What Are You Reading This Summer?

For some reason, over the past year I have read a number of books about World War II and the Holocaust. I don't shy away from books that deal with difficult topics, but you can only read so much about such a horrific time and at a certain point I started trying to avoid books about WWII. Except people kept recommending books about it for some reason. Two of the books, Sarah's Key and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society were forgettable. But, while you might not think of WWII books as summer reading, the three books below are all brilliant and original and, while they deal with a depressing topic, ultimately uplifting.

I love Jonathan Safran Foer and his wife, Nicole Krauss, proved to be just as brilliant. (Their son is still in diapers but I'm already waiting for his books to come out.) Both authors were recently listed on the New Yorker's list of twenty best authors under forty. This book was both funny and heartbreaking and the characters are completely original.

While this book is told by Death, worn out from all of his work during WWII, it is ultimately a story of hope. As soon as I put it down, I thought "Who should I pass this on to?"

I loved this story of two Russians, Lev and Kolya, who are given a chance to save their lives by finding a dozen eggs for a Soviet colonel to use in his daughter's wedding cake. Not an easy task in a city where the Nazis' have cut off all supplies. Benioff is a Hollywood screen writer and it shows in his writing - this book is definitely a page-turner. And yet it manages to be thoughtful at the same time. At the end, he turns on the action a bit too much to be realistic, but I still loved this book and highly recommend it.

The books on my to-read shelf right now are fortunately not about WWII:

Wuthering Heights

Let the Great World Spin

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

Cutting For Stone

I also just got a great list of books on Facebook today when I asked if anyone had suggestions for books this summer. (I think I'm overly optimistic about how much time I'm actually going to have to read, but it's nice to have a list of fall reading too!) I love getting recommendations from friends. Let me know if you've read anything good recently.

No matter what you're reading, I hope you get some time swinging on a hammock or with sand between your toes to enjoy a good book this summer!