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Do you have some books in mind for summer (beach) reading and why did you choose them?

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Published: June 23, 2011

  • My summer reading is all about breaking out of my usual preferred genre—mystery novels. This summer’s list is eclectic, to say the least, and includes history, humor, biography, self-help and more. I usually start out with an ambitious list of 15 or 20 books and order them from the library with the hope of getting through half by September. This year, however, I’ve downloaded some free audiobooks, too, so I can listen while driving, exercising, etc. Here is a sampling:

    “Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, as Told By Its Stars, Writers and Guests” by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller (recommended by a co-worker).

    “American Thighs: The Sweet Potato Queens’ Guide to Preserving Your Assets” by Jill Conner Browne (my “guilty pleasure” author, for pure fun at the beach).

    “The War Merchants” by Gregg Feistman (met the author at a PR conference).

    “Why My Third Husband Will Be A Dog” by Lisa Scottoline (recommended by my sister, who loves to laugh as much as I do).

    “Autobiography of Mark Twain Vol. 1” (saw it online and had to get it).

    “Screamfree Parenting” by Hal Edward Runkel (What can I say? I have two teens.).

    “Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships or Mooching off My Parents” by Zac Bissonnette (See reason above).

    “The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on Management” by Peter F. Drucker (genre busting, indeed).

    Jacqueline Ghosen
    Assistant Dean and Director of Communications
    School of Management

  • I am re-reading “Chi Running” by Danny and Katherine Dreyer. This time, I will pay better attention to the recommended techniques and training plans, though, because I’m attempting my first half-marathon this fall in San Francisco!



    Barb Byers
    Associate Director, Communications
    Office of Alumni Relations

  • I prefer mysteries and I especially like medical mysteries. My choices for the summer:

    “Port Mortuary” by Patricia Cornwell.

    “Crossfire” by Dick Francis and Felix Francis.

    “The Eyes of Darkness” by Dean Koontz—on CD for road trips.

    Linda Kingsbury
    Communication Support Specialist
    IT Policy and Communication

  • Summer is a good time to finish things I started, so I’ll be finishing “Women of the Raj” by historian Margaret MacMillan—a fascinating account of the travails of the women who accompanied their husbands, fathers and sons to India in the 1800s, with analysis of the rigidities (stupidities?) of the colonial era. In contrast, I’ll be finishing Patti Smith’s “Just Kids,” which won the National Book Award. It traces her beginnings as an artist in New York City, as well as her life with Robert Mapplethorpe, right up to his death in 1989. Familiar territory for those of us who were finding our way in the late ’60s.

    I’m a sucker for good children’s literature. My granddaughters got me hooked on the Penderwicks series by Jeanne Birdsall: Four very different and energetic preteen sisters get in and out of scrapes. Rich and real sentiment narrated in hilarious fashion. Silly, “truthy” and highly entertaining. Book three just came out. I look forward to it so I can discuss the oeuvre intelligently with 9-year-old twins. If there’s time, there’s Julian Barnes’ “Arthur & George” and David Mitchell’s “The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet,” both described as page-turners, which is what you want in the summer.

    Jeannette Ludwig
    Associate Professor
    Romance Languages and Literatures

  • I am really excited about beach reading this summer because I now have a Kindle loaded up with a great variety of fiction and non-fiction, and because I will literally be reading it on the beach in North Carolina for two glorious weeks in July. The two books I am especially targeting for that time are “Before I Go to Sleep” by S.J. Watson (because I read that it is the perfect beach-reading thriller) and Eric Larson’s new book, “In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin” (because I found his book about Chicago at the time of the 1893 World’s Fair—“The Devil in the White City”—so well written and engrossing). I have done so much more fiction reading since getting my Kindle a few months ago, and have to put in a plug for the book I just finished and thoroughly enjoyed: “The Lonely Polygamist” by Bradley Udall. 

    Connie Holoman
    Deputy to the President

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