EMDAT

This may be a bit ambitious considering all I have going on this summer (getting married, planning courses, moving, etc.), but for the past two years I’ve been depriving myself of reading the books I want to read. And so I have put together a hefty slate of reading for the summer.

Some of the books are purely for pleasure. Others are listed with the intention of beefing up my knowledge of early American history before school starts in the fall. All of them I’ve been wanting to read for some time. If you’ve read any of them, please let me know what you thought. I plan to read them in no particular order–I have them lined up on my desk, and I’ll grab one as the mood strikes me. Very unlike grad school. And so, in that spiri, here is the list in no particular order:

The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation (Roberts/Klibanoff)

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty (Yunus)

Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities (Robbins)

The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town (Grisham)

Jonathan Livingston Seagull (Bach)

American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (Morgan)

A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America (Schiff)

History Wars: The Enola Gay and Other Battles for the American Past (Linenthal/Engelhardt, eds.)

Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season (Eig)

Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves (Berlin)

Widow of the South (Hicks)

Coach: 25 Writers Reflect on People Who Made a Difference (Blauner, ed.)

Summerland (Chabon)

I’ll probably mix in a few mass-market paperback mysteries as well, especially on the honeymoon. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.