Summer Reads

Don't be alarmed, I'm not becoming a book critic, I'm not smart enough, though that hasn't stopped me with movies. But even though I've complained about the crappy summer movies, it has been a good summer for reads.






The Night Watch

It's World War II in England and lesbians are taking over. No, it's a story about a group of women whose lives intersect as do their war jobs in London. Great period detail, lots of surprises.


Gone With The Windsors
The cover makes it look sort of dry, but it's really quite funny. It's in the form of the diary of a fictional friend of Wallis Simpson as she recounts the affair that brought down the monarchy. Lots of name dropping, grand parties, scathing remarks. According to this he was a dimwit and she was a harridan, no big surprise.





A Share in Death

Abandoned because it was too stupid to continue. Murder at a time-share. If only.

Suite Francaise

More World War II, this time in France. It begins by following several families as they flee Paris as the Germans invade and ends with the tale of a love affair between a French woman and the German soldier assigned to be her boarder. The author, Irene Nemirovsky, was a Jewish writer living in France until she was taken to Auschwitz, where she died. Bleak story.

Middlesex

This was a great read. Oddly, the copy I bought doesn't say Oprah's Book Club on it, it says Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. I didn't know both could happen at the same time. It's a family epic, following the Stephanides family from Greece through several generations as they end up in Grosse Point, Michigan. The herione, Calliope, is an undiagnosed hermaphrodite and along the way she discovers and accepts the truth about herself.

Harry Potter

Bye-bye Harry. I really have a hard time accepting that there's no more. As with all of the books, it's overwritten, because who is going to tell JK Rowling to take out that bit please. But there's lots of tension and excitement. Of course, there's the final big showdown with Lord Voldemort. Ralph Fiennes is going to get several weeks work out of it when they do the movie. And contrary to rumor, no one particularly important gets killed here, Dumbledore died in the last one. But I salute JK Rowling for giving kids (and me) some good books to read. I had good books as a kid and it made me want to keep reading.