Summer reading

To many, summer time means sunshine, swimming, vacations, and sunburns. To an English dork, er, teacher like myself, summer is a chance to read the books that have been piling up on my nightstand for the past few months. I haven't read quite as much as I would have liked so far (my wife has a long honey-do list), but there is still time. Here's a quick list of my reading conquests:



1. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin--tells the story of Greg Mortenson and his quest to build schools in the Himalayan region. Highlights the difference one person can make in the world.

2. Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Ben Mezrich--On the other side of the selfless/selfish spectrum, this pageturner is about a young man who gets involved in a complicated card counting scheme that works almost too well. Not highbrow reading, but perfect for an airplane or a day at the beach.

3. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander Mccall Smith--I read a couple of books in the series; I am a sucker for a good mystery. Set in Africa, the detective is a lady (duh) who uses her wits to solve a variety of cases. It kind of strikes me as an adult version of the Encyclopedia Brown series that I enjoyed as a kid--short mysteries solved with brains and not brawn.

4. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely--This is basically an economics book that examines human behavior, as the author attempts to explain why we make so many "irrational" decisions in our lives. The author provides evidence for his assertions in the form of experiments that he and his colleagues perform on unsuspecting M.I.T. students (don't worry, they're economists, not chemists). A really interesting book that forces readers to think about the many small decisions that go into our everyday lives.

That's it so far; I'll update the list later summer comes to a close. :(