Looking for a good summer read?

In my Harry Potter-crazed state, it might surprise you that I am attending work regularly and reading other books as well. Oh, I have my moments of daydreaming and obsessing – you can imagine (is Harry a horcrux? I want Snape to be pure evil, but I think we’ll have to see him become the martyr-figure…I think Percy is one of the for-sure dead ones…etc. etc.).

So obviously Harry is on my mind, but I have been reading a lot of other things this summer. Telfer can’t take vacation in June, July or August AND he has been studying for the Anesthesiology Board Exam that he has to take every year of his residency. He took the test on Monday (PTL) and I was again reminded how quiet I had to be for FOUR whole years of medical school. I am out of practice. Telfer finally had to put big earphones on so even if I kept chattering on about the roses and how I think I would become a mail carrier if I had to change careers (think of all the exercise!) and how laundry is my favorite household chore, he could BLOCK IT ALL OUT. So. I have read A LOT this month.

If you are looking for a summer read, here are three novels I have enjoyed in the last couple of weeks (and think! you probably don’t have to be as quiet as me while reading!):

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. Read this last night in bed while Telfer was snoring/flopping around next to me. A devastating miniature portrait of a young couple’s wedding night and immediate aftermath.

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris – really funny, almost uncomfortably funny, work novel. For me, more like the British version of the Office (almost too much – like watching a train wreck), rather than the American version of the Office (ridiculous and funny and sweet). 

New England White by Stephen L. Carter – NNU’ers? Remember when Carter came to IDAHO and gave a lecture on the place of religion in the public sphere? Well, he has since written two great novels (first one, Emperor of Ocean Park). NE White is an academic murder mystery and an exploration of race, power, politics and gender. The plot is intricate – even in the last ten pages, I was still working everything out.

Wait, one more that I read last weekend: 101 Things I Wish I Knew When I Got Married by Linda and Charlie Bloom – I usually hate books on marriage, and the authors are definitely not writing from a Christian point of view, but this book is incredibly practical and sustainable without being dumb and obvious (example: date your mate!)