Eight Books You Have to Read Before The End of the Summer

I compiled this list for seeingblack.com. If you're still got an itchy reader trigger, these suggestions will hold you down. So all that's necessary is that ju pick a book, "July", and enjoy "August" of pleasant summer breeze (play on words is a stretch...but get it?)...






Summer Reading
By Sidik Fofana--SeeingBlack.com Contributing Critic
Jul 13, 2009, 17:45

Here are eight recently published books chosen by Seeingblack.com contributing critic, Sidik Fofana, for the summer time. So grab your sunbrella, shades and perch on the sand because these books are guaranteed to give you a good read!


1. TEA TIME FOR THE TRADITIONALLY BUILT, by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon, $23.95). This newest
installment in the series that spawned "The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency" TV show on HBO—finds its heroine Mma Ramotswe in need of her own detective talents.


2. CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?: The Inspiration, Wisdom, and Insight of Michael Eric Dyson, by Michael Eric Dyson (Basic Civitas, $19.95). Dyson, who has reinvigorated the role of the public intellectual, dazzles us with a collection of essays, vignettes, and musings on contemporary life and politics.


3. SONG YET SUNG, by James McBride (Riverhead Trade, $15.00). In McBride’s third novel, set in pre-Civil war Maryland, a runaway slave inspires a whole community.


4. OBAMA’S BLACKBERRY by Kasper Hauser (Little, Brown and Company $13.99). This hilarious imaginary world of text messages from Barack Obama’s phone will have rolling on the floor laughing.


5. THE LONG FALL by Walter Mosley (Riverhead, $25.95). Walter Mosley blesses with another hero in the form of Leonid McGill, a private investigator trying to go the straight-and-narrow.


6. BURN THIS BOOK edited by Toni Morrison (Harper Studio, $16.95). Toni Morrison and the distinguished PEN Writers discuss, through the beautiful medium of the essay, the importance of the written word.


7. MIDNIGHT by Sister Souljah (Atria, $26.95) This follow-up to the Sister Souljah’s mega success, The Coldest Winter Ever, focuses on the life of Midnight, a Sudan born teenager who has immigrated to Brooklyn with his family.


8. CITY KID: A Writer's Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success, by Nelson George (Viking, $25.95). George tackles growing up in Brownville, becoming a big-time writer, and becoming an even bigger-time film producer in this engaging personal narrative.