Summer reading

Claire has a big list and it's all about fun. Let's hope not too much compulsory reading gets in its way.

This sounds like fun

My old friend Brian Alderson and Books for Keeps editor Rosemary Stones are going to be conducting a five day course about Philip Pullman in France this June. If that is not enough, listen to this from the course brochure: "Le Verger is a beautifully renovated complex of farm buildings in a small village in the Yonne département of Burgundy, France. It is easily reached by Eurostar and TGV or by car. Accommodation is a mixture of single and shared bedrooms. There is a swimming pool and large orchard garden. Burgundy is renowned for its Romanesque architecture, chateaux, food and wine and there will be time for visits to some of the many local places of interest."

Sounds like that great French movie Swimming Pool, lacking only a divinely nude Ludivine Sagnier lounging by said pool. But you never know. More details are available from Rosemary at piazza AT btinternet DOT com.

UPDATE: Rosemary tells me there is now a website for the program.

And listen to ME (and Martha and Kitty)

. . . as we talk about some of our favorite new summer reads for kids. A list of the books we discuss on the podcast can be found here.

June newsletter

The June issue of Notes from the Horn Book should be in your inbox right now (if not, see it and sign up here). Included in this issue: Roger interviews Alexandra Day (Good Dog, Carl's mistress), recommends some picture books for dog and pony lovers, holds forth on some eagerly anticipated sequels, and makes a plug for library summer reading programs. Plus: Ask the Horn Book questions answered, three compelling and topical titles, and reading suggestions in anticipation of the Fourth of July.

I'm-a the Most Happy Fella

Richard and I are off to Napa today for the wedding of his adorable son Dorian to the lovely Julie, so I won't be posting for a week or so. Kitty tells me she'll keep you informed of any especially juicy gossip.

Plenty of reading is coming along--the last quarter of Middlemarch, Ha Jin's A Free Life, Scott McClelland ratting out his boss, Colin Thubron on Siberia and Richard Grant on the Sierra Madre. And a bunch of mysteries. (This is where the Kindle comes in really handy.) I'm hoping to pick up the new David Sedaris and John Sandford at the airport.

New and new

The new Notes from the Horn Book should be in your inbox.

And Claire's latest list--Summer Reading--is up on our site. I think I should confess that I am hooked on Beach Blondes, wherein Summer has three hot dudes vying for her attention and a possible fourth who may be her long lost big brother. For me, it's the kind of book that goes great with a sandwich but is completely stultifying if I'm not simultaneously chewing.

Is long the new short?

I just picked up Katherine Applegate's Beach Blondes: A Summer Novel (Simon Pulse) and boy are my arms tired. This sucker is 721 paperback pages long, and first in a series to boot. I'm guessing it's so fat for some strategic marketing reason, or perhaps I just haven't yet gotten to the chapter "This Is Summer Speaking," in which the heroine stops the motor of the world in order to expound for fifty-seven pages on the virtues of Vera Bradley bags.

It's more than roasted weinies

Worker of the world Claire has put together a list of books for Labor Day.

July/August '07 Horn Book

The July-August issue of the Horn Book Magazine is out; selected snippets can be found on our website but, c'mon, subscribe already.

Also new: assistant editor cum tea-dumping subversive Claire Gross gets all in the (British) government's face with a reading list of books about the events of 1776.

"We Are All Winners"

opined Karen Hesse in her Newbery-Medal acceptance speech (yeah, I know, easy for her to say) but I am stoked, not to mention contractually obligated, to announce the winners of Mother Reader's 48 Hour Book Challenge. The Most Books Read Prize goes to the Midwestern Lodestar blog, and the Most Time Spent Reading Prize to the blog Finding Wonderland.

Congratulations to you both. I remain unsure about why my mentioning these winners is supposed to be some kind of prize and have a sneaking suspicion MR is expecting me to make fun of their reading choices or something, but I would never do a thing like that where you could see me. Now shoo, earnest readers. Go outside and play.

Paging Julie Brown

We've put together a summer reading list for your pleasure; please note that it fulfills no requirements and promises nothing but a good time.

Bruce Brooks kicked off my summer reading with a gift of the latest Prey book (Invisible Prey) by John Sandford. Give me Sandford's Lucas Davenport in the summer and Donna Leon's Guido Brunetti in the winter and I'm a happy man. Otherwise this summer, I'm planning to continue my binge on Turkey and the Turks and am currently enjoying Elif Shafak's The Bastard of Istanbul and Hugh Pope's Sons of the Conquerors. But that's indoor reading, and for the beach--if I get there--I like 'em big and stupid. Any suggestions?