Summer Reading List 2003
Critics List the Books at Their Bedside and Beach Chairs

Listen to the Talk of the Nation discussion.

 See The Books of Summer 2003.

May 26, 2003 -- NPR's Neal Conan hosts Talk of the Nation's annual discussion of the best summer reading. His guests include David Kipen, book critic for the San Francisco Chronicle; Laura Miller, senior book editor for Salon.com and Gail Caldwell, chief book critic for The Boston Globe. And listeners share their favorites.


David Kipen's list for 2003:

» River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West, by Rebecca Solnit (Penguin USA, 2003)

» A Box of Matches, by Nicholson Baker (Random House, 2003)

» Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It, by Geoff Dyer (Pantheon Books, 2003)

» The Commissariat of Enlightenment, by Ken Kalfus (Ecco, 2003)

» The Misread City: New Literary Los Angeles, edited by Dana Gioia and Scott Timberg (Red Hen Press, 2003)


Laura Miller's list for 2003:

» Love in Idleness, by Amanda Craig (Doubleday, 2003)

» The Bug, by Ellen Ullman (Doubleday, 2003)

» Bangkok 8, by John Burdett (Knopf, 2003)


Gail Caldwell's list:

» A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies, by John Murray (HarperCollins, 2003)

» Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles, by Anthony Swofford (Scribner, 2003)

» Set This House in Order, by Matt Ruff (HarperCollins, 2003)

» The Story of Lucy Gault, by William Trevor (Viking Press. 2002)

» Three Junes, by Julia Glass (Pantheon Books, 2003)

» You Are Not a Stranger Here, by Adam Haslett (Doubleday. 2002)


Listeners' Suggestions:

» Sixpence House, by Paul Collins

» Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by Eric Schlosser

» Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich

» Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s, by Gerald Nachman

» Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn

» Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century, by Hunter Thompson

» Altered Carbon, by Richard K. Morgan

» Cooking for Mr. Latte: A Food Lover's Courtship, with Recipes, by Amanda Hesser

» The Cat from Hue: A Vietnam War Story, by John Laurence

» The Sinister Pig, by Tony Hillerman

» Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck

» The Middle of the Night, by Daniel Stolar

» Buying Dad: One Woman's Search for the Perfect Sperm Donor, by Harlyn Aizley

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