Summer Reading
One of the reasons I love vacation is it gives me time to catch up on all those articles I’ve been flagging and filing, as well as dig into a new book or two. When I was a kid, I looked forward to the book mobile’s monthly visits to my school, especially at the end of the year when I received a chart and stickers to record how many books I could read over the summer (stickers really motivate - or used to anyway). For a time, around age 8, I was a big Encyclopedia Brown fan.
A day into our vacation we made our way to Edgartown Books. I picked up a book I’d been meaning to read for a while, Big Russ & Me by Tim Russert. The book was published in 2004, and I had somehow forgotten about it until Tim Russert’s recent and sudden death. It reads like a conversation – like Tim Russert is sitting in your living room sharing childhood memories.
I’m just about half-way through Big Russ & Me, and “big” is a word that aptly describes Tim, as well as his dad. He really grabbed a hold of every day and lived it big – in both career and family. He was forever appreciative of the opportunities he’d been given or, more often than not, earned through hard work. He talks about taking his son, in 1995, to see Cal Ripkin set the record for the most consecutive games played. “I brought Luke to the game because Cal Ripken had set a wonderful example: work hard and play by the rules.”
In between chapters of Big Russ & Me, I’ve been catching up on a stack of magazines and articles I had put aside. The New York Times Magazine (June 15) had a feature written by Lisa Belkin on “shared parenting,” an arrangement in which couples agree to an equal split of home and child care responsibilities. Not revolutionary in theory, but in practice some of these couples are so committed they have devised elaborate, color-coded charts to ensure each does their fair share. I can’t imagine it, but it’s apparently working for some – and presents an interesting marketing conundrum: Should marketers talk to moms, dads or both at the same time?
I also picked up Pete Hamill’s latest best-seller, North River, but haven’t cracked it yet. That’ll have to wait until I’ve finished Big Russ & Me. What’s on your summer reading list? Be sure to let us know!
I love summer reading because it can be so self-indulgent. My first guilty summer read was Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger who penned the The Devil Wears Prada. Just enjoyable summer reading. My second summer read was the Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster. I really enjoyed this book - also coincidently based in NY. Perhaps I should keep this theme going for the entire summer any suggestions LT?
Thanks for the great suggestions Sheryl - good to know what’s hot out in Chicagoland!
Pete Hamill’s North River is set in 1930s New York, but it’s a little more gritty than you might be looking for. I spotted Courtney in our office with a copy of Jane Green’s “The Beach House,” which is set in Nantucket, and she recommended “The Last Summer of You and Me” by Ann Brashares, author of “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.” Just a couple more to add to that summer reading list.
While it isn’t your typical beach read, I recently finished The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and highly recommend it…here’s a link to info on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Glass-Castle-Memoir-Alex-Awards/dp/0743247531
I resisted the Harry Potter series for years after it started to get big, but then I received one of the books as a birthday present. Read it and kind of got hooked. This summer I decided to go back and read each book back to back. Just finished. It was fun. The books are a little thin when you read them as an adult, but they remind me why I got hooked on reading as a kid.
I just started the Pete Hamill book that Laura mentioned. Too early to tell whether I’ll like it, but the start is promising. It’s set in depression-era New York (that’s the 1930’s for those of you who think the current Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac crisis makes today the depression era). The main character is a physician who carries a lot of baggage from the first world war. His wife seems to have disappeared (unclear at this point if she committed suicide), and he’s just sort of floating along. One day his daugher leaves his 3-year-old grand son, Carlito, on his doorstep, with a note that she’s leaving the country to find the child’s father. The doctor hires a neighborhood woman to help him take care of the child, and it appaers that, together, they’ll going to make each other whole again.
Last but not least, I recently read a fun little book called Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon, who won the Pulitzer for Kavalier & Clay. It’s a quirky book about set in medieval Central Asia about a couple of adventure-seeking con men who end up rescuing the last surving member of a royal family and helping him win back his kingdom. A lot of fun.
That’s my summer list. Hapy reading everyone!
DB
laura, i am pimpin’ my sister’s recently published book, “hope, faith and charlie.” it’s about her six month old son’s battle with stage 4 brain cancer. see working mother magazine’s review at http://tinyurl.com/6qynce. you can grab the book off amazon or at http://www.hopefaithandcharlie.com. peace out.
Wow Kel, sounds like an incredible story. My heart goes out to families who have to battle cancer (and other illnesses). Thanks for sharing Hope, Faith and Charlie with us.
The 360 Learns team chose “Can We Do That?!” by Peter Shankman, CEO of the Geek Factory, Inc. a marketing and PR strategy firm, for our book club assignment this quarter. Peter asks the question “With so many companies competing for limited consumer dollars how can you get your company’s message out?” This book looks at real life case studies of PR stunts and events and examines why some are a success where others fail.
The 360 team is a creative bunch but we are always looking for inspiration for new ways to get our clients noticed!
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Can-We-Do-That/Peter-Shankman/e/9780470043929/?itm=1