Summer Books

Summer's the great time for reading, at least until those early evenings of winter which my friend Steve Cooper likes, because then you can settle into your chair by 8 or so and read. I decided it was silly to have a separate reading blog and will just note things here. Here are highlights from May and June:

Edith Wharton's The Buccaneers: The divine Mrs. W. at her most lyrical. I first saw parts of the TV adaptation, then read the book. The period is fascinating to me, as are the glimpses of society life in America and Europe, young lads and lasses on the make. Will the girl get the right guy? Will the cad win her heart? Not a dull moment here, and of course the lovely scenes of Newport and life in its summer "cottages." I went to college with Beryl Slocum, whose family owned one of the houses on Ocean Drive, and I once toured Rosecliff with Kate and Zack when they were little. Rosecliff was used for parts of the movie of The Great Gatsby, while, jarringly to a native, Long Island Sound was substituted for the lively Atlantic coast.

Daniel Pink's The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: the Last Career Guide You've Ever Need. Doug Johnson of the Blue Skunk Blog says that every high school library needs a copy of this book by Pink, the author of A Whole new Mind, a book already in my school library. So I bought it and then was delighted to find that our new academic dean was giving each of us a copy of WNM for our summer reading. i thought I'd start with johnny, as it's a quick, graphic novel study of pink's six rules. It's a little late in the game for me, but as I continue to work and think about my work and as the school and library continue to evolve in interesting ways, I'm glad to have these tools.

[Ooohhhnnnhhh nnnnrrhhhhsnfsnfsnffsnffhrnffhehehe...]

~~~ "The past is a different country. They do things differently there."

Quick quiz: who do you hear saying these words, in a distinct intonation? Having seen, once, and then again, and again, Scorsese's movie of The Age of Innocence, how can I not forever after and always hear these words in Michele Pfieffer's voice?

But now there's a new voice on the block:

[Oh oh oh...stop for a gasp of breath [nnh nnh nnh], [wipe tears from eyes, blow nose] You know, I hope, about the "My Dinner With Andre" action figures, and the Remains of the Day lunchbox, (you do, don't you? I hope so... ) -- but do you know about the "Age of Innocence" Board Book? Go look -- it's on LibraryThing. Once you get there, you'll have to drill down a bit -- search for the book, then look at the variant editions and their tags. I'm not saying that you'll SEE the board book edition, but you'll see it listed. Maybe we can find it at wonderful Powells.