This year's version of the Alumni List's recommendations got off to a fast start. We'll see how it finishes. Here's a link to 2002's list. | And a link to 2003's list. Contents Truth and Beauty Those Who Save Us High Country The Second Mark Dracula Islam for... Battle Ready dog stories The Dead Cat Bounce, et al. Whirlwind Here I Stand et al. A list The Odyssey Galileo's Daughter Michelangelo ... Salt... Dune Saint Camber The Cantebury Papers The Mommy Myth Inkheart Fforde's books WW I Smokestack Lightning Quicksilver What's the Matter With Kansas... Surrender or Starve The Jane Austen Book Club Why I am not a Muslim Pirates of the Caribbean: the Curse of the Black Pearl The Art of Rhetoric Designing for People The Reluctant Empress Wayward Women: A Guide to Women Travellers A Suitable Boy The Three Musketeers children's books The Diamond Age, Or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer Walk with the Wind: A Memoir of a Movement Janet Maslin's summer reading list from CBS Sunday Morning Alan Cheuse's 2004 Summer Reading List from All Things Considered An Independent Book Seller's View of Summer Reading from Laura Hansen, Bookin' It, Little Falls, Minn. on NPR's Morning Edition Sherron Watkins' Book Picks from NPR's Weekend Edition Summer Book List from NPR's Performance Today Aimee Mann: Summer Books for the Road from NPR's Weekend Edition -- Sunday Summer Reading List: The Best of 2004 from NPR's Talk of the Nation Climber Francis Slakey on Books for High Altitude from NPR's Weekend Edition -- Sunday 52 Authors' Summer Reading Lists from Authors on the Web Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett from Kirsten Marcum I just finished Ann Patchett's Truth and Beauty a memorial to her friend and fellow writer Lucy Grealy (Autobiography of a Face).İIt's a beautiful book about a passionate friendship and a doomed person, and I recommend it highly. Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum from Kirsten Marcum I also recommend Jenna Blum's Those Who Save Us set in both modern day New Heidelberg, Minnesota and wartime Nazi Germany. It follows a mother-daughter pair -- the mother struggling to make a life for herself and her daughter under the Nazis, the daughter grappling with the legacy and consequences of what her mother did to save them. High Country by Nevada Barr from Ken Wedding A week or so ago, I read Nevada Barr's latest mystery/adventure and enjoyed it. If you're familiar with Barr's previous books, this one is on par with the best, like A Superior Death and Blood Lure. It was certainly better than the one I read last year about this time. The publisher's web site has more info. Return to top of page The Second Mark by Joy Goodwin from Laura Leitner I'm going to make a shameless plug for my friend Joy Goodwin's first book, which was just favorably reviewed in Sunday's NY Times. The Second Mark uses the pairs' final in the 2002 Olympics as a jumping-off point to examine the life stories of the topİthree pairs, looking at how they grewİup in three different sports systems in three different countries. Here is the NY Times review. Since first-time authors are judged on book sales and this book is very much worth the read, I encourage all who can afford it to buy the book! Dracula by Bram Stoker from Eric Hanberg For anyone looking for a "classic" to read on the beach this summer, I found Dracula to be accessible, enjoyable, and surprisingly scary. It has aged very well. Islam for Dummies and Islam for Complete Idiots from Susan (Reedy) Schnur I recently finished Islam for Dummies, and I am about 2/3 of the way through Islam for Complete Idiots. Of the two I prefer Islam for Dummies. It seemed a little more orderly. I had read a book on Islam last year, but I never seemed to be able to incorporate what I learned. I now realize my problem. Judaism and Christianity are arranged chronologically. Islam is more like a web page where one can drill down on a topic. I recommend Islam for Dummies. Return to top of page Battle Ready by Tom Clancy from Susan (Reedy) Schnur Another book I finished recently was the biography of General Zinni by Tom Clancy. He has been interviewed as critical of George W. Bush, but I thought the criticism in the book was very mild, and it didn't even turn up until the last pages. Zinni has had a very interesting life, and we get a lot of insight into life in the military which Zinni clearly loved. I was surprised to learn in the book that there was more activity by this administration trying to solve the Israel/Palestine problem than I had thought. Zinni was one of the negotiators. That whole chapter alone makes the book worth reading, but it is interesting throughout. dog stories by Virginia Lanier and Susan Conant from Susan (Reedy) Schnur Speaking of dogs, as we were earlier, have you read the series by Virginia Lanier? She writes detective/mystery/adventure books about a Southern woman who raises and trains bloodhounds. They are first rate reading. Another mystery writer who writes a dog series is Susan Conant. They are a little lighter than Lanier's books. Susan Conant writes books that get better, unlike some series writers who lose the muse after a while. Return to top of page THE DEAD CAT BOUNCE, TRIPLE WITCH, WICKED FIX, REPAIR TO HER GRAVE, WRECK THE HALLS, UNHINGED, MALLETS AFORETHOUGHT by Sarah Graves from Susan (Reedy) Schnur Another good mystery author, who has written only a few books, is Sarah Graves who writes about Eastport Maine. I prefer her first few books. The theme throughout this series is the restoration of an old house. The protagonist is doing this with her own two hands, and one might also learn how to repair a double hung window while enjoying a good mystery. Sarah Graves Web Page Whirlwind by James Clavell from Heather J. Gruenberg This is the last in the Shogun saga. I must admit that I have so far skipped the novel set in the Japanese POW camp -- life is real enough for me right now. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther by Roland Bainton from Heather J. Gruenberg For those of you who are wondering how this (ahem) good Catholic girl (ahem ahem) wound up reading this, one of my advisors said some of the things I was saying about the public education system here in Traverse City reminded her of some of the things ML said. Never having read anything by him, but always willing to try something new -- I read some of Sigmund Freud's works in my World Authors in Translation class last spring, never having read him before, and was pleasantly surprised -- I said okay, and her husband (a Lutheran minister) gave her that to lend me. Return to top of page To read: The October Horse by Colleen McCullough, Return to Paradise by James Michener, Mary Called Magdalene by Margaret George, Harry Potters 1-4 (5 when it comes out in pb) from Heather J. Gruenberg I save books I really want to read for the summer, when in school; when not in school, I read them all year round. Not that school books aren't interesting; some are. But I can't concentrate on a story well, or pick it up and put it down and still remember it the next time, when I keep having to study/take tests/write papers in between reading sessions. First I have to read Tyler Bennett's yet unnamed work, and must apologize to her for not beginning it when it was received. I was still in school at the time, and had to finish the first two so they could be returned. Thanks for entrusting me with it. Hope you all have a reading-licious summer! Cambridge by Caryl Phillips, Mama Day by Gloria Naylor, anything by John Edgar Wideman, Around the World with Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis, Bleak House by Charles Dickens, Omeros by Derek Walcott, and The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth. from Barbara Borkert Odyssey by Homer from Sean Kennedy Last month I picked up the Iliad to read at the beach, as part of my intermittent project of reading things I blew off as a kid in school. While slogging through lots of repetitive descriptions of people getting killed in battle and references to people's fathers, I slowly remembered why I blew it off in the first place. However, what occurred to me is that the Odyssey would actually make a great beach book: adventure on the seas, monsters, seduction, reunited lovers, catchy epithets... Anyway, it's on my summer reading list now. I like the Fitzgerald translation. further comments: #1: I've read about three translations of Homer's Odyssey because I teach it, and I recommend Robert Fagles's translations of Iliad and Odyssey. They are sometimes criticized for being too modern sounding, but I think that's what makes them read well. Fitzgerald is good too, of course. Mandelbaum is OK, but inconsistent. I'd be curious which Andrew F. prefers and our resident classicist. Steve Mack #2: As to Homer translations, I'd say that the best one is whichever one you like the best. There are definitely some irresponsibly bad translations of Homer out there. But all of those mentioned so far are at least pretty good. My favorite Homer translations, at least at the moment, are those by Stanley Lombardo. Lombardo goes for a really spare, colloquial translating style, that's almost Hemingwayesque. Well, if Hemingway wrote epic poetry, anyway. For my money, his Iliad, in particular, is the most readable translation out there. Sean is right that the Iliad is tougher going than the Odyssey. Personally, I prefer it (to me, it's more psychologically interesting), but it's the harder poem to just pick up and go with. Andrew Fenton #3: I'm not Andrew, but I'd like to chime in: Lattimore is almost excellent. (I own both epics in both Fitzgerald and Lattimore. I've just casually started Fitzgerald, but I've read both Lattimores and they're terrific.) I don't think I can fault anyone for going with Fagles, although I've not read all of either of them. My girlfriend recently spent a fair amount of time at a bookstore looking at Fitzgerald and Fagles and ultimately bought the latter. His translations of the plays have always seemed quite good to me, so I can accept this. On the other hand, there are a lot of stinkers out there. The translation we were made to read in high school was awful. (As a result, the rest of my class apparently thought very little of the Odyssey, despite it being such a great poem.) That seems to mirror many of my friends' experiences in high school, too. John W. Weiss Return to top of page Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love by Dava Sobel from Brian Sala I thought that it was better than Sobel's Longitude. Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King from Brian Sala An interesting mix of art history, religious history and political history, in a pop vein. Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky from Brian Sala A bit repetitive, even in the small package, but still a lot of fun Second opinion: Don't read this if you have even the slightest knowledge of chemistry -- the errors will drive you crazy. -George Woodworth Return to top of page Dune by Frank Herbert from Brian Sala I'm re-reading the _Dune_ saga for the nth time. I'm continually torn between seeing Frank Herbert's take on government and bureaucracy as silly and seeing it as profound. But who could fail to perceive shades of the Qizarate (see _Dune Messiah_) in the current Attorney General's office?? Further thoughts: Do not, if you value your brain, read beyond the first book. The first book is one of the great classics of science fiction. But Something Happened, and the next two are dreadful. Being a slow learner, I can testify to that; maybe three, I forget. (Actually, we probably know what happened; Dune had so much editorial input from John W. Campbell that it's essentially an uncredited collaboration.) David Dyer-Bennet Saint Camber by Katherine Kurtz from Brian Sala And I'm trying to locate a copy of Katherine Kurtz's _Saint Camber_ so that I can re-read the original Camber trilogy in order. I love Kurtz's stuff. A fascinating blend of Christian fact/mythology and swords&sorcery fantasy. Return to top of page Add the summer reading recommendations from your favorite publication by sending me the URL at Ken@SideTrack.org.

For more reading recommendations, check out ReadingOnTheWeb.