Book and CD picks for the lazy days of summer
The summer heat in this area is excellent for tomatoes and corn - and for taking life a bit more slowly. As many folks stretch their weekends and take time off for family and vacations, it's the perfect time to sit down with an interesting book or to load something new into the CD changer. To help you find the perfect read or listen for your summer, read below for reading and music suggestions for the season from prominent members of the Northeast Ohio community.

	David Giffels Akron Beacon Journal local news columnist and WKSU news commentator
	I just finished Jason Fagone's Horsemen of the Esophagus: Competitive Eating and the Big Fat American Dream Full disclosure: I was interviewed by the author when he was in Northeast Ohio following the crumb-strewn trail of self-created speed eating legend Dave "Coondog" O'Karma. Fagone spent a year on the speed eating circuit and has managed to write a startlingly elegant and big-hearted book that transcends the carnival self-parody of eating contests to find some deeper insight into celebrity, gluttony and individual yearning in the early 21st century. It is as American as apple pie, assuming you devoured that pie at at breakneck speed. And now I am reading In Persuasion Nation, the latest by George Saunders, who is for my money the best American satirist now writing. As with his other books (all equally recommended), Saunders finds a wormhole into consumer culture, mass homogeniety and fake plastic stuff and burrows himself into it, clawing with one hand and caressing with the other. I think this is his most humane book, but it is no less twisted. And just below that on the nightstand is what promises to be a compelling memoir: The Last Street Before Cleveland by Joe Mackall, a writer whose work I admired when he was with Cleveland magazine. He is now a writing professor at Ashland University and has written what's described as a blue-collar coming-of-age story about his adolesence in Cleveland, his religious background and his battle with addiction, all of which resurfaces when he tries to unravel the mysterious death of a childhood friend. Meanwhile, playing in the background, is the latest by the Flaming Lips, who have managed to make a record even better than what seemed like a masterpiece, 2002's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. The Lips, who formed in 1983, showed up in Cleveland regularly throughout the 1990s, and I saw them a bunch of times, and they always seemed to be a shambles, with a bubble machine and other experimental junk trying to justify their psychedelia as "entertainment." They were a blast, and they were stoopid and they rocked. Somehow, all their nonsense evolved into something sophisticated, and the new At War with the Mystics includes two or three fully realized pop gems, especially the album-opening "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song." I cannot stop listening to this record. Well, I guess I can stop listening to it, because I am also listening a lot to Chulahoma - the Black Keys' final release on the Fat Possum label. This six-song record is all covers of Junior Kimbrough songs. In his liner notes, guitarist/singer Dan Auerbauch explains the profound influence of Kimbrough on his life and his musical sensibility. This is a turning point for the Akron duo, whose next disc (on Nonesuch Records) is supposed to be a heavier rock record, and "Chulahoma" documents them at the peak of their considerable soulfulness and crunching power. And it has an awesomely creepy inner-sleeve photo of Auerbach and drummer Pat Carney. I'm also really into an advance copy of the first full-length record by Houseguest, currently my favorite Akron band. High Strangeness will be released later this summer on Pat Carney's Audio Eagle label, and Carney has described them as a sped-up Feelies. Which is close, but really not close at all. You have to hear this one.     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Warren Zanes VP, Education & Public Programs, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum
	Ken Emerson is the author of a great book about Stephen Foster, Doo-Dah, and with Always Magic in the Air turns his attention to the Brill Building songwriters. In particular, he's discussing Mort Shuman, Doc Pomus, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, and their compatriots. I think he makes an interesting, important, and captivating argument for the cultural hybridity of the Brill Building era music. Songs like "On Broadway" and "Stand By Me" show a range of cultural influences. In the Brill Building you had primarily white, often Jewish songwriters using African-American and Hispanic musical parts to build a music that is finally uniquely American. A beautiful story and certainly beautiful music. Read the book, but don't forget to listen along the way. Petty's new album, Highway Companion is a knock-out. He's at the top of his game . . . thirty years into his career! The first single, "Saving Grace," has already been called a classic by the New York Times. At times the songs feel very personal, at others Petty acts omniscient narrator, describing life below. At the end of the day, it's always infectious, in true Petty style. Petty remains one of rock and roll's true smart songwriters. Highway Companion is an event. As he once said himself, "let that sucker blast."     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Vivian Goodman WKSU Host/Producer, All Things Considered
	I just finished Are You Happy by Emily Fox Gordon, and now I'm enjoying The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. I learned about The History of Love from Maureen Corrigan, book critic for Fresh Air, who included it on her list of favorite books of 2005. She said the book had a challenging story line and the author had the skills to carry it off. She didn't lie. I'm devouring the book in record time. I found Are You Happy on the shelf of new arrivals at the Mayfield branch of the Cuyahoga County Library. It's about how a child can find happiness in ordinary things and revived some of my memories of childhood. I don't buy CD's. I have quite a few plus an extensive library of LP's and there's so much music around me all day. Not to mention Folk Alley which is on our home computer a lot.     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Lisa Martinez PBS 45 & 49 Vice President, Marketing & Development
	What I'm reading this summer: Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond. Diamond describes his book as a "short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years." Geography as destiny. Who knew the history of plant and animal domestication was this interesting? Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond. A follow-up to Guns, Germs and Steel. The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho. The Little Prince meets Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Whats in my CD player: Well, it's really on my computer: "Hearts of Space" music on demand service -- Wonderful, eclectic collection of music from around the world. Great soundtrack for working and writing. My public radio listening days go back to the 1980s when WKSU carried "Hearts of Space"; I lost track of it until I found this little gem of an on-demand service. Bob Robb, Raw, Please Don't Feed the Seagulls and In Search of Saturn -- Canadian indie and one man band. Neil Young and Bob Dylan -- Stuck in my adolescence? Perhaps. Various, pre-1980 recordings only, please.     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Lester Lefton Kent State University President
	I am an avid reader, everything from books on business, to biographies to legal suspense thrillers. Currently, I am reading Tom Friedman's The World is Flat, Taylor Branch's trilogy on Martin Luther King, and Derek Bok's book on university's curricular designs. My iPod is filled with an ecclectic mix of upbeat music including some New Orleans Zydeco, some Broadway show tunes, U2, and some opera--all fast paced and meant to keep me peddling quickly on the elliptical machine.     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Douglas Clifton Editor, The Plain Dealer
	Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick because it's gotten great reviews and I'm a history buff. March by Geraldine Brooks because I try to read every Pulitzer winner for fiction. I will probably read Strange Piece of Paradise by Terri Jentz based on the excellent review by The Plain Dealer's Karen Long. It is a reconstruction of a brutal murder attempt by the victim, who spent almost 30 years searching for her assailant. I hope to be surprised with a book or two for Father's Day in June and my birthday in July. I might hint at Philip Roth's latest, Everyman or a work of non-fiction that strikes my fancy between now and then. As for music, it's Sinatra, Paul Simon, a little opera, Miles Davis at home. But in the car no music. Only news.     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	M.J. Albacete Canton Museum of Art Excecutive Director
	Right now in the music category, I'm doing a series of lectures for a venue in Cleveland on "Shakespeare on the Operatic Stage," and so I'm looking at a number of opera DVDs, like Gounod's Romeo & Juliette, Thomas' Hamlet, and Verdi's Macbeth, Otello and Falstaff, and Nicolai's Merry Wives of Windsor. At the same time, I've discovered the orchestral music of Felix Weingartner, which is being released in a series of albums on the CPO label with the Basel Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marco Latonja... and I'm getting them all. I've even exchanging e-mails with the conductor of the orchestra! Two highly interesting albums combining the forces of the Concerto Koln and Sarband are Dream of the Orient and The Waltz: Ecstasy and Mysticism -- classical pieces inspired by the music of the Ottoman Turks, and here they are presented side by side. Fascinating! Books that I've enjoyed recently, and plan to read in the next few months: Just finished Valley of the Kings by John Romer, a highly informative overview of exploration of the tombs of the pharaohs. Also read On A Grander Scale: The Outstanding Life and Tumultuous Times of Sir Christopher Wren by Lisa Jardine. An excellent read about a truly brilliant man, whose greatest achievement was the design and building of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. And yet, as this book points out, he did so much more. Ties in with my "History of Architecture" class at Kent Stark. Along the same lines is my current book, Basilica by R. A. Scotti, which relates the turbulent history of the building of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Some of Italy's greatest artists and architects appear in these pages, not always in a favorable light! Believe it or not, how about the Selected Plays of James M. Barrie, with particular emphasis on Peter Pan. My wife and I saw the DVD Finding Neverland, and I became enthralled with Barrie's life and the tragic death of his brother, which inspired the famous play and the subsequent book. It may seem like a childish fantasy, but there is a very dark side . . . just like the original Grimm fairytales. Definitely not the Disney version! Trying to keep current in the field of art, I'm tackling Paul Johnson's controversial "ART: A New History," who brings a new interpretation of the creative process. Should be fun. I've never gotten through Robert Hughes Shock of the New, and since there is a newer, up-dated edition, I will attack that this summer. I've been thinking for a long time of preparing a lecture on the history of numbers, and so on my stack of summer reading books is From One to Zero by Georges Ifrah who, I am confident, will make it quite clear that numbers were invented by humans and therefore have no magical or mystical "powers," except for those who are trapped by ignorance and superstition. No 13th floor in American hotels! Come on, now! The Last Man Who Knew Everything by Andrew Robinson, brings long overdue recognition to Thomas Young, who dabbled in various fields of science and math, and yet most of the credit for his discoveries goes to other people. The Art of the Print by Fritz Eichenberg I've read before, but must read again, to refresh my knowledge of the various artistic print processes. Eichenberg was a remarkable artist in the wood engraving medium. and I have several of his finest books. He was also a good friend, who once had an exhibition at The Canton Museum of Art.     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Daniel Hockensmith Reporter/Producer WKSU Canton Bureau
	The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman. This is one of those books the smart set is discussing at cocktail parties. Friedman's dissection of the leveling of the international playing field thanks to technology – and the many implications of that for corporations, countries and individuals – makes this a must-read for anyone concerned about how the future is shaping up. Reading the mini-history of high technology really resonated with me, because I vaguely remember several of the important milestones happening; I just never connected the dots in my head. Terrorist by John Updike. I actually haven't read this one yet, but I heard an interview Updike gave in which he described the plot: An 18-year-old, mixed-race high school student becomes involved with radical Islamists – in his native New Jersey. Reviews I've read of the novel have played up how the main character gets treated by those around him because of his skin color, name and religion. That's thought-provoking stuff, considering the times in which we live. Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation by Peter L. Bernstein. I read this while vacationing in western New York. Bernstein documents the planning, construction and effects of the Erie Canal, one of the greatest engineering feats of the 19th Century. It's fascinating study in politics at the state and national level and provides a great insight into how the Midwest became the farming and industrial heart of the United States. This is a great book for anybody interested in early Cleveland history or the Ohio canals, which followed the New York experiment. The Quran (various translations). Given the amount of time, money and energy our country is expending on the war in Iraq and the global war on terror, a basic knowledge of Islam’s holiest scripture is an absolute must. Not only is this book the instruction manual for radical Islamists, it's the accepted truth of an estimated 1.2 billion peaceful, God-fearing people. That's 22 percent of the world's population. I think having a Quran in the home is as important as having a Bible, whether you believe in its teachings or not. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. After all the fuss people made about Capote, I thought seeing the film would make me want to read In Cold Blood. But after seeing the movie, I came away feeling that maybe Harper Lee doesn't get props from American literati as much as she should. I read both Lee's and Capote's books during my freshman year in high school, so it's been a while. Mockingbird definitely holds up well over time; what's sad is how little of the story or the characters I remembered. Are there any lawyers like Atticus Finch left in the world? Better Than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie by Hunter S. Thompson. This work is definitely Gonzo on the decline, but lately, I’ve been feeling a little nostalgic, both for the Good Doctor and Bill Clinton. Heck, even President Bush Version 1.0 looks pretty good, these days. The 1992 presidential election was my first experience as a campaign worker and this book brings a lot of youthful memories back. After all the recent government scandals in Washington and Columbus, I definitely feel the need for a Thompson screed. It’s a shame he’s gone. I doubt we’ll ever see that kind of unvarnished, straight-from-the-Mojo Wire, honest reporting about politics again in our lifetime. Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. She’s a contributor to This American Life and voice of teen-age superhero Violet Parr in The Incredibles. She’s buddies with Jon Stewart, Conan O’Brien and Catherine Keener. And she wrote a vacation guide to sites associated with three presidential assassinations. That’s just nutty enough to appeal to my dark side. Two of the presidents – Garfield and McKinley – were from Northeast Ohio, so there’s another connection. My wife will probably kill me for saying this, but if anything ever happens to her, Ms. Vowell gets the first shot at being the next Mrs. Hockensmith.     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Marcie Goodman Executive Director, Cleveland Film Society
	I'm a big fan of memoirs. So my summer reading list includes these: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, But Enough About Me by Jancee Dunn, and Cockeyed by Ryan Knighton. Most of my reading selections are based on Entertainment Weekly's suggestions; for some reason their taste often seems to match my own. As to music, I tend to listen to the same CD for about a year and then finally switch to something else. I just started listening to Pink Martini's Sympathique, so I'll probably stick to that one for quite a while. I like it so much because it's happy and lively and fun. Before Pink Martini I was totally hooked on John Pizzarelli. And before that it was Cole Porter.     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Don Dixon Singer/Songwriter/Producer
	Wando Passo by David Payne. David is a friend of my good buddy Bland Simpson. Last year David wrote me asking for advice about some details of the music business for his new book...this one... Marley & Me by John Grogan. I like dogs. All Souls Rising by Madison Smartt Bell. The three historical novels Madison wrote about the Haitian Revolution are supposed to be great & they certainly are long so I thought I'd start this summer & see how far I get. Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell. Joseph Mitchell was born in NC; he moved to New York at the age of 21 & in 1938 went to work at The New Yorker magazine. He stayed there for the next 58 years writing "Talk of the Town" & profiles about people in the nooks & crannies of the city. This is supposed to be a great collection of hiswriting. A Thurber Carnival by James Thurber. I've read every word James Thurber has ever written...most of them more than once. I know that reading the Mitchell stuff is going to make me want to revisit Thurber. My roommate in college, writer Bruce Brooks, introduced me to James in an official way by presenting this book to me our freshman year. As a little kid, I had poured over the huge collection of New Yorker cartoons my father owned...I had loved so many of the Thurber ones but didn't have a greater context for his writing until I got Carnival, an anthology of much of his prime work. All of the records by Penguin Cafe Orchestra are fantastic & I can't go long without listening to one. My standard rotation of "cool school" jazz...Davis, Adderly, Coltrane, Young, Gordon, Mingus, Monk, etc. On the "serious music" side of things, I'm constantly challenged & enlightened by anything by Donald Erb. Not too many among us can write contra bassoon duets that I want to listen to multiple times. I've taken a few years away from Stravinsky & I'm hoping to get some real listening in on him again. When I was first trying to find my voice as an orchestrator, I listened to him a lot...Samuel Barber, Dvorak, & Brahms, too. My youngest daughter has turned me on to Imogen Heap...I love her stuff. Marti came home from California with The Magic Numbers...they're a young British band composed to two sets of brothers and sisters & they're like a cross between The Banana Splits & The Cowsills...fantastic record... I've produced some records that I also want to mention...Chris Allen has just released a CD I'm very proud of...also look for the new one by Volatile Baby...     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Marti Jones Painter, Singer/Songwriter
	This summer, I plan to finish reading Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin. It's fascinating information about how animals perceive the human world as experienced by a world-renown animal behaviorist who is autistic. I'm reading it because if someone can explain why we behave the way we do, I'd like to hear about it. When I finish that, I want to read Dear Theo:The Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh. My friend, Kelley gave it to me because I have expressed to her the frustration I face as a painter who has too many other obligations. Funny, but while I'm reading it, I'll be thinking I could be spending that time painting. While I'm painting, I joyfully get to listen to music of my choosing without battling with my husband or teenage daughter. Right now, the Magic Numbers debut record has been in heavy rotation on my Bose Wave. It's fabulous. Very eclectic. I have also been listening to Peggy Lee Live at Basin St. East, Penguin Cafe Orchestra (all cds), Forty Words for Fear by Madison Smartt Bell and Wyn Cooper, the soundtrack from Garden State, and Imogen Heap's Speak for Yourself.     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Mitchell Kahan Author, Director of the Akron Museum of Art
	I am so preoccupied with issues surrounding the completion of our new building that I am not planning on reading or listening to very much at all. I am reading Whose Muse? Art Museums and the Public Trust, and I am hoping to get a moment to listen to two CD's from Italy that were acquired as a result of escorting a group of museum members abroad this past spring for a look at the art and architecture of Naples and the Amalfi Coast. One CD is traditional Neoplitan songs and the other is fusion jazz we heard at the Otto Jazz Club in Naples.     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Michael Salinger Performance Poet, Author
	This summer I will be reading Haunted by Chuck Palahnuik, Kabul by M.E. Hirsch and whatever else a friend puts into my hands. I read Palahnuik on planes - I find him to be a good traveling companion. I recently was teaching in Bahrain and was intrigued by the culture. I also met some teachers from Afghanistan while I was there, so the Hirsch book is an attempt to get a deeper perspective of arab culture. I will also be reading bicycling magazines as I am an avid, if not speedy, cyclist. I run a triathlon each summer and while I train for this madness I listen to tunes on my iPod. It is full of 80s to present punk and Ska (Butthole Surfers, the Clash, Buzzcocks, Ministry, Sublime, Social Distortion, Modest Mouse etc.) to which I add something new every now and again - the latest addition being the Raconteurs. Anything that helps me forget that I'm too old to running around in spandex.     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Carl Monday Channel 3 News Reporter
	My time at KSU dates back 30 plus years (1969-1973). I graduated with a degree in Telecommunications. I worked on both WKSU AM & FM (I was on the air as protesters burned down the ROTC building... two days before the May 4th shootings) and also worked as News Director on TV-2. I spent two years at Kent State's Office of Radio/TV Communications... working as a correspondent for stations across the country. Reading time is at a premium... but I hope to get to a couple of books this summer, including: We'll Always Have Cleveland by Les Roberts. Between You and Me by Mike Wallace. I'll also try to make some headway on the two-foot stack of magazines that I haven't finished... or in some cases, even looked at.     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Alex Bevan Singer Songwriter
	Things here in guitar world are just humming and strumming along. Here are a few thoughts. Summer is always a time when I try to worry at least one book a week. The longer days give me a chance to "hit the hammock" and spend an hour (sometimes more) reading something more than a software manual. Recently I have enjoyed Eldest by Christopher Paolini, Collapse by Jared Diamond and little forays into the The Silver Spoon bible of Italian cooking by Phaidon Press. In the music realm I have been captivated by Mark Knopler and Emmylou Harris's All the Roadrunning, Vaughan William's Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Songlines by the Derek Trucks Band and anything and everything by David Francey. The rest of the time I'm either driving to a gig, gigging or trying to write something to play at a gig. Happy Summer!     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Jeff Niesel Cleveland Free Times, Music and Film Editor
	I've been reading a collection of short stories by T.C. Boyle called Tooth and Claw. While I admire his writing style, I think the stories often come to clunky conclusions and don't have the kind of depth I look for in fiction. Still, it's been a fun read and his descriptions (like of a winter storm that ruins a guy's plans for a romantic weekend in "The Swift Passage of the Animals") are often quite striking. I've also got a book on Latin alternative rock by Ernesto Lechner called Rock En Espanol: The Latin Alternative Rock Explosion that I've been meaning to read. Lechner is one of the better Latin rock critics (at least among the ones who write in English), and I'm interested to see what he has to say about Aterciopelados and Soda Stereo, since I've come to really like these acts in the limited exposure I've had to them. As far as music goes, I found myself enjoying the new The Best of Luna and its accompanying farewell tour documentary DVD, Tell Me Do You Miss Me, more than I anticipated. I always thought the band's live show was rather boring, but the DVD shows the band members to be down-to-earth people and reveals the passion they played with on their final tour. The "best of" doesn't include all my favorite Luna tracks (no "Bonnie and Clyde"!), but features enough of the good stuff ("Anesthesia," "Friendly Advice," "23 Minutes in Brussels") to make it worthwhile. Something about the combination of droll vocals and lazy melodies makes it good summer listening, too. I've also gotten a good laugh from the loopy The Return of Dr. Octagon, enjoyed Mike Patton's madcap antics on Peeping Tom and took an instant liking to the Heartless Bastards' brittle All This Time. Ramblin' Jack Elliott's debut on Anti-Records, a disc called I Stand Alone, is a folk masterpiece that's really beautiful even though it's extremely, sparse, something along the lines of those American Recordings Johnny Cash made shortly before his death. And while I'm not even sure of the history behind the songs, the tracks compiled on Eccentric Soul: The Big Mack Label are some great old soul and R&B finds that have never been available on CD.     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Les Roberts Memorist, Columnist and Novelist
	My music tastes are not what anyone would consider modern. Let's face it, I stopped listening to pop music somewhere between Dick Haymes and Rosemary Clooney. My summer will be filled with a great deal of classical music. I am addicted to Bach and Mozart, especially during warm and lazy weather. My other favorites, Russian composers like Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakoff are too heavy and ponderous for the summertime. I do love jazz, however, and will be listening to the piano of Bill Evans and the vocals of Diana Krall, Johnny Hartman, and of course Tony Bennett, who is superb in ANY weather. I also bought the new CD by the Dixie Chicks. I've not been a fan of country music since Johnny Cash died, but I feel those three women are brave and gutsy and forthright about what they believe, and they deserve to be listened to. As for reading: in addition to the mysteries I MUST read to put in my Plain Dealer column, I'm planning on getting through the entire literary ouvre of Karin Slaughter; I recently discovered her and now want to read her six previous novels. IN addition, I hope to spend my summertime leisure, in part, by re-visiting certain classics I read at least forty years ago or more. I'm in the middle of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon, and on my to-read pile is John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, a novel about the migrant Oklahoma farmers that will remind me why I grew up with decency and outrage that is, in many ways, recently revived by so much current news.     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Sarah R. Sphar Northern Ohio Live, Editor
	My bookcases at home are impressively stocked, but I have a secret: I haven't actually read all of those books... yet. Somehow, they just seem to accumulate in spite of my best efforts to stay current with my own library. This summer, I hope to have time for The Waiting Years, a novel by the Japanese writer Fumiko Enchi; Blue Blood: Duke-Carolina, by Art Chansky (I'm a Tar Heel fan); and a revised and updated version of The Story of World War II, by Donald L. Miller. To mix a little business with my pleasure, I'll also keep up with the best writers in the magazine business by working my way through the Best American series (Best American Travel Writing, Best American Sports Writing, etc.), including Best American Essays, guest-edited by Shaker Heights native and personal hero Susan Orlean. Although the days of "summer break" are regrettably long gone, I still consider summer the perfect time to catch up on all those books I bought, but haven't read. (Yet.)     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Mark Dawidziak Television Critic, Cleveland Plain Dealer; Artistic director, Largely Literary Theater Company; author
	My summer reading list, I hate to say, is dripping in blood. I'm in the process of editing a collection of vampire stories by Richard Matheson and writing a book on Bram Stoker's Dracula. Of necessity, therefore, I have been reading a great deal by and about Stoker, as well as rereading Matheson's landmark novel, I Am Legend, and some of his short story collections. So I'm spending an inordinate amount of time with the undead, but then, having worked around journalists my entire working life, this is nothing new for me. I always seem to be reading something that's hinged to what I'm writing at the moment. That's fun, of course, but I can't remember the last time I read a book strictly for the fun of it. Whenever that was and whatever it was, I do remember Sara watching me suspiciously as I read it. "What are you reading?" she asked. I told her. "Why?" she asked. "Because I wanted to," I told her. "You mean you're not writing a book about that?" she asked. No, I told her. "You're not thinking of writing a book about that?" No, I told her. "Or a play?" she asked. "No," I told her. "Are you doing research on it?" she asked. Nope. "What's wrong with you?" she asked. It kind of demonstrates the point, I guess. I'm also re-reading Charles Dickens' Dombey and Son, and I'll bet I'm the only one to come up with that one. This is fun, too, but I am thinking about using a key scene in it for a play. As for music, well, that always depends on the mood, now doesn't it? Sometimes ragtime, sometimes bluegrass; sometimes classical, sometimes old folkie stuff; sometimes classic rock, sometimes Broadway. I run a great deal, though, and I find it troublesome to run to classical (too often too slow) or ragtime (too often too fast). Either can kill you if you're not careful. Stick to the rock, folk and Broadway.     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	R. Stanton Hales President, The College of Wooster
	Arn’s War by Edward C. Arn. This set of personal reminiscences on World War II by one of The College of Wooster’s most beloved alumni (and former alumni director) provides a distinctive perspective on the War, from the inside view of a decorated hero. Terrorist by John Updike. Updike is known for his ability to construct complex characters arising from the current culture, and this detailed, nuanced, and chilling view into the Islamic subculture in the U.S. is clearly the result of a great deal of research, study, and reflection. The Calculus Wars by Jason Socrates Bardi. Some might claim that only the mathematically minded would find interest in this book, but the rivalry between Newton and Leibniz over the development of calculus (and recognition for it) is great history for any reader, but especially for those interested in the history of science during a very fruitful era. Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World by Carl Ernst. This short volume is a thoughtful view on Islam by a well read and highly respected academic and a professor of religion. Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge 1990-2003 by Kevin Starr. As the California state librarian emeritus since 2004, Kevin Starr offers an intriguing view of the status of the golden state.     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Al Bartholet Executive Director/General Manager, WKSU
	Here are a few books for the summer: When Elvis Meets the Dali Lama by Murray Silver, City of Fallen Angels by John Berendt, and A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut. Current musical favorites include Shannon McNally's live disc North American Ghost Music, the Wood Brother debut Ways Not to Lose, and The Word is Out by the Jaco Pastorius Big Band. To round it out, add in the soundtrack from The Passion of The Christ. I never saw the movie, but I love the soundtrack.     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.
	Tim White Channel 3, 6:00 Anchor
	1. Blink - Malcom Gladwell. 3. Cobra II - Brenard Trainor. 3. Close Range: Wyoming Stories - Annie Proulx.     Purchases through Amazon.com support WKSU.

Additional Information

NPR Summer Reading Page

Book Excerpts from NPR

Summer Reading Cookbook Page

Summer Music Preview from All Songs Considered

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