Andrew Huff / July 20, 2010 10:12 AM

Question suggested by Spook. Well, actually, he wrote "What is your theme Book for this summer, this question is based off of the summer song question." Hopefully this is close enough.

I've been reading a book about the science of cooking, and slowly getting through Lords of the Levee, in between all the writing and editing I do every day.

Christopher / July 20, 2010 10:27 AM

Blue Latitudes & A Voyage Long and Strange ... both by Tony Horowitz. Fantastic travel/history/adventure books.

flange / July 20, 2010 11:59 AM

i honor summer's finest tradition -- reruns -- by rereading some favorites. this summer i've been rereading jean shepherd's anthologies.

mike / July 20, 2010 12:24 PM

Finished Swann's Way and started reading Nabokov's collected short stories and The Road. Haven't decided what I'll read next. Maybe Within a Budding Grove.

LaShawn Williams / July 20, 2010 12:42 PM

Bitch is the New Black, Killing Willis, and Red Hats. No theme or anything--they all just finally became available via Chgo Pub Library. :-)

anthony / July 20, 2010 2:27 PM

Bonfire of the Vanities----Thomas Wolfe

Charlie D. / July 20, 2010 4:28 PM

Currency - written by my friend Zoe Zolbrod. A great read, especially if you have traveled in SEA.

The Watch - Stories by Rick Bass.Can't get enough of his stories. He uses words like a musician or a painter.

Invisible - Paul Auster. Next on the list.

Charlie D. / July 20, 2010 4:34 PM

Zoe is local by the way...

Currency

Benjy / July 20, 2010 10:37 PM

In a New Orleans frame of mind after Treme, I just finished Dave Eggers' Zeitoun last night.

h / July 20, 2010 11:49 PM

I finally just got around to reading The Devil in the White City. You might have heard by now...it's a really good book.

Baldeesh / July 21, 2010 1:01 AM

I'm on a Neil Gaiman kick. Just finished Anansi Boys. Going to turn my attention to Coraline, and then Stardust.

Greg / July 21, 2010 8:53 AM

The Annotated Dracula. Unfortunately it's an oversize hardcover, which doesn't lend itself to El reading.

Here's an annotation of my own. Vampires are not hot, nor do they sparkle.

MJZ / July 21, 2010 10:55 AM

I loved Blue Latitudes!

CVAL / July 21, 2010 11:39 AM

"Loosing My Cool, How a Fathers Love and 15,000 Books Saved Me From Hip-Hop Culture" by Thomas Chatterton Williams; "Bitch is the New Black" by Helena Andrews; and "Brainwashed" by Thomas Burrell

Plum / July 21, 2010 11:52 AM

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

It is an engrossing Summer read, it just sucks carrying around an 800 page book all summer.

vise77 / July 21, 2010 12:22 PM

"American Rust," a novel whose author selected an interesting writing style.

"Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy."

"The World That Made New Orleans."

"Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion

and as many stories as I can get through from the collected stories of Ray Bradbury.

Carlotta / July 21, 2010 1:39 PM

"The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr" -- 600+ pages but very readable.

"Legacies: A Chinese Mosaic" by Bette Bao Lord -- personal tales from Chinese living from WWII through Tiananmen Square.

"Living Together:
A Legal Guide for Unmarried Couples" -- for pragmatic reasons.

Christopher / July 21, 2010 2:15 PM

Zeitoun was a fantastic book... also check out What is the What.

Kara / July 21, 2010 4:38 PM

After watching some episodes of the history/porn series, The Tudors, I've been wading through The Six Wives of Henry VIII and the bio of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir.

Also: Everything Matters by Ron Currie Jr., and, of course old sex-ed and marriage advice books.

Dennis Fritz / July 22, 2010 8:29 AM

The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie.

anon / July 22, 2010 10:07 AM

Sex At Dawn, the Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality, by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha, because Dan Savage is so excited about it.

Luke / July 22, 2010 12:13 PM

I just put down Pygmy in favor of Zeitoun, which I'm loving. I'm still determined to get through Pygmy, but I think it's more because I won't let it beat me than a good read. For some reason, even though aspects of his style annoy me, I read everything Palahniuk writes.

TRM / July 22, 2010 12:40 PM

The Ghost Map (about the 1854 cholera outbreak in London)by Steven Johnson,
Family Affair: Greed, Treachery and Betrayal in the Chicago Mafia by Sam Giancana,
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair,
For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder that Shocked Chicago by Simon Baatz

Cheryl / July 22, 2010 5:34 PM

Kara, you might also want to try 'Queen's Consort' by Lisa Hilton--it looks at the evolution of the duties/rights of English kings' wives from 1066 to Mary Tudor.

Which is what I'm reading right now.

Sb / July 23, 2010 8:25 AM

The Dog of the South by Charles Portis. Decent. Norwood was better.

mercourier / July 23, 2010 8:56 AM

I've been reading 'I wanna Be your Joey Ramone' and I just picked up 'The Time Traveler's Wife' to remind myself how good it is.

@Kara- Alison Weir's bio of Elizabeth is fantastic, I read it a couple of summers ago.

kiplog / July 23, 2010 1:49 PM

Daemon, Daniel Suarez.

Geeky and violent.
Perfect summer escapist book.

Andrew Huff / July 23, 2010 1:58 PM

I'm amused that Spook hasn't answered his own question yet. He must be off on vacation, reading a book.

mall / July 23, 2010 3:20 PM

Just finished Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson, part 1 of a trilogy. Took me forever to get through all 900 pages, but I'm totally looking forward to the next two books in the series.
Currently finishing up Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Living to Tell the Tale autobiography (replaced a copy a left on an airplane a few months ago).
Anna Karenina is immediately up next, but there are always a couple dozen unread books on the docket.

anne / July 23, 2010 4:32 PM

Just finished Virgin Suicides, now almost done with the last of the Y: The Last Man graphic novels (all of which I'm borrowing from the Chicago Public Library, btw).

I also have the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test to start, and a book, I Curse The River of Time by Per Petterson which I won a free galley copy of from Graywolf Press. http://www.graywolfpress.org/

anna / July 26, 2010 12:49 PM

netherland by joseph o'neill