Summer has arrived, in spirit if not
in reality. It’s a season of lazy afternoons spent sipping lemonade by the
swimming pool or, if you’re more like me, spent shoving handfuls of salty
popcorn in your mouth while watching the latest epic blockbuster in a crowded, bustling
mall theater. Summer is also that time of the year when people start looking
for good beach reads. So, without further ado, here is my personal list of
must-read books for anyone with a little leisure time on his or her hands:
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
The Plot: A
fictionalized account of a group of soldiers’ experiences during the Vietnam
War
Why You Should Read It: O’Brien’s book is an eye-opener, stunning in its
thoughtfulness and emotional honesty and the vividness with which it depicts
the realities of war. A classic of war literature.
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Plot: 14
year old Susie Salmon watches from beyond the grave as her family and friends
confront the aftermath of her murder.
Why You Should Read It: Forget Peter Jackson’s failed cinematic adaptation. Alice
Sebold nimbly mixes genres – horror, fantasy, domestic/family drama, mystery –
and delves into the minds of her wonderfully complex and surprisingly relatable
characters. Her writing lends the story a unique, ethereal beauty.
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
The Plot:
Frank and April Wheeler dream of breaking out of their settled and seemingly
idyllic yet unfulfilling lives in 1950’s suburbia.
Why You Should Read It: Richard Yate’s portrayal of suburban ennui still feels
startlingly relevant, even though it was published fifty years ago. His
protagonists are stubbornly flawed yet painfully, heartbreakingly empathetic,
and their struggles will resonate with anyone who has ever feared that this is
it.
Big If by Mark Costello
The Plot: A
Secret Service agent returns to her hometown during a campaign stop for the
Vice President of the United States, whom she helps protect.
Why You Should Read It: Buoyed by slick, acerbic prose and memorable characters,
Costello’s part satire/part character study offers a sharp and insightful
commentary on post-9/11 paranoia and disillusionment.
Dirt Music by Tim Winton
The Plot: The
discontented, young housewife of a well-respected fisherman in a small
Australian town becomes intrigued by a secretive but emotionally damaged loner.
Why You Should Read It: That premise likely sounds utterly dull and cliché, but
trust me, this book is anything but. Tim Winton brilliantly captures both the
stark, rugged beauty of the Australian landscape and the distinct culture of
the people living there, and the relationships that form between the three
central characters are far more nuanced and compelling than one might expect
from a love-triangle romance.
One Day by David Nicholls
The Plot: A When Harry Met Sally-esque romance that
follows the relationship between its hero and heroine as it evolves over twenty
years, checking in on them on the same day each year
Why You Should Read It: It’s that rare romance that feels less like a Cinderella
story and more like something that might actually happen in real life. Thanks
to his witty, endlessly perceptive prose, Nicholls actually makes us care about
his couple and is unafraid of showing them at their most vulnerable and
desperate. One Day is as much about
facing disappointment, missed opportunities and loss as it is about finding
love and happiness.
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Plot: A
romance involving a man who jumps through time and the ordinary woman he falls
in love with
Why You Should Read It: Yes, this is another romance, but like in One Day, the energetic, heartfelt
writing elevates it far above your standard Nicholas Sparks sapfest. Henry and
Clare make a thoroughly winning couple, and Niffenegger mines them for
extraordinary emotional depth, turning what could have been a trite melodrama
into one of the most exuberant, poignant love stories I’ve ever read.
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
The Plot: Three
generations of women are all affected by the Virginia Woolf novel Mrs. Dalloway.
Why You Should Read It: Cunningham is a master of words, capable of transforming the
most mundane acts into moments of transcendent beauty and importance. This
intimate, graceful character study won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
London Boulevard by Ken Bruen
The Plot: Just
released from prison, a criminal takes a job working for a reclusive,
once-great stage actresses and attempts to leave behind his violent past and
his old life in London’s criminal underworld.
Why You Should Read It: Filled with idiosyncratic and delightfully memorable
characters, Ken Bruen’s twisted, darkly comic take on the story from Billy
Wilder’s classic film Sunset Boulevard
simmers with gritty realism and zips along with exhilarating ease.
The Passage by Justin Cronin
The Plot: A
mysterious, young girl is the possible savior of humanity after a vampire-like
virus infects the human population and ends modern society as we know it.
Why You Should Read It: Epic and ambitious in scope without ever losing sight of the
humans at its center, this thriller is alternately terrifying and tender. Cronin
proves adept at not only juggling a vast ensemble of characters, but also at
sustaining suspense over a jaw-dropping number of pages (876, to be exact);
even the most seemingly tranquil moments are laced with tension. Apocalyptic
fiction at its most visceral and chilling.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Plot: In a
world where disease is a thing of the past, thanks to the use of clones as
organ donors, three students at the elite school of Hailsham in the England
countryside grow up and must face harsh truths about the nature of their
existence and their future.
Why You Should Read It: Brimming with intelligence and compassion, this sci-fi coming-of-age
story moves at a meditative pace that almost lulls the reader into a false
sense of security before delivering an emotional gut-punch of an ending. It’s a
quietly devastating read, and Ishiguro’s ideas and characters will linger in
your mind long after the final page has been turned.
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
The Plot: A
series of vignettes and interlocking stories that all help paint a portrait of
New York City in 1974, the year Philippe Petit walked across a tightrope
between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center
Why You Should Read It: McCann displays great empathy for his characters, who come
from all walks of life and each manage to make an impact no matter how brief
their appearance within the book is. Weaving the disparate storylines together
with impressive subtlety and poise, he explores the fragility and power of
human connection.
No comments:
Post a Comment