Um.

A haunting short story:

"Pilgrims," by Julie Orringer.

Find on JSTOR
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40354913

Bryan's list

My reading list depends to a great extent on what books are available to me in print and through BobCat. Unfortunately, Kim, I can't lend you Freedom because it's in Cairo! Come visit and it's yours =). 

I did finish Freedom, tearful and exhausted on a beach in 3ain Sukhna, and am still gathering my thoughts, resisting the urge to read reviews before articulating my own understanding of the novel. Overall, though, I will say now that I was very impressed and deeply moved. 

I also have a few story ideas that I am determined to finally pump out and would love all of your opinions on. In any case, I loved reading your new posts and re-reading our old posts, and I'm looking forward to this!

Fiction/Literature

To Kill A Mockingbird (for the seventh time), Harper Lee

Freedom, Jonathan Franzen

In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust

The Cairo Trilogy Naguib Mahfouz

The Yacoubian Building Alaa al-Aswany

Cairo, Egypt, the Middle East, Islam

Cairo: My City, Our Revolution, Ahdaf Soueif

The State of Egypt Alaa al-Aswany

Cairo: The City Victorious Max Rodenbeck

Cairo: Histories of a City, Nezar Al-Sayyad

Islam, Karen Armstrong

Muhammad, Karen Armstrong

Desiring Arabs - "The Gay International" J.A. Massad

Economics/Marxism, really...

Debt: The First 5,000 Years David Graeber

The Communist Manifesto Karl Marx

Articles and essays on post-colonial economics, American imperialism, the Middle East, and Development

Activism From the Closet Hassan El-Menyawy - on gay rights activism in Egypt

Intersex Surgery, Female Genital Cutting, and the Selective Condemnation of “Cultural Practices” Nancy Ehrenreich

Camila's Lista

Greatest apologies for the delay -- here is what I was thinking:

Graphic Novels:

- Finish Watchmen, Alan Moore


- Re-read From Hell, Alan Moore

Novels:


- Pigeon English, Stephen Kelman

- The Yiddish Policeman's Union, Michael Chabon

- Hopscotch, Julio Cortazar

- Swamplandia!, Karen Russell

- The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Milan Kundera

Short Stories:


- Selections from Billy Bud and Other Stories, Herman Melville

- Selections from  Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, Alice Munro

Nonfiction:


- The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene

- Every single essay from the latest Granta (Exit Strategies)

Radio:


- Radiolab

- This American Life (forgive me...)

- StoryCorps


Stay tuned for updates and musings =] In the meantime, hope you're all enjoying the lurvely summertime. Miss youz.

- C

Introducciones y amor:

Hello lovely birds. Rummaging through all y'all's posts makes me very sentimental in a good way. It just does. So I want to give hefty thought to my list before putting it up. As of right now, I'm reading and enjoying Watchmen (little tardy on the trend. whadeva). After that, I've been eyeing Swamplandia, which has been gathering dust on my bookshelf since I bought it last semester.

There are many more, most of which include some favorite essayists/some quirky radio shows (flexible interpretation of "reading"), and I will compile something nice this evening =]

mm cookies and luv to you. cookies and luv!

-C

Devika Will Read

These 15 Books

1. Too Much Happiness 

Alice Munro

2. The Writings of M.T. Vasudevan Nair

M.T. Vasudevan Nair

3. How to Read the Air

Dinaw Mengestu

4. Cry, The Beloved Country

Alan Patton

5. Open City

Teju Cole

6. The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories

Bruno Schulz

7. Notes from the Underground

Fyodor Dostoyevsky 

8.The Complete Stories
Flannery O'Connor

9. The Rings of Saturn

W.G. Sebald

10. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

Raymond Carver 

11. The Collected Stories

Grace Paley

12. The Things They Carried
Tim O'Brian 

13. The Awakening 

Kate Chopin

14. Invisible Cities

Italo Calvino

15. Drown
Junot Diaz 

(Note: This list excludes titles that you all will be supplying to the rest of us)!

Book that I would Like SumReaders to add to their list: #1. Too Much Happiness. Alice Munro. 

Love,

Devika

Kimbo Reads Books: Part One

I went back and re-read my post from last summer containing my book list, and guess what guys... I read like one and a half of those books. I mean, I read other books that weren't on my list. But that's kind of sad.

So, I'm going to try and be very diligent (and realistic) this summer. Here's my list:

The Invisible Circus by Jennifer Egan
Emerald City, and Other Stories by Jennifer Egan
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Have you guys read Murakami? I'm trying to peg down the best one by him to read first. Kafka on the Shore? Norwegian Wood? 1Q84 seems a bit daunting...

I want to read Freedom when Bryan is done with it (can I borrow your copy please?) and I will finish How to Read the Air. I will most likely not read Atlas Shrugged or In Search of Lost Time, as previously proposed. That's just like... I don't know. If some part of me right now is already subconsciously yawning/groaning (and it is--I can feel it), that's probably not a good start.

I'll get back to you guys on my nomination for the book from my list that everyone should read. As you can see, it's a work in progress.

We should also do movies! and music! and gossip about things.

I am also on the hunt for good literary-mystery stories (if they exist--something with the gripping quality of Hunger Games or Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). And short stories... always. Need more Italo Calvino, Stuart Dybek, Lydia Davis, Denis Johnson. So send 'em my way, buds. I'll recommend After the Plague by T.C. Boyle for now.

I'll also update you guys on the best new articles from the New York Times Magazine. I had buttloads of fun this morning moderating the hundreds of comments that poured in for "Mommy Wars: the Prequel," about the home-birthing movement. ...those NYT commenters sure can take anything and turn it into a debate about socialism.

Also, I may start using Twitter more?? <--- hesitation. But everyone at NYT uses it and thinks I'm crazy that I don't. So I updated the "akindalamebunny" handle to @kgjaso (don't worry Devika, I kept the picture). Still haven't tweeted yet... but maybe... change is on the horizon. I could deal with that instead of Facebook.

Sumreading: 2012

Dear all,
We are back for this new and ripening summer! Bryan, Kim, and I will be taking this blog to new places this summer. Booklists to come soon.

Lots of Love,
Devika