My entire summer can be summed up by the fact that I am only now offering up this “summer reading list” on August 2! I’m still teaching for a few weeks yet, but other obligations have lifted, so I’d really like to get into my library (to pick out books–I seldom read there, because as you can see below, there is no comfy chair). I’m not really a fiction reader, but I do have a few novels on my list, including Kate Hickman’s The House at Bishopsgate, Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent, and a strange pioneering Gothic novel that I’ve been wanting to read for years: Charles Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer (I like variations on the Faustian Pact). Local readers will probably assume that the Essex Serpent is about the famous Gloucester sea serpent that appeared off Cape Ann several times in the colonial era, but most famously in August of 1817–so this is his/her anniversary year! But no, Perry’s book is about another mythical Essex Sea Serpent, appearing across the Atlantic at the close of the nineteenth century.
The American Essex/Gloucester Sea Serpent, 1817, Boston Rare Maps.
My nonfiction stack is higher, and comprised of books I need to read for course prep as well as for pleasure. The former titles are, for the most part, a bit too dry to reference here (the latest biography of John Knox!), but some might appeal to a broader audience. I like to pick themes for my medieval survey every year, just to make it interesting for myself and my students because it is indeed a survey, and this fall’s theme is medieval outlaws, ideal and real. That means I must reread Robin Hood, as well as as Maurice Keen’s classic The Outlaws of Medieval Legend, and finally finish a few biographies, including one on Simon de Montfort. I’m also going to try to up my food history game this coming academic year, so am reading two books by Massimo Montanari: Cheese, Pears & History is amazing! Anything regarding consumption is always interesting to me, but I am trying to read more agricultural history so I’m not always talking about the one percent: this Oliver Rackham book has been by my bedside for years and I am determined to finish it this summer. Finally (and I’m not really sure where this “fits”: I guess it it reading for pleasure!), I just picked up a copy of the very amusing and collectible Cooking to Kill. The Poison Cook-Book (1951), the book that has been called “not only a cook-book to end all cook-books, but also a cook-book to end all cooks”.
August 2nd, 2017 at 9:39 am
If you’re ever in the mood for a cozy mystery, you might try my Witch City Mystery series! Book 5 (Grave Errors) centers around the Howard Street Cemetery. and will release August 30. Book #6, will be out next March and Book 7 is slated for November of 2018. Have contract from Kensington for two more after that!
August 2nd, 2017 at 11:28 am
Will check them out, thanks, Carol.
August 2nd, 2017 at 11:25 am
I love this reading list! Melmoth the Wanderer has been on my to-read pile for a few years. And the poison cookbook sounds fantastic. I recently found The Congressional Club Cookbook from 1965, with etiquette for dining with the president and recipes from representatives and ambassadors’ wives. Fascinating stuff.
August 2nd, 2017 at 11:28 am
Oh that sounds great too–for some reason (because I am not a cook, really) I love old cookbooks, but I think the poison cookbook is in its own category.
August 2nd, 2017 at 1:29 pm
Me too! I have a Hungarian cookbook from 1968 that I adore.
August 2nd, 2017 at 8:07 pm
Lots of good stuff there! I love your book review entries! At least 3 I’d like to read. And it looks like we all want to read Melmoth!
Really off the theme-path, but two books I really enjoyed this summer:
Eric Cline’s “Three Stones Make a Wall” history of archaeology: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/archaeology-review-three-stones-make-a-wall-20170511-gw2f5u.html
And an older but really moving novel, Antonio Tabucchi’s “Pereira Maintains” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/nov/21/pereira-maintains-tabucchi-review
Closer to our interests, but which I’ve not yet read this summer–but it’s on my shelf!–Zara Anishanslin’s “Portrait of a Woman in Silk: Hidden Histories of the British Atlantic World.” and I am about a third through Jane Kamensky’s “A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley”
August 2nd, 2017 at 9:09 pm
Oh Kamensky–forgot all about her! Yes I want to read that too, and thanks for the history of archaeology reference–I need some insights into that discipline.
August 3rd, 2017 at 1:35 pm
The Three Stones Make a Wall has a great approach. He has chapters on the history of archaeological projects from early famous/infamous ones to recent projects in North and South America as well. And interspersed, chapters on methodology and how it has changed over time. He also has participated in and led some digs on longstanding projects, that have gone on for decades and decades, and he writes about that experience. Overall, it was a wonderful exploration of “evidence” in general and how to think critically about that. And he has a sense of humor and fun too. It was definitely an entertaining read as well! Good way to get away from contemporary times!!
I’m looking forward to Melmoth! Got a copy and it’s by my bed! I think it will edge out Margaret Drabble who was getting me down anyway… 🙂
August 3rd, 2017 at 6:17 am
Cooking to Kill. Fantastic title. I am interested.
August 4th, 2017 at 4:46 am
I love this list, nice mix of titles and I hope you don’t mind but I am adding a few of these to my to-read list 🙂
August 5th, 2017 at 11:20 am
Absolutely not!
August 4th, 2017 at 5:12 am
I really want to read Cooking to Kill now! 🙂
August 5th, 2017 at 4:41 pm
[…] Summer Reading List […]
August 8th, 2017 at 12:06 pm
Seeing the picture of Maddicott’s De Montfort was like seeing an old friend. What a great book.
August 8th, 2017 at 12:22 pm
Just finished it–it’s been on my shelf for years!