Summer Reading: A Recap

It's Labor Day, which means that, yep, summer's over. Time to look back at my summer reading and see how I did. Back in May, I wrote a post about what books I'd be reading this summer. It wasn't the most ambitious reading list of all time -- no Proust or anything ridiculous like that -- but I still didn't bat a thousand:

The Known World. It's still unkown to me. I kept thinking "It's next, it's next, it's next..." but it never was. I will get to it eventually. Too many smart people have told me it's great. But it didn't happen this summer.

Murder in Amsterdam. I read this one! A very thought-provoking book about the limits of multi-culturalism and tolerance. Buruma didn't really come to much of a conclusion, which kept the book from having the sort of revelatory power I was hoping for, but the exploration of the issues was enough to make it an enjoyable and educational book.

The Girl in the Flammable Skirt. I was going to read this, but Edan told me that she liked Willful Creatures better, so I read that instead (also, we own a copy of Willful Creatures, so expediency won out). I loved that collection, especially the story about the boy with keys for fingers. I'm counting this as a win for me.

In the Drink. I couldn't get a copy of this, so sadly, I didn't get to read it. I am going to dig around for a copy this fall.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Read it in Hawaii. Loved it. Watched the BBC miniseries with Alec Guinness as George Smiley. Also great, although they made one big plot revision I didn't necessarily agree with.

Please Excuse My Daughter. Like you don't already know.

Decline and Fall. Nope. Edan read Brideshead Revisited this summer (I'd already read it) -- can we count that? Sadly, no dead Englishmen on this summer's reading list.

So what's that? 4 for 7? Not bad, right? Plus, I read a bunch of other books this summer, books that I didn't expect to read, books that I kind of had to read, and books that I loved. Now for fall -- Infinite Jest. Maybe. How did you do this summer?