Reading lists

I've got raspberry muffins cooling on the counter and a pot of freshly made coffee to my right. Old time jazz is wafting in on the sweet scented breeze. I've turned the kitchen into my office, as the unwashed dishes and soft light coming through the screen door seem most conducive to getting work done.


Summer seems like the best time to catch up on some reading. I've got a few ideas for classics in my field that need a second glance. There's also the course readings I'm putting together for the fall. But I want to get a good list of other possibilities going, something I can take to the library. So, I'd be delighted all you literate people would make suggestions of "must read" books for my summer self-improvement project. Suggestions from usually silent readers would be happily accepted! Here are a few ideas to get things rolling:

1) Alison Bechdel's Fun Home. I think this book has the most buzz this season so it's getting harder and harder to not pick it up. From the author of the Dykes to Watch Out comic.

2)Bill Buford's Heat. Apparently it's not possible to review this book without alluding to Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, which makes both the book and the reviewers seem dull beyond all reason. Nonetheless, Buford is a good writer with a sharp eye for detail, and the subject - restaurant work- is interesting to a former dishwasher like me. If you haven't read Buford's Among the Thugs, do run out and get it. Perfect World Cup reading, as it deals in intricate sociological detail with the English footie hooligan phenomenon in the 80's. Excellent, chilling ethnography.

3) Insert your ideas here