Book Reports

All summer long, almost every time I left the house, I drove past the neighborhood elementary school, and the reader board flashed the message, “Read 5 books this summer.” The not-so-subliminal message worked. Two weeks ago, I started counting the books I’d read since school let out.

First, a friend gave me her copy of The Girls from Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow. It is the true story a group of girls who grew up together in Ames, Iowa, and have kept a 40 year friendship going. It was interesting to compare how girls’ friendships were when I was growing up to how they are now. It was also fun to look at their yearbook pictures and see how they look now. The main appeal though, was that they were close to my age, so reading it was almost like going to my high school reunion.

The second book of my summer was Griffin & Sabine by Nick Bantock. It’s an “old” book, published in 1991. If I was still in school and had to read a certain amount of books, this book would be perfect to meet the quota because it’s pretty much a picture book. It’s a book that I’ve already read. I was at a used book store and it was in the clearance section for only $3! I picked it up vaguely remembering that I’d liked it, and that it had a lot of cool artwork in it. It was still intriguing. As the jacket says, “It’s the correspondence between Griffin and Sabine. It is a story that is partly a romance, partly a mystery, and completely a work of art. Each page contains a new card or letter, rich with lush colors, brilliant drawing, and wildly imaginative creatures and landscapes.” It was definitely something different, and well worth $3.

I confess that I didn’t read every single page of the third book I am claiming for my summer reading list. It was The Best American Non-Required Reading 2007, edited by Dave Eggers. My son Johnny bought it for a college English class he took his sophomore year. For some reason one night, he told me about a graduation speech made by Conan O’Brian. That speech is included in this book, so I read it and had to agree that it’s hilarious, as well as insightful. Short stories are great to have on hand when you’re running errands or have to kill time in waiting rooms. I carried this collection around with me, picking and choosing the pieces that appealed to me. It kept me entertained for a couple of weeks.

Number four was Summer People by Brian Groh, chosen because even though you aren’t supposed to judge a book by its cover, I really liked the cover: a series of oars hanging inside a rustic shed painted blue. The main character, Nathan, accepts a summer job as a caretaker of the eccentric matriarch of an exclusive New England coastal community. He interacts with some quirky characters, falls in love with a girl who doesn’t feel the same way, and ends up being the butt of all the rich people’s problems. Somehow, that summary sounds better than the actual book. Something was lacking. Nathan was a pathetic character, and the big “secrets” that were revealed didn’t live up to the vague suspense.

I just finished the fifth book of summer, a mere 13 hours before school begins once again in Puyallup. It was an easy, fast read, The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. For some reason, I thought it was about dog racing, but it’s not. It’s about a race car driver from Seattle. The story is told by his dog, Enzo. It’s a very interesting point of view; after all, pet dogs probably see humans at our most unvarnished, honest selves. It was a sad book, but I should’ve seen that coming. Don’t all books with or about dogs end up being sad? But I don’t regret reading it. I liked the characters, it did have lots of good driving tips, and it got me to my goal of five.

I hope that the kids starting school tomorrow have their five books lined up, or better yet, read more books than I did, so they’ll be ready with the teacher asks, “What did you read this summer?”

Laura Keolanui Stark is shuffling through her stacks of books to find the next one to read. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.