2014 Summer Reading List


Summer Reading List

 

1. Nature: Ralph Waldo Emerson; Walking: Henry David Thoreau

Essays by two of Transcendentalism's greatest minds.

           

2. Concord Days: A. Bronson Alcott

 A collection of essays, not just about Concord, but various topics Alcott found interesting. Should be an experience.

 

3. Endymion: John Keats

Ah, Keats. One of his great romantic epics.

 

4. The Celtic Twilight and a Selection of Early poems: W.B. Yeats

A volume of essays on the nature of the faerie realm within Irish culture, as well as poetry.

 

5. Madame Curie: A Biography: Eve Curie

A biography of one of science's greatest minds, written by her daughter.

 

6. The Book About Blanche and Marie: A Novel: Per Olov Enquist

style='float:left imageanchor=1' v:shapes="_x0000_i1030">Sadly, a work of fiction. Blanche Wittman was a real person, and she really was Marie Curie's lab assistant. Unfortunately, there is apparently no biography of Blanche Wittman, though Enquest does write his novel from historical sources (letters, notes, diaries, etc.).

 

7. A Scented Palace: The Secret History of Marie Antoinette's Perfumer: Elisabeth de Feydeau ; translated by Jane Lizop

Looks fairly self-explanatory.

 

8. The El Dorado Adventure: Lloyd Alexander

I first met Vesper Holly when I was ten years old and she was seventeen. I loved the four books I read. (I still own The Illyrian Adventure and The Drakenburg Adventure {1 and 3, respectively}) I'm thirty-seven, she's still seventeen, but I'm looking forward to hanging out with Vesper again just the same. Hopefully we won't get into too much trouble.

 

9. The Jedera Adventure: Lloyd Alexander


 

10. The Philadelphia Adventure: Lloyd Alexander


 

11. The Xanadu Adventure: Lloyd Alexander


 

12. Swimming With Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals: Anne Collet

I cannot wait to read this book.

 

13. Between Two Fires: Intimate Writings on Life, Love, Food and Flavor: Laura Esquivel

The author of the incredible Like Water for Chocolate gives us nonfiction autobiographical essays? Yes, please.

 

14. A Darkness Forged in Fire (1): Chris Evans

A new-to-me fantasy epic. Oh, we are off on adventures this summer. (My seventeen year old already has his eye on this one.)

 

15. The Light of Burning Shadows (2): Chris Evans


 

16. Ashes of a Black Frost (3): Chris Evans


 

17. Composing a Life: Mary Catherine Bateson

 Cultural Anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson explores how five women have learned to shape their lives around unforeseen and unplanned circumstances, many of which most American women face today.

This book is about life as an improvisatory art, about the ways we combine familiar and unfamiliar components in response to new situations, following an underlying grammar and an evolving aesthetic.


Bateson sees discontinuities and interruptions in life, such as raising children, career changes, and divorce, as creative material rather than disruption, and she seeks to create a unifying thread of all life experience.

Just as change stimulates us to look for more abstract constancies, so the individual effort to compose a life, framed by birth and death and carefully pieced together from disparate elements, becomes a statement on the unity of living. These works of art, still incomplete, are parables in process, the living metaphors with which we describe the world. (Taken from The Blue Bookcase: http://thebluebookcase.blogspot.com)

 

 

18. Laughter, Tears, Silence: Expressive Meditations to Calm Your Mind and Open Your Heart: Pragito Dove

Again, fairly self-explanatory. Still working my way into a meditation practice. This looks like it will complement the books I already own.

 

19. The Tempest: William Shakespeare

20. Antony and Cleopatra: William Shakespeare

Billy.

 

21. Sophie's World: Jostein Gaarder

This is my daughter's book. It is a Young Adult intro to philosophy. Philosophy is a HUGE subject. I'll be smart and start small.

 

22. Thomas Jefferson's Garden book, 1766-1824, with relevant extracts from his other writings: Thomas Jefferson, annotated by Edwin Morris Betts

 I don't know if I'll get to this one before summer's over. I have never been to Jefferson's beloved Monticello, and I don't really know if I ever will. However, history clearly states that Jefferson was an avid gardener who collected plant species and created new hybrids, constantly reveling in the world around him.


I lost 4 of my images; I'll try to remedy this soon. All images found on Google.

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