Read This!
Hoping to inspire your
summer reading selections, we set out to offer some book titles about road
trips and grand adventures.
As we sifted through our reading lists we discovered many titles we had
read recently about physical challenges and first-time-ever
accomplishments. What we also
discovered, however, was that neither of us liked those books all that
much. We talked at length
and suddenly realized that our book discussion had drifted to fictional
“road trips” as a metaphor for the journey of life. Our eyes lit up. Our pulses
quickened. We had found our theme.
Please consider adding the
following titles to your summer reading lists. The books won’t cause you to get out of your lawn
chair or off of your beach towel to scale mountains, paddle whitewater, or
backpack through Antarctica. We
hope, however, that these titles give you pause to ponder the human condition
and your life in relation to the world in which you live.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939)
The quintessential road trip
book. Set in the Great Depression,
the Joad family makes a journey from their failing farm in the Oklahoma Dust
Bowl to the migrant labor camps in California. Steinbeck championed the cause of migrant farm workers. Grapes of Wrath won a Pulitzer Prize and caught the attention of
Eleanor Roosevelt. Congressional hearings eventually led to changes in labor
laws and migrant camp conditions.
Anywhere But Here by Mona Simpson (1987)
A mother uproots her
daughter from Wisconsin and moves to Los Angeles in hopes of making her a
famous television star. Simpson,
born in Green Bay, writes dysfunction with humor and hope.
The Awakening by Kate Chopin (1899)
Edna Pontellier’s
journey is one of self discovery.
Quite shocking in its day, the book’s popularity faded, and it was
rediscovered in the 1970s. The
Awakening challenges the
spiritual, societal and sexual norms prescribed for women in the late 1800s.
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (1994) (Young Adult)
After her mother leaves home
suddenly, 13-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her
mother’s route. This is a
great coming of age story. Read it
aloud to a youngster in your life.
-
Jean Dunn and Ann Rulseh
Return to
Summer 2002 Table of Contents