When I set out to learn about my mother's bridge club, the Jewish octogenarians behind the matching outfits and accessories, I never expected to fall in love with them. This is the story of the ladies, their game, their gen, and the ragged path that led me back to my mother.We’re going on vacation in a couple of weeks and the piles have started to appear. I’m referring of course to the book piles on the dining room table. It’s this delicious dance of adding and subtracting books that we might take, imagining what might be the ticket. It’s got everything from what I’ve wanted to read, have been desperate to read, felt I should read, a guilty pleasure, a prize winner, a book that’s been on the bestseller list for 103 weeks, a book that’s buzzy or an odd little duck that no one gives a fuck.
What do you recommend we take?
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Betsy Lerner 
victor Hugo, Les miserable, great tale, they have words for every occasion, have a great time
Tiny books fit into luggage easier and can be immensely satisfying to read in one sitting. So, Natalie Babbitt’s beautiful Tuck Everlasting, the so-much-more-than-a-Western, Shane, by Jack Schafer, or Denis Johnson’s perfect novella, Train Dreams.
Or for some odd ducks, The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien or a brilliant little-known gem, Preincarnate by Shaun Micallef.
Three masterworks of voice: The Man Who Fell in Love With the Moon by Tom Spanbauer; The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave; and Leonard Cohen’s magnificent Beautiful Losers.
Eucalyptus by Murray Bail just popped into my head. Such delicious language, perfect slow pacing, and a heart that oozes and drips (like a Bloodwood, I suppose).
Isn’t it a pleasure trying to choose from all the wonderful books there are in the world? Sorry for suggesting so many, it’s hard to stop. Which probably shows how incredibly lucky we are.
Okay, one more. But it’s only an ebook, and even then, it’s only a couple of pages long. But it’s the greatest short story I’ve ever read: My Last Story by Janet Frame. Be warned — it may make your life more beautiful and tragic and valuable to you, every time you even think of it. (it can be found and read on the internet free, if you really want to save 99 cents)
If you are going into nature, Upstream by Mary Oliver. You’ll be eating raw turtle eggs and walking on all fours in a jiff!
1.) Girlhood by Melissa Febos
2.) We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby (Short and very funny)
3.) Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor
4.) Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean
Satchel Paige by Lawrence Tye. What could be better summer reading than the biography of one of the greatest baseball players who ever lived? Lounge around with book, popcorn, salted shelled peanuts and beer.
When your eyes are tired from reading, listen to Imogen Hermes Gowar’s THE MERMAID AND MRS. HANCOCK, narrated brilliantly by Juliet Stevenson.
I’m enjoying a novel by Randy Susan Meyers called The Murderer’s Daughters. She’s got a great sense of humor.
Elizabeth McCracken’s magnificent SOUVENIR MUSEUM
“Love Like Water, Love Like Fire” — Mikhail Iossel (because I just finished reading it)
“Franny & Toby” — Tetman Callis (because of course I would do that)
Any old back issues of “The Quarterly” you can find lying around (because they’re always good, especially the earlier ones)
Here’s another — I haven’t read this, but I’ve seen good report of it — “The Wife Who Wasn’t”, by Alta Ifland.