Summer Sunday: Read to Relax, Laugh, Reminisce and Learn

Maybe getting away to small town Ontario is your favourite way to relax and have fun on a summer Sunday. After all, there is a large variety to choose from: north, east, west; shops, trails, boats. The vast majority of our small towns are beside water, and where there’s water – a river or a lake – there will be a bench or maybe a beach. Both are lovely places to relax and read a book: to step into a make-believe world; explore history, sports, or the life of a famous person; gain some self-care or life-altering insights.

Deciding what to read is so personal, isn’t it? What I pick up next depends on my mood and what’s going on in my life or the world, what I’ve just finished reading, the conversations I’ve been having . . . I am aware that my tastes have changed so much over the years. I was a dreamy teenager who devoured romance novels. Long gone. Also, university at 40 and being an English teacher exposed me to so much brilliant, thought-provoking writing and ideas from around the world, which have radically altered my tastes.

I rarely read the best sellers and trendy books, or if I do it is only because they truly interest me and often long after they have shifted off the media’s radar. I am an eclectic reader, who is open to rereading, mostly because I’ve forgotten the details of so much of what I’ve read, or also because I want to understand the book better, or, as in the case of Barney’s Version, because I just love the story for a bunch of reasons, and if I want to reread it every summer, I will.

If you haven’t read them already, and if you’re interested in stories about family and relationships and getting older, I highly recommend A Man Called Ove and The Nest. My sister, Cris, liked The Nest more than I did and it lead to some interesting discussion about the story’s siblings and their relationships.

The books on the right below are a mixture: Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which I really should read again when I have time – I picture Audrey Hepburn stylishly and mysteriously moving through the story; The One, which I haven’t read, but has been recommended by my daughter; Death in a Strange Country, a mystery set in Venice, which I highly recommend if you like complex, well-written, main characters and romantic, old-world settings; Making It Up as I Go Along by hilarious, insightful, honest Irish author, Marion Keyes, which is a collection of columns she has written over the years; The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby is the same, and a fascinating premise – he was asked to write a column about the books he bought and the books he read, which I know from personal experience is often not the same thing; How to Be a Brit, which should be a fun read, especially if you like Bill Bryson, the monarchy or have a sense of humour about all things British.

The children’s stories in my house are well-loved. If you are looking for something for the child in your life, or for someone who wants to spend a Sunday rereading a story from their childhood, these are all fantastic: Asterix, the Series of Unfortunate Events series, the Narnia stories, and of course, Harry Potter. The Book Thief and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas are excellent historical fiction. They approach the Holocaust from different perspectives and will lead to some interesting conversations.

Many of the novels on the bottom shelf are historical fiction by Philippa Gregory, focussing on the Tudor period in England approximately 450 years ago. My daughter went through a phase of being fascinated by Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII and their lives. I know she would recommend these well-researched stories.

Below are a selection of memoirs and reflections as well as other non-fiction. The only exception is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which is historical fiction focussing on the years during and immediately after WWII, and mostly set on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel near France.

I have read and enjoyed most of these books. The only ones I haven’t read yet are Ciao America! and Bella Tuscany. I am halfway through Italian Job. They are possibly the finale of my investigation of the Italian psyche, trying to understand what makes them tick by knowing a little about their story, their culture, and how and why their country functions as it does. It is fascinating to me because as I read, I am slowly gaining insights into our parents, our family and Italo-Canadian culture and the motivations and perspectives of those who left their homes to travel across the ocean to start a new life here. I definitely recommend all these books, from witty Nora Ephron to thought-provoking Toni Morrison, offbeat Keith Richards and NatashaTrethewey, who tells the heart-wrenching story of her mother.

Finally, I can’t finish talking about what I read and recommend without talking about these. Maybe you, like me, have reached a point in your life where you are trying to understand yourself better: your past, your relationships, the next steps in your journey. I have read Hollis and Powell and have started Lamott’s book. She gives excellent advice, such as “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” I like Hollis’s analysis so much that I am halfway through a third book of his. When I have time, I will definitely read Thoreau’s writings.

It takes me a long time to read this type of book as I give myself time to reflect on how it applies to my life and maybe what I can change and improve about my thinking and my circumcumstances.

While Maria has provided many excellent recommendations, I am offering 5 book recommendations for the Summer Sunday Reading List:

James by Percival Everett. This story is told from the perspective of Jim, the black slave, in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I heard the author being interviewed by Eleanor Wachtel for Writers and Company about his earlier novel The Trees back in 2021. When I saw “James” on the shelves this year, I added it to my summer reading list. It reminds me of my sister, Maria, when I was a kid. I laugh when I think of all the times she tried to read “Tom Sawyer” to me and my closest siblings. I think I know the first chapter by heart. We were all voracious readers – I once rode my bike into a parked car because I was reading a book while riding my bicycle – but having to sit there and listen to my older sister read to me seemed impossible to do.

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer is a recommendation from my daughter. She purchased the book on a recent bookstore visit due to multiple recommendations she had received about the book. The author is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and brings her knowledge of the natural world and the idea that we are in an interconnected relationship with nature and all living things, and until we understand and accept these connections, we cannot begin to understand how nature works. Each chapter is a stand alone essay. This book sounds very interesting and is on my summer reading list.

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom. One of my children has been slowly reading all of the author’s books over the past couple of years. I first read Tuesdays With Morrie about 25 years ago and then watched the movie (with Jack Lemmon and Hank Azaria). I really enjoyed both. The story is about the author reconnecting with his favourite university professor (who had ALS) in the last months of his life. He visited his professor for a few months, every Tuesday, until his death. The main lessons he learned were about looking beyond yourself and making connections with people, giving of yourself and your time to make a positive impact in the world. I am currently rereading this book.

Chasing The Sun: How The Science of Sunlight Shapes Our Bodies and Minds by Linda Geddes. I’ve listened to many health-related podcasts over the past few years and one of the things they have stressed is how important it is to get outside within the first hour of waking, and the connection of sunlight and our circadian rhythm. I’ve never been much of a non-fiction reader in life, but lately I have read a few interesting non-fiction books like “When Breath Becomes Air” and “Thinking Fast and Slow”. I’ve added “Chasing the Sun” to my summer reading list.

Feel Free by Zadie Smith. I am a big fan of the author. To be absolutely honest, I enjoy her essays and interviews more than her novels. I find her so interesting to listen to and her answers and opinions (when the interviewer is doing a good job) are thoughtful and usually not rote. She is someone who eskews social media and modern ideas of connecting with the world, however, she is not as analogue as Fran Lebowitz, who has neither a computer nor a cell phone. In Feel Free Zadie Smith writes an interesting essay about Facebook and the so-called “connections” we make on Facebook/social media and Man vs Corpse is about death, how close we are to that end of life and scrutinizing our choices knowing that death is walking beside us. I’ve read most of the essays in the book and highly recommend it. Another book of essays by a well known author is “This Is The Story of A Happy Marriage” by Ann Patchett, if essays are what your prefer.

I dropped by a book sale at my mother’s church yesterday and picked up a few more books to add to my bookshelves. Will I read all the books in my house? Maybe not, but there is pleasure in the thought, that one day I will have slipped into all the worlds kept in secret behind the covers.

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Any thoughts about our reading list? We are always interested in talking about what others are reading, of any genre. What do you recommend we read this summer? Let us know in the comments.