill v. the company that made the faulty bucket). It's pretty funny.

On a more serious note, I'm also planning to read, "Children of Israel, Children of Palestine: Our Own True Stories." I did a lot of reading this past year (for school and work I did) on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the stories from the victims and people involved interest me more than reading what "experts" say about the situation.

[Exultant Democracy]

14. The entire Disc world serise by Terry Prachett

I just got the 13 books that I hadn't already read from amazon so that should take care of me till the end of june.

[Voltaire99]

15. Some oddities. Some culture. And some comics.

Just finishing "Roadside Picnic," the dark masterpiece by the Strugatskys, Russian brothers whose science fiction reads like Dostoevsky in a lab coat. As a creepy parable of the intersection of exploitation and environmental ruin, it can't be beat. (Long out of print despite its formidable reputation, but can be found online in digital form.)

"At-Swim-Two-Birds" by Flann O'Brien. Somehow lost track of this wickedly delightful comic gem years ago; weird and lovely story-within-a-story, brimming with Joycean verbal wit.

Alexander Cockburn's new collection, "Serpents in the Garden: Liaisons with Culture and Sex." Superb preview here, an essay investigating the messy cultural cross-pollination in the US-UK "special relationship": http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn02142004.html

One of Janwillem Van de Wetering's zen detective novels. I'll pick one at random. ;-)

A steady diet of mind-rotting comics. Seriously, though: with creators as gifted as Alexander Jodorowsky, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Mike Mignola and Howard Chaykin enjoying full creative liberty, no one interested in visual narrative should miss this banquet. This isn't superhero junk; if that's your only measure of the form, try out Chaykin's astonishing "American Century," which traces the rise of the counterculture from the gutter of the Eisenhower years. Or anything by the demented angel Jodorowsky, now in his seventies--the William Burroughs of comics.

Then also I'll make at least a few minutes at the bookstore for Clinton's bio. Just the dirty bits, of course. ;-)

[LynneSin]

18. I'm hoping for "The Articles of Impeachment of George W. Bush"

I know you folks are too