A summer reading list with something for everyone
Wherein a reader with eclectic taste recommends five wonderful books for your consideration
This is the time of year when a lot of “summer reading lists” are published: suggestions for beach reading, cottage reading, or perhaps something to pass the time on a long flight. Here’s my unorthodox list, all highly recommended.
Birnam Wood
Let’s start with fiction. This third novel by Man Booker Prize-winning author Eleanor Catton continues her tradition of cinematic, evocative, gripping story-telling. But don’t come looking for an historic, literary tale like her previous triumph, The Luminaries.
Birnam Wood is a thoroughly modern, clear-eyed indictment of jingoistic political theorists, naïve environmentalists and nihilistic tech bros — all in one ripping yarn! This is a story that demonstrates what happens when good intentions, sexual frustration, egos and profit clash in the unlikely setting of a bucolic New Zealand sheep farm.
The title references Macbeth, and Catton delivers a fitting tribute that starts with a slow burn and then all hell breaks loose. Set some time aside: once you…
