Learning Insights Susan K. Boyar Summer Reading List 2015 [email protected]

The following list is divided into two parts: the first section is made up of books I have recently read and enjoyed, the second of books that I would like to read this summer. Do not despair; I will not finish all of them either!

I Recommendations:

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: Winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It is the rare novel that is both literary fiction and a total page turner. This book succeeds on both levels. It takes place primarily in France and Austria during the period leading up to WWII, and through the war. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: A love story, a contemporary immigrant story as well as an exploration of race and feminism today. Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: This earlier novel by Adichie tells a family story against the backdrop of the Biafran War for Independence. The following book is Onyemelukwe’s memoir of her life in Nigeria after serving in the Peace Corps. It contains her memories of the strife fictionalized in Half a Yellow Sun. Nigeria Revisited by Catherine Onyemelukwe Twilight of the Superheroes:Stories by Deborah Eisenberg: Short stories including the title story which looks at the aftermath of 9/11. Bark by Lorrie Moore: First book of short stories in 16 years, she is a master of the form. The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel. A Broadway show, a Masterpiece Theater Presentation, becoming a Dame and a new collection of short stories: Mantel has been busy. She is a wonderful writer and this volume of stories does not disappoint. Euphoria by Lily King: a fictional reimagining loosely based on a few months in the life of Margaret Mead Lucky Us by Amy Bloom: Two half-sisters find their way through the 1930s and 1940s with minimal parental involvement. Funny, sad and irreverent. The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor: A beautiful Irish novel about loss and coming to terms with the repercussions of the choices we make. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki: A Hello Kitty lunchbox washes up on the shore of an island off British Columbia setting in motion a story of a contemporary Japanese teenager, the writer who finds it, and a WWII Japanese Kamikaze pilot. The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng: Eng’s first novel set in Malaysia during the Japanese occupation during WWII. The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis: A disgraced Soviet Israeli politician comes face to face with the man who denounced him to the KGB. Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar: For lovers of Virginia Woolf and all things Bloomsbury, a story told through an imagined diary of Vanessa Stephen. Love and Treasure by Ayelet Waldman: The story of the Hungarian gold train confiscated by the allies near the end of WWII. A great companion piece to Julie Orringer’s The Invisible Bridge. A Replacement Life by Boris Fishman: Ambitious first novel of Soviet Russian Jewish immigrants. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler I want you to trust me on this one. Read it cold. Don’t read reviews, don’t read blurbs or jacket covers. You will understand, and thank me. A good summer read Lila by Marilynne Robinson: Winner of the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. The third novel exploring the town of Gilead, although each stands on its own, and can be read alone. Robinson says she is not yet done with Gilead and a fourth volume is on the way.

II—These are the books currently in my queue to be read. I will definitely read some of them, but you never know what else will tempt me over the summer. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson God Help the Child: a Novel by Toni Morrison The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker Redeployment by Phil Klay The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro Love and Summer by William Trevor My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma The Invisible Wall by Harry Bernstein: a memoir Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermione Lee Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng Ghana Must Go: A Novel by Taiye Selasi We Need New Names by Noviolet Bulawayo Early Warning by Jane Smiley The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan