Late Summer Reads

Don’t shoot the messenger, but we’re approaching midsummer, which definitely casts a pall over the sun-loving Bunnies hanging around the Grotto. While summer is a great time to go out and party, hit the waves with your board or spice up your evenings with a new lady friend or two, there’s something to be said for literally lazing about all day — relaxing at the pool, beach, park or even in your own backyard, and there’s nothing better to complement this than an ice-cold beer and hot new read to expand your horizons. Here are some of our favorite books for the late-summer languor, from paperbacks that take you on an adventure through the history of pop culture and cyber battles to a gripping autobiography by Jarhead author Anthony Swofford, who is struck with so much fame, fortune and grief that it is almost the end of him.

Hot Art

Joshua Knelman won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Nonfiction for a reason. His book Hot Art, which chronicles the four years he spent in the seedy world of international art theft, is hard to put down. It’s a great read for any man who can’t stand the thought of wasting his time reading fictitious stories while still getting the fun and pleasure of good old brain-numbing pulp fiction. Seriously, this book is like eating an entire bowl of cherries. They taste like candy, but they’re good for you! We can’t believe that all the crazy stuff that takes place in this book is true. By the end of the book you’ll be itching to share your niche knowledge of the world of art.


 
Shadow Show


It is appropriate that Shadow Show, a collection of short stories dedicated to the memory of Ray Bradbury, should start with a piece titled “Homecoming” written by none other than the enigmatic author himself. Along with being a tribute to the short story of the same name that propelled Bradbury to science fiction stardom (and who could deny that a self-written foreword from beyond the grave is a classically Bradburian idea?), Shadow Show is indeed a homecoming of sorts. In the piece, Bradbury parallels the relationship between the author and his influences to that between a father and son and reflects on his transition from one to the other. What follows is undeniable evidence that the former is true; Shadow Show has on display authors like Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood and Alice Hoffman, all paying tribute to the dystopian themes and complex characters of the Bradbury tradition. Anyone who had their world turned upside-down by Fahrenheit 451 will be impressed by this one last hurrah for one of sci-fi’s leading men.

Hotels, Hospitals, and Jails

Hotels, Hospitals, and Jails is Anthony Swofford’s second memoir. Readers of Jarhead looking for more of Swofford’s Gulf War experiences may be disappointed: Hotels, Hospitals, and Jails details Swofford’s life after his homecoming, his struggle to reconcile his soldier past with his civilian present through a haze of alcohol, drugs and promiscuity. But first and foremost, HHaJ is about family: about the legacy a veteran passes on to his children, and about Swofford’s attempt to come to an understanding of the dying father whose choices he abhors yet whom he greatly resembles, to learn to love him while learning how not to become him.