Spring Break
Book list enhances summer reading
Rachel Slade
Issue date: 7/12/07 Section: LIFE
There's nothing quite like summer reading. Airplane rides and trips to the pool or beach just aren't the same without an entertaining paperback tossed in your bag. If you're looking for an alternative to your textbooks or simply something to fill the time between now and the arrival of your pre-ordered copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," here are a few suggestions:
There's no avoiding the fact that I'm obsessed with mystery novels. As such, I own nearly every novel written by the great Agatha Christie. Despite her death in 1976, she remains outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare and is often referred to as the "Queen of Crime."
Before you decide which of her detectives you prefer, I'd suggest starting your Christie love affair with one of her few novels without a detective: "And Then There Were None." First published in 1939, it is a tale of 10 strangers, each with a dark past and a secret to hide, who are invited to spend a weekend on Indian Island by a mysterious host. With the guests beginning to die one by one and the only suspects being those who are already dead, this novel is sure to puzzle and enthrall readers to the very end.
For anyone interested in the modern Middle East who couldn't squeeze Nancy Stockdale of the history department's class into their schedule, I'd suggest "Baghdad Without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia." Written by journalist Tony Horowitz, who now writes for the Wall Street Journal, the novel is a stirring and often hilarious account of his freelancing travels through 15 countries throughout the Middle East in the late 80s and early 90s.
His experiences include everything from being carried along in the crowds at the funeral of the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran to accidentally chewing too much qat, an amphetamine-like stimulant, in Yemen. He also becomes convinced that the carpet was massaging his toes. Fearless, sarcastic and compassionate, Horowitz makes a great tour guide through one of the world's most combustible regions stopping only to eat camel meat in the Abu Dhabi desert or locate his wife among the sea of women wearing black chadors.
The fun, beach-read novel is often synonymous with those frothy, funny works lovingly referred to as "chick lit." If you've run out of "Gossip Girls" and "Confessions of a Shopaholic" novels to read, sashay (in your kitten heels) to the bookstore of your choice and pick up "Sex, Murder and a Double Latte" by Kyra Davis. Part romantic comedy and part mystery, the story revolves around Sophie Katz, a divorced, frappuccino-loving woman who writes mystery novels and lives with her cat, creatively named Mr. Katz. Both the mystery and romance begin when she is convinced that a killer with a flair for the dramatic is out to get her, following the plot of her most recent murder mystery.
There's no avoiding the fact that I'm obsessed with mystery novels. As such, I own nearly every novel written by the great Agatha Christie. Despite her death in 1976, she remains outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare and is often referred to as the "Queen of Crime."
Before you decide which of her detectives you prefer, I'd suggest starting your Christie love affair with one of her few novels without a detective: "And Then There Were None." First published in 1939, it is a tale of 10 strangers, each with a dark past and a secret to hide, who are invited to spend a weekend on Indian Island by a mysterious host. With the guests beginning to die one by one and the only suspects being those who are already dead, this novel is sure to puzzle and enthrall readers to the very end.
For anyone interested in the modern Middle East who couldn't squeeze Nancy Stockdale of the history department's class into their schedule, I'd suggest "Baghdad Without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia." Written by journalist Tony Horowitz, who now writes for the Wall Street Journal, the novel is a stirring and often hilarious account of his freelancing travels through 15 countries throughout the Middle East in the late 80s and early 90s.
His experiences include everything from being carried along in the crowds at the funeral of the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran to accidentally chewing too much qat, an amphetamine-like stimulant, in Yemen. He also becomes convinced that the carpet was massaging his toes. Fearless, sarcastic and compassionate, Horowitz makes a great tour guide through one of the world's most combustible regions stopping only to eat camel meat in the Abu Dhabi desert or locate his wife among the sea of women wearing black chadors.
The fun, beach-read novel is often synonymous with those frothy, funny works lovingly referred to as "chick lit." If you've run out of "Gossip Girls" and "Confessions of a Shopaholic" novels to read, sashay (in your kitten heels) to the bookstore of your choice and pick up "Sex, Murder and a Double Latte" by Kyra Davis. Part romantic comedy and part mystery, the story revolves around Sophie Katz, a divorced, frappuccino-loving woman who writes mystery novels and lives with her cat, creatively named Mr. Katz. Both the mystery and romance begin when she is convinced that a killer with a flair for the dramatic is out to get her, following the plot of her most recent murder mystery.
Be the first to comment on this story