Fast Books for a Short Summer
18 08 2009One of my associates noted that I have not blogged in ages, and it is true, but I have been busy (as if that ever got anyone off the hook for not doing something they should have!). This past spring and summer has been full of new art shows to hang and take down, receptions for artists, teaching and taking classes, visiting art shows and hosting theatre performances, and last but not least trying to get some books read!
We all know as summer winds down getting books crossed off that summer reading list takes on a new urgency. There are

websites to help you of course; the
Infinite Summer Reading Group was created to help “endurance bibliophiles from around the world” work together at reading David Foster Wallace’s 1,000 page book Infinite Jest?
But for most of us more than 1,000 pages of reading is just going to be too much to chew! Enter Anne Trubek (whose real job is as an Associate Professor at Oberlin College in Ohio). Ms. Trubek has compiled a list of short reads at “Thin Books for a Finite Summer”. She offers up four books, along with their page numbers, in the hopes of helping us all squeeze in one or two more books before the snow flies. And now, for your consideration I pass along to you:

The first on the list is Brenda Shaughnessy’s Human Dark With Sugar, at 96 pages this book of poetry counts as a perfect summer read. Trubek says of this piece that it will “keep you enamored and thoughtful” always a good thing!

Second on the list coming in at 224 pages is Love and Obstacles by Aleksander Hemon. This work is a collection of short stories about a Yugoslavian man who accidently immigrated to the United States during the 1992 Bosnian war. The author is Bosnian born and has a rich robust way of writing; everything is very lyrical and masculine.

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin weighing in at 272 pages is a short story about an Irish girl and her journey to New York. It has been described as a slow moving novel that sneaks up on the reader with surprises at the end.

The heaviest book at 304 pages is Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout won her a Pulitzer prize and a slew of other awards in 2008 for this collection of short stories about a middle-school math teacher in rural Maine. (It sounds boring, a math teacher in Main, but trust me there are lots of surprises!)
Now if all the above selections still seem to be too much to get through, you could always stop by and check out a nice art book to flip through. My current favorites to thumb through are all by the artist Andy Goldsworthy.




Andy Goldsworthy: a Collaboration with Nature

Every single one of Goldsworthy’s books is full of gorgeous photographs of his nature inspired art, along with commentary about his process and thoughts about it. For a short read that is full of fascinating images these books are my go to art books right now!
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