Summer Reading Suggestions 2015: Poetry & Literature

As a young man, Tolkien created a prose translation of the Old English epic. This, along with selections from lectures on the poem he gave later in life, and a story and poetry he wrote in the style of folklore on the poem's themes are all included in this new volume.

This collection of short stories and fictional excerpts by writers from such nations as Iraq, North Korea, and Cuba offers insight into the realities of daily life for individuals living under the regimes of these countries.

Atwood, the author of Cat's Eye and Handmaid’s Tale, presents a collection of meditations on the fragility of nature, the death of a parent, and the connection between memory and everyday life.

“Jones takes a reader deep into lived experience, into a charged world divided among unstable yet entrenched lines: racial, gendered, political, sexual, familial. Here we absorb each quiet resistance, each whoop of joy, a knowledge of violence and of desire, an unbearable ache/loss/yearning.” --Brenda Shaughnessy

Corrigan delves into The Great Gatsby, taking the reader into archives, high school classrooms, and even out onto the Long Island Sound to explore the novel's hidden depths. This is a journey whose revelations include Gatsby's debt to hard-boiled crime fiction, its rocky path to recognition, and its commentaries on the themes of race, class, and gender.

Poetry. Native American Studies. "One of the major lyric voices of our time" (NY Times Book Review), winner of the National Book Award, Alexie publishes his first new collection of poetry and short prose in six years.