Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Summer reading?

So, with a three month trip to the Subcontinent coming up fast, I figured I'd take some good reading along. Here's what's on the list. There's tons, of course, in my dad's library as well.

(Amazon links will be added anon)
Fiction:
1) The Sparrow. Mary Doria Russell

Non Fiction:
1) The life you save may be your own. Paul Elie
2) The Middle East. Bernard Lewis
3) The New Concise History of the Crusades. Thomas Madden
4) Sinners Welcome. Mary Karr

I think some 10 books seems reasonable. These are books that I'll buy -- checking stuff out of RCPL for 3 months is not feasible, I'm afraid. :-( Suggestions welcome.

[Yes yes I'm supposed to be getting rid of books. :sigh:]

3 comments:

Baldman76 said...

The Sparrow is one of the most powerful and challenging books I've ever read. It is without a doubt one of my all-time favorites. (I recently heard its being made into a movie. I'll say no more, but don't try to see a cast list or anything- keep the reading experience free from outside infuence). I have had 10-15 people read this book and all have found it worthwhile.

A few points of note:
1. The Sparrow is very unsettling / upsetting. When Katie finished it she sat next to me and cried for about 10 minutes. Perhaps it won't affect you this way, but it is challenging.
2. If it doesn't strike you at first, skip and come back to it later. It took me 2 or 3 attempts before I finally "settled" into it, and as I said above, I loved it.
3. The Sparrow is the first of two books. The second is Children of God. The story was written as one long saga and split into two books (and logically so- this isn't a ploy to sell more books). You don't HAVE to read Children of God to find The Sparrow a solid literary work. But you should read both. They're quite different in structure and The Sparrow is a bit better, but do yourself a favor and read both, because the Sparrow is only half of an immensely fascinating story. And you'll kinda miss the "point" of the overall story if you don't go ahead and read both.

Enjoy!

Anonymous said...

I put up a list of non-fic maybes on my LJ--feathermealone!

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to let you know that Karen Armstrong just released a new title you may be interested in. It's called The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Relgious Traditions. Anyway, I'd be reading it right now, but I've been hard pressed to find a good English title for a thousand miles. I had to resort to an iTunes download of Angels and Demons. Oh well...