“Learn to be good readers,—which is perhaps a more difficult thing than you imagine. Learn to be discriminative in your reading; to read faithfully, and with your best attention, all kinds of things which you have a real interest in, a real not an imaginary, and which you find to be really fit for what you are engaged in.” - Thomas Carlyle, Inaugural Address at Edinburgh University

Year 2007 Summer Reading List

2007 Reading Recommended by Dad -
I finished another airplane book last night, The Way Through The Woods by Colin Dexter (Chief Inspector Morse). I cleaned out Bailey's Book Store of those Morse books, and have read them all before even climbing on an airplane. Love, Dad (6/25/07)

2007 Reading Recommended by Katie -
Here is Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund which John gave me for Christmas a year ago and I only just finished. It's a pretty good historic novel, good winter reading --makes me think a lot about what it would have been like to live in the 1840's or so --as well as how people have to grapple with tough problems and questions. I hope you find time to read it and that you enjoy it. Love, Katie (1/2/07)

Year 2005 Summer Reading List
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.
Inside of a dog it is too dark to read. - Groucho Marx

2005 Summer Reading Recommended by Sophia -
I am reading my second by Phillipa Gregory? Have you read any of her novels? ... historical fiction set in the time of King Henry VIII; The Other Boleyn Girl and I am partway through Wisewoman. - S.E., 7/15/05

2005 Summer Reading Recommended by Dad -
The reviews say that David McCullough's 1776 is a good one, which I plan to make a run at later this summer. The new Gettysburg by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen is one of those revisionist -- what if? -- versions, which I won't consider. Shelby Foote's (who died recently) three volume Civil War is very good if you don't mind his subtle Southern bias, denied by those who wrote his obituaries. Bruce Catton's 3 volume Mr. Lincoln's Army, Glory Road, and A Stillness at Appomattox, I liked better. I haven't seen this quality of writing about WWII, with the exception of Vol. I An Army At Dawn by Rick Atkinson. None of the above represents relaxation reading in the hammock on a warm summer afternoon. Love, Dad (7/3/05)

2005 Summer Reading Recommended by Bruce -
King Rat by James Clavell is set in the steamy jungles of the Pacific Theater. It's great summertime literature with lots of action and powerful characters. Apparently historically accurate, it shows the complex interactions between Japanese prison guards, natives of the area and the Allied prisoners in the camp—just a great read! - B.M., 7/3/05

2005 Summer Reading Recommended by Cory -
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide: Six Stories By Douglas Adams is my pick for summer reading. If you're prejudiced against Sci-Fi, read it for the humor. If you don't like humor, better not pick it up at all because this big of a dose of funny stuff could cause real damage for those of a sober bent. Be sure to get the Ultimate Guide (complete and unabridged). By Adams' own admission, many and various forms of his work abound. This is the definitive text. Beats the recent movie by a long shot. - C.E., 7/3/05

2005 Summer Reading Recommended by Jen -
I really liked The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and I think anybody would enjoy it!- J.E., 7/5/05

Regan adds: The Kite Runner is a novel about a boy growing up in Afghanistan and experiencing the Soviet invasion, refugee status, and the Taliban regime. A very detailed cultural picture along with a fast moving plot full of intrigue. He also recommends A General Theory of Love by Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, Richard Lannon; a look at human emotions through science, biology, and sociology. Insightful and interesting. - R.E., 7/6/05

2005 Summer Reading Recommended by Dad's friend, Al -
If you have the time and inclination to read a novel about Malta during World War II, I can recommend The Kapillan of Malta by Nicholas Monserrat. He is a wonderful writer and presents a story that is astonishingly real and moving. I was nearly in tears at the end. I had read it years ago when it first came out, and it was part of the reason I wanted to visit Malta. I just today finished reading it for a second time -- I bought the book while we were there -- and think it is one of the most satisfying novels I have read recently. It moves slowly in places, but Monserrat is so adept in his use of English and such a story teller that I feel uplifted by it. You may remember him as the author of The Cruel Sea about convoy duty in the North Atlantic. - A.C., 11/27/04

I picked up a copy of Nichola Monserrat's The Cruel Sea at the Harrisburg High School Library Book Sale in August 2004...I was so inspired that I proceeded to pay too much for a used video tape of the movie of the same name which has two actors you will recognize from "Zulu," namely Stanley Baker (an early bit part in his esteemed career) and Jack Hawkins (the Swedish Missionary now playing a Captain of a warship). On Veterans' Day this year, one of our local TV stations aired "Saving Private Ryan" (they waffled whether to show it at all because of its language and the potential for "indecency" fines). I know why they selected that film for today's audience (popularity of Tom Hanks a factor) but I would argue that The Cruel Sea is a better war movie...even if it is about the Brits and the Sea. - Cory, 12/2/04

I agree with you and Al. The Cruel Sea is a winner which I read many years ago and have somewhere in my war book section. Mom had just placed the order for Wesley Wehr's book and a couple of P.G. Wodehouse books for me (I have forgotten the names, maybe The Code of the Woosters and Carry On, Jeeves) or I would have tried for Monserrat's Kapillan of Malta which Al recommended. Next time! Love, Dad - 12/3/04

“If, in any vacant vague time, you are in a strait as to choice of reading,—a very good indication for you, perhaps the best you could get, is toward some book you have a great curiosity about.” - Thomas Carlyle, Inaugural Address at Edinburgh University Suggested Summer Reading from the Eberhart Family and FruitFromWashington.com “While at the bookstore I realized that bookstores are some of the safest and friendliest places in the world. If the world ends during my lifetime, I hope I’m in a bookstore when it happens.” - Michael Logsdon I was wondering what everybody was reading this summer. You know how popular summer reading lists are? Newspapers and magazines all publish reading lists. Oprah, of course, is crazy about books and once had a book club that recommended reading for her television audience (apparently now she limits herself to the tried and true rather than contemporary literature in a segment called "Traveling with the Classics"). Many of you may even belong to your own local book clubs and have selected books to read during the next few months or year. That's great! We decided we had to get in on the action before the summer was over. So here are the extended Eberhart Family Members’ suggestions for summer reading. Got a vacation coming up? There’s still time to get that good book read before summer slips away. Here are our recommendations. Now if it is not the summer of the year, and you find yourself looking out upon the gray days of winter, take solace in this from Proust and give gifts of books for the holidays. - C.E. “Who cannot recall, as I can, the reading they did in the holidays, which one would conceal successively in all those hours of the day peaceful and inviolable enough to be able to afford it refuge.” - Marcel Proust

A book collector's surprising find— I've been sorting books again and I came across one that is very amusing. It’s a copy of Macbeth copyright 1915, which is not particularly amusing, but the blank pages at the front and back are filled with notes and comments that are. It was owned by: Helen Richolson 11th C. Class '22, 1921. The best bit is a little poem that has nothing to do with Macbeth and is not very Shakespeare-esque. - B.A.E., 4/15/02 I love you much, I love you mighty, I wish my pajamas were next to your nighty. Now don't get excited, Now don't get misled, I mean on the clothesline, And not in bed. - Eddy ’22 At a local used bookstore, I picked up The Bronze Treasury: An Anthology of 81 Obscure English Poets, published in 1927. Written on the pre-title page was the following: This book belongs to Paul L. Speegle ~ (until somebody borrows it, I guess.) - C.E., 1/10/04 By some slim chance, reader, you may be the kind of person who, on a visit to a strange city, makes for a bookshop. Of course your slight temporal business may detain you in the earlier hours of the day. You sit with committees and stroke your profound chin, or you spend your talent in the market, or run to and fro and wag your tongue in persuasion. Or, if you be on a holiday, you strain yourself on the sights of the city, against being caught in an omission. The bolder features of a cathedral must be grasped to satisfy a quizzing neighbor lest he shame you later on your hearth, a building must be stuffed inside your memory, or your pilgrim feet must wear the pavement of an ancient shrine. However, these duties being done and the afternoon having not yet declined, do you not seek a bookshop to regale yourself? - Charles S. Brooks

“The best partners of solitude are books. I like to take a book with me in my pocket, although I find the world so full of interesting things--sights, sounds, odours--that often I never read a word in it. It is like having a valued friend with you, though you walk for miles without saying a word to him or he to you: but if you really know your friend, it is a curious thing how, subconsciously, you are aware of what he is thinking and feeling about this hillside or that distant view. And so it is with books. It is enough to have this writer in your pocket, for the very thought of him and what he would say to these old fields and pleasant trees is ever freshly delightful. And he never interrupts at inconvenient moments, nor intrudes his thoughts upon yours unless you desire it.” - David Grayson, Greatest Possessions

Year 2004 Summer Reading List
Books that can be held in the hand, and carried to the fireside are the best after all. - Samuel Johnson

2004 Summer Reading Recommended by Dad -
I just finished The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl. It's a bit on the gruesome side, but I appreciated the main characters of Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and of course, Dante, in absentia...I have ordered Longfellow's translation of The Inferno and am working my way through the Harvard Classics, Henry Cary translation of The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri–light summer reading.

2004 Summer Reading Recommended by Sophia and her kids -
The kids and I are reading (out loud): Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism by Georgia Byng and enjoying it very much. I also picked up The House of Thirty Cats by Mary Calhoun, for Aliza, which she likes too.

2004 Summer Reading Recommended by Chuck -
Katie is the one who has been plowing through the books. I know she recently read a couple of books my brother John gave her for her birthday to wit The Life of Pi, and 100 Years of Solitude. I have not read them yet but at least the first one apparently is a quicker read than the other one. As for myself, I recently read the first in the Master and Commander series by Patrick O'Brien. I can recommend this one. It is somewhat Hemingwayesque in an early 19th century way. Actually maybe somewhat Melvillean would be a better description since there is a lot of technical historical sailing warship discussion as well as excellent dialogue and drama. I am currently reading a travel book by William Least Moon Heat, River Horse--A Voyage by River Across America. The book follows the trials and tribulation of the author and sidekick as they travel by watercraft from New York Harbor up the Hudson, through the Erie Canal to Lake Erie and on to the Ohio to the Mississippi and then up the Missouri etc to the Columbia. It is a great book to read a chapter at a time just before falling asleep. Mike recently has been reading stuff like Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them as well as Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.

2004 Summer Reading Recommended by Dad -
For those who enjoy Tony Hillerman's mysteries as much for descriptions of landscapes and weather in the American Southwest as for their plots, I recommend Alexander McCall Smith's "mysteries" of the African Southwest (Botswana) with their excellent characterizations of people and local geography. The first four of these small books are The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Tears of the Giraffe, Morality For Beautiful Girls, and The Kalahari Typing School For Men. I believe that the author recently received best author at the British Book Awards. His latest book is The Full Cupboard Of Life. - Read the Powells Books interview with Alexander McCall Smith

2004 Summer Reading Recommended by Cory -
I've had a lot of fun reading the fantasy series of three by Philip Pullman which includes The Golden Compass (Book I), The Subtle Knife (Book II) and The Amber Spyglass (Book III). Katie had recommended The Golden Compass some time ago and actually loaned me a copy, but I had a hard time getting past the first few chapters. "Stick with it," she told me, so I did, and she was right, the story really took off. It has won awards for young adult fiction but if you're a grown-up, don't hold that against it. Many of us have pets that are an integral part of our lives. We love and appreciate them, and can't imagine how empty our lives would be without them. Pullman adds dimension to his characters with use of a physically (for the most part) manifest animal spirit inseparable from the human soul. These daemons (as he calls them) add character depth and advance the plot. Also, of great import to the story line are parallel universes, original sin, and dark matter. I'm sure there is endless discussion about anti-religious themes in his work, but that doesn't concern me and I'm just glad I came across "His Dark Materials" (as these fantasies are called) after the author had completed the last book in the series. The wait for a sequel to come out would have been excruciating!

2004 Summer Reading Recommended by Ben -
I just finished an excellent mathematical biography (I would recommend it for the summer reading list) called Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics by John Derbyshire. Half of it goes through the actual math behind the Riemann Hypothesis (which is the central query of the book and which makes powerful statements about the distribution of prime numbers), and the other half is the history and people behind the mathematics surrounding the Riemann Hypothesis. I highly recommend it, because though the math is pretty difficult, it is the actual math behind the RH (the essential aspects aren't watered down any). And the history is very interesting (lots of very smart people, and some weird coincidences).

Daniel Dennet, professor of philosophy and cognitive studies, discusses the mechanisms, philosophy and "teleology" of Evolution in Darwin's Dangerous Idea. It is an interesting, accessible read on the inner workings of natural selection.

Douglas R. Hofstadter's masterpiece, Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, delves into a subject of great interest. He closely examines human logic, reductionism, holism, and the possibilities of artificial intelligence in an elegant tone that is quite a challenge to read, but very rewarding. It really makes you think.

Dark, gothic fantasies written in the 1930's by English author Mervyn Peake, The Gormenghast Trilogy, chronicles the life of a man who grows up in a castle that is big as a city. PBS made a mini-series out of the story. Overall, a very good read.

Year 2003 Summer Reading List
“The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination.” - Elizabeth Hardwick

2003 Summer (World War II) Reading Recommended by Dad -
An Army At Dawn, The War In North Africa, 1942-43 by Rick Atkinson may not be everyone's cup of tea, but for me, it seems just right, at this time of terrorist attacks against Americans 60 years later. After my recent viewing of the interview with Rick Atkinson on the Jim Lehrer News Hour, occasioned by a Pulitzer prize for An Army At Dawn, I ordered the book and expect delivery of it 60 years from the date I received "Greetings from your friends and neighbors" to report for the draft. The first half of 1942 had been bleak, indeed, with one military disaster following another in quick succession. After mid-year, conditions began to improve and the U.S. invasion of Vichy French North Africa was a major step forward. It was a huge morale booster at home and the beginning of the end of the Axis in Africa and Europe.

From the PBS TV interview, I understand that this is not another Greatest Generation type book, but instead reveals American mistakes, and I was led to believe examples of the "good, the bad, and the ugly" revealed in that North African Campaign. This book is reported to be the first of a Rick Atkinson trilogy about the American Army in the North African Euorpean Theater in World War II. If completed, that will be a massive undertaking, and although I may not be around to read successive volumes, I can rest easy because I know how it all ended.

Thus, this is a non review of a book I haven't read, but trust the Pulitzer Prize judges that it will be worth both my time (which isn't worth much) and my $30 to buy it and read it this summer. - Love, Dad

2003 Summer Reading Recommended by Chuck -
As usual I find myself mostly reading the New York Review of Books, however I just finished a fascinating non-fiction book that I can highly recommend if a person has ever wondered about birds and in particular the raven. The Mind of the Raven by Berndt Heinrich.

2003 Summer Reading Recommended by Bruce -
The Punch: One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight that Changed Basketball Forever, by John Feinstein depicts in excruciating detail the punch between Kermit Washington and Rudy Tomjanovich. It deals with guilt, redemption and second chances. What this book does best is show how the role of sports in American society has changed over the past 25 years. In 1977 pro sports figures were not millionaires. There were no $25 million dollar shoe contracts. Also, examines with an unflinching eye race relations in sports and society at large.

2003 Summer Reading Recommended by Regan -
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell describes biological realities of social organization with examples such as how large companies control their size and structure based upon principles usually found in organic systems. People are defined by their functions within a group rather than by their individual characteristics. Explains the natural process by which ideas live and grow within human society and depicts a framework for creating social change.

America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull and Bones by Antony Sutton is a well researched book (whether conspiracy based or not) that provides an interesting description and perspective on the serious effects of social networking on our nation.

Thoughts and Feelings: Taking Control of your Moods and your Life is a workbook of cognitive behavioral techniques for coping with personal problems.

2003 Summer Reading Recommended by Jen -
Watership Down by Richard Adams is perfect bedtime reading (any time of year).

2003 Summer Reading Recommended by Harmon (and his Mom) -
Your question about the kids' favorite books has been on my mind. Nothing jumped out at first, but then I realized that every few months we check out the same set of books at Harmon's insistence. Maybe you remember them? Dorrie and the Blue Witch, Dorrie and the Pin Witch, Dorrie and the Screebit Ghost (Harmon's all time favorite), Dorrie and the Witchville Fair, Dorrie and the Wizard's Curse, Dorrie and the Birthday Eggs... am I missing any.... that's just off the top of my head... I'll check the titles... They all start out about the same: "Dorrie is a Witch. She is a little Witch." Harmon tells me that the next part goes: "Her hat is always on crooked and her socks never match and sometimes her shoes are on the wrong feet." The premise is that her mother and Cook are always preoccupied and a little crabby and Dorrie is left to her own devices. She generally tries to stay out of trouble, but ends up being in the thick of it. Fortunately for that little witch community, Dorrie keeps her eyes open and sorts things out in a mater-of-fact way and is able to avert disaster every time! Take it easy. Love, Sophie

PS It wasn't Dorrie and the Wizard's Curse, it was Dorrie and the Wizard's Spell and yes, I am missing lots! There are a ton of these Dorrie books (written in the 1970's). They are adorable. Patricia Coombs is the author. - se

Year 2002 Summer Reading List
“Books should to one of these four ends conduce,
for wisdom, piety, delight or use.”
- Unknown English Poet

2002 Summer (Civil War) Reading Recommended by Dad -The following float to the top. For those with an abiding interest in our Civil War and also enjoy summer mystery fare, check out Owen Parry's Faded Coat Of Blue, to be followed by Shadows Of Glory. The mysteries are fictional but the historical characters and events were real and well researched. Owen Parry's latest addition is Call Each River Jordan, which I plan to buy before my next plane trip in July. For those who are interested in year-around good reading about the Civil War, you can't go wrong with Bruce Catton's three volume set, Mr. Lincoln's Army, Glory Road, and A Stillness At Appomattox, followed by Shelby Foote's three volume The Civil War, #1 Fort Sumpter to Perryville; #2 Fredericksburg to Meridian; and #3 Red River to Appomattox.- Love, Dad

2002 Summer (Adventure) Reading Recommended by Katie -
“I’d decided to retrace an expedition taken in 1923-24 by Norwegian explorer Knud Rasmussen and two Inuit companions from Greenland, a man named Miteq and a woman named Anarulunguaq. Together the three traveled the entire length of the North American Arctic coast from east to west by dog team, from Repulse Bay, Canada, to Barrow, Alaska, a journey of 2,500 miles.” - (Source: p. 9 Alone Across the Arctic, One Woman's Epic Journey by Dog Team, by Pam Flowers with Ann Dixon, Alaska Northwest Books, (c) 2001.)

“The lunatic idea was, basically, to get myself the requisite number of wild camels from the bush and train them to carry my gear, then walk into and about the central desert area.” - (Source: p 20, Tracks, The exhilarating tale of a willful woman's solo trek across 1,700 miles of the Australian Outback, Robyn Davidson, Pantheon Books, 1980.)

Each expedition started with an idea. Each woman knew she would “go it alone.” These books let us share in these expeditions, from the anxiety and difficulties of getting ready to the exhilaration of achievement. Read these books and take a dangerous and exciting (arm chair) trip across the northern edge of North America or the Australian Outbook. Both Robyn Davidson and Pam Flowers chose some of the most dangerous places on earth to traverse. Besides traveling and surviving, each woman had to care for her animals -- Robyn Davidson's camels; Pam Flowers dogs. Both books are a “must read,” whether as an inspiration to design your own extreme trek or just to get through the ups and downs of every day life. - ke, 6/5/02

2002 Summer (Golf) Reading Recommended by Bruce -
You don't have to be a golfer to enjoy these two books, although it wouldn't hurt if you have experienced firsthand some of the frustrations of the game. My first choice for summer reading is The Money-Whipped Steer-Job Three-Jack Give-Up Artist, by Dan Jenkins (published by Broadway Books, NY, 2001). It attempts to portray life on the PGA Tour, rather than portraying the protagonist as hero. You will find the main character to be a pig, at best, and a misogynist, at worst. But it is a funny book and there's no shortage of great golf smack.

Despite the fact that I have more in common with roundbellies than flatbellies these days, my second recommendation is the coming of age novel, Flatbellies by A.B. Hollingsworth (published by Sleeping Bear Press, MI, 2001). The plot threatens to shape up like a formula, inspirational, kid sports, underdog movie about a small town, high school golf team in the 1960's, that tries to win the state championship against all odds. But it rapidly leaves the feel good, sports formula in the dust with a succession of outrageous characters and bizarre twists that keep you turning pages. Best about it is the realization that while nobody is perfect, some very rare moments in the game of golf get you close. - bm, 6/6/02

2002 Summer (Detective) Reading Recommended by Sophie -
This one passed my “laugh out loud” test (in the light-detective genre): Nursery Crimes by Ayelet Waldman in her “Mommy Track Mystery” line. The next one is called The Big Nap, but I haven't read it yet. Her honest descriptions of the oddities (good and bad) of life as a stay-at-home Mom-turned-detective (formerly with a career) were very funny.

2002 Summer (Children's) Reading Recommended by Sophie and Harmon -
In the kid-picture book group (which we read a lot of around here), I recommend: Aunt Nancy and Old Man Trouble by Phyllis Root, illustrated by David Parkins. This one was in a batch from the library sometime last year. Incredibly, I still think about it and try to emulate Aunt Nancy's coping strategy to help reduce stress. When Old Man Trouble stops by and tries to settle in, Aunt Nancy outsmarts him maintaining her politeness and looking on the bright side and o.k., being a little sneaky too.

Harmon (3 years old) recommends The Chicken Sisters by Laura Joffe Numeroff, illustrated by Sharleen Collicott. He requests it over and over. The three Chicken sisters, flawed but loving, are greatly disliked by the neighbors. Fortunately for everyone, they are not phased by the old wolf that moves into the neighborhood. - se, 4/19/02