Readers & Writers 2007 Summer Reading List

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In a recent NPR story, there was a reference to the "testiness" of Americans re: the 2008 presidential race. A lot of people I've talked to lately are testy. About politics. About the war in Iraq. About globalization or China's economic impact. About 20-something children moving back home, without a job. About aches and pains, or taxes and inflation. About global warming and urban sprawl. Enter the good read. There are two approaches: read more about the issue that irks you-or--forget those pesky problems and dive into a novel or biography that takes you out of this time and place. I use books both ways, of course, though this time around my recommendations are all fiction, set in other times, other places. All are written by great storytellers. I remain a fan of the well-told yarn-whether The Odyssey, A Thousand and One Nights, or Huckleberry Finn.

Keep sending me those titles…we'll keep making these lists. Visit us at ncpr.org for all of the recent reading lists. Or, contact me at the station:

Ellen Rocco
ellen@ncpr.org
1-877-388-6277

Interspersed throughout this list you'll find some quotes-really, insults-- from authors and other persons of note. Barbs. Zingers. Well, it's safer than shooting rockets and bombs at each other, and it satisfies the testiness in all of us. Like this bit of literary repartee:

He has never been known to use a word that might send
a reader to the dictionary.
-- William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions
come from big words?
-- Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)

Ellen Rocco, NCPR Station Manager/Readers & Writers Co-host

• A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini. The second novel by the author of the international bestseller, The Kite Runner, also set in Afghanistan. This new tale follows two young women who come of age at the end of the Soviet war and rise of the Taliban.
• Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen. An absorbing tale of the Depression, the circus life, and love…and the love for animals moved me as much as the central romantic story. Very readable. Perfect for a summer beach.
• Thirteen Moons, Charles Frazier. The author of Cold Mountain returns with a long-awaited second novel, this one set in the 19th century southeast, where the traditional Cherokee world faces the final encroachments from a burgeoning, often unethical white America. A love story, and a fine historical fiction.
• Deafening, Frances Itani. Set in Ontario at the turn of the last century, the protagonist is a young deaf woman, who is bright and sensitive and, like all those around her, is caught up in the horrors of WWI.

Chris Robinson, Clarkson University/Readers & Writers Co-host, Hannawa Falls

The best thing about summer reading is the time you get to read longer books or read a few things from a favorite author. This past season we interviewed Jonathan Lethem and focused on his great novel, Motherless Brooklyn. I read his critically acclaimed novel The Fortress of Solitude last summer and loved every page. In January and February I began collecting his other works. My favorite bookstore in Albany had a number of things, and I was able to purchase other Lethem titles on line. And, so, through the month of June I read Lethem's first novel, Gun, With Occasional Music, and the short story and essay collections: The Wall of the Sky, The Wall of the Eye; Men and Cartoons; and The Disappointment Artist. If you enjoy the work of Jonathan Lethem, then you don't have to wait long for something new to hit the shelves. He is one of the most distinctive writers on the scene today.

Here are my other recommendations:

Fiction

• My top recommendation this summer is the work of Chilean writer Roberto Bolano. He died in 2003, and his work is reaching English-speaking audiences just now. I think Bolano an important writer in the same way I think of Kafka or Phillip Roth as important. They reveal something deep about what it means to be human, and they do this with fluency and energy. The fastest growing human group today is refugees. Bolano was a political exile, and his writings are rich portraits of those condemned to lives of statelessness, estranged from their homes. The works of Bolano available in English are: Last Evenings on Earth, By Night in Chile, Amulet, and the novel he regarded as his best, The Savage Detectives. Bolano's is a unique literary voice, funny, bawdy, sad, and philosophical. Losing him to liver disease at age 53 is an enormous tragedy. Be sure to read and enjoy what he left us.
• Richard Powers, The Echo Maker. This is a National Book Award winning novel about a man who has a terrible truck accident, and his sister's efforts to nurse him back to health. The twist is that the man emerges from his coma with Capgras Syndrome, a condition where your visual and intellectual identifications no longer line up with your emotions. He believes his sister is an imposter. Powers is a wonderful reader of neuroscience and the philosophy of the mind. He weaves science and fiction together beautifully with a story that is impossible to put down.
• Marisha Pessl, Special Topics in Calamity Physics. This is a first novel by a young writer. It is not a perfect book by any means, but I recommend it because I will never forget the protagonist, a brilliant girl named Blue, and her relationship with her father, an itinerant professor of Political Science. Yes, I do teach Political Science at a university, and yes I do have daughters. But to read Pessl's novel is to see the world through Blue's eyes. If you ever wondered what it would be like to be the smartest person around, reading this book will give you that vicarious thrill.
• Saul Bellow, Ravelstein. I re-read this novel because I miss Saul Bellow and because a reviewer in the on-line journal, Slate, wrote an essay a few months ago to proclaim this book Bellow's greatest literary achievement. I'm not sure if I agree, but Ravelstein is on par with Herzog and Humboldt's Gift.

NonFiction and Philosophy

• Until April of this year, I had not read any of the books by music critic and historian Greil Marcus. I'm sorry I waited so long. For Marcus a single artist (Doc Boggs, Elvis, Robert Johnson), a single song (Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone"), a single band (The Sex Pistols) is a window onto a far more complex historical and creative landscape than you ever have imagined. He is a truly wonderful writer who is at his best when he loves his subject. I tore through these books of his: Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n Roll Music; Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century; The Dustbin of History; Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes; Double Trouble: Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley; The Shape of Things to Come; Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads. Avid listeners of the Blue Note and Radio Bob's show will not want to miss these books.
• Ian Buruma, Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo Van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance. Theo Van Gogh was a filmmaker who liked to provoke his audience. He regarded his own bad behavior as something of a Dutch tradition, but he failed to see the changes in his country's political culture created by the growing fundamentalism in its Muslim community. He was shot and stabbed to death on an Amsterdam street by an Islamic fanatic. We are left with the question: Must the Enlightenment value of toleration be extended to those who regard themselves as enemies of the Enlightenment?
• Vaclav Havel, To the Castle and Back. I'm trying to imagine a US President producing a memoir of this high literary quality and I find myself tested severely. There are three voices at work here: the day-to-day voice of Havel as President, the retrospective voice of Havel looking back on how he went from dissident playwright to President of his country, and the voice of a reflective, even journalistic Havel responding to deeply critical questions about his policies and actions through his time in office.
• Julianne Lutz Newton, Aldo Leopold's Odyssey: Rediscovering the Author of 'A Sand County Almanac'. Newton has written an insightful and literate intellectual biography of Leopold. Her presentation of Leopold's "land ethic" is vibrant, and her thoughts on the science behind his environmental vision are a true contribution.
• Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion. I'm not sure that this book would convince any deist to rethink her or his religious values and orientation to the world, but this is quite a good collection of some of the better arguments in support of a non-mystical, scientific view of life. Along with Sam Harris' The End of Faith and Christopher Hitchens' God is Not Great, The God Delusion is part of what seems to be a growing critical response to the various brands of religious fanaticism so audible today.
• Jim Harrison, Off to the Side. Harrison's memoir; and it is just as cool and crazy as you would expect it to be. I also read his collection of essays on eating and drinking, The Raw and the Cooked. If he had known he was going to live so long, he'd have taken better care of himself.
• Kinky Friedman, The Great Psychedelic Armadillo Picnic. This is one in a series of books about walking in America. Friedman gives us a grand tour of his city of Austin, Texas. Very funny.
• Floyd Abrams, Speaking Freely. What everyone should know about the freedom of the press.
• Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes. This is just a great idea for a book, and I can't believe I didn't think of it myself. The jokes are great.

I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent
a nice letter saying I approved of it.
-- Mark Twain

John Ernst, Summer Reading Call-in Co-host, Elk Lake

• The Lay of the Land, Richard Ford. For those who know Sportswriter (1986) and Independence Day (1995, Pulitzer Prize, Pen/Faulkner Award), Frank Bascombe will be a familiar figure. This novel covers the period from the Tuesday before Thanksgiving 2001 through the holiday, with a presidential election hanging in the balance and the life of Frank Bascombe, philosopher kind of New Jersey realtors, also hanging very much in the balance. The novel is funny, sad, disturbing, and occasionally exasperating. It is completely self-contained, so that you don't have to read the other books to follow what is going on, but you might want to. Ford is a quirky, brilliant writer.
• Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, Nathaniel Philbrook. Mayflower spans the critical 55 years from the voyage of the leaky, overloaded ship carrying 102 passengers to the New World; through the signing on board of the Mayflower Compact, prefiguring both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution; the founding of Plymouth Colony; the establishment of good relations with Massosoit, Sachem of the Pokanoket tribe who were essential to the Pilgrim's early survival; through the bloody disaster caused by the second generation of Pilgrim and Native and called King Philip's War in which the English casualty rate was proportionally eight times that of World War II and the Native loss between 60-80% of the population. Along the way, Philbrook peels back the layers of sentiment and myth that have clouded modern views of Plymouth Colony. His writing is lucid, direct and vivid. This is a book I read straight through practically without pause and was sorry to finish. It is now available in paperback. I urge you not to miss it.
• On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan. This brief novel is, I think, a real tour de force. The minute description of a horrendous wedding night in July 1962 at a seaside British hotel becomes the prism through which we see two young lives poised at a critical juncture. That McEwan packs so much into such a short narrative is a miracle. The author's followers are flocking to this novel, which is already on the best-seller list. If you haven't read him before, though, you might want to start with Saturday, which has a much wider range. But like Amsterdam, another bite-sized novel, which won the Booker Prize in 1998, On Chesil Beach packs a surprising punch.
• Thirteen Moons, Charles Frazier. From the very first lines, Charles Frazier sweeps you into this epic tale of Will Cooper, looking back nearly 100 years at a life that saw him found and then lose an empire and pursue a great love that he never quite realizes. This is a rollicking fine story told in language as rich and beautiful as the mountain country in which it is set.
• Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign 1941-1945, Evan Thomas. The author is assistant managing editor of Newsweek and the author of a biography of John Paul Jones. This new book is a fascinating history of what he calls the last great naval campaign-the war in the Pacific that began with Pearl Harbor in 1941 and ended with the surrender of the emperor Hirohito in 1945. Concentrating on four commanders-two American and two Japanese-Thomas builds the story to the dramatic climax of the Battle of Leyte Gulf in which the Japanese fleet was effectively destroyed. You don't have to be a naval history buff to enjoy this entertaining human story. This is a book that bids to become a classic of the genre.
• The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, Candice Millard. In 1913, after sustaining a humiliating loss in the presidential election as a third party (Progressive) candidate, Theodore Roosevelt decided to plunge into an extreme physical test, as he often had in moments of crisis. Accompanied by his son, Kermit, a team of scientists from the American Museum of Natural History (a Roosevelt-sponsored institution) and an eminent Brazilian explorer, Roosevelt helped organize a party to explore an uncharted river in the Amazon. The trip very nearly killed him. This is a lively adventure story told with flair (although not with great subtlety) and it provides a welcome glimpse of T.R., one of the largest personalities and, at 200 lbs, people ever to stride the American political stage.

I have never killed a man, but I have read
many obituaries with great pleasure.
-- Clarence Darrow

• The Places In Between, Rory Stewart. This is the account of a young Scot, a reporter, who walks alone in the dead of winter across Afghanistan from heart in the West to Kabul in the East in 2002, only weeks after the defeat of the Taliban. What Stewart sees are the remains of the great Buddhist and Muslim civilizations wracked by 25 years of war against Russians, Taliban and local tribes. What he learns is that the British and American goals of bringing peace and democracy and women's rights to the region are completely misunderstood and are not desired. These are people some of whom have never gone five miles outside their own village, to whom the values of the West are as remote as the stars. Stewart writes beautifully, his prose simple and clear, without vanity and without pretension. This is an impressive and a moving story, told vividuly in brief, affecting scenes. There is no political message here-just a dose of reality.
• The Prince of the Marshes, Rory Stewart. Published in 2006, two years after The Places In Between, by the 30-year-old Scot, former infantry officer, diplomat and journalist, telling the believe-it-or-not story of the year 2003 when he served as deputy governor of Amara and later Nasiriyah, two remote provinces in the marsh regions of Southern Iraq. Stewart, a humane and unflappable administrator with a great affection for Arab life, some Farsi language skills, and an historical perspective that ranges back to the civilization on the lower Euphrates in 3000 B.C., is a fasinating guide to the complexities of Iraq. His conclusion is that no matter how brilliant the planning and execution of an occupation had been, even without the mistakes and misperceptions of the Coalition Government, the effort was doomed to failure from the start.

A modest little person, with much to be modest about.
-- Winston Churchill

Jackie Sauter, NCPR Program Director

• A Little History of the World, E.H. Gombich. Gombrich is best known as the author of the world classic The Story of Art. But this book has also been an international bestseller. Written in the 1940s, it tells the history of people on earth, from pre-history to the end of World War II. Although intended for younger readers, the book never talks down to them. In fact, it's a fascinating read for adults, full of wit, great writing, and good storytelling. This would be a terrific summer read-aloud for all ages, including grown- ups.
• Flying Colors: The Story of a Remarkable Group of Artists and the Transcendent Power of Art, Tim Lefens. Recommend to me by Hilary Oak of the St. Lawrence County Arts Council and a regular on our monthly regional arts program Open Studio. In the early '90s, Lefens, a painter in New Jersey, goes to a school for students with profound physical disabilities to show slides of his work. As this intensely moving and powerful memoir shows, he becomes obsessed with finding ways to help students who are in wheelchairs and have no use of their arms or hands and little or no speech learn to express themselves, devising innovative methods that allow them the freedom to paint. It's an amazing story that explores the ways that disabilities both limit and liberate all of us. And there's a twist to the story, which I won't spoil by revealing it. This is not a sentimental sad read about limitations. "The idea," Lefens tells his students, "is not to struggle to do things the way that able-bodied people do. The idea is to make art."

Connie Meng, NCPR Announcer/Theatre Critic

• Regeneration, The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road, Pat Barker. This powerful and affecting WW I trilogy deals primarily with the treatment of shell shock, and is particularly interesting in light of today's dealings with PTSD. The second in the series was short-listed for the Booker Prize, and the series lead me on to read the WWI poets and now to re-visit Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August.

Fred Goss, Ogdensburg

• The Best and the Brightest, David Halberstam. When Halberstam died, I reread this one. My copy is inscribed "Merry Christmas-1972." Considering where we are now, it's interesting, shall we say, to revisit how we got to where we were then.
• The Glory of Their Times, Lawrence Ritter. Also rereading this one, often called "the best baseball book ever written." Ritter more or less invented the tape-recorded interview genre and, 40+ years having passed since it was published, the old players he interviewed are talking about baseball 100 years ago (when a player with a 15-year career probably earned less money than ARod does for one game).
• Last One In, Nicholas Kulish. I can't recommend it because I haven't read it yet, but I heard two interviews with Kulish, on All Things Considered and Fair Game. A novel about a journalist in Iraq, and I grew up on the same street as Nick in Alexandria, VA.

Susan Fox/Red Fox Books, Glens Falls

• A Year Without 'Made in China': One Family's True Adventure in the Global Economy, Sara Bongiorni. A fascinating and funny memoir of a family who decides to forgo items produced in China for one year. Needless to say, it ain't easy.
• Birds in Fall, Brad Kessler. This is a beautiful novel by a Vermont-based author-a story of diverse people brought together on an island in Nova Scotia after an airplane crash.

Sunhee Sohn-Robinson, Hannawa Falls

• The Space Between Us: A Novel (P.S.), Thrity Umrigar.

Lynne Stewart, South Bombay

• Death at La Fenice, Donna Leon. A mystery series that starts with this title and features Venice Police Commissario Guido Brunetti.
• Fleshmarket Alley, Ian Rankin. One of the titles in the police series featuring Edinboro Inspector John Rebus, a dour, hard-drinking, rock-loving man.
• The Ragman's Memory, Archer Mayor. This series features Vermont Police Detective Joe Gunther, set in a place and climate well-known to North Country listeners.
• In the Fall, Jeffrey Lent. A novel about three generations of Vermonters beginning with a returning Civil War veteran who brings an emancipated African-American wife to the family farm in Randolph. This is just the book for the hammock on a summer afternoon.
• Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports, Dave Zirin. For all the sports fans out there, this award-winning columnist provides insight into our American pastimes. This is his latest but I also enjoyed What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States and Muhammad Ali Handbook.

Calista Harder, Maine and the Adirondacks

• Daffodils at High Meadows and Other Stories, Elizabeth Butlenheim.

Nancy Herrington, Syracuse and Indian Lake

• The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008, Mark Halperin and John F. Harris.
• Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar…, Thomas Cathcart and Dan Klein.

He can compress the most words into
the smallest idea of any man I know.
-- Abraham Lincoln

Rich Loeber, Kisco Information Systems, Saranac lake

• Welcome to the Homeland: A Journey to the Rural Heart of America's Cultural Revolution, Brian Mann. A fascinating alternative view of today's political landscape.
• Cold River, William Judson. An Adirondack tale of survival, good for young children and young adults and not bad for the older crowd.
• April 1865, The Month That Saved America, Jay Winik. A very well-researched book on the closing days of the Civil War and the momentous events that came to pass in this unique month in US history.
• Treasure of Khan, Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler. Who can ever put down a Clive Cussler novel?
• The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, Candice Millard. Roosevelt's Amazon expedition is an amazing experience.
• The Color of Light, William Coldman.
• The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech That Nobody Knows, Gabor Boritt. A refreshing look at the Gettysburg Address and its ramifications in US history.
• Halsey's Typhoon, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin.
• The Last Gentleman Adventurer: Coming of Age in the Arctic, Edward Beauclerk Maruice. A wonderful memoir on life in the Arctic in the early 1900s, reminiscent of some of Farley Mowat's books.
• Thunderstruck, Erik Larson.
• Grant, A Novel, Max Byrd.

Anne Schwaller, SUNY Potsdam, Potsdam

• No Vulgar Hote: The Desire and Pursuit of Venice, Jane Martin. If you are an armchair traveler or just want to experience Miss Manners being a little bit catty-because she really does know everything-I highly recommend Martin's latest book. This book is so much more than a personal version of the usual "My Venice" books. It is a history and a story with great insight into why and how people have longed to live in Venice for centuries.

Charlotte Greenizen, from email

• A Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion. Didion's account of her life after her husband's sudden death could be morose but it's not…beautifully written and woven through with poetry.
• Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert. The author travels to Italy, India and Indonesia on a spiritual quest…it's funny and educational and I love this book. Read it slowly.

Mimi McDowell, Plattsburgh

• The Defining Moment, Jonathan Alter. An account of FDR's days and the triumph of hope. A fascinating account of the positive effect of powerful presidential leadership. In paperback.

Alison Chapman, from email

• This is more a recommendation of an author than of a particular book. The writer is Tim Powers. He writes historical fiction/fantasy/horror novels. His most recent (I think) is called Declare, and is set in Europe from the '20s to the '60s. It concerns djinni and the cold war. Although everything he writes is good, I would particularly recommend Declare, The Drawing of the Dark (siege of Vienna), The Anubis Gates (19th century London-the real inspiration for Coleridge's Kublai Khan), and On Stranger Tides (Blackbeard and voodoo).

Dan Goossen, Burlington

• Deep Economy, Bill McKibben. A terrific and oh so timely read. Of course it's non-fiction but it reads like a novel and is very regionally based in its reporting. It really outlines the importance of community in our efforts to combat global warming, global economic inequity, and even our level of happiness.

Charlie Shene, Canton

• The Famine Ships: The Irish Exodus to America, Edward Laxton.
• Journey of Hope: The Story of Irish Immigration to America, Kerby Miller and Patricia Mulholland Miller.
• The Uprooted, Oscar Handlin. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for history.
• The Union Soldier in Battle: Enduring the Ordeal of Combat, Earl J. Hess. My great-grandfather volunteered in the 20th NY Cavalry.

He has Van Gogh's ear for music.
-- Billy Wilder

Ellen Beberman, Vermontville

• Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Marisha Pessl. Fun, not too heavy, a bit of a tongue-in-cheek look at people who read TOO much.
• Songbirds, Truffles and Wolves, Gary Nabhan. Re-reading this one. A personal journey to follow the trail of St. Francis, with a vital interest in the plants and seeds that crossed the Atlantic with the Columbian exchange.

Off to read Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky!

Mrs. Boag, via email

• The Book of Negroes, Laurence Hill. Best book this year, includes both our country and Africa, of course…can only think of the overused phrase "history made real"…this is why I am a reader and not an author.

Maureen Donovan, formerly of the North Country…now an on-line listener in Virginia

• The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bill Bryson. Just finished and gave to my sister as it constantly made me laugh out loud. Fun trip down memory lane. Great to get the viewpoint of the 50's from a male.

Karen Dawson, Burlington

• Saturday, Ian McEwan. After a couple of false starts of Atonement, Saturday has put me on to McEwan's writing so that now I want to make another attempt to read Atonement, but not before reading his On Chesil Beach and perhaps Amsterdam. Saturday is dense with ideas. It's a character study. And, as a narrative, it develops an irresistible head of steam over the course of one day in the life of a British neurosurgeon.
• Errors and Omissions, Paul Goldstein. This is a real page turner. A copy write attorney struggles with alcoholism during an investigation of a case concerning intellectual property rights and the 50's era Hollywood blacklist.

Not so good:

• Voices from the Street, Philip K. Dick. It's his first and previously unpublished manuscript. Skip this one if you're new to Dick.
• Travels in the Scriptorium, Paul Auster. His latest is a disappointment, lacking the inventive edginess of earlier works.

Next up is the new Murakami book, After Dark, and Middle Passage by Charles Johnson.

In the non-fiction department, I have been focused on some books related to the bioengineering world and surrounding philosophical debates. Two books emerge that are good companion reads. Radical Evolution, by Joel Garreau traces current capabilities and trends into the (very near!) future. Our Post-Human Future by Francis Fukuyama provides one framework within which to anticipate some of the consequences.

Anonymous, via email

• Schroon Lake, Lueza Thirkheld Gelb.

I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play,
bring a friend, if you have one.
-- George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

Cannot possibly attend first night,
will attend second if there is one.
-- Winston Churchill to George Bernard Shaw

And here are the suggestions from listeners who called in during our July program:

Mary, Naumberg

• A New Beginning, John Briant. The latest in the Adirondack Detective series…all recommended.

Ruth, Potsdam

• The Extraordinary Adirondack Journey of Clarence Petty, Chris Angus.

David, Brushton

• The Brothers K and The River Y, David Duncan.

Alphonso, Potsdam

• Frankenstein, Mary Shelley.
• Brave New World, Aldous Huxley.

Linda Cohen, Old Forge Hardware (and BOOK) Store

• The Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl McPhee.
• Why the Adirondacks Look the Way They Do, Mike Storie.
• Over the Mountains and Home Again, Ed Kanze.
• Falling Man, Don Delillo.
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver.

He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebears,
but by diligent hard work, he overcame them.
-- James Reston (about Richard Nixon)

Brenna, Watertown

• Atomised, Michael Houellebecq.
• The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton.
• The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini.
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer.

Yahn, Keene Valley

• The River Y, David Duncan.

Ann, Old Forge

• One Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini.
• The Bookseller of Kabul and Serbia, Asne Seierstad.
• Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time, Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin.

Susan, Moira

• Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese American Family, Lauren Kessler.
• Too Close to the Falls, Catherine Gildiner.
• 1421: The Year China Discovered America, Gavin Menzies.

Dan, Canton

• The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova.
• The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield.
• Shelby Foote's work on the Civil War.

Liz, Long Lake

• Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
• Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time, Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin.

Gretchen, Lake Ozonia

• Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain.

Some cause happiness wherever they go;
others, whenever they go.
-- Oscar Wilde

Jeff, Canton

• The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason and Letter to a Christian Nation, Sam Harris.

John, Old Forge

• Mountain Shadows: An Adirondack Novel of Courage, Danger and Love, Patricia Reise Brooks.

Leslie Ann, Cranberry Lake

• Hinges of History series by Thomas Cahill.

Carol, Glens Falls

• Eva Luna, Isabel Allende.
• The Book Thief, Marcus Zusak.
• Saving Fish From Drowning, Amy Tan.
• Galapagos, Kurt Vonnegut.

Vicky, Racquette lake

• Ahab's Wife, Sena Jeter.
• Comfort Me With Apples: More Adventures at the Table, Ruth Reichl.
• The books of M.F.K. Fisher.

Sean, South Colton

• The Holy Bible
• Thinking About God: First Steps in Philosophy, Gregory Ganssle.

Sam, Potsdam

• Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, Edward Abbey.
• The Soul of Soil: A Soil Building Guide for Master Gardeners and Farmers. Joseph Smilie and Grace Gershuny.

Paul, West Stockholm

• The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins.
• Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell. Particularly recommend the audio version.

Bill, Minerva

• The Rising Tide: A Novel of World War II and Rise to Rebellion: A Novel of the American Revolution, Jeff Shaara.

John, Tupper Lake

• Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, Chalmers Johnson.

Charlotte, Keene Valley

• The Children's Blizzard (P.S.), David Laskin.

Mark, Wanakena

• The Book Thief, Markus Zusak.
• Living the Good Life, Helen and Scott Nearing.
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams.
• A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson.

Rob, Long Lake

• Are We Rome?: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America, Cullen Murphy.

Barbara, Grenadier Island, Ontario

• The Madonnas of Leningrad, Deborah Dean.

James, Johnson, VT

• The Echo Maker, Richard Powers.
• The Butcher's Boy, Thomas Perry.
• In the Cut, Susanna Moore.
• The Handyman, Carolyn See.
• Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson.
• Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov.
• Patrimony, Philip Roth.

Betsy, Potsdam

• No Great Mischief, Alistair McCleod.
• Agatha Christie's autobiography and all of her Miss Marple stories.

Bruce, Newcomb

• Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know-And Doesn't, Stephen Prothero.
• Wishing You Well, David Baldacci.

Thank you for sending me a copy of your book;
I'll waste no time reading it.
-- Moses Hadas

Do send me your suggestions for great reads throughout the year. You can find previous lists at at the Reader's & Writers page. You can contact North Country Public Radio at radio@ncpr.org or write:

North Country Public Radio
St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY 13617

1-877-388-6277

Fell free to email me directly at: ellen@ncpr.org