A Summer Reading List

Reading was a foreign concept in my youth. Words and time did not equate, they were oil and water. My youth was spent outside with friends, mowing lawns and watching baseball games at Kauffman Stadium. To be honest, was difficult. My eyes hurt, the process felt tedious and never ending. It took time for me to realize and accept I am a slow reader. Sometimes we need to slow down. We need to pause. Beautiful words exist. It is up to us to seek the words out. We must push ourselves to read great work. Dive into the worlds they create. Writers are a curious bunch. They bring forth personal and private thought exposing their hearts to the world.

To Kill a Mockingbird : Harper Lee, 1960.

You may look at this book as a children’s classic, and I would completely agree with that summation. You probably read it in middle school or high school. Well, it’s time to pick up this literary masterpiece again. Books evoke feelings. The best of books pull the reader into the time and place they set. Harper Lee does just that. Little is left to be said of this masterpiece. As spring passes and yields to the heat of summer I think of Harper Lee, and her brilliant story telling. Scout, Jem, cousin Dill, are portraits of childhood. Atticus Finch a stalwart of fatherhood, love and protection. It would be good for us to recall the joys of summer adventures and heed the advice of a loving mentor. 

Band of Brothers: Stephen E. Ambrose, 1992

My tattered copy lays quietly next to me as I write. The pages yellowed, corners soften and frayed. I worry many have forgotten the actions of these heroes and those they served with.  Their hearts branded in the memory of combat. Soon all those brave men will have passed, with the words spoken and written to remain. Oh how precious is time. Stop being busy, put off the “allure” of the phone, allow Ambrose to remind you of what struggle means. Embrace the value of sacrifice, and remember that hardship has value. A quote from Henry V is written at the beginning and aptly so, “From this day to the ending the World,… we in it shall be remembered… we band of brothers.” If one is to love a book let it be Band of Brothers.

1776 : David McCullough, 2005

I came to find the brilliant words of  historian David McCullough later in life. Oh what a treat each word becomes. His writing is purposeful, deliberately pushing history into the mind of his readers. 1776 captures the tectonic moment in American history. We are out maned, out trained and ill equipped to fight the world’s most powerful and skilled army. The Revolutionaries made mistakes. They learned. They starved. And they survived. A bookseller named Henry Knox led a team of men on a brilliant and daring mission, pulling fifty-nine cannon and supplies back to Boston. For three hundred miles they towed the weight of hope behind them. Brilliant American leaders emerged. Each story details the vital action and decision process. To read the work of David McCullough is to understand the feeling of being spoiled. 

A Farewell to Arms: Ernest Hemmingway, 1929

Drinking, sex, and violence. A Farewell to Arms has it all. Hemingway famously re-wrote the ending over 39 times. His semi-autobiographical masterpiece lands the reader in the Italian country side during WWI. Slowly and with purpose Hemingway pulls the reader along. We trudge the hearts of Lieutenant Frederic Henry and his love Catherine. To say you should read Hemingway is a simple truth. To me, he was the finest writer of the twentieth century. That being said, it was a challenge for me to read A Farewell to Arms. As a writer, I learned the importance of pace. Brilliant in words, style, and structure, Hemiway can still teach us lessons.

Jamie at Home: Jamie Oliver, 2007

Let me be frank here for a moment. You need to learn how to cook. I understand not everyone is comfortable in a kitchen, working to prepare a meal for others. Get comfortable. Cooking is a skill worth learning, not necessarily to master, but to have an understanding of. It shows those you are cooking for you care, that time. Chef and author Jamie Oliver cares about food. Broken into four sections: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Oliver leads you through a cornucopia of simply directed dishes. Not sure what a consumé is, find it on pages 228-229. Impress your beloved with a delicious meal of mushrooms on toast (page 291). Put some effort in caring. Open up this cookbook, invite over your friends or family and treat them. Stop shelling out hard earned money for quickly pre-made burgers. Better food exists beyond the fast food drive-thru.