I’ve just come home from the most incredible summer. It was incredible for many reasons. I spent a month on a Greek island doing a writing workshop; I sang at bonfires and swam topless and ate the food of the gods; I traveled with friends in Europe and then I traveled alone; I saw family in Cyprus for a month. But it was also incredible because I *tore* through so many books. I stumbled upon some books and deliberately sought them out.
Like great love affairs, the best books often come when I’m not looking. They’re just poking out of the shelf or, in this case, the only English language book at the hotel book exchange. Such is the case with Stoner by John Williams.
But I’ll talk about that gem later. It deserves its own post.
Here are the highlights of my reading list this summer:
- Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
- The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
- A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
- Little, Big by John Crowley
- The Magus by John Fowles
- Stoner by John Williams (alright, alright, I’ll stop with the Johns)
- Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
- The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
- Mother Night & Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
- Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy
- Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
- We Have Always Live in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
There were others, but these are the ones that have stuck with me. I’ll write more once the massive suitcase waiting for me to unpack gets dealt with.
