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Whether your version of the perfect summer read gives your cerebrum a much needed breather or demands contemplation you don’t have time for in everyday life, here is a mix of both to consider for your summer reading this year.

If You Liked…

…A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, you should read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Themes of family, coming of age, poverty, and idealism provide the framework for both titles. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott’s tale of four spirited sisters growing up in Civil War-era Massachusetts, continues to charm readers nearly 150 years after its original publication.

…Interview with the Vampire, you should read Dracula by Bram Stoker. An obvious association, but if you gravitate toward vampire tales you owe it to yourself to read the book that paved the way for True Blood and Twilight, among many others.  Although Stoker did not invent the vampire, he is credited with introducing the character to modern storytelling.  Told in epistolary form, the story follows Dracula from Transylvania to England and back, as he unleashes his terror on a cast of memorable characters.

…Bridget Jones’s Diary, you should read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. The parallels between these two protagonists prove that universal themes such as love and the absurdities of dating can transcend centuries. Fans of Bridget Jones, who was in fact inspired by Pride and Prejudice, will find amusement and sympathy in the hijinks Elizabeth Bennett experiences in one of literature’s most enduring romantic and comedy classics.

…The Harry Potter series, you should read The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. J.K. Rowling herself has purportedly cited this timeless children’s classic as one of her first literary inspirations, read to her as a measles-stricken four-year-old. Like Potter, Wind in the Willows employs child-centric characters, adventures, and allegory to explore such adult themes as morality and sociopolitical revolution.

…The Da Vinci Code, you should read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Where Da Vinci Code’s treasure is symbolic in nature, Treasure Island’s booty takes a more literal approach. The book boasts the same page-turning suspense offered up by Dan Brown’s mega-hit, with some good old fashioned pirates thrown in for added fun. This edition includes a glossary of nautical terms, which will come in handy should you decide to take up sailing this summer.

…Jaws, you should read Moby Dick by Herman Melville. If you like to keep your holiday reading material thematically consistent with your setting, you may have read Jaws on a previous beach stay. For a more pensive and equally thrilling literary adventure, try Moby Dick. Where the whale pales in the body count comparison he surpasses in tenacity, stalking his victim with a human-like malevolence that will make you glad you stayed on the sand.

…Jurassic Park, you should read The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle. Reading Jurassic Park without having read The Lost World is like watching the Anne Heche remake of Psycho and skipping Hitchcock’s classic version. Though most people are familiar with the book by Michael Crichton, you may not be aware that the blockbuster was inspired by a lesser-known original that dates back to 1912. And isn’t the original always better?

…The Hunt for Red October, you should read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Although an adventure of a different sort, Leagues takes readers on a similarly gripping underwater journey full of twists and turns. Verne was ahead of his time, providing uncannily prescient descriptions of submarines that wouldn’t be invented until years later. For a novel that’s been around for over 150 years, it still has the ability to exhilarate.

The post Summer reading recommendations appeared first on OUPblog.

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"So as that summer began, while America counted hostage days and Beth learned to swim, I thought up good lies to tell and climbed trees and lay a lot in the shade." (egalley pg 11-12)

11 year old Annie and little brother Rew live at the edge of the Zebra forest with their Gran.  They keep mostly to themselves, on account of the house and on account of Gran, but Annie and Rew have each other, a battered copy of Treasure Island, the joy of making up bad jokes, and the many trees of the Zebra forest to keep them company on the hot, steamy summer days. 

They are getting along in typical fashion when one summer night, a man rattles the back door and steps into the kitchen.  Before Annie can process what is even happening, the man takes the key they always keep in the knob, drops it in his pocket and tells Annie to stay quiet.  As Annie stands dumbfounded, Rew heads for the phone and then the door, but the man is quick and powerful.  He is also covered in mud, and his clothes are torn.  He has come through the forest.  On the other side of the Zebra forest is the prison.

Now they must wait.  Gran completely shuts down, and Annie and Rew must figure out how to be in the house with the doors shut and the windows closed, with the precarious piles and dirty dishes, with the man always there, always watching.  There will be no more going into the trees to read Treasure Island, no more trips out into the shade.

Adina Rishe Gewirtz has crafted a novel that gives an inside look into mental illness and family.  There is an incredible resilience to both Annie and Rew that shines through even though the two deal with their situation in vastly different ways.  The importance of story (both family and books) is felt throughout. Even though some major points like the Iran Hostage Crisis and the plot of Treasure Island may be unfamiliar to today's readers, Gewirtz does a fine job of weaving them into the greater plot -- using them to give a sense of ticking time as well as examination into real life characters.  This is a book that may not be for everyone, but will definitely find fierce love with the readers who love imperfect characters, finding connections, and those who don't mind feeling a bit off kilter.

Publishing April 9, 2013.

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For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics have brought readers closer to the world’s finest writers and their works. Making available popular favourites as well as lesser-known books, the series has grown to 700 titles – from the 4,000 year-old myths of Mesopotamia to the twentieth-century’s greatest novels. Yet many of our readers first acquainted themselves with an Oxford World’s Classic as a child. In the below videos, Peter Hunt, who was responsible for setting up the first course in children’s literature in the UK, reintroduces us to The Secret Garden, The Wind in the Willows, and Treasure Island.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Click here to view the embedded video.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Click here to view the embedded video.

Peter Hunt was the first specialist in Children’s Literature to be appointed full Professor of English in a British university. Peter Hunt has written or edited eighteen books on the subject of children’s literature, including An Introduction to Children’s Literature (OUP, 1994) and has edited Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows, Treasure Island and The Secret Garden for Oxford World’s Classics.

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By Peter Hunt Captain Frederick Marryat, an experienced Naval Officer, was a pioneering writer of sea-and-island adventure stories, such as Peter Simple (1834) and Mr Midshipman Easy (1836). One day his children asked him to write a sequel to The Swiss Family Robinson, Johann Wyss’s extravagant embroidering of the Robinson Crusoe story, which had found its circuitous way into English via William Godwin’s translation of a French version in 1816. Marryat was not amused.

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Actor Elijah Wood will return to Middle Earth in the two-part film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien‘s The Hobbit.

Deadline New York reported: “Wood is confirmed to star in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit to be shot in New Zealand. In addition, he has signed on to play ‘Ben Gunn’ in Stewart Harcourt’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island along side Eddie Izzard.”

Besides Wood (pictured, via), other castmates returning from Lord of the Rings include: Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf, and Andy Serkis as Gollum. At the moment, Orlando Bloom is rumored to be considering his return as Legolas.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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Purdy, Director of Publicity

In my youth, I was often attracted to books with high sea adventure: Treasure Island, Moby Dick, Old Man and the Sea, and of course Robinson Crusoe. Of these books, I found Crusoe both familiar and disturbing. In a society of one, how do you stave off madness and create a meaningful existence? In my self-imposed isolated existence—no one understood me, the real me, therefore I am alone—I wrestled with faith and belief in God, or a higher power. I questioned the moral superiority of my parents, my teachers, the U.S. government (it was the 80s). Those days are far behind me now, but I suspect I’ll be revisiting these ideas again when I host author Rebecca Chace at the Bryant Park Reading Room.* Below is an article Chace wrote for Fiction Magazine that explores other famous writers’ reactions to Robinson Crusoe.

*You can meet Rebecca Chace today, July 27, at 12:30pm in beautiful Bryant Park.  The outdoor Reading Room is just off 42nd St, between 5th and 6th Avenues in New York City. There, she’ll lead a discussion (free and open to the public) on Robinson Crusoe–and all registered attendees get a free copy of the book!

Looking for Robinson Crusoe

Shipwreck:
But it wasn’t.
It was much more mundane, though no less violent.

“Lie Like the truth” –Daniel DeFoe

Why do I need to circle around and invent, when a list of facts could do just as well or better:  On an evening in October, your father dies suddenly of a heart attack.  Eight weeks later, you find that the reason your husband has been almost completely absent through this abrupt shock into mourning has not been because of his work.  Turns out he has another life in another country and another language.  A woman with her own daughter the same age as our youngest. What he doesn’t have is an income and apparently he hasn’t had one for quite a while now.  Turns out he is in love.

Turns out you are not so much in love, anymore.

I will always know the exact date and approximate time of these events.  Time of death is something that strangers write down.  It is often not so exact in a marria

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It's gone right down to the buzzer but we do have the winners! Oh, man, what an exciting finish!! Just like a championship game in which the game is decided in the last few seconds, the March Madness Slam Dunk Contest ends with a flurry of shots that leaves everyone amazed! Here we go!

First one on the court is the awesome AXEL SIMONE:

i have read, this book is not good for you.it is by pseudonymous bosch. cass' mom is kidnapped by the evil chef senor hugo while trying to rescue her mom she runs innto the midnight sun. [ouch that must hurt.] this is 1 of the funniest books ever. i loved it. i recommend it to everyone. Bye

i have read antsy does time. it is by neal shusterman. i loved it. it is a companion
book to the schwa was here. just like the schwa was here it is really rude. in this book there is a kid named gunnar umlaut who has only 6 months to live so antsy donates a month of his life to gunnar. i recommend it to everyone. Bye

i have read gabriels triumph. it is by alison hart. i loved it. in this book gabriel rides his favorite horse aristo in the saratoga chase. will he win? read to find out. i recommend it to everyone. bye.

i have read witch and wizard. it is by james patterson andgabrielle charbonett. i loved it. it is about whit and wisty allgood when they are accused of beuing a witch and wizard and thrown in prison. irecommend it to everyone. bye.

AXEL gets 6 points; three for his review of Gabriel's Triumph and three for the others.
After AXEL comes Jumpin' Justin B:

I am writing a review on Summer of the Monkeys.
It is about a boy named Jay who had a blue-tick hound named Rowdy and a sister named Daisy who had a crippled right leg. They used to live in Missouri sharecropping then they moved to the middle of the Cherokee Nation. One day he went down in the Ozark river bottoms and Rowdy treed a monkey; then they went to his Grandpa's store. When he got to his Grandpa's store, his Grandpa was sitting on the porch and told him about how a circus train wrecked and the monkeys got loose and there was a reward for the monkeys: two dollars apiece and for one, a hundred dollars. His Grandpa said it was probably one of those monkeys. His Grandpa handed him some traps. Then Daisy started talking about the Old Man of the Mountains, and Jay asked if he were a farmer and Daisy said he didn't have time for any farming because he was too busy taking care of the mountains and little creatures. Jay went back into the bottoms and set the traps out around the tree he saw the monkey in. He placed an apple above each trap and then he saw a little bunch of brush to crawl behind and watch. Before ten minutes was up, he heard monkeys. The monkeys started coming out of everywhere! Before the were about to grab an apple, a chimpanzee (the $100 monkey) came down out of the trees and plopped down in front of the trap. He kept screeching and grunting and telling the monkeys to stay away because it was a trap. He used one of his long arms and grabbed the apples and give them to the little monkeys. It sounded to Jay like the chimpanzee was laughing at Jay. Jay tried again, and a similar thing happened. The he went off to a spring he had found, got a drink, then Rowdy started barking and looked up on a tree limb; there sat the $100 monkey with his gunnysack, traps, and lunch. He got his bean shooter out, put a rock in the shooter, and shot the monkey where his belly button would have been. Then the chimpanzee sics all the monkeys on Jay. He doesn't look for a trail, he just runs! He runs through briers and tears his clothes. Finally he finds his way back home. Then he goes to his Grandpa's store again and talks about how he had been fooled. His Grandpa says he has something that might help: a net with a yellow ring to open the net and a blue ring to close it. He goes to his house and tries the n

1 Comments on We Have Winners!!!, last added: 3/30/2010

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Susan Quinn said, on 3/30/2010 10:13:00 AM

Good job, all you reviewers! And Carl man, you rock for putting on a contest where kids review books. Pure awesomeness, that.

I've finally gotten my review of Leviathan up on my blog - what a fabulous book! I think all your reviewers will love it - there's something for everyone there.

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