The Atlantic has a great list up: “10 Essential Books for Thought-Provoking Summer Reading,” including The Late American Novel.
Brainy Summer Reading
Just Another Mason
In general, we think of translators as people whose job, briefly summarized, is to create elegant texts out of works in foreign languages. But J.R.R. Tolkien, in his translation of Beowulf, set out to do something different. The Lord of the Rings author published a translation that he kept intentionally clunky. Why? In his telling, he did it to better imitate Old English.
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Theories on Jim Harrison
"How is it possible that a smallish army of discerning readers agree that Jim Harrison is one of the few truly great living American writers, yet he has not gotten the wider audience—or the widespread praise—he so plainly deserves?" Our own Bill Morris has some theories.
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The Lost Books
Over at NPR, Parul Sehgal recommends five books “that have been restored to us, that have been reissued, reimagined or — in one instance — presumed lost and discovered for the first time.”
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Nicolas Freeling began his career as a professional cook, before turning to writing crime novels. Suggest his hilarious set of books (The Kitchen Book/The Cook) which are like a prototype for Anthony Bourdain. Wiritten as sketches, with great accompanying illustrations.
“He began writing during a three-week prison sentence, after being convicted of taking home some veal from a restaurant where he worked, though this was common practice in the restaurant trade.[citation needed]” [LOVE THIS! mam]