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Boudreaux


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Beach Reading?
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Hey der, all you intelligent scholars out der. Me, Tibodreaux an T-Fred be headin to da beach soon. Last year, you suggeted dat we read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" an "The Time Travelers Wife". Dem both be good books, yea.

What readin suggestions do ya have dis year? Me, Boudreaux, read evrything, but Thibodeaux not yet finished with "Dick, Jane an Spot". smilesmile

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LVN


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I'm so glad you liked those! If memory serves (and often it doesn't) I suggested those. Don't suppose you're too interested in Harry Potter? Nah. Hmm. Have you ever read Watership Down?  I forced a class of freshmen to read that once.  There was a lot of moaning and groaning because they thought it was a children's book.  It's not!  The boys especially enjoyed it because there's lots of adventure and battles.  The person who persuaded me to read it said, "Just read it, and then you'll look up and realize it's two a.m. and you're reading a book about rabbits."  Maybe I should dig it back out myself.

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Boudreaux


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Yea, LVN, you did suggest dose books last year. Me, I'm lookin fer somthin different dis year. Tanks fer your idea.

I wonder if dat fancy French lady wit de sexy scretary Thibodeaux likes will have a good book to read? But me, I can't read dat French, no. smile



-- Edited by Boudreaux at 06:05, 2007-07-27

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LVN


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Personally, I would love a new Tom Clancy novel. But I guess Jack Ryan has no where to go after being President. Drat.

I think the de Guerre household is away for the summer, but I'd suspect that Miss Angleterre is re-reading the entire Harry Potter series from the beginning, and Mademoiselle has probably just ordered Pope Benedict's new book about Jesus, which is highly recommended in her circles. I've ordered it myself, but it didn't seem like "beach reading."

How about some old Asimov novels?

EDIT

Here's another book I thoroughly enjoyed, Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.  Here's the description from Amazon:

Connie Willis labored five years on this story of a history student in 2048 who is transported to an English village in the 14th century. The student arrives mistakenly on the eve of the onset of the Black Plague. Her dealings with a family of "contemps" in 1348 and with her historian cohorts lead to complications as the book unfolds into a surprisingly dark, deep conclusion. The book, which won Hugo and Nebula Awards, draws upon Willis' understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering and the indomitable will of the human spirit.


-- Edited by LVN at 21:09, 2007-07-26

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Douglas Chambers


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Hello All - back from the wilderness (though I have been following The Board from afar, as it were). For a beach book, though not mindless reading by any stretch, check out Carson McCullers, _The Member of the Wedding_. It got a glowing review on NPR last weekend, I think. Here's the relevant link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12166764. Look forward to contributing to the ongoing set of conversations about USM, about what succeeding as a comprehensive university means, and how to build on the shambles left in the wake of Shelby Thames. More, much more, later. With thanks for keeping this going. --Doug Chambers


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Polyonymous


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Although beach reading conjures up something more akin to light reads by Jimmy Buffett, Anne Rivers Siddons or David Baldacci, my favorites this summer include A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner) and Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier (author of Cold Mountain).  I also liked The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.  Although I can't personally vouch for it, perhaps Boudreaux would be interested in Alligator Wrestling and You:  An Impractical Guide to an Impossible Sport by Louis Phillips.

Now, excuse me as I must continue "muggling" my way through Harry Potter...

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truth4usmAH


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No one is into Harry Potter at our house (I suppose that makes us all muggles?), but I have a few recommendations:

Finding George Orwell in Burma by Emma Larkin (nonfiction/memoir--fascinating book about George Orwell and Burma, but really about so much more)

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (memoir--didn't want this one to end)

The Curious Incident of the Dog at Midnight by Mark Haddon (fiction--told from the perspective of a boy with autism...he nails that voice!)

Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller (fiction--if you liked the movie, read the book--it's even better!)

The Same River Twice by Chris Offut (memoir/short stories about a guy growing up in Kentucky--Boudreaux, you might like this one)

Oh, and I wanted to let you all know about a website called GoodReads.com.  It's like MySpace for book readers...but even better!  Check it out...

Truth/Andrea

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Emma


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My favorite reads so far this summer:
Like Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
Enslaved by Ducks - Bob Tarte
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Philosophy Made Simple - Robert Hellenga

My summer has consisted of flying on various airplanes to various destinations and spending lots of times in various airports waiting for my mostly delayed flights - one at a time - to be called. I've been reading a lot.

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Boudreaux


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Me, Boudreaux, tanks everyone fer dos readin ideas.  I only plan to read one book, unless we get hit by dat rain, den I read mo.  Dat doesn't count de adult book I read to Thibodeaux every now an den. smile

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USMfan


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Lets see "watership down" cannabilistic rabbits.... always interesting. (I haven't read it in years, but it wasn't bad.)

but
Orwells 1984 is an interesting read based on the current political environment.
Saving Sex from the Christians, by USM's own Dr. Clayton Sullivan (religious book obviously)
Exit to Eden by Anne Rice
Einstein:His Life and Universe, by Walter Issaacson
just a few suggestions...
Harry Potter was pretty good...


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LVN


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Cannibalistic rabbits -- I don't remember that, unless it was some of the villain ones, but it's been twenty plus years since I read it. Definitely time for a re-read.

Summer is also a great time to read children's books, like the Narnia books, Little House series, Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, etc. I'd enjoy reading the Heinlein juveniles if I could find them.

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ram


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Boudreaux wrote:

 I only plan to read one book, . . .

If you can only read one, let me suggest Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.



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Austin Eagle


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The Road -- Cormac McCarthy

AE

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stephen judd


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Austin Eagle wrote:

The Road -- Cormac McCarthy

AE


Fabulous -- absolutely one of his best . . .



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Coast Resident


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LVN wrote:

I'd enjoy reading the Heinlein juveniles if I could find them.


LVN, the Science Fiction Book Club recently completed putting together four omnibus volumes collecting in them all 14 of Heinlein's so called "juveniles. "

While the lead characters in the stories are teenagers, the stories themselves I would not really call juvenile. Like Rowling's Harry Potter stories, they do reach to a deeper level and greater sophistication than the run of the mill juvenile literature. The science may be a little dated but the stories are great. I really enjoyed rereading them again.


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LVN


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Coast Resident wrote:

 

LVN wrote:

I'd enjoy reading the Heinlein juveniles if I could find them.


LVN, the Science Fiction Book Club recently completed putting together four omnibus volumes collecting in them all 14 of Heinlein's so called "juveniles. "

While the lead characters in the stories are teenagers, the stories themselves I would not really call juvenile. Like Rowling's Harry Potter stories, they do reach to a deeper level and greater sophistication than the run of the mill juvenile literature. The science may be a little dated but the stories are great. I really enjoyed rereading them again.

 


THANK YOU! THANK YOU!  It was Red Planet in the fourth grade that turned me into an ardent SF fan.  I loved those books, especially Tunnel (to the Stars?)  and Citizen of the Galaxy.  And you're right, they do have an added dimension which I found very appealing. 

 



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stephen judd


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I'm reading Annie Dillard's "The Maytrees" right now and it is a really lovely read . . . 


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