List of Recommended Reading - July/August

What a fun discussion we had! I'm impressed and inspired to read the extra sources D brought up and now have yet another book to add to the reading list.

Anyway, as the days get hotter and I need more brain-time, rather than veg-out time, I'm listing our last several "recommended" reads.

In no particular order, they are:

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (Mary Roach)
My Sister's Keeper (Jodi Picoult)
Wicked (Gregory Maguire)
The Plot Against America (Philip Roth)
The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
Running With Scissors (Augusten Burroughs)

These are books published within the last 7 or so years. There's a film version of the Burroughs book due out in late 2006 or early 2007. There's a musical version of the Maguire book. The Roth book got mixed reviews and the Diamant is one of my favorites to recommend to my friends. Clo reviewed the Picoult and now I'm curious about the whole idea, especially because I saw a similar concept in an episode of CSI.

If I were to read only one new book this summer, however, I'd love to visit the morgue with Stiff.

My other "you need to read this" recommendation tends to be The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay: A Novel (Michael Chabon), which I even recommended to my FATHER, who is a huge Superman fan.

And, of course, my all-time favorite genre to read in the summertime is horror. From Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley to Stephen King and R.L. Stine, I love getting so scared I feel cold. . .and have to repeatedly check my closet and under the bed for any bogeymen before I can go to sleep.

Anyway, that's about it for now. When we decide which book we want to read or revisit, we'll post about that here ASAP.

So, what are your favorite books to read in the summer?