When summer comes, many teachers might want to veg out with a good book. I think it is interesting to find what other friends are reading and often I check out those books and try them to see if they are a good fit for me. When I am visiting at someone’s house, I browse their personal libraries to see what books I might like to read.
Here is a list of books that I have read and reread. If you aren’t familiar with them, you might like them, too. You really never know.
1. Jan Karon’s Mitford series is a set of novels about an Episcopalian minister and his life in small town Mitford, North Carolina. I discovered these books about ten years ago and have lent them to my parents who then lent them to my siblings. Our whole family has enjoyed these books. My brother named his dog ‘Dooley’ after one of the characters in the book. Start with “At Home in Mitford” and go on from there.
2. Phillip Gulley is a Quaker minister who writes novels about a Quaker minister in a very small town. As you read these books, you get to know the members of his congregation and their idiosyncrasies. If you like the Mitford books, you will probably enjoy these. You might want to start with “Home to Harmony”. You really don’t need to read these in any particular order, but if you like to read books in order, this is the first one.
3. Michael Ruhlman has written three books about the fascinating world of the culinary arts. I picked up the first one while visiting a friend and got permission to take it home to finish it. “The Making of a Chef” takes you into the rigors of culinary school and what chefs need to do to make it. Michael then wrote two more books about chefs titled “The Soul of a Chef” and “The Reach of a Chef”.
4. In elementary school I happened to read Helene Hanff’s “84 Charing Cross Road” and began a life-long yearning to visit Great Britain. A group of my friends also read this book and we loved it. Years later when I was actually planning a visit to that wonderful land, I got out my copy and wrote down places I wanted to see that Helene had mentioned. A few years ago one of my elementary school friends wrote and sent me the obituary of Helene Hanff. I felt like I had lost a friend. Miss Hanff also wrote “The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street” which is a continuation of her life, then again continued with “Q’s Legacy”. She went a different route and wrote of her beginnings in “Underfoot in Show Business” and also wrote a travel diary of her hometown New York City in “Apple of My Eye”. If you can get your hands on these, they are well worth it. All of them are quick reads.
5. I want to put in a special plug for my second favorite physicist – Richard Feynman. (My husband is my first favorite physicist!) Feynman is not your normal science geek, but is delightful as he writes about his life. In “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” he tells of his childhood and his unorthodox ways of doing math and science. He also writes about his life in “What Do You Care What Other People Think?” Both of these books are written with humor and in the language of normal people.
6. Other authors you might enjoy reading include James Herriot, Garrison Keillor, and Tracy Kidder.
Now, if you have any ideas of books that I might want to read, send them to me soon. I am almost out of reading material! (Not really, but I always like something new.)
Have a great summer and I’ll be back next August. I’ll see some of you at the Small Schools Workshop in August.
Audrey
