Summer Reading Recommendations, Part 1
USA Today’s summer reading list includes South of Broad, the first new novel by Pat Conroy in 14 years. If you enjoy this pick, try his memoir, My Losing Season. And if the second book is anything like the first, I’d skip Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire. The first book featuring this character, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, was pretty lame.
The Wall Street Journal has this article on funny books to read. The piece dismisses Confederacy of Dunces, skips over the obvious (David Sedaris, Bill Bryson) and focuses on less well-known authors.
Entertainment Weekly has Stephen King’s seven great summer reads, ranging from current books to Dickens’ Little Dorrit.
NPR’s Books We Like section has terrific reviews and recommendations. My favorites are usually from Maureen Corrigan.
Slate has a review of a new biography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a book I just might pick up to read on the beach this summer.
For some reason, the New York Times website makes it impossible (as far as I can tell) to embed their videos on blogs, so here is a link to a nice interview with Jeffrey Eugenides, author of The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/05/15/books/1194840219862/a-conversation-with-jeffrey-eugenides.html.