Like waater for the thirsty soul. Thanks.

For Raysmom:

O by dint of strategic sitting in front of the sofa, I got my back scratched and rubbed and petted in full measure, ar-O.

O I did get my dog bedding fresh out of the laundry and my bed well made, and a fresh dose of water in my dish before bed.

O! The clock that trickles the midnight minutes towards One o clock!
T'was then, in the blissful black of night, that I laid my weary head down on fresh blanket with the sting of sweet clean air in my nostrils to log my slumbers on long wakes of dreams that do swell and crest before thundering down in shudders through my paws.

So, okay. I may... forgive.

Well Joel I am very honoured that you included my list, for a sixteen year old girl the number one book on my list would be an excellent choice, it was the authors first foray away from children's books.

Home with the little one today who had to have 2 cavities filled by a "pediatric dentist" just think EXPENSIVE DENTIST, she made it through with the aid of some happy medicine, nothing like seeing your little one drugged to make you feel like you are doing a good job - it was quite funny though when she pointed out that the air vent was moving!

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin was published when I was sixteen and I thought that was the best thing I had yet read.

Also by LeGuin, the Earthsea series.

Tonk, that is a very good book for a teenager to read it. I rather like that one, as well as "The Name for World is Forest". So put the names of good sci-fi authors on the list.

I'm not sure Madame Bovary is a "good choice". At age 16 I'd have put it up there with "boring adult fiction which are always all about how miserable married people are."

I read it in college and it was OK-- nice lush writing, but just OK. My teacher loved it though, and I remember his lectures as being more fun than the book.

John Irving, Saul Bellows might be good choices to introduce her to strong storytelling with unique plots. I say forget book recommendations-- go with author recommendations.

Absolutely the Earthsea series, but only the first three.

And methinks Mr. Easterbrook could find a friendly ear or three on the Boodle.

:-)

i enjoyed these novels while in high school -
jane eyre
wuthering heights
rebecca (and a few others by daphne du maurier, can't remember names)
jane austen's novels

i ta-ed an american novel class where we read (among others) -
their eyes were watching god (hurston)
woman warrior (kingston)
white noise (delillo)

all of which i'd recommend.

i don't think russian novels make good summer reading for any age.
chekhov stories would be fine though.

We have a CP sighting! You dashed off yesterday with a young sloth issue, and I was worried.

My 16 year old girl favourite books are Gros Câlin and "La vie devant soi" by Romain Gary (Emile Ajar). They are published in English as, well, Gros Câlin and "The life before us". TLBU was initially published as "Momo" apparently.

And I would hate not to mention, channeling boko999, The Tin Drum and The Flounder, both by Mr. Grass.

Joel, did you ever post the answers to those paragraph excerpts? I recognized number 14 as being from the Great Gatsby. The others, I would only guess at the possible authors, but not the books themselves.

Google told me that #1 was from Anne Dillard's "An American childhood". (I've read Dillard, but not that book. I liked "A pilgrim on Tinker Creek.").

Aha I found the URL for the "answers" to Some sentences and Paragraphs Joel likes.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/achenblog/2005/04/ending_the_suspense.html

Raw Fisher without raw fish. Disappointing.

Books:
Coram Boy (18th century melodrama featuring the horrible fate of unwanted children. The stage version is now on Broadway--the London version was quite a show).

A Corpse in the Koryo (N Korean murder mystery. I haven't read it yet, Mom loved it).

Eucalyptus (Australian novel. Mom also loved it. It was supposed to be a Mel Gibson movie)

War of the World by Niall Ferguson (boy history, really. The horrible 20th century).

Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8014.html
(hey, it's from PUP!)

Life at the Extremes
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/8864.html
(Jamaica in the summer is horrible)

Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
(more boy fiction)

The Bible in Spain, George Borrow
(actually takes far too much time for anyone to read. But it paints a portrait of Spain after the Napoleonic wars as something of a failed state. You'd never think from reading this minor classic that Spain would become a first-world country).

Tattoo
(The perfect novel to give someone who's dreaming of Hawaii)
http://starbulletin.com/2000/06/16/features/story1.html

Raw Fisher without raw fish. Disappointing.

Books:
Coram Boy (18th century melodrama featuring the horrible fate of unwanted children. The stage version is now on Broadway--the London version was quite a show).

A Corpse in the Koryo (N Korean murder mystery. I haven't read it yet, Mom loved it).

Eucalyptus (Australian novel. Mom also loved it. It was supposed to be a Mel Gibson movie)

War of the World by Niall Ferguson (boy history, really. The horrible 20th century).

Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8014.html
(hey, it's from PUP!)

Life at the Extremes
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/8864.html
(Jamaica in the summer is horrible)

Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
(more boy fiction)

The Bible in Spain, George Borrow
(actually takes far too much time for anyone to read. But it paints a portrait of Spain after the Napoleonic wars as something of a failed state. You'd never think from reading this minor classic that Spain would become a first-world country).

Tattoo
(The perfect novel to give someone who's dreaming of Hawaii)
http://starbulletin.com/2000/06/16/features/story1.html

may I recommend anything by Kim Stanley Robinson? His latest set of books is set in Washington (and he apparently has been to town numerous times, because he knows all the little details. wonderful) and centered around the politics of climate change. BUT.....his most fantastic is by far the wonderfully mystical "The Years or Rice and Salt." and a good becah-y read would be "Escape From Kathmandu" which has the usual environmental themes, but with some crazy Yeti escapades.

Never been so happy to see a new kit and something to read since I've been hanging out here.

OK, for the Paris review (inside humor): Joel, you're going to think I'm crazy, but have her try Booth Tarkington's "Seventeen." You have to be about 16 or 17 to read it, so it's kind of now-or-never for her. I'd also recommend Wolfe's "Look Homeward, Angel" (and not only because he, Wilbrod and I all like to use "O" in sentences).

If she has a scientific/pointy-headed bent (probably in the genes), maybe Sinclair Lewis's "Arrowsmith" (another now-or-never" read).

If she likes spy stories/mysteries, there's a couple good ones with young women heroines: "The Old Vengeful" and "Gunner Kelly," both by Anthony Price, are among my all-time favorites.

I can't believe that Fisher seafood piece mentioned Capt. Billy's and Robertson's, the two joints I recommended to TBG last week! And CP chipped in with the Drift Inn near Mechanicsville! CP, you know the Drift? Jeez, always go there once or twice a year, usually by boat (daughter No. 1 lives upriver a few miles, and we keep our boat downriver a few miles). Forgot to mention it to TBG, though. And you're right: don't go askin' for none of that furrin beer like Beck's or Heinie-whatsis. If the brewery ain't a NASCAR sponsor, they don't carry it. And somebody else in the comments section touted the Stoney's chain I mentioned.

(I read that Coastal Living list of 25 restaurants a few weeks ago and was more than a little UNimpressed. Read to me like it was assembled in about 25 minutes by somebody who didn't know what he was talking about and just Googled some seafood places around the country.)

Oh, also for the Paris review: The Once and Future King.

And if she likes Hiaasen's sense of humor and history both, might I take a leap and suggest the entire "Flashman" series by George MacDonald Fraser?

Hey, that was Wilbrodog. He likes to howl.

"Flashman At The Boodle" is particularly engrossing.

I didn't discover George Eliot until after college, and I wish I had started reading her books in high school. My daughter liked Romola when she was in high school--it is a good book and a major theme is an intelligent young woman's relationship with her father. It has lots of action and moral philosophy. But you have to have a certain inclination toward "old" writing to like stuff like that (Romola is set in 15th century Florence.)

For any older teen, especially the distaff variety, I heartily recommend Barbara Kingsolver. First, The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven. A little later, Prodigal Summer. The Poisonwood Bible, if she's feeling ambitious.

I just saw a video of an interview with Kingsolver that was done while she was writing The Poisonwood Bible. She is a gifted writer, and also an impressive human being. She has a degree in biology and a masters in evolutionary biology. I'm going to watch that video again and take notes, because she said some amazingly wise things that I don't want to quote from memory.

Kingsolver's publisher says that The Bean Trees was a phenomenon because it is considered literary fiction but was also a bestseller. That doesn't happen often, especially with a first novel. The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven are the two books I have given as gifts more than any other.

Then again, as a companion to the high school years, maybe the most appropriate author would be Franz Kafka. (Oops, that thought just came out on its own when I tried to think back to what I was reading at age 16, and momentarily remembered what my life was like back then. I try not to let that happen often.)

Since this is, indeed, summer reading -- try the series "The #1 Ladies Detective Agency". I will admit to being addicted (mainly because it is based in Botswana and I am addicted to all things (mostly) African). The books (so far up to 8 in the series (I'm waiting for #8 to come out in paperback, as it just issued in hardback last month)) are very fast reads.

Just a thought.

When I was about that age, I loved the Hornblower novels, but I wasn't a typical teenager.

Thanks, LA lurker, for mentioning Jane Austen. I was starting to take umbrage at her absence. P&P is perfect for a 16 year old. But you all know my bias.

Anything by Daphne Du Maurier is good for a teenager.

I would recommend 'Love Walked In' by Marisa De Los Santos. There is a passage in this novel that made me sad, mad and elicited a laugh all at the same time. That's never happened before, and I doubt it ever will again. Another good one is 'The Shadow of the Wind' by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Or 'Katherine' by Anya Seton. The first two are novels, the last is Historical Fiction, which I am currently reading and so far really good. I like Anya's storytelling enough that I will probably read another.

Speaking of history and books, I read "1776" by David McCullough over the long weekend. It shows how frighteningly ignorant I am about the details of the American Revolution. Before reading this book I knew more about the Siege of Stalingrad than I did the Siege of Boston. And the Battle of Long Island? Wasn't that a gang movie? Anyway, it was a very fun book if you are into McCullough's style.

There were a couple of things I found especially interesting. First of all, McCullough relates that whole "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country" story about Nathan Hale. You know, the bit that Gene Weingarten claims is total bunk. I must admit my loyalties are split between McCullough and Weingarten on this matter.

Also, I now understand that Washington and Lee College has nothing to do with the Confederacy. The Lee in question worked for George. Like, who knew?

Of more relevance, perhaps, is the picture of General Washington that emerges from this book. This was not an especially patient man. According to McCullough, Washington was so antsy that he came dangerously close to attacking the Brits in Boston prematurely, which would have been a disaster.

This image of an eighteenth century ADD victim dovetails nicely with the Washington described in Joel's book. I can better understand now why Washington was not a man willing to sit around Mt Vernon. No matter how nice the vines and fig trees were.

Ten books I would recommend to anyone--not just a 16-year old--for summer reading:

"Dreams of Lost Desire"
"The Hatter's Daughter"
"The Rise of Willy Demps"
"Fortunes' Lost"
"Portraiture in Black"
"Miletus Redux"
"The Midlothian Termagant"
"Where Follies Grow"
"The Sixteenth Curtain"

Should anyone expect to finish that list before the summer is over, I can come up with more. I don't read myself, you understand--that vice is so 20th century.

If you're into history, RD, I think anything by Barbara Tuchman is worth the time. The First Salute, her take on the American Revolution, riveted me. I loved the image of Washington jumping up and down on the pier as the French fleet came in at Yorktown. No, you're right, patience wasn't Washington's virtue.

MOF, I haven't heard of any of those books...is there something wrong with me?

Thanks for the link, Joel. I like to have people check out my backposts. I see some good traffic from the post already.

At Balticon, Niven and Pournelle were asked which of their books to read first. They said that if you like science fiction read 'The Mote In God's Eye'; if you like general adventure, try 'Lucifer's Hammer' (which may be out of print, but they just got $25k to reissue it - talk about found money).

Personally, I would go with 'Ringworld' by just Niven before going onto some of the collaborations. 'Footfall' by Niven and Pournelle is also good.

Niven gave a talk pushing asteroid defense as a justification for an expanded space program, but didn't think manned missions were very economical for that type of project.

Okay, I was mistaken. I just learned that Washington and Lee College really *is* referring to the Confederate general. I was told otherwise by a know-it-all child who had better be nice to me if he ever wants a car.

Never get history info from your children. Today's helpful hint.

Yeah, there was a Lightfoot Lee in the Revolution, or something RD. But we all know which Lee is truly Virginia's darling.

Your kid needs a little remedial Virginia history for contradicting his elders;).

Padouk's reference to "1776" made me remember that older classic, "Miracle in Philadelphia" by Catherine Drinker Bowen--the story of the writing and signing of the Declaration of Independence I'd highly recommend to a 16-year-old. Then there's this old remaindered thing I stumbled across: "The Grand Idea," or some such, about some old geezer who goes wandering in the wilderness.

I was thinking about recommending Michael Shaara's excellent "The Killer Angels," about the Battle of Gettysburg, but I'm not sure it's exactly a "girl's book," though it is a great summer-reading kinda page-turner. And I always gotta put in a plug for Leo Rosten's great "Captain Newman, M.D." And Chaim Potok's "The Chosen." Then Leon Uris's "Exodus." (I had such a crush on Karen/Jill Haworth, who, God help me, is unbelievably a year and nine days older than me; she was 15 and I was but a mere 14 at the time. Older women. I just keep having this older woman thing.)

I'm shocked that our SF aficionados haven't yet chimed in with Asimov's Foundation Trilogy or "I, Robot," or Frank Herbert's "Dune." LeGuin has been correctly cited already, though.

Ha-ha, I get it. I can honestly say that I have finished that list...

Re: the New Yorker article on McCartney

I was feeling bad that I couldn't read it, so I went over to the New Yorker site and read the abstract. Actually, read the first couple of sentences, but when the article referred to Paul as "the surviving member of the Beatles," I took umbrage and stopped reading.

http://www.ringostarr.com/

I hope I get over my snit by the time the magazine appears at my local library. I do enjoy reading about Sir Paul. Thanks for the tip, JA.

Um, good SF choices, but I was trying to think like a sixteen year old girl/woman. And Jane Austen had already been mentioned. Did any one mention 'Wuthering Heights' yet?

SCC: Miracle AT Philadelphia. AT. AT. Gotta keep reminding myself: AT. The miracle IN Philadelphia was the 1950 Phillies.

oh, I forgot a wonderful book by Jan Wong! "Red China Blues" is a brilliant study of China at the tail end of the Cultural Revolution and later China's economic reforms under Deng Xaiopeng, as well as the most horrowing first-hand description of Tienamen that I've ever read. And because Wong is a Canadian who spends her college years (and then some!) in China, I think older high schoolers would enjoy it for its whole stranger in a strange land even though I'm ethnic Chinese and look like all the strangers agnst. Talk about trying to "find yourself" as a young adult!

Oops, my 3:16 was to MedallionOfFerret (as was my 3:00).

omni, did you ever read that Susan Elizabeth Phillips book? Yanno, the one you had to put the duct tape cover on?

kbert, I haven't read Kafka since college, but I remember it being pretty tough sledding for someone whose reading tastes run more to the Hiaasen side of the spectrum.

Wilbrod - You are so right. I mentioned to my son that I had learned that there was a Lee who fought with Washington and he pipes in, "Yeah, they named Washington and Lee College after them."

And I, the most naive father on the planet, believed him.

>Asimov's Foundation Trilogy or "I, Robot,"

I was going to recommend The Foundation Triligy but sci-fi seems to be the red-headed stepchild around here sometimes.

MOF... I really enjoyed "The Midlothian Termagant" but found
"Where Follies Grow" was a little pretentious, didn't you?

I can never come up with names of books on my own. But I read others' lists and go, "Yeah! That one!"

Some of Stephen King's books are darn good summer reading.
It, The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon, The Regulators & Desperation, Dolores Claiborne, Rose Madder, From a Buick 8, The Talisman and a few others have given me enjoyable (and pretty much gore-free) summer reading.

Joel, I believe that, without fear of disputation, the best thing for your daughter to read is "101 Ways to Get a Full College Scholarship."

The Lee ancestral home is called Stratford Hall, and is in Virginia's "Northern Neck" about two miles south of Washington's birthplace (both are open to the public). Stratford Hall was home to Richard Henry Lee and his brother Francis Lightfoot Lee, both signers of the Declaration; it was also home to Harry "Lighthorse" Lee, the Rev. War hero (and father of Robert E.). If you go another mile or two past Stratford Hall, you come to Curmudgeon Oaks, the stately summer home of the Curmudgeon family [sans children; we haven't told them its top secret location], which my wife and are still trying to finish (I gotta finish the *&%$# grout in the bathroom, then lay the "floating" hardwood floor, then plumb up the kitchen and bathroom, and voila, one completed ancestral summer home...if the damn place doesn't kill me first.) Perhaps some day I shall be able to ride my faithful stately warhorse, "Flatulence," over to Stratford Hall to pay a social call upon my neighbor's, the Lees.

Yes Raysmom, I did, and I liked it very much.

TBG, I'm pretty much the same but I had the advantage of finishing those books I mentioned at work and just left them here on a shelf so just turned around and easy list.

'Mudge. I was perusing for my stash for unread books, picked up and started to read Catherine Drinker Bowen's "Yankee From Olympus, Justice Holmes and his family."
Too weird.

SD - I remember my little sister was really into Stephen King when she was 16. There are probably all sorts of psycho-babble reasons for this, but King's books do seem to appeal to intelligent female adolescents.

That 'at work' should read 'on the way into work' you know, reading while metroing. I just verbed metro. Dang, I'm getting good at this verbing thing. Or bad at it depending on your view of verbing...gonna stop now...see you all tomorrow.

Bowen was a pretty good writer, Boko. Good, clear prose, no sense of being a "historian." Kind of like Tuchman before there was a Tuchman.

And another SCC: Miracle at Philadelphia was about the Constitutional Convention of 1787, not the Declaration. Right church, wrong pew.

I'd recommend Jane austen too. If she read them already, then she should read them again.

Another great summer read would be Robinson Crusoe. Which of course must be followed by a little history of Dafoe, and maybe Moll Flanders. Crusoe is a whole different book when you know Dafoe's politics and political climate, and should be read again as a more mature person.

Lots of good fantasy and light science fiction out there for both male and female teenagers. My son has been running through something called The Glasswright Series by Mindy L. Klasky. There must be at least half a dozen of them. Like a lot of mid-list genre novels, they don't stay in print long, so it's catch as catch can to get the complete series in order.

I just looked at her website and she is starting another series which is contemporary fantasy about a librarian with magical powers.

http://www.mindyklasky.com/books.html

Isn't it now the Foundation Quintet? Foundation; Foundation & Empire; Second Foundation; Foundation's Edge; Foundation and Earth. More nitpicks. One should rightly read "The Hobbit" ahead of the trilogy. One also presumes that said daugther has seen the trilogy movies, which is large measure are true to the books. Then there is the Salmarillion, of which we will not speak.

SCC: ..which in large measure..

Also, I believe "I, Robot" was a short story, not a novel unto itself. I believe it was the first appearance of all 3 of the Laws of Robotics.

"I, Robot" is the title of the collection of Asimov's robot stories as well as one of the stories. The Foundation Trilogy is also a collection of stories that were originally only lightly related.

Unfortunately writers and their heirs discovered in the mid-90s that anything with a famous author's name or series on the jacket will sell. There are a multitude of Foundation sequels and spin-offs. The same goes for Dune.

There's loads of history. Unfortunately, it tends to come in brick-shaped books.

David Hackett Fischer's Pulitzer-winning "Washington's Crossing" brings home the brutality of 1776. The battles were not the charming, decorous things that we may imagine. Survivors must have suffered plenty of post-traumatic stress. Not to mention that the infant US nearly went down the tubes.

Any of Catherine Drinker Bowen's books would be worthwhile, although they're maybe a bit bowdlerized by present-day standards. If memory serves me, she managed to do a biography Tchaikovsky without mentioning his homosexuality. But I had a great time with her book on Coke.

Back in the 1960s, an outstanding two-volume history of the District of Columbia was published. I picked it up because the base library had a copy, and read the whole thing. You learn about Boss Shepherd, cave dwellers, and most of all, about African-American Washington. After a bit of Google, I'm sure it's "Washington, Village and Capital, 1800-1878" by Constance McLaughlin Green (Princeton Univ. Press). Pulitzer for history, 1963.

I heard from the mother of the gentle giant sloth. She asked me to let you know they are engaged in sloth-health stuff. "No firetrucks needed."

You know, the other thing that would make great summer reading? Little Women, and March. She probably read both of these already.

But if anyone hasn't, it would be a great pair. Little Women to put you into the mindset of what he is missing, and then the father's story. Hmm I wonder if that bookstore in Kansas has a copy. I feel the need to buy some books.

Hey, Joel, dunno if your daughter's planning on taking AP Lit at any point, but my senior English teacher swore that the free response essay on that test could always be answered using either Hamlet or Huckleberry Finn. I've never seen a prompt that proved her wrong.

For fun sci-fi, try Connie Willis. (Not Doomsday Book, though, unless the Black Plague is your idea of fun.)

Hey, Joel, how about some plays? I'd push Inherit the Wind; 12 Angry Men (never was a novel, started as a TV drama and became a stage play before the movie version); The Lark (about Joan of Arc, great play for teenage girls, since Joan was one herself) by Jean Anouilh; Our Town; Come Back Little Sheba, Picnic, Bus Stop, and/or The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, all by William Inge (love William Inge's work); A Raisin in the Sun; A Lion in Winter (screenplay), screenplay to Shakespear in Love (readily available); and one of my all-time favorites, "A Thousand Clowns" by Herb Gardner (http://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Clowns-Herb-Gardner/dp/0573616574).

Does anyone read W.H. Hudson's "Green Mansions" any more?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0424/p20s01-litr.htm

I highly recommend "The Book Of The SubGenius" by Rev. Ivan Stang. Praise Bob!

And a good joke omnibus. Might as well learn a few hundred jokes.
Ditto for poetry collections.

And it never hurts to find what you've missed out on, kiddie-lit wise. When I did a library page job in the children's section I wound up checking out over 100 books on fairy tales (Andrew Lang and others) and other stuff I hadn't read as a wee gnomelet.

Of course, it takes the skin of an elephant and nerves of steel when somebody who knows you comes in and says "doing some heavy reading, huh ha ha ha huh?"

I still think serious comparative mythology and folklore study beats reading the Babysitter Club or other trashy series, tho'.

Dave o' the Coonties, I have no idea, but it's out there on the electronic ether now. So I may read a bit of it and then I can tell you "yes".

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/942

In regard Joel's reference to Gopnik's article in the New Yorker about the Lincoln deathbed scene, Gene Weingarten's live chat yesterday had the following comment:

Washington, D.C.: Seward did NOT say "Now he belongs to the ages." What Seward said was "Now he belongs to Theage's," which was a well-known 1860's D.C. funeral parlor.

Gene Weingarten: Hahahahahahaha

Oh, I *loved* Green Mansions! I think I may have read it at Achendaughter's age. What a lovely book. It may be worth a reread at some point. And so would the Karla Trilogy ("Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", "The Honourable Schoolboy" (my favorite -- so poignant) and "Smiley's People").

Oh, oh -- and don't forget "The Forsyte Saga" by Galsworthy. I read it over 30 years ago, and I've given it as gifts to my friends.

Karen, my gosh, you're right -- the New Yorker killed off Ringo!! That's, um, a major mistake. I can't believe I zipped right over that.

I wonder if it's just the online version. The abstract.

I don't think the copyright is still valid, let alone owned by a scientific publisher, Achenbach.

Raysmom, are you saying CP's son is in the hospital? Forgive me if this is wrong - I don't have time to go back and check antecedents.

My suggestions:

The Mists of Avalon maybe for some medium weight fiction.

A biography of Elizabeth I. Or Boudicca maybe? (maybe kind of grim for summer reading)

What age do most people read the Diary of Anne Frank? I missed that one.

The Diary of Anne Frank is most commonly assigned between the ages of 10 and 14, I believe. I read it in school when I was in 6th grade, I think.

Speaking of hair-on-your-chest reading:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/israel_cat_call

There is one book I haven't read but would like to and one I'd like to read again. I can't remember the names of the books or the women involved.
I'd like to reread the the book by the woman who studied a the cultures of a farming people in Africa and the forest people who interacted with them. I'm almost really kinda sure it wasn't Margeret Meade.
The book I'd like to read is the autobiography of the Englishwoman who travelled to what is now Iraq and was instrumental in the setting up of that country. I would appeciate the boodles help.

The second book may be a biography.

Boko, Lady Hester Stanhope?

Good grief. The girl's Joel's kid and is probably a near genius. I advise to skip the kids' stuff but go for something enrapturing. Try "The Man Who Fell to Earth" by Walter Tevis Jr., or maybe Mathiesson's "At Play in the Fields of the Lord."

Maybe Didion's "Where I was From."

I wiki'd Stanhope Slyness, very interesting but I think this lady traveled there during the British Protectorate.

Some more science fiction:

Heinlein
Podkayne of Mars (adolescent adventure)
Starship Troopers (space opera w philosophy)
which should be complemented by:

Haldeman
Forever War (nearly the same war, but from the perspective of a grunt rather than an officer)

Asimov
The Foundation Trilogy (greater sweep than all those big important tomes, and better questions about free will and historical determination, and a lot more fun)

Clarke
The City and the Stars (Young adult ventures out into the wide world, has adventures, and comes home again)

Kingsbury
The Moon Goddess and the Sun (Set in the context of cold war and nuclear arms race, which means a 16 year old will get a sense of the atmosphere of tension we lived with. How to understand the Soviets well enough to plan a strategy that can prevent mutual destruction? Looks at the history of Russia as a key to understanding the character of their political system, and a group creates a lived virtual reality/game to teach people to think like a Russian - introducing the idea that you need to understand your opponent to be effective; calling someone 'evil' is insufficient analysis. All in a good read.)

Knut Hamsen's "Hunger" might interest a young person.

//I wonder if it's just the online version. The abstract.

Joel, that was my second thought, that I didn't go back and add. The online abstract is written in a weird sort of off-the-cuff style, maybe they let an intern do it or something.

I have to ask: The Sun Also Rises?
I read that in high school and found it, to be blunt, vapid. Maybe I missed something, but could someone explain the allure?

Note: I also hated Catcher In The Rye, for similar reasons, but I can at least see where some people might enjoy it. I'm willing to accept a disagreement, I'd just like to know what attracts people to The Sun Also Rises.

I wouldn't recommend Heinlin to anyone let alone a 16 year old girl. There's scant evidence in anything I've read by him that indicates he even talked to a real live woman.
I recently tried to read "Beyond This Horizon" and only got through 50ish pages. It was laughable and only reinforced my low opion of him.

Karen, Joel, must just be the abstract. Looks as if they lifted (misunderstood) this from the article, graph 1:
"Besides being the surviving member of the most successful pop-songwriting partnership of the twentieth century, ..."

Is Boko999 thinking of Colin Turnbull and "The Forest People"?

Perhaps the New Yorker considers Ringo the equivalent of "functionally extinct" like the hundreds or maybe thousands of mammoths and mastodons that persisted, reproduced, and whatnot for hundreds or maybe a thousand years after their numbers dropped so low, or they were so dispersed, that the species were no longer viable and extinction was inevitable.

A discussion in the office this afternoon suggested that certain organizations are suffering from following their old mastodons who know where the mastodon food was back before the climate changed.

Josh, I tend to agree with you on the Catcher in the Rye. People who told me they loved that book tend to identify with the confused teen character.

I didn't.

Jumper, what did you mean by skipping kiddie stuff just because she may be a near-genius? There are millions of adults waiting for a kiddie book to come out this July, and I'm sure a lot of them are geniuses.

I'll stand by my belief in comparative mythology and folklore study being worthwhile, should her tastes run that way.

Fairy tales are an excellent introduction to literary analysis (identifying motifs) linguistics, Jungian concepts, anthropology, oral history, comparative religion, and they often involve some poems and songs and factual remmants of ancient practices.

In short, they're about as liberal arts as you can get.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folktale

So I called my little sister this afternoon. I do this now and again. After identifying myself as her better-looking sibling, as is our tradition, I got right down to business. I asked her what summertime books she read when she was sixteen. (This would be the mid 1980s if anyone is keeping score.)

"Stephen King," she answered, "because it was fun to be scared."
This part I knew. Then came the clincher.
"Oh, and dirty Romance Novels," she casually replied.

There was a momentary pause.
"You mean like Harlequin?" I asked.

"Oh, no," she replied. "The good ones that girls passed around when their moms weren't looking and then hid in their underwear drawers. You know, the stories were innocent girls became women in the arms of a mysterious stranger somewhere in the Greek Isles."

There was another pause.
"It is my understanding that you read a lot of these?" I asked.

"Oh sure," she answered. "They boiled my virgin blood."

I never get tired of talking to my sister.

Thanks Boko, I haven't been able to read Heinlein since 9th grade when I dumped the bf over him. I may have totally misread Heinlein, but the poor boy's devotion was a great clue that he was clueless.

I'm with Josh and Wilbrod, I never cared for Catcher in the Rye. I didn't get the point of Hemingway, either, but I figured it was because I don't have the right amount of testosterone. On the current English faculty of my alma mater, there is a scholar whose speciality is Louisa May Alcott. A guy, to boot. That thrills me.

I'm one of those genius adults waiting for the kiddie book to be published this summer. I will probably pull rank and read it before I give it to my younger daughter, my partner in the enjoyment of that series.

RD, that is a hilarious story. I read a fair number of those books myself.

Not sure whether someone's already mentioned this one, but my book suggestion would be "Special Topics in Calamity Physics," by Marisha Pessl [and it's not a physics text; it's a novel]:

http://www.amazon.com/Special-Topics-Calamity-Physics-Marisha/dp/0143112120/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-7667050-2560824?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180571759&sr=1-1

It's a murder mystery, and also a book about a young woman's relationship with her father, and her peers -- "the trials of a post-modern upbringing." The chapters are named for famous pieces of literature -- for example, Brave New World, The Woman in White, A Room With A View, Heart of Darkness, The Secret Garden -- that would themselves inspire a respectable summer reading list.

Oh yeah, just drop the daughter off at the library for a few hours so she can read anything she dares not umm check out under parental eyes. It saves wear and tear on underwear drawers.

"You're 16, go read what you want."

I do believe Judy Blume's "Forever" is very popular with teen girls.

McKinkley and MacCaffrey are also romantic fanasty (or sci-fi) writers.

Boko, the woman you were thinking of is Gertrude Bell. Book World just did a review of a book about her this past week, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/24/AR2007052402713.html.

The Boodle knoweth all.

Kbert, check that hot place for mail!

Philadelphia has been following the tale of Ozzy the German Shepherd, and it now looks as if he'll be spending the rest of his life in prison (considering the alternative, not bad at all). Background: Ozzy is a 7 yo much-loved family pet. He bit a child (8?) who had a history of teasing dogs, and was sent to the shelter while his family appealed. While there, he was extremely stressed and bit a worker showing off for tv cameras (okay, I'm prejudiced but I've worked with shelter dogs. What she did was *so* stupid.). He was sentenced to death, won an appeal and now has a job offer.

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20070530_Job_for_Ozzy_at_Delco_prison_.html

Joel, got the perfect book for her: A Separate Peace, by John Knowles.

Thanks for knowing that, Mudge! It was going to bug me till I found out who she was.

Sorry to alarm Wheezy or anyone else. The "firetrucks not needed" was supposed to mean CP is tending to son's medical issues, but he's OK.

Ooh! I almost forgot:
"Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell," by Susanna Clarke:

http://www.amazon.com/Jonathan-Strange-Norrell-Susanna-Clarke/dp/0765356155/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-7667050-2560824?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180574314&sr=1-1

Fantastic; absolutely fantastic.

> DotC: Does anyone read W.H. Hudson's "Green Mansions" any more?

Maybe Survivor will be set in South America. Is that close enough?

I love a book boodle! Most of my choices have been recommended already - du Maurier (Frenchman's Creek is very hot!), Austen, the Brontes, Le Carre, the Ladies Detective series. I agree with dr's suggestion of Little Women and March - and would add anything by Geraldine Brooks (I think she's a friend of Joel's, so maybe those books have been read). I would add Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club), Isabel Allende (House of the Spirits, Portrait in Sepia), Toni Morrison. The Kite Runner is very good. Maybe something by Collette? I read some of her stories in high school and have been meaning to read her again.

I read The Sun Also Rises last summer - that's the one about the soldier in Italy, falls in love with the nurse? I liked it a lot. Very moving.

Woo hoo - Spam King arrested in Seattle:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003727576_webspam30m.html

Nothing high-falutin' here: the entire Kinsey Millhone series. From '"A" Is for Alibi' to '"S" is for Silence.'

Lots of fun to read them one by one. (By Sue Grafton.)

I read Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms...knew I should have checked before posting. I like John Fowles too - The Magus, The French Lieutenant's Woman. Oh, and The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough.

I was hoping the New Yorker McCartney article was online. Will have to check for it at B&N - or is it subscription only?

Re. science fiction: Mudge, Joel suggested "Dune" in the Kit, I think.

By Ms. Achenbach's age, many have read "Ender's Game" (it's required reading in a lot of freshman high school classes), though not that many have read Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination." [an utterly misleading title for a book that's a sci-fi take on "The Count of Monte Cristo"].

Oh, great summer reading for those that have not read it yet (and perhaps worth a reread for those that have)- Pratchett and Gaiman's hilarious "Good Omens," possibly the most-loaned-and-never-returned book in Western Literature. Personally, I've bought 5 copies of it, and I can only find one.

bc

O I regret using up so much cyberspace last night on Whitman.

My punishment, all day on cnn.com at the top right is a sort of a picture of Lincoln and some rodent like creature bobbing up and down until you see they are on a seesaw hawking some big pharma pill that's gonna make everything alright.

I feel like Charlie Brown in "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

dbG, many thanks for the email message! You're a good friend even if you are imaginary.

RD, good story.

I have been trying all day to remember what I read at 16 but realized I don't remember that year at all, but now that Mostly has tweaked my memory somewhat it oculd have been the year I read The Thornbirds.

I am lucky to remember the names of books let alone when I read them.

Jeez, if I were imaginary, I would imagine myself much thinner than I am!

My own personal summer reading list (so far):

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy (sadly, this is a spring book that's rolling into summer)
Flashman and the [native americans] (Mudge, I'm giving him another chance) by G M Fraser
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Flat Out, Flat Broke by Perry McCarthy (no relation that I know of)

Also, I've recently started reading the Qur'an, going to take my time with it.

You know, some Tom Holt (Odds & Gods, etc.) makes for good light summer reading, too. Funny stuff.

bc

Here's a link to an audio story by the author of the McCartney article in The New Yorker. I haven't listed to it so I can't tell you anything more about it.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/2007/06/04/070604on_audio_colapinto

I suppose the article will eventually (maybe in a week or two) make it on-line. But I really don't know how they put things on-line.

I remember reading an interview with or article about one of the Beatles' biographers and he said that there has been so much written about them and out there in the popular culture that he didn't consider them necessarily reliable sources for their own history. He felt he had to check out what they said about some things in their own lives and in the songwriting as he would if he got it from another source - the "Liberty Valance" axiom is alive and well in their history.

bc, yes, I was going to mention Thomas Hardy - Tess of the d'Urbervilles is very good too. I haven't read Far From the Madding Crowd - should. I recently read a review of a biography about Hardy that talked about how scandalous his books were when they were published.

I love Anne Tyler too. I read The Tin Can Tree last weekend. The Accidental Tourist is one of my favorite books and movies.

Primal scream.

Now that I've got that out of my system...

Boko, is the woman author you seek, the one who writes about Africa, possibly Karen Blixen (nom de plume Isak Dinesen), who wrote "Out of Africa" as well as "Babette's Feast"?

Gertrude Bell was the British woman emissary to Iraq. New book just out, a biography; I read an older title. Too tired to look up the title of the book I own about Bell--but know right where the book is located. SonofCarl and I have Boodled about Gertrude Bell in the past, so you could Google the archives for the title.

What have you all done to Simon D.? He was like a breath of spring air--to me at least, and his style very much reminded me of Hitchens. (When I'm finding very brief moments of free time this week, I'm diving into Hitchens' delicious "God is Not Great" and having a good laugh at his sly bits of humor.) Simon D.'s sock-mate remark made my day, by the way.

Too exhausted to think tonight, let alone think of what might be appropriate for a 16-year-old girl.

Appreciated the excerpt about Stanton.

Seriously, Joel, the last Nabokov book I would recommend to my teenage daughter is "Lolita." It was a deliberate challenge he set upon himself to write an exquisitely beautiful novel that was a totally amoral piece of literature (because that was that type of dude he was; his brother, who was musically inclined but he did not like (he had some bizarre dislike of music), died in a Nazi concentration camp even though Nabokov could have helped him out of Germany). He loved Flaubert; thought Doestovsky weak. Art over everything.

As a result, "Lolita" is a bizarre book in the history of American literature. Much better would be "Bend Sinister" which is not only compelling but gives a sense of the claustrophobia of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the post WWII setting and the attempt to destroy the individual in those types of societies (a psychologically brilliant novel but not for the faint hearted).

*Channeling Dirda*

The Regency Romances of Georgette Heyer are terrific, but very dated (in a good way) a sort of "Jane Austen light", and the Summer of My German soldier is very good, as is Farewell to Mansanar.

TBG,
I have nearly all the Kinsey Milhone mysteries and intend to read them all, but I keep forgetting where I am in the alphabet. I know I am past D but not up to H. I guess it wouldn't hurt to reread one by accident.

Wow, what feedback! I've read all of these comments and I have to admit, I could spend the rest of my life reading these books. Thanks for all of your suggestions!

Some of my favorite books are adventure/survival stories such as Into Thin Air and Miracle in the Andes (as my dad mentioned). I also quite enjoy the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Of course, my all-time favorite books are those in the Harry Potter series, but we won't get into that.

As for more serious literature, I loved The Great Gatsby, and To Kill a Mockingbird. I am also currently reading a novel called Sophie's World, which is about the history of philosophy.

As you can see, I have a very varied taste in books, but this summer I would really enjoy reading something that's a substantial literary work but is still fun to read. I'm interested in Robinson Crusoe, Huckleberry Finn (that comment above about Huckleberry Finn being on the AP English exam caught my eye - I'm taking AP Lit next year), Lord of the Rings, Jane Eyre, The Things They Carried, maybe The Stand by Stephen King... well, the list could go on, but I'll stop it there.

Thanks again for all your feedback!
-Paris
aka "achendaughter"

I second the suggestions to read anything by Barbara Kingsolver and Collette. I first got into them when I was 16 and needed some great summer reading, and everytime I read them again, it takes me back.

Barbara Kingsolver's new book is fantastic as well, though it's nonfiction. Makes ya want to start a garden.

On a more positive note may I suggest, Willa Cather, Isak Dinesen, the Kristin Lavrandatter trilogy by Sigrid Undset, Edith Wharton.

I try to instill in my daughter that women can write great books too.

SCC: "Lavransdatter" not "Lavrandatter"

Paris, as a followup to the modern, true-life adventure stories you might enjoy Jack London's short stories. I believe some people think he falls short of "literature" but I never thought so. London's emphasis is on the story more than on the true-life, but he did have firsthand experience of the settings he wrote about.

Also in the Into Thin Air genre, I would recommend The Perfect Storm.

jgo, I am going to read Animal Vegetable Miracle this summer, and in the fall we are going to plant our first ever south Florida vegetable garden. Achenblog has been a big inspiration and I'm counting on Barbara to put me over the top, ready to do the actual *work* necessary to grow some veggies.

"The House of Mirth" and "Sister Carrie" form a great picture of the turn of the century (19 into the 20th.)

If you tire of books of strife, evil, war, etc. read Neville Shute --- particularly "A Town Like Alice" and "Trustee from the Toolroom."

dBG, interesting saga. I would say that the owners could be sued for failing to leash or confine their dog.

I'm certainly thinking the boy's tale has some holes in it-- all kids omit details that might get them in trouble.

I assume, since I didn't look at the archived stories, that there is colloborating evidence that Ozzy definitely was behind the attack.

That said, even a dog that "loves kids" doesn't necessarily love kids in all circumstances, and the tolerance drops off with age or pain.

My old dog who was very gentle and grew up with 5 kids, even let toddlers on her back as a young pup... actually was not crazy about toddlers (nobody in the world is actually crazy about toddlers. It's an horrible stage that must be tolerated.). A year or less before she died, she growled at one bothering her when she was trying to sleep. She got scolded AND the toddler got removed before she was provoked any further.

Wilbrodog will, if I can help it, never be in the situation Ozzy was in, where he was alone and being teased by a strange boy.

I don't care if he has beautiful bite inhibition and a good track record with kids in public and has encountered thousands upon thousands of strangers and accepted petting from hundreds of kids and is therapy dog grade. I don't care if he has tolerated rowdy behavior from little boys, and is extremely well socialized and has never so much snapped at another dog.

The difference is that I was always with him to let him know what was acceptable, and I could step in to tell the kids to stop hurting or bothering him-- and kids did try.

May Ozzy's sad story be a wakeup call to everybody with a great, gentle family pet. This incident could have happened in his own yard.

The most gentle of dogs have been killed in their own yards by kids and teenagers out to torture an animal that wouldn't fight back.

I've known dogs to develop panic disorders overnight after they had intruders or otherwise were harrassed in their own yards when alone. After that they never feel safe when alone.

That kind of incident, unnoticed by his owners, could have made Ozzy a fear-biter.

I like "My Family & Other Animals" by Gerald Durrell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Family_and_Other_Animals

Well, I think Achendaughter #1 has already pre-empted me, but I will recommend the following:

Stephen King, The Stand
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
Ian McEwan, Atonement
Alice Munro, The Lives of Girls and Women
Count Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karinina (Peaver & Volokhonsky translation)
Bergen, To the Wedding
Ursula Le Guin, The Sparrow Hawk Quartet
Horace Walpole, The Castle Otranto
George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss
Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Yann Martel, Life of Pi
Carson Mccullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (or, The Member of the Wedding, but preferably The Heart is a Lonely Hunter)
David Sedaris, Me Speak Pretty One Day

Well, I guess there about 100 more that I loved (or would have loved, had they been published prior to my 16th year) when I was 16, but that may do, Pig.

Mostly, the Hemingway about the soldier and nurse in Italy is "A Farwell to Arms." "The Sun Also Rises" is about a group of ex-patriate Americans in Paris and Spain in the 1920s, going to bullfights, trout fishing, and a lot of drinking, etc. It's claim to fame (justified, in my view) is that it was the first to describe the "Lost Generation" after WWI who wandered around Europe.

achendaughter #1, I will recommend for the umpteenth time The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen. Non-fiction, set in the Himalayas - more a journey to the inside than out, but a wonderful, wonderful book. And Jack London - Call of the Wild is a great, heartbreaking book; White Fang is good too. I'm so glad you gave us some feedback!

bill everything, I went through a Nabokov phase in my late teens. Read Lolita, Pnin, Pale Fire, others I'm forgetting now, his memoir Speak, Memory. Took a college class on him too. The book I would not recommend to a young person is Sophie's Choice. I love Styron, and read it when I was well into adulthood, but it was the last book about the Holocaust I've read - just too traumatic.

Boko, as Loomis mentions, Gertrude Bell came up a while ago. There was an interesting piece in the NYT about looking for her gravesite in Baghdad. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair indeed.

Back to Achendaughter recommendations. I would put Gulliver's Travels ahead of Robinson Crusoe. You're probably familiar with GT, but it's a whole different thing to read as an adult.

On Stephen King, skip The Stand and read It or The Shining. Scary stuff!

Thanks, Mudge, I corrected myself a post or so later. More Hemingway is on my list.

The Shining is my most scary book ever. I could not read it when I was in a room (let alone the house) by myself. The movie has the same effect on me - can't watch it.

I don't think I've ever disagreed with SonofCarl before. How marvelous.

The Shining is not *half* the novel The Stand is. The Stand has plot and theme and dialogue and settings and a Trash-Can Man. The Shining is inchoate and merely frightening. Easy. Like a movie.

And I would also note that Stephen King, along with Larry McMurtry, is the one of two living American writers who have an ear for his characters' contemporary language. Excellent!

The Stand will give you existential nightmares, which is clearly a more desirable state and better outcome than The Shining's frissons.

To the list of real-life adventure stories I would add "One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest," by National Geographic explorer/anthropologist/ethnobotanist Wade Davis. The book encompasses the careers and explorations of a number of men over several generations, rather than telling a single story of survival. But it's a jolly good adventure nevertheless, with many a touch-and-go scenario along the way. It's written in an engaging manner, so that it reads almost like a novel, i.e., not a boring, academic style. But it's also very informative and educational, not only in the areas of anthropology and botany, but also history, economics, ecology, ethics, and more.

[I should note that the book mentions the chewing of coca leaves and the imbibing of ayahuasca and various other hallucinogenic substances by Indian populations, but there's a lot more to it than that. (I wouldn't want the Achendad thinking I was trying to lead the Achendaughter astray.)]

Frostbitten--I am a bit behind (it took a while to wade through the 563-post Boodle) but I must chime in to say how much I love the RWF (running while fat) acronym. A friend and I periodically decide to RWF, which involves running to a mailbox, walking to a streetlight, running to the red car down the way, wheezing to the stop sign, etc. We have never managed to keep it up long enough to RWS (run while slim).

I didn't see Yoki's 11:06 otherwise I would have just agreed with her. ;)

The existential nightmares only happen if you get all the way through it, I presume. I just had indigestion.

I note that inchoate frisson would make an excellent boodle handle.

pj, thanks for the link to the interview - really interesting. I can imagine how it must be for someone famous and with such a full life to remember things. I have a friend from high school who recounts episodes of our lives in great detail - but of which I have no memory! Not sure if I've blocked them out or what.

Nice to see Maggie, slats, Boodleaire! CP, hope you and the kiddo are ok. Not sure what's become of Simon D. Maybe just tired of the incessant silliness, or too busy to boodle.

I should note as well that I am alarmed (but I suppose not suprised) that the Achendaughter reads the Achenblog.

Avert your eyes, you under 18s.

How can I make a poo joke now?

Not to mention all the life-affirming that goes on.

rain forest, the Durrell book sounds like fun - on order from the library. One of my favorite books is Maugham's The Razor's Edge, which is supposed to be loosely based on Lawrence Durrell's life. I'm not sure if I ever read any of his novels - guess I'll add him to the list.

I'm thinking that none of the Achendaughters would want to read the Boodle, if there weren't any poo jokes.

Or Pooh jokes, if you will.

Or even Piglet or Eeyore jokes.

Mostly, try the Alexandria Quartet, when you have lots and lots of time. In my early reading life, I often felt as though I were dreaming when I went into the fictional world.

When I read the Alexandria books, for the first time (at about 19?), my daily life felt like a dream while I fully went into and inhabited Larry Durrell's imaginary world.

I have never since got back to that magical state, but I hope to, someday.

Can I wall off "inchoate frissons" as my new boodle handle, if I'm forced by Hal to register (though I do love myself as Yoki)?

If you like to see exquisitely chosen words spread beautifully across the page, the zoologist Durrell's brother Lawrence has some things to offer, too. I read a lot of his stuff 35 yrs ago -- experienced images of the exotic East and my vocabulary grew, too.

FWIW, the LeCarre I liked the most was The Honourable Schoolboy. The trilogy is the best, but THS sucked me in most strongly. In books and movies I like atmospheric ones that take you there. Like Green Mansions, for example, or John McPhee, despite his often scientific topics.

A couple non-fiction selections for Achendaughter. Some fun summer reading:

Stiff:
The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

and Tony Horwitz's Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War

Boodleaire-I always rationalize that to be fit and fat is better than to just be fat. So I continue to RWF, if only for the endorphins and the race T-shirts.

I see Yoki seconded my recommendation about Lawrence.

rainforest, I had forgotten "My Family and Other Animals." So glad you mentioned it. As I recall, my mother read it in California, I read it in Ohio --- we talked about it via phone and letter.

Must read that again.

bc, for heaven's sake don't waste time on "Jude the Obscure." I know I was required to read that in college, and I cannot recall ONE SINGLE THING about it. Trust me, it won't be on the final.

I do love Gerry Durrell. Except when I read him again, I notice a lot of colonist prejudices. Very strange. He loved the animals, but maybe not so much the people.

I worked at his zoo on Jersey in 1965; he really was an old guy who didn't understand that the world had changed.

The "My Family" books are lovely. The collecting books not so much.

Yoki, you worked at his Jersey zoo?

Yes, I noticed the same thing in his books. My only surmise was that he felt those animals wouldn't be endangered if native peoples didn't sell them, eat them, clear land, etc-- and overlooked the culpability of poverty and the zoo and pet trade in driving such a market, including perhaps in part himself and his keen collecting.

Brown ecology wasn't even an idea in 1965.

achendaughter #1, the Must Read book that I left off my list is: "The Verbed Metro", by Ian Illiterati. Since I only had nine listed, I feel justified in adding this one; omni's comment brought it to mind.

I mean, if you are going to read fiction, read real fiction, right?

Sorry for going off topic. An update on the WaPo article regarding the Malaysian Muslim woman, Lina, wanting to leave Islam.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/world/asia/30cnd-malaysia.html

No one in the country is surprised. The Federal Court ruled that she cannot leave Islam. The judges have saved their own life. The country has avoided a major Islam vs Christianity incident where many lives would have been lost and properties damaged. It is the politicians who caused all this unhappiness. Unfortunately, it is religion that got the bad name.

SCC: own lives.

Yes, India has similar unequal laws concerning marriage.

The Hindu fundamentalists are rather concerned about erosion of religious identity through conversions and want to make it illegal for anybody to convert out of their religion that they were born into. One concern is that under the laws, muslims can have 2 wives, but Hindus cannot. The temptation to convert for extra wives is admittedly an appeal I don't see, (such nagging in stereo!) but it's there.

In short, they want to impose a new form of casteism. And they declare all tribals that might be indicated to worship the sun in some forms to be Hindus even if they have never heard of Rama or anything like that. It's their country, but I'm concerned about minority rights and freedom of religion.

Communal violence is sadly common in India. The supreme court is pushing for a stronger common law and perhaps phasing out the unequal marriage laws. I hope that occurs. That would remove a lot of the political impetus to meddle in religious identities.
If people never have to self-identify their religion to practice legal rights such as marriage, that is good protection.

after skimming the boodle, i can just hear the conversation--

"well, you said you wanted some book recommendations."

"yes, but not five thousand of them."

Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation, by Olivia Judson

White Fang, by Jack London. But, oh lordy, not Martin Eden.

Definitely "The Hobbit."

Definitely Earthsea. Not so much "The Word for World is Forest."

Definitely "The Dispossessed." Or "The Left Hand of Darkness." You really ought to read the rejection letter for Leftie at Ursula LeGuin's web site.

I can write you up a rip-snortin' yarn of risking life and limb and peripheral members in the dirty business of astronomy, if danger and adventure is what turns your wheels.

The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander (perhaps a tad young for a youth who writes so lucidly).

"Kidnapped!" by Robert Louis Stevenson.

"Lord of the Flies", maybe. I was a little younger when I first read it. It has had an effect.

Jules Verne.

But frankly, forget all that, and everything else we recommended except for one book:

Huck Finn. Huck Finn. Huck Finn.

Although, I am extremely partial to Tony Hillerman.

But, you have to read Huck Finn. Multiple times in your life.

I'm just amazed JA lets #1 stay up so late!

:-)

*quietly faxing some shaving cream into 'Mudge's slippers, since I'm up so early*

SciTim, it IS all about astronomy, of course.

*properly enthusiastic Grover waves*

:-)

Mornin Scotty. Mornin all.

Wibrod say : The temptation to convert for extra wives is admittedly an appeal I don't see, (such nagging in stereo!) but it's there.

There are quite a number of non-muslim Malaysian men converting to Islam because they wanted a second wife legally. They almost always do it secretly without the knowledge of the first wife. This is fine when he is alive. The problem comes when he dies. There have been many cases where the Islam religious department and the man's 1st wife fought for possession of the dead body. The 1st wife claimed that her husband did not convert and wanted to bury him under traditional customs but the religious department says otherwise. Then it goes to the court. Sometimes the case gets treated like a ping pong ball. Civil court says it is Shariah Court's case but Shariah Court bounces it back to Civil court. There was a case in the '80s where a ethnic Chinese man married a muslim woman and convert secretly. After he died, the usual fight with the religious department ensured. The 1st wife claimed that according to Chinese feng shui, the family must go through all the traditional rituals because he has a lot of sons and his grave must be designed the Chinese way. The religious department had no choice but to agree to that. The end result was a hugh Chinese grave with elaborate Chinese designs and all tiled up in the middle of a muslim cemetery. It is actually comical if it hadn't been for all the pain both families had to go through.

I agree with Yoki on The Stand vs. The Shining. I have read a lot of King books and have generally felt they were a waste of time, even though (or because) they are compelling and once I start one I have to finish it. The Stand was the only one I felt had some literary merit. I wouldn't go for the re-issued one, it must be 1,000 pages or so, the one where King put back all the stuff his editor had taken out for the first version.

I also agree with nellie about Jude the Obscure. I'm a big Hardy fan. My favorite is The Mayor of Casterbridge, but I like all his novels--EXCEPT Jude the Obscure, which is extremely weird. Hardy apparently had some serious psychological issues and tried to use that book to work through them, but the standards of the time wouldn't let him be explicit about it so it ends up being just inexplicable. After he wrote that book he didn't write any more novels, only poetry. He just wrote one too many novels, in my opinion.

My wife also mentioned that as a teen she really enjoyed the James Herriot books about being a British Vet.

I think of 'Jude The Obscure' whenever I read a story like this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/29/AR2007052900817.html?nav=hcmodule

In the book a woman tricks a guy into marrying her because she pretends to be pregnant. He loses a job out of religious intolerence. He carries on a long affair with the woman he loves, but she refuses to stay with him.

This is a book as real and true today as it was scandelous then.

I also agree with picking "The Stand" over any other King work.

:-)

I'm constantly amazed by how many books I haven't read. Great suggestions here for Achendaughter #1. I agrees that "Green Mansions" and "The Stand" are great reading for different reasons. Some books I have read twice - "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson (actually anything by him will be well written, informative and very funny), "Lonesome Dove," and "How Green Was My Valley." A great favorite of mine, but very hard to get into is "Horse Heaven" by Jane Smiley. If she loves horses, it's worth the effort.

SCC -I agree. It's really early and the coffee hasn't kicked in yet.

*faxin' Sneaks a cutout of Fred the Baker with a pot of Dunkin' Donuts' finest java*

:-)

Thanks Scotty. I do miss Fred, DD was far better before they expanded to every corner, gas station and convenience store.

I so agree, Sneaks. *SIGH*

Here's a first--I am recommending a book I haven't read, based on a movie I just saw: The Painted Veil, by W. Somerset Maugham. The same book was used as the basis of a Greta Garbo film, but that one was given a Hollywood Ending. Edward Norton, who studied Chinese history at Yale (I knew he was smart) and Naomi Watts, who is one of the best actors working today, co-produced and co-starred in this current version, which is more true to the plot of the novel. It's high-quality cinema, although it's slow moving and some might think it boring. The story is classic Maugham and I am looking forward to reading the book--don't know how I didn't read it sooner.

I'm not particularly recommending this as summer reading for high school students, but if you are interested in pondering the complexities of relationships, marriage, life, fate, and enjoying some quality prose along the way, you could do worse.

By the way, my daughter and I just started reading Willa Cather's Death Comes For the Archbishop, and it's looking good so far. I read it a long time ago but can't remember anything except that it made a good impression on me at the time. Further reports will no doubt ensue.

Jumping in late, as usual.

I read Anna Karenina in high school and absolutely loved the descriptions of Anna's arms, don't know why. The image kept popping up. I still think about it two decades later. I also loved how the descriptions of Count Vronski's teeth correlated perfectly with his mental and emotional state. At the end of the book, instead of smiling, he grimaces because a tooth hurts.

A book I've loved in the past few years, The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds

A book I've loved all my life, All Men Are Mortal by Simone de Beauvoir.

A book that shows us the uselessness of lots of things we think are important, Earth Abides by George R. Stewart

I agree with Mudge on Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy. It is currently on my night stand awaiting a re-reading.

For anyone who reads in Spanish, Rayuela by Julio Cortazar is lots of fun and the chapters can be read in any order. Each time you get a different story.

And, last but not least, Gulliver's Travels. A book for adults disguised as a book for kids.

Now, back to the Boodle to compile one more list of good books to buy, check out, or borrow.

Hey a bea c!! LTNS!! *waving*

I recently re-read LeCarré's non-spy novel "A murder of quality". The man can write.

Anybody for "Martian Chronicles" by Bradbury?

At that age I was reading lots of comic books. I'm not familiar with American comic books but with a name like Paris she could be intersted in Gotlieb's Rubrique-à-Brac (general non-sense), F'murr's Génie des Alpages (about a smoking shepard, a philosopher dog and his self-managed flock of sheep) or Fred's Philémon series. (about a young man who accidently fell in a well and lands on one of the letters of O.C.E.A.N A.T.L.A.N.T.I.Q.U.E of a globe of a parallel universe.)

Good Morning Boodle

I have been reading Jude as well, but I have also read 3 other books since starting Jude. I read for a while and then put it down for a while. It does follow a lot of todays concepts of love and marriage. And at times I really do feel Jude's pain, almost as if it were my own.

Oh, yes. I remember reading Bradbury. There was one short story that freaked me out about a newborn baby who kills his mother. That was not in the Martian Chronicles. From that, I remember the stories of children playing in the remains of dead Martians because they reminded the kids of dry fall leaves and autumn on Earth.

Hi Scotty!!

Morning all. Fell asleep reading the federal Head Start program standards and regulation manual so it's nice to see the recommended reading discussion continued.

Remembering back to 16 I'd have to say Stephen King absorbed far too much of my reading time. I read Catch 22, and enjoyed it immensely, but it was assigned.

More non-fiction recommendations:
Fire by Sebastian Junger A collection of pieces on dangerous places and occupations.

I'd also think perhaps JA knows of some series running in a newspaper now that is worth reading. Mark Bowden's Blackhawk Down was first a series of articles in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Mr. F and coworkers started reading it as print outs of the e-mailed story that were passed from hand to hand in the field. The book was good, and Bowden is much respected for "getting it right" in both Blackhawk Down and Killing Pablo. But, I liked the experience of reading the Blackhawk Down newspaper stories, even though they had that horrible gray dot matrix cast about them, and coffee stains, when I read them.

I don't think this has been mentioned... one of myearly favorites:

"The Nine Billion Names of God: The Best Short Stories of Arthur C. Clarke"

Has anyone here read Steven Saylor? His books are lots of fun, and you even learn some Roman history. Gordianus the Finder is a great character with a really interesting family.

Oh boy, a bea c--the story, "When the Bough Breaks" is seared in my memory and I didn't know Bradbury wrote it--thanks to you and the internet I now know he did, although he used a different name (Lewis Padgett)--Bradbury is on my "read while you are young" list, particularly Dandelion Wine and The Illustrated Man.

"Now he belongs to the (ages)(angels)" brings to mind Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance and Freudian parapraxis. The hearing of choice may be as simple as a liberal or conservative mindset. But overall in reading Gopnik's too longish article my mind was led to think about Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing."

'One Hundred Years of Solitude' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and 'Love in a Time of Cholera' (same author). I prefer the first to the second, but a girlfriend of mine says it's a girl thing that women like the second better.

I also don't get 'Cather in the Rye'. Forced to read it in school and didn't like it at all. Read it a second time as an adult thinking maybe with more maturity...nah, still don't like.

I was once 'caught' reading 'A Separate Peace' by my english teacher and she was totally taken aback with surprise. She said that in her three and a half years of teaching she had yet to meet a student who read for pleasure.

SCC: 'Love in the Time of Cholera'

Commenting on a few boodle-book-mentions that I adore.

Regency Romances of Georgette Heyer, mentioned by Maggie O'D - these delight, truly! All the mentions of words associated with fabric and fashion are not to be missed: reticule, furbelow, shot silk, tatted collar, lunatic fringe, plus and four, dimity, puce, sarcenet peliss, beribboned, cochineal, Cicisbeo, Jaconnet muslin, Malacca cane...

_Sophie's World_ by Jostein Gaardner, mentioned by the darling dot herself (PA) is very intriguing. The books, and author, made it on the international young adult underground, due in part to web-based discussion of the text and themes.

Underrated Scandinavian treasure, the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy by Sigrid Undset noted by Bill E. I read and reread the first book, _The Bridal Wreath_ as a teen, not knowing of the three others. I read them in a course on the medieval spiritual mind, in college. I would not have enjoyed the last two books that take on the reality of married life and parenting, as a young e'en. Really appreciate them now. Kristin marries a charming ner-do-well knight, to her yeoman parent's worry and disapproval. She also becomes pregnant before the ceremony. The prose is also wonderfully evocative of the harsh and beautiful Norwegian landscape.

Larry McMurtry's books were mentioned by Yoki. Reading the western ones explains in part our poetic yearn to drive a large truck. My father is truly Augustus McRea. Read the books; watch the amazing mini-series with Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duval. Note that the Ricky Shroeder guy launches his adult acting career as the darling and tragical Newst. See Diane Lane as a sportin' al, and Angelica Huston as a enduring prairie force....Staring also Texas and Montana, with lovely stretches between. And the scariest bad-guy ever: Frederick Forest? as the cruel Blue Duck.

Giant sloth is better. (O, Pollen, when whilst thou cease?) Still busy. Will lurk. Love rounded days on ABlog.

And here's a poem I wrote several years ago for a beautiful Bartender (Who loved Winnie the Pooh) on her 18th (she lied about her age to get the job).

Winnie

Winnie the Pooh
went to the National Zoo.
To see the bears,
that are there.

When he got there
the sign there
said: Don't feed the bears.

Winnie the Pooh said:
Oh me, oh my, oh dear.

She loved the poem, by the way, and I got free beer...

I am among those women who preferred Cholera to 100 Years. Thought about recommending Love in A Time of Cholera but had trouble imagining myself at 16 reading it.

Catcher in the Rye was a great read when I was 9, ok at 16, not sure I would finish it now.

The World According to Garp, read at 17 when it it was first published, was my favorite book to that point-and is still in my top 20.

Omni,

I didn't like Love In the Time of Cholera so much, either. And I did love One Hundred Years of Solitude. There are so many cool characters and interesting little bits. There is something about that opening story about going to see ice for the first time that makes me wish, every once in a while, that I could take my students from rural Virginia to see what living away from everything is really like.

Have you read any of Gabo's short stories? El rastro de tu sangre en la nieve (the tracks of your blood in the snow) is a strange and entertaining. I don't know if it has ever been published in English.

Growing up in Colombia, I was always supposed to worship Gabo. Then he wrote his last two books. Yuck!!!

Sheesh, time for a walk:SCC: A free beer...just one

Sorry for the blog-hogging-off-topic

SCC-O bother, that should be of course as already stated Love in the Time of Cholera not a and certainly not A.

I have weak MN coffee to blame. 14 days until I get a week off in Tampa.

I liked Love.. just fine...but really loved 100 years. I wil read it again one day. I'd love to learn Spanish to read it in the original. I've heard the words have a very lyrical quality that just didn't translate to English. Haven't heard of Gabo, but will check it out, thanks...

Good morning, friends. Ah, the book lists. When reading these lists, I, too, like Sneakers am amazed at how little