A Summer Solstice reading list

Summer Solstice is my favorite benchmark moment of any year, even more than my birthday (November 22). Time is long and luxuriously filled with many more minutes, indeed, hours than any other single day of the year. The sort of day to spend in and out of doors, sipping lemonade, and having the occasional [ok, I admit fairly frequent] bite of a brownie, while reading a book. Like a cat following patches of sunlight, I change up the spots where I read during any given day.

Here’s my list of planned reading with a bit of reader participation at the conclusion.

1. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, Stieg Larsson. How could I resist the closing third of this entertaining thriller series? Decide for yourself whether Larsson has created a 21st century feminist storyline. I especially care for the details he provides about how writers, journalists in particular, develop their storylines. While there is not much detail on the craft, there are nuanced portions that focus on investigative processes and outcomes. Larsson likes to give us the breakfast menus of most characters, vexing for some readers. But, I like to know how and what others consume.
2. War Dances, Sherman Alexie. A collection of short stories by this prolific, acclaimed (twice a National Book Award winner) American Indian poet/novelist/screenwriter. I believe that crafting a short is a challenge and hope to learn something about the magic of brevity from this read.
3. La Perdida, Jessica Abel. One of my upcoming projects is a graphic novel that takes place in Mexico and the United States. In this book Carla, a young woman, seeks her Mexican roots in the Motherland. Her adventures form the core of the storyline. I hope to better understand how to roll out a narrative that relies heavily on a visual element. The images in this novel are all b/w, and it will be interesting to see how the colorful landscape of Mexico is conveyed.
4. Shutter Island, Dennis Lehane with Christian De Metter. A graphic novel based on the bestseller that was made into a feature film. This is graphic novel is printed in a monochromatic color palette. I want to learn how the use of color effects narration, and how to translate a highly detailed story that relies on dialogue for action into another form of storytelling.
5. The Ghosts of Belfast, Stuart Neville. I read a review of this book in the LA Times and its plot line grabbed me immediately. Nightly, the ghosts of twelve innocent victims appear to a former IRA hit man. They will not rest until he avenges their deaths by murdering those who ordered the violence that befell them.
6. Beowulf as translated by Seamus Heaney– Come on! What’s not to like here? A beast with an even beastlier mother coupled with a flawed hero who aims to do them both in order to save his fellow Danes. Very 21st century stuff, even if it was crafted in the first millennium of the Common Era. Besides I really want to do some more Scandinavian reading and the translation by Seamus Heaney fits in with my Irish picks.
7. Tinkers, Paul Harding. No high falutin’ intellectual rationale for this selection. I was walking down the book aisle at the local Costco and the cover art caught my eye. I opened it up and gave the first paragraph a read (a sure test if there ever is one), and I was hooked into the story. Now I need to go back and read the book to find out what happened in the early life of the old man who lays dying in the opening. I especially like that the manuscript was repeatedly turned down before a small press took it on as a book project, and then this first time novelist goes and wins himself a Pulitzer Prize! Proof certain that success is the best revenge.
8. Blockade Billy, Stephen King. There are two short stories, the first about baseball and the second is a bonus add-on. I didn’t read his last novel because it was too heavy and I worried that my carpal tunnel would flare up while holding the book, so I feel a bit disloyal to my longtime mentor.
9. No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy. I want to learn how to better craft men in dialogue, the language and cadence of men in the West. Because I just completed a couple of Elmore Leonard novels, I thought to try someone else in the tradition of the Western/cowboy yarn. These genres contain settings and people who I know little about. As a result I frequently am off balance when reading their works. I like that, not knowing what comes next.
10. ______________________. Open to suggestions. Let me know what you would add to give me my ten books for 2010 summer reading.