Thursday, July 14, 2011

Summer Reading Series 4: What about non fiction for summer reading?


I’ll admit it, I read a LOT of fiction and since I read so much of it, it tends to be what I recommend most often.  But that doesn’t mean I don’t give non fiction some love, and if you’re a non-fiction reader looking for some great titles for summer, this list is for you.  Today, the list is travel themed, but not to worry, I have more non-fiction lists coming soon!

Is the heat killing you?  Cool off with Travels in Siberia by Ian Frazier.  Not just the desolate, frigid wasteland that makes up one-seventh of the world’s land mass, Frazier’s Siberia brims with Mongols, half-crazed Orthodox archpriests, tea caravans, German scientists, American prospectors, intrepid English nurses, and prisoners and exiles of every description.  Going far beyond travelogue, this is also an account of Russia since the end of the Soviet Union, and Frazier’s personal (and often humorous) reflection on all things Russia.  (Need more great reads to help you cool off?  Try Ice Bound by Jerri Nielsen, or The Only Kayak by Kim Heacox.)

An oldie but a goodie, Frances Mayes’s Under the Tuscan Sun is one of my favorites.  Part homage to Tuscany and its people, part delicious ode to the local cuisine, Mayes writes of the home she bought and restored, her summers and holidays spent basking in Tuscan culture, and every paragraph waxes poetic at the everyday delights she experiences there.  The perfect escape on a summer afternoon.  (Don’t want to leave Tuscany after you’ve finished the book?  Try Bella Tuscany, also by Mayes.)

Finally, a little closer to home, I’m a Stranger Here Myselfby Bill Bryson.  Well-known travel writer Bryson is more introspective here than in previous books, though no less entertaining, when after two decades in England, he’s relocated to New Hampshire.  Stepping back into the American mainstream after twenty years abroad, Bryson has both a critical eye and a nostalgic heart as he writes about everything from the sweetness of small-town America to the strangeness of activist groups.  The collection of essays, originally written as columns for London’s Night & Day magazine, is one to be leisurely enjoyed and savored.  (Want to know more about Bryson’s travels?  Try A Walk in the Woods.)


Next up in our Summer Reading Series, Mysteries.  Think you’re not a mystery reader?  Think again!

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