Summer reading list update

- Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility (done... and annoyed at the Hollywood Jane Austen revival... I do believe she is turning over in her grave)
- Albert Camus - The Plague (STILL in progress... don't really know why)
- Isabel Allende - La Casa de los Espiritus (in progress)
- Nick Hornby - A Long Way Down (done... hilarious and easy to read)
- Philip Roth - Everyman (nope)
- Al Gore - The Assault on Reason (tried and got bored... sorry Al)
- Arianna Huffington - On Becoming Fearless... (skimming it regularly for inspiration)
- Jane Austen - Mansfield Park (nope)
- Stephen Kinzer- All the Shah's Men (done! please read this book if you want to understand the Middle East a little better. It reads like a thriller, I promise)
- Louis Menand - The Metaphysical Club (nope...)
- whatever I haven't sold from my Marx class in college (haven't even unpacked them yet)

I did also read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Satisfying as always. Last week I finished The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time by Mark Haddon, which was really different and great. Think, the first half of Flowers for Algernon with some shocking developments and a good realistic ending. I'm also reading Skinny Legs and All, but it's such an overwhelming feast of words I can only take a little bit at a time.

Last weekend when I was home, I read two great articles in Vogue, which doesn't happen too often. One was by Joyce Maynard who at 18 was a quasi-popular young writer and J.D. Salinger's lover. Salinger was 53 at the time and broke her heart after a year. She's still a well known writer and the article was wonderful, so now I want to read up on her a little more, as well as Salinger. I only read Catcher In The Rye the summer after my Junior year of college, and while I was as confused as any 16 year old, I would not call myself brooding. While I could definitely see what the hype was about, it didn't strike any chords with me. I want to try his other writing, maybe something that's less directed at a specific demographic.

While subbing yesterday, I attempted to start Where I Was From by Joan Didion, but I only got through 2 pages and I wouldn't be able to tell you what they were about right now. Maybe I'll save it for a more peaceful time like a sunny Saturday in the backyard.

Writing all this made me think that some of you might think I'm bragging about how much I'm reading, but the truth is that I'm really not reading that much at all, I don't think. I had a whole summer to read those books and I only got to half of them. I also want to know what everyone else is reading, or what they thought of the books I'm on now.