To spark your own desire to start a summer booklist(which you might actually use!) I thought I would share mine (or the beginnings of it, at least).
1) A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole: Funnily enough, this book was submitted to a publisher after the author died (suicide). His mother submitted it. And, in keeping with the spirit of do-it-all mothers, this satirical/comedic drama is about a 30 year old obese man who makes his mother do everything. Yes, he has a master's degree, but instead of getting a job, he sits at home and writes history from his point of view. For example, he is a TV addict, yet he blames TV for all of society's problems, wishing that Hroswitha (whoever that is) would come back to life and guide society away from the media. Then he goes and watches some stupid show. Lots of belching, not PG (or even PG-13...) and yet it won a Pulitzer Prize. My brain is excited! (394 pages)
2) A Room with a View by E.M. Forster: A little-known 1908 "Edwardian social comedy" (my favorite genre!) which explores the life of a English woman who falls in love with a possible Socialist in Italy. However, she is promised to a stifling young chap back home in jolly old Surrey. This modern Pocahontas must choose between convention and passion. The great thing about this era of literature is that you never really know which the heroine will choose (or whether she'll commit suicide in a House of Mirth-ish fashion...)(204 pages)
3)A Life Full of Holes by Driss Ben Hamed Charhadi- translated by Paul Bowles: This book doesn't even have a Wikipedia article written about it yet (always check the new book section at your public library!), so I have no idea what to expect. It's a day to day account of the life of Driss - a Moroccan shepherd and trafficker who tries to keep hope. This is also the first novel written in the Arabic dialect Moghrebi. Awful? Probably. Uplifting (at the end,at least)? Hopefully. (295 pages)
4) Sophie's Choice by William Styron: I had heard about this book before, and when I saw it on the library shelf, how could I resist? This is a thriller about a writer who gets to know his neighbors: a brilliant Jew named Nathan and his Polish lover, Sophie, a survivor of the Holocaust. The back cover scared me quite a bit, for it closes with, "And finally Sophie's Choice leads to an unblinking confrontation with what can only be called pure evil." Hmmm...(562 pages)
5) The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: I started reading this in September I believe. I got through about a third of it before the clock struck midnight and the protagonist came face to face with a ghost of a dead person. Scared out of my wits (of course it was thundering outside as well), I gave it up, but, fascinated, I promised myself that I would read it eventually. Eventually has arrived. I will finish it. (113 pages)I adore Henry James even though Paul Johnson (fellow APUSHers) hates him for some reason. Something having to do with James writing about British people even though he is American...and yet dear Paul is the one who wrote the history of America even though he is British...which leads me to my last book[s]!
6) Either The History of the Jews or Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky by the aforementioned Paul Johnson: I loved his book on America. It made me laugh...a lot. (He wasn't even trying to be funny, but with phrases like 'regurgitating knowledge', his CONSTANT badmouthing of Henry James, and his beliefs that the pro-life movement is based on violence and that the feminist movement did NOTHING to liberate women, how could I help it?). I want to read more. And what better way to get a laugh than reading about Paul's views on the Holocaust and modern smart people? Yesh, I will have to make a half-price run to get one of these :)
P.S. I am addicted to making lists, so if you would like one of my pre-made booklists, ask and ye shall receive...
Happyyy reading!
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