Saturday, August 28, 2010

the books i've read this summer


1) BEAT THE REAPER, by Josh Bazell (Fiction, 2009). This might be the only novel I've read so far this year (I used to read mostly only novels). My bookgroup (that I basically attend just now and then) picked this one, and I must say I loved it -- a perfect summer beach book, without the beach in my case. It's about a former Mafia hit man who goes into the FBI's witness protection program and becomes a doctor. It's written in a very conversational style and has all kinds of surprise twists and revelations.
2) LAST CALL, by Daniel Okrent (Non-fiction, 2010). A very well-written and informative history of the Prohibition Era -- how the heck it ever happened and how useless it was. I learned a lot from this book.
3) MAYFLOWER, by Nathaniel Philbrick (Non-fiction, 2006). All about the Pilgrims and what came after the mythical first Thanksgiving.
4) THE POLITICIAN, by Andrew Young (Non-fiction, 2010). This is about the political rise and fall of John Edwards, written by his assistant. Our condo has a library, and I saw this book there -- wouldn't have read it otherwise -- and I found it fascinating. I couldn't put it down and read it in about two days.
5) THIS TIME TOGETHER, by Carol Burnett (Non-fiction, 2010). A total time-waster, but -- hey -- I've wasted time on worse things that Carol Burnett. And after all, this was summer reading.

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