Thanks to those of you who wrote to recommend summer reading books. As promised, here�s the roundup. Thanks to all who made suggestions. If anyone else has something to add, please let me know!

In the all-ages category, Cassie and Sandy recommend Shel Silverstein: The Giving Tree. Although I believe this recommendation came in response to my entry on AJ�s affinity for books about trees and letters, I thought it fit nicely with summer reading too. Despite (or perhaps because of ) it�s transparently moral intent, I loved this book as a child and have recently started reading it with AJ, who loves it tool.

I am so grateful to Jen for reminding me of Ruth Ozeki�s My Year of Meats. I read all the reviews of it with interest when it came out, but never got around to reading the book itself. I think part of my bookstore gift certificate will be going towards the purchase of a copy. She also recommends Ozeki�s All Over Creation.

readersguide offered two recommendations that she�d written about previously in her diary. The first, Allan Hollinghurst�s Line of Beauty, she describes as �a book about a gay guy who graduates from Oxford and then goes to live with the very rich, fairly conservative family of someone he had a major crush on at school. Mysterious, but definitely worth reading.� Her second recommendation is one I keep picking up at bookstores and putting down again: Ian McEwan�s Saturday. McEwan has written one of my favorite (Atonement) and one of my least favorite (Amsterdam) books, so I�ve been on the fence about Saturday, but based on readersguide�s review, I�ll probably give it a go. She summarizes as follows: � The life of a middle aged, wealthy man of scientific bent in a post 9/11 world. Like Gilead [by Marilynne Robinson, which, if you haven�t been following along, is what started this quest for summer reading recommendations), it makes me think of Ulysses -- but really, it's not that I think that about every book! A quick read, but really good.�

Finally, freshhell recommends Paul Collins: Banvard�s Folly and John Steinbeck: East of Eden. Her reviews are HERE. The first book I�d never heard of, but it sounds right up my alley and I�m going to have too look for it. The second I read as a kid back when the miniseries was commanding attention, but it�s surely long overdue for a reread.

And in other bookish news, AJ and I started reading Beverly Cleary�s Henry Huggins last night. I wasn�t sure how it would go, because he doesn�t always do so well with books without many pictures, but he was drawn in immediately, laughing at Henry�s attempts to bring a dog on a city bus; and he was glued to the page as I read of Henry and Ribsy�s ride home in the police car.

[Second entry today. Click back for praise and complaint for Apple customer service and a lament about summer illness]

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