August Reading '06

My summer vacation routine is very predictable. I rise between 7:00 and 8:00, make some coffee and drink it, bike to the beach to check the water temperature and surf conditions and if both are to my specifications (neither too cold nor too rough) I take a dip and hang out there for a while reading. I come home for lunch then go back to the beach later in the afternoon where I read and plan dinner. Sometimes, instead, I walk a half-mile down the beach to mactech-in-law's beach club and eat lunch there and then stay for the afternoon. Not much reading gets done at the beach club as participation in local gossip or conversation about the articles in this month's Oprah magazine is expected.

Even so, I have been able to get through some books this month as well as study and recreate several recipes from the most recent Gourmets. Check me off, Unwellness, Here's my summer reading report.

Assassin's Gate George Packer has carefully fleshed out his New Yorker pieces into a detailed explanation of how America has gone about trying to change history in the Middle East. As complex and messy this situation is the book actually reads like a novel.

The Fall of Rome Martha Southgate's (my neighbor in Park Slope) morality tale of affirmative re-action is set in a fictionalized version of her own prep school.

Veronica Mary Gaitskill has written a novel-length poem on beauty, family, sickness and death. It's a quick and stunning read.

Everything Bad Is Good For You Steven Johnson, another Park Sloper (with three kids so we may see him at our doors in the future) does a fabulous job of arguing for the worthwhile-ness of pop culture – especially TV and video games. I love it.

Omnivore's Dilemma Michael Pollan's exposé on the secret life of corn. Our American love-hate relationship with food is examined in fascinating detail in this book. It contains this quote from a cranky organic farmer in Virginia who only sells to locals, "Why do we have to have a New York City, what good is it?" (this is a must read for Youthlarge)