Summer Reading

How did that term get started? Do people read more in the summer than other seasons? If it's refering to students, believe me, they don't read more (if at all) in the summer than they do when school is in session. So, I'm the nerdy type who reads in all four seasons. When Tim watches the History channel until 11:00 pm, I'm in bed...reading. And this summer's selections, so far, have been extraordinarily good! So good, in fact, that I thought I should share and encourage others to pick one of these up. In no particular order:

1. The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel.
I just finished this today. It won the Man Booker Prize, so I'm not the only one who found it delightful. It's the adventure of an Indian teenager who seeks God in Christianity, Islam, and his native Hinduism. He lives at the zoo that his family owns. When life gets bad in India (after Ghandi is killed), his family moves to Canada; though, the Japanese charter boat that they're on-with all the animals-sinks outside of Manila. Bum luck. Pi (the boy), a tiger, a zebra, an orangutan, and a hyena make it to a life boat. I dont' know what type of luck that is. Everyone else perishes. How did this kid survive 200 plus days on the open Pacific in a crowded lifeboat with wild animals? You have to read the book, but here's a clue: God. And supposeldy, it's a true story....but that's part of the plot, so I won't give it away. Favorite line in the book? "And so it goes with God." Awesome novel!

2. Acts of Faith, by Philip Caputo.
Philip Caputo actually won the Pulizer as a journalist, writing for the Chicago Tribune. But, since then, he's written a lot of novels that are based on real wars, places, true to culture, time, and circumstance. Maybe you have to have been an NGO worker to really appreciate this novel; it is slow in the middle. But it definately succeeded in it's point: to show that good works are not always good works, and vice-versa. Like when visitors to Phnom Penh would look at me as if to say, "...and you call yourself a Christian!" whenever I told them NOT to give money to the begging children on the street along the Mekong. But what they DON'T see is the man in the suit across the street taking the money from the "poor" children who collect it from naive tourists. In the developping world, good and bad actions aren't so transparent, even "acts of faith." This novel is set in war-torn, modern Sudan, and focuses on the Christian groups who try to buy slaves their freedom, NGO's who deliver food and medical supplies to starving tribes, trans-religious Sudanese rebel commanders, and arms smugglers. Like I said, this one was a little slow in spots, and I had to continually ask Tim questions, like, "What's a Kalishnikov?" and "Explain this paragraph about mortar rounds to me." But, in all seriousness, it was a thought-provoking study on ethics and aid in the third world.

3. The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant.
First off, this choice does not win any awards for literature, as most "Christian novels" don't. But the surprising thing was that this book wasn't Christian at all. It was much more Jewish, if anything, as the author is Jewish, but YHWH was hardly even a supporting character. This book had been recomended to me for years, and I always said, "Uhhhh...that's just not my type of writing." And it isn't still. But it was one of those intruguing, quick reads, very accurate histortically and culturally to ancient Middle-Eastern times, and an interesting Biblical supplement. It is, as most of you know, the story of Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. In the Bible, Dinah is only mentioned twice: the fact that she is the only girl born to Jacob , and that she is raped, and her brothers lead a vengeful massacre against the rapist's people on the wake of their circumcision. In the Bible, Dinah's brothers, who become the 12 tribes of Israel, are well recorded. This novel-admittingly fictional-atempts to tell the unknown story of Dinah. Even if you're a strong Christian, read it with your Bible open! There were several times I had to look up and see, "is that really how that story goes?" Most of the time, it wasn't. But the book is a culturally accurate celebration of women, rites of women, birth, and wifedom in Dinah's time. Warning: A LOT of sex. I mean, after all, Jacob had four wives...this is the story of how those children came to be...Dinah becomes a midwife...where do babies come from?....

4. Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes.
Yeah-that little book about the mouse that most high school students have to read (not in the summer). Somehow, I missed that unit and never read the book. This novel is written as a journal, and when I realized that, admittedly, I groaned. But, it really works for this little book! There is a reason this one is required reading. It's fabulous! I will never look at a retarded adult this same way again! Not that I was inhumane to retarded people before, but this book will give you understanding beyond words for the plight of the mentally retarded. I cried and cried at the end of this book! I won't give it away, but most know that it is about a scientific experiment done on a mouse-Algernon-that makes the mouse a genious. A mentally retarded adult is chosen to undergo the same experiment, and he rises to a man with an IQ of 170+. The book is his journal, at first written as a retarded adult. Warning: parts of it are hard to read! I mean, with an IQ of 45, he doesn't use grammar, punctuation, and he can't spell. But the journal entries get better and better until he reaches genious level. And then Algernon, the mouse, starts to deteriorate... If you missed this in high school, like I did, read it now! It was so enlightening!

5. The Known World, by Edward P. Jones.
This one, like most of the others, and most books I read, is based on true events. However, there never really was a man named Henry Townsend, or a widow named Caldonia. But there was slavery in North Carolina after the Civil War. What I didn't know was that there were black slave holders! That's what this book is about: free blacks in the south who purchased slaves. Would having been a slave make them more temperate slave owners? Would they have intensified internal ethical debates over this issue? This was a spectacular look at true history, through the lives of fictional characters, who made complex moral choices. It was also a lesson on racism, then and now, and love in its purist form. My favorite line: "I wonder if Moses done ate yet." Oh, if only I were at the level of forgiving, unconditionally loving, humanity to be able to ask that question... Yes-you have to read the book to get it. By the way, this one won the Pulitzer, and goes right up there with Roots, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Invisible Man in the genre of African American literature. As the previous three are, The Known World should be required reading.

What are your favorite reads right now? I'm all out of new novels, and I need a heads-up on a good one! Happy Reading!