Summer Reading Roundup!

Well, although summer officially goes on for a few more weeks, I have started back into my final semester of grad school--now, as it ever has, it seems summer ends with the beginning of classes. So! That means it's time to take a look back at the books that made it onto my summer reading list, as well as discuss the unexpected, last minute addition...

While perusing the museum shop at the Smithsonian's American History museum, I happened upon the copious pile o' Lincoln books. I couldn't resist owning one of them, and decided on James Swanson's Manhunt (pictured above. Note my ticket stub to Ford's Theatre being used as the bookmark!), which, rumor has it, will be the source material for an upcoming movie adaptation (spoiler alert: Harrison Ford has been associated with the project).

Readers, I was unprepared for how gripping this book would be; it took all of two days (of which I was fully engaged in vacation activities) to get about 200 pages into it. Swanson tells the story in a kind of back-and-forth narrative, describing the unfolding madness of events from the perspectives of both conspirators and manhunters, 369 pages spanning about 12 days--he doesn't waste any of them. My highest recommendation; I'm not sure if it's just because of my Lincoln obsession or if this book really would appeal to anyone, but it is an amazing story told from a balanced point of view. you even catch yourself rooting for Booth in a few places ("No! don't cross the Potomac there! You're not in Virginia yet!"). Go read this book right now, Lincoln fans! Every American should be familiar with the players in this story, and this book fleshes them out better than most.

SO! Now, for the record, here is the official list of Books I Read This Summer in this, the year of our Lord, two thousand and nine:

• Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary Wolf
  
• Post Office by Charles Bukowski
  
• The Madness of Mary Lincoln by Jason Emerson
  
• Star Trek Academy: Collision Course by William Shatner
• Mrs. Lincoln: A Life by Catherine Clinton
• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Graham-Smith
• The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
• Trouble is My Business by Raymond Chandler
• Mr. Thundermug by Cornelius Medvei
• Tried By War by James M. McPherson
• Mailman by J. Robert Lennon
• Take the Cannoli by Sarah Vowell
• The Barefoot Mailman by Theodore Pratt
• Logan's Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson
• Manhunt by James L. Swanson

There she is, folks--a very worthy list of heavy hitters if I ever saw one. You may use it to come to whatever conclusions about my mental state and/or personal character you like...I'm going with "blossoming Lincoln addict with a Postal fasciniation and tendency towards fantastic/tragic visions of the future."

Summer Reading Update!

I've mentioned before that this summer I'm taking a hiatus before my very last semester of graduate school, and thus have some freedom with which to read whatever books I take a fancy to. Free from the usual oppressive, mandatory, curriculum-dictated library science reading list, I've been into all sorts of crazy, ecclectic selections: it's been a literary free-for-all! I tend to obsess over what prestigious title to add to the list (which I'll post when my fall class starts, thus officially ending Summer Fun Time for me), and I've found that there is a formula to this bookish madness, however sketchy.

For example: I finished Take the Cannoli by Sarah Vowell a few days ago, and--being the especially fickle, unfocused sort that I am--it left me feeling like a bit of fiction. You see, that's become how I operate, literarily: non-fiction then fiction; entertaining then difficult; historical then Star Trek, etc. Reading too many serious biographies (or even bios injected with a healthy dose of levity, such as Cannoli) right in a row depresses me (ask me about the time I read two Mary Todd Lincoln Bios right in a row and ended up in a crying jag over the death of poor, sickly Tad Lincoln!), and too many fictions one after the other makes me feel too frivolous and idle. As long as I stick to that basic rule, my interest is held and my mood is (relatively) steady.

Right now I'm about 50 pages into what looks to be my future answer to the question "What is your favorite novel about postal workers?" It's called Mailman, and it's by J. Robert Lennon. I should explain that I am a particular enthusiast when it comes to the United States Postal Service because that particular institution and I have a (somewhat) casual, (somewhat) sordid, on-again-off-again history together: I've worked sporatically as a postal employee, sometimes enthusiastically, sometimes reluctantly--always apocalyptically--and in several different capacities, since 2004. As an actual, union card carrying, letter-delivering mailman for 2 of those years. I have to fess up to a certain amount of misguided nostalgia and curious fondness when it comes to the USPS. So there's another big clue to my choice of novels.

I was pretty much on board to read this as soon as I found it in my library's catalog, but I was beside myself when I read Amazon's most glowing customer review of it. Posted by "Cactus Ed" it is titled "Most Engaging and Exciting Novel I've Read in Years!" and was posted on December 28th, 2003. I almost cried when I read it:

"I happened to have happened upon this book because of the title. You see, I...am...a...Mailman! Seriously! Thats what I do to make money to feed and shelter my family. I read the other reviews here and decided to get the book - and oh boy! am I not disappointed! This guy Lennon (John Lennon at that!) can write. He's amazingly perceptive of both outer descriptive elements and the inner worlds we all create and inhabit. As I've been reading I keep realizing that this novel is what it feels like to be me, a human being with constant inner dialogue and reminincing going on. Plot? I don't know nor do I care whether there's a plot to this story. The main character ("Mailman"!) is my hero, a fully-alive all-American (yes!) in the year 2000. He is wonderfully real, and I wonder how Lennon, who is only 32 or 33, does it. I am deeply impressed with his wisdom and writing ability. Incredible attention to detail, yet the story never bogs down in it. It moves right along, and I hope it never ends. Reading a novel like this is like being in love - rare and wonderful."

I imagine Cactus Ed, dressed in his sweaty, salt-stained polyester uniform, hunkered down in his mailtruck and reading Mailman, tears rolling down his rugged cheeks as he realizes this Lennon guy--this 33 year old kid--has somehow peered into his soul. Cactus Ed is reading the story of his own life, and he doesn't care if there's a plot, because this Mailman character is just like him: an American in the year 2000 with a constant inner dialogue! I, as an ex-mailman, have to agree with Ed: if I were still delivering mail for a living, I would probably be crying in my salty polyester right now too. So far, the novel describes almost exactly what it's like to be a mailman (although, to get the complete, nightmarish picture you would still need to read Bukowski's novel, which describes exactly what it's like on a bad day--if you were a raging, depraved alcoholic, that is).

Curiously, it turns out that the postal profession has inspired a fair few novels to be written about it--more than I would have guessed. I've already told you about the books inspired by the real life Florida legend: The Barefoot Mailman by Theodore Pratt and The Legend of the Barefoot Mailman by John Fleming. There's also the afore-mentioned booze-and-obscenity-laced Post Office by Charles Bukowski--an earlier summer reading entry of mine. The epic Studs Terkel tome Working includes an essay about a postal worker. I know you'll be thinking about The Postman Always Rings Twice by James Cain if I don't mention it, but that wasn't really about a mailman--he was just a metaphore for eventually getting your comeuppance for murdering your lover's husband, so I can't count that one. I'm sure that god-awful Kevin Costner movie The Postman is probably based on a novel, I just haven't tracked it down yet.

I'll be on the lookout for more postal-inspired books--maybe Cactus Ed and I can start a book club.

Summer Reading List

Not taking any summer classes this year has resulted in a happy phenomenon over here at MM: leisure time to read books! Usually I get a few weeks off between semesters to cram in one or two novels, but we're talking 3 and a half solid months of bookish enjoyment--oh, boy! Reading for fun means no dry library science tomes, no stodgy essays on the "librarian stereotype/archetype backlash" (yes, there's a backlash--an extremely self-conscious, overly done, "look at me: I'm a librarian and I have a tattoo and blue hair!" kind of backlash), and no ponderous journal articles extolling the scandalous hypocrisy of centralized collection development. Nope, just me and my friends Mary Todd Lincoln, Raymond Chandler, William Shatner and whomever else grabs my fickle literary attentions.

I have about another month of summer reading frivolity in which to indulge...what will I read next? Try and guess from the following list of my most recent book selections (May, 2009-current):

• Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary Wolf
  
• Post Office by Charles Bukowski
  
• The Madness of Mary Lincoln by Jason Emerson
  
• Star Trek Academy: Collision Course by William Shatner
• Mrs. Lincoln: A Life by Catherine Clinton
• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Graham-Smith
• The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
• Trouble is My Business by Raymond Chandler
• Mr. Thundermug by Cornelius Medvei

I can confidently recomend any of the above selections for anyone who is wondering (although anyone who has read my post about P&P&Zs will know that one comes with an asterisk). I'm thinking something non-fiction for my next book, but I could probably go read some fluffy novel just the same. Just don't suggest anything by Stephenie Meyer--seriously, I got my silly teeny-bopper toes wet in the shallow end of the goth swimming pool with Anne Rice back in the 90's, and I don't need to revisit that unfortunate little experiment again. All my coworkers have been trying to get me to read the Twilight series, and I am resisting that one rather obstinately (I dropped a young adult lit class last semester because I saw on the syllubus that we would have to read Eclipse. No thank you). Zombie parodies are way more sophisticated than vampire romances, readers.