Summer Reading List 2014

Happy first day of summer!

As you may recall, I am anti the so-called “beach read”. Life’s too short to read poorly written books.

That said, last summer I attempted to tackle (again) Ulysses by James Joyce and failed (again). Partly because that honking great book was not the right choice to backpack through Europe with. This summer, I’m making more reasonable reading goals which will, hopefully, still include excellent literature.

Here’s my list (in alphabetical order because, again, indecisiveness):

1. Maps & Legends – Michael Chabon

2. Crazy Love by Francis Chan

3. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

4. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

5. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

6. No Relation – Terry Fallis

7. The World – Bill Gaston

8. The Tin Drum – Gunter Grass

9. Alone in the Classroom – Elizabeth Hay

10. A Year of Biblical Womanhood – Rachel Held Evans

11.  Across the River and into the Trees – Ernest Hemingway

12. The Orphan Master’s Son – Adam Johnson

13. Perfect by Rachel Joyce

14. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

15. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham

16. This Side of Brightness – Collum McCann

17. Transatlantic by Collum McCann

18. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

19.  And No Birds Sang – Farley Mowat

20. The Girl Who was Saturday Night – Heather O’Neill

21. A Tale for the time Being by Ruth Ozeki

22. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

23. House Calls by Float Plane – Alan Swan

24. The Flying Troutmans – Miriam Toews

25.Indian Horse – Richard Wagamese

 

I worked hard to limit this list to 25 titles – 20 fiction, 5 non. In no way do I promise to limit myself only to these 25 books but these are the ones I hope to reach for when I’m deciding what book to read next. I also limited myself to books that I knew I could get a hold of – either ones I’d already picked up somewhere and are sitting on my shelf, or books that are available at my local library.

What’s on your summer reading list? What am I desperately missing from mine?