Summer Reading

#1

Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 4:37am

I've got 3 months of summer ahead of me and I plan to read a healthy amount so my speed doesn't slow like it did after winter break, can anyone recommend anything?


[also more on topic, is Wicked the book worth reading? or will I dislike the musical afterwards?]

#2

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 4:48am

For what it's worth, the Wicked book has virtually nothing to do with the musical.

#3

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 4:52am

The book of 'Wicked' is totally worth reading, but it will expose the musical for a Disneyfied love story it is. If you're not that comfortable with treating them as separate entities, then skip it. But I can't think why you wouldn't.

I've really fallen behind with my reading lately. Daymn. :/

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Notes from the Earlham Street Gutter

#4

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 4:53am

I think the WICKED book is fantastic, not a Pulitzer-worthy novel or anything like that, but it's a nice read, heavily political, darker in ways that would make the musical's "darkest" moments seem like a Disney ride, and with an Elphaba that is truly a complex, exciting, fascinating character, IMO. I would recommend the novel indeed.
I'm currently reading KAFKA ON THE SHORE by Haruki Murakami and cannot get enough of it. What a great novel. There's even talking cats. Love it.
If you like detective novels, there's this great series by Michael Nava about a gay lawyer called Henry Rios. Those are fun, and a pretty nice summer reading. I only read the last one, called RAGS AND BONE and really liked it.

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"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"

#5

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 9:36am

I'm personally not a fan of the Wicked novel.

My personal suggestions are:

Time Steps, Donna McKechnie
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

I have tons of other suggestions, so just PM so I can be more specific.

#6

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 9:39am

If you like whimsy, you should check out just about anything by Alice Hoffman. Her best book is PRACTICAL MAGIC.

I'm currently reading DANDY IN THE UNDERWORLD by Sebastian Horsely. It's a hilarious cross between LESS THAN ZERO and AUNTIE MAME.

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"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

#7

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 10:03am

I spent last summer re-reading the first four of Jasper Fforde's brilliant Thursday Next series, but having a working knowledge of some of the classics will help (although the first time through I didn't, and I still found it enjoyable).

This summer I decided to work through Armisted Maupin's "Tales of the City." The delightfully trashy soap opera newspaper serial, about life in San Francisco. However, tons of characters are intertwined, so if you need to, keep a notecard handy with a who's who and who's been with who.

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http://www.youtube.com/huskcharmer

#8

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 10:56am

Once again this summer, like in past years, I'm going to attempt the entire Diary of Samuel Pepys. The whole thing has been sitting on my shelf for several years. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

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If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

#9

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 11:19am

Snuff by Palahniuk

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....but the world goes 'round

#10

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 11:32am

If you're going to check out Wicked, read Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Mirror Mirror and Lost as well.

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Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never knowing how

#11

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 11:37am

I find Maguire good but a bit hard to get through at times.

That said, I've got Hugo (Les Mis), Doctrow (Ragtime), Musil (Can't remember the title) and Forester (Horatio Hornblower - no jokes) already bought to read this summer.

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The rain we knew is a thing of the past -
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.

Derek Mahon

"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."

Arthur Miller

#12

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 11:39am

Yes, Wicked the novel is definitely worth reading.

I'm currently in the middle of Jhumpa Lahiri's The Interpreter of Maladies, which I would definitely recommend. I haven't read The Namesake yet, but it's on my list, and apparently quite worth checking out, too. I'd also recommend Adam Rapp's The Year of Endless Sorrows, which I read last summer, and of course, The Great Gatsby if you haven't read it yet, because it's one of my two all-time favorite books.

I also plan to do a LOT of reading this summer, now that I finally have the time to read for fun. I can't wait.

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A work of art is an invitation to love.

#13

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 11:44am

I'm going to spend my summer reading the complete works of Jane Austen; I can't wait to get started!

The Wicked novel is very good, but I'm going to recommend reading the Twilight saga by Stephanie Meyer. They're very quick reads and lots of fun--the first three books (Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse) are already out and the fourth comes out in July.

You really can't go wrong with any of the other books mentioned--Les Miserables, The Great Gatsby, Ragtime, To Kill a Mockingbird, and especially Jane Eyre are VERY high on my list of favorites. You also can't go wrong with anything by Jeffrey Eugenides; I read his books last summer.

Husk--I LOVE the Thursday Next books! I've never met anyone else who has read them!

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"You're the worst thing to happen to musical theatre since Andrew Lloyd Webber!" --Family Guy

"Shut up! It's been 29 years!!!" --the incomparable Patti LuPone in her MUCH DESERVED Tony acceptance speech for Gypsy.

Kitzy's Avatar du Jour: Kitzy as Little Red Ridinghood in her college's production of "Into the Woods"

#14

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 11:45am

I need to give Jane Eyre another shot. I tried it when I was about twelve, and I couldn't get through it... which is probably fairly understandable. But I think ten years later, I can probably handle it.

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A work of art is an invitation to love.

#15

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 11:55am

I bought a book that contains 7 Jane Austen novels, so I'm going to be working my way through that. The first two in the book are Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, both of which I've already read, so it's nice re-reading them first before jumping in with new ones.

If I finish that I've got a stack of other books that I've been meanng to read, or I might seek out the rest of Jane Austen's shorter and unfinished stories and read those as well.

#16

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 11:55am

I've been reading Jane Eyre twice a year since I was 10--for some reason, it just has a very profound effect on me. I definitely think you should give it another shot! I would also recommend reading "Wide Sargasso Sea" by Jean Rhys. It retells the story from the wife's point of view and is a very interesting contrast.

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"You're the worst thing to happen to musical theatre since Andrew Lloyd Webber!" --Family Guy

"Shut up! It's been 29 years!!!" --the incomparable Patti LuPone in her MUCH DESERVED Tony acceptance speech for Gypsy.

Kitzy's Avatar du Jour: Kitzy as Little Red Ridinghood in her college's production of "Into the Woods"

#17

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 11:55am

Kitzarina-
Having just read almost all of Jane Austen's novels for a class on her (We skipped Mansfield Park, and something else), save "Persuasion" or "Lady Susan" for last.

Persuasion is her final novel, and a joy to read, but is not like most of her others.

Lady Susan is short (like 75 pages?) and is so completely different from everything else she wrote you won't believe it.

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http://www.youtube.com/huskcharmer

#18

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 12:02pm

My intention is to read them in order that they were published. So I'm re-reading Sense and Sensibility first. I love Austen but haven't gotten around to reading all of her works yet; hence my goals for this summer.

I love this thread!!! I rarely get a chance to share my English-major geekiness

---

"You're the worst thing to happen to musical theatre since Andrew Lloyd Webber!" --Family Guy

"Shut up! It's been 29 years!!!" --the incomparable Patti LuPone in her MUCH DESERVED Tony acceptance speech for Gypsy.

Kitzy's Avatar du Jour: Kitzy as Little Red Ridinghood in her college's production of "Into the Woods"

#19

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 12:06pm

"Breaking Dawn" (the 4th and final book in the Twilight saga) will actually be released on 8/2.

Of course...you can always read "The Host" in the meantime. :)

#20

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 12:12pm

:P I meant August, but my cold-addled brain typed July. Sue me!

---

"You're the worst thing to happen to musical theatre since Andrew Lloyd Webber!" --Family Guy

"Shut up! It's been 29 years!!!" --the incomparable Patti LuPone in her MUCH DESERVED Tony acceptance speech for Gypsy.

Kitzy's Avatar du Jour: Kitzy as Little Red Ridinghood in her college's production of "Into the Woods"

#21

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 12:15pm

To me, Summer means big fat juicy fiction sensations long since forgotten. That probably came from reading "Valley of the Dolls" during a lazy summer in college. A couple years back I started reading Edna Ferber and loved EVERY one of her books. Last year, I tried "Jewish girls come of age" as a theme and fell in LOVE with Marjorie Morningstar! What a book! I don't know what this year will bring- I was toying with reading all books about disasters- Poseidon Adventure, Herzog's The Swarm.... Sounds heavenly.

#22

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 12:16pm

I love Austen but haven't gotten around to reading all of her works yet; hence my goals for this summer.

Same. I mean, I've only read two of her novels, but I absolutely loved them and decided that I needed to read the rest.

Also, "Wide Sargasso Sea" is SUCH a good book. I read it in high school and I think that I was the only one in my class who actually liked it.

#23

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 12:46pm

I think the best one, for any English nerd, once again is the Thursday Next series.

I also highly reccomend the "Series of Unfortunate Events" because they have a surprising amount of literary jokes.

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http://www.youtube.com/huskcharmer

#24

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 12:48pm

The only Austen novel I have yet to read is Lady Susan. I love all the others, with the possible exception of Mansfield Park. I can't even count the number of times I've read Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion.

Emcee, when I read Jane Eyre at that age, the beginning segment that involves her childhood was a bit of a struggle to get through. When you go to the romance, though, it's unputdownable. I'd really like to reread it this summer.

The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite books, and I really like Fitzgerald in general. Tender is the Night is up there amongst my favorites.

Right now, I'm reading Eugenides' Middlesex, and I just finished E.M. Forster's A Room with a View -- which, I have to say, makes for really fast/fun summer reading.

#25

re: Summer Reading

Posted: 5/22/08 at 12:55pm

I recently bought Tender is the Night. Also on my list for the summer.

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A work of art is an invitation to love.