Dorf Summer Reading 2017

One of the eternal questions of bibliophiles: what exactly is a good book for summer reading? In 2009, NPR asked listeners to vote on the “100 Best Beach Books Ever”. There were some choices that were perfect for the beach/summer: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows and Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg. There were some choices on there that would be good at any time of the year and not just the beach, namely the Harry Potter series, Ender’s Game, and Cold Sassy Tree. But, there were also some choices that made me think that the voters didn’t quite understand what a summer/beach read was. Here are some that made the list: The Road by Cormac McCarthy, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger . This is not saying that these books are not good books; they are just not, in my opinion, summer reads. It just seems like people voted for their favorite books, regardless of the concept of the poll.

So, again, what is a good summer book? To me, it’s a book that’s not going to be too deep, dark, or depressing. It’s one that can capture an imagination. It, hopefully,  is not one that you have to read for work.

After I finished my Master’s Degree in Library Science in 2012, I promised myself that I would finally read Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth. Years passed, and life happened, and now I’m finally reading it. Is it a summer read? It made the NPR list, and so far, I can see how. It’s full of adventure, action, and intrigue.

I have made a list of 10 books that I think are good for summer. I looked at my “book book” that contains all of the books I’ve read since 2011. I picked 36 books of them that I thought would be “summer reads.” I then randomly chose 10. Keep in mind that most of the books I tend to read are (1) Nonfiction (2) Sports (3) Politics (4) Humor (5) Biographies (6) Southern Lit (7) YA Lit. Here they are:

 1.       The Last Season: A Team in Search of Its Soul—Phil Jackson. I love sports books that get into the nitty-grittiness of a team and a quest. Jackson’s previous book Sacred Hoops was truly my favorite sports/religious books I’ve ever read (OK, there haven’t been many). With the NBA playoffs coming to a close in June, it’s a great way to end the season by reading a well-written account.  

2.        Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection‎

—A. J. Jacobs. This is the only A. J. Jacobs’ book I have read so far, but I will definitely read his others. Drop Dead Healthy is the perfect Summer book for you to laugh out loud about his exploits to become healthy in 1 year. His treadmill desk is very amusing.

3.        What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures

—Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell makes deep topics available for the masses without dumbing it down too much. I loved his other books, but this one is great for summer reading for those that don’t have a ton of time to read a book that has one long narrative. Dog Saw is a collection of his long-form articles from magazine The New Yorker (which surprises me that he writes for them since they are usually so pretentious). Fascinating.

4.        Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe: A Novel: Fannie Flagg. This is one of my favorite Southern Lit books. In fact, it may be the perfect Southern lit book. Great characters. Swift-moving plot. Hysterical dialogue. 

5.        Jim Henson: The Biography—Brian Jay Jones. I always loved the Muppets and Sesame Street. The Dark Crystal terrified me. This book looks at the life of Jim Henson through his struggles of balancing his job and family. It’s not always a happy story, but the process is fascinating. For some reason, I remember being in the car on the way home from elementary school when his death was announced (the same day as Sammy Davis, Jr.).

6.        Boys Among Men: How the Prep-to-Pro Generation Redefined the NBA and Sparked a Basketball Revolution—Jonathan Abrams. I read this book earlier this year. It truly contains some very sad stories of high school phenom basketball players who thought that they had the talent and skill to make it directly to the NBA, but had no structure (and sometimes not enough talent). The story of Kevin Garnett was intriguing.

7.        Ready Player One—Ernest Cline. If you can do audio books, listen to this book. Wil Wheaton (Wesley from Star Trek: The Next Generation) reads this so wonderfully. I don’t read a lot of Sci-Fi, but this book was inventive, creative and hit right to the soul of my 80’s Atari self.

8.        Small Steps—Louis Sachar. Holes is one of my all-time favorite books, so I held off on Small Steps for a long time, afraid it would damage my feelings. I wish I hadn’t held off. Steps features X-Ray and Armpit and their adventures through earning money after they got out of Camp Green Lake. This YA novel is a lot of fun.

9.        Wishful Drinking—Carrie Fisher. I love Star Wars. I love biographies. Perfect combination on this one. I had never read any of Carrie Fishers’ books, but I will read the others after this one. She is so darn funny. It’s a little bittersweet to read now that she is deceased, but the inside info on her life as Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynold’s daughter is so interesting. If you do audio books, listen to this one. Carrie reads it.

10.      The Art of a Beautiful Game: The Thinking Fan's Tour of the NBA

—Chris Ballard. This is one of my favorite sports books of all time. Ballard digs deep into the nuts and bolts of NBA basketball, but in a different way. I loved the chapters on Dwight Howard’s rebounding and Kobe Bryant’s will to win. This one is also great to read in June.

So, I had to throw in a baseball book because that’s what I do in the Spring/Summer: read a baseball book or two.

11.      The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports—Jeff Passan. Why so many baseball arm injuries? How is it in Japan, pitchers throw 140-150 pitches per outing, but don’t seem to get injured as much? How is Youth league baseball hurting kids? This book digs deep on these topics and more.