MOON SUMMER READING LIST
38TH PERIOD LANGUAGE ARTS II CLASS WITH MRS. MOON
NAME:___________________________
JULY 20TH, 2010
The Broom Of The System
by David Foster Wallace
“Most really pretty girls have pretty ugly feet, and so does Mindy Metalman, Lenore notices, all of a sudden,” begins Wallace’s first novel. Not to be hyperbolic, but this book is so good it hasn’t even been written yet. Spolier alert: Reality actually a representation of this book.
The Golden Compass
by Phillip Pullman
We don't need to tell you that this book is an under-exposed masterpiece, speaks to children and adults alike, contains an exciting adventure story, deals with such complex subjects as the loss of innocence and the nature of the soul, was not done justice by its movie adaptation, and is the first in an exponentially improving trilogy, because this book has talking bears in it.
If I Did It
by Orenthal James Simpson
This sprawling meta-narrative, in which an unreliable narrator poetically combines real-life events and characters with real and imagined dialogue, was accidentally written by real-life crazy person and former San Francisco 49ers running back O. J. Simpson. If you can stomach the fact that the author is definitely a murderer, then the chapter “The Night In Question” might be the most interesting thing you read this week. Printed copies, victim to a massive recall, are scarce, but you can download a full pdf at http://themoonshow.com/OJ.pdf
Immortality
by Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera's sixth novel begins with a casual, elegant gesture of a woman to her swimming instructor, a gesture that creates a character — Agnes — in the mind of a writer named Kundera. A novel in seven parts, Immortality alternates the stories of Agnes, her husband Paul, and her sister Laura with a curious historical footnote, the story of the relationship between Goethe and Bettina von Arnim. The novel portrays Goethe and Ernest Hemingway conversing in the afterlife, and the narrator (named Kundera) carrying on an important philosophical discussion with the clear-eyed Professor Avenarius.
Lipstick Traces : A Secret History of the Twentieth Century
by Greil Marcus
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana’s famous words are the best argument for not reading this book. Greil Marcus, love him or hate him, gives the best account of how counterculture and the avant-garde shaped the world from beneath it. From Punk Rock to the Dadaists to the Situationist International and back again, this is the textbook you wish you were reading when 2:30PM refused to show up.
Lolita
by Stanley Kubrick
We can’t remember reading the first half of a better book. It took us forever to finally pick the book up, and then we got distracted by something, mostly likely a thing with pictures, and still haven’t finished it. But we loved what we read. What we get from a combination of the first half of the book and the second half of the Kubrick film is this old dude who speaks a ton of French when he could just speak English (and not make us use the annotated version) has the obsessions for this total young babe who likes to suck on lollipops. Then he goes off to Vietnam and has group sex with masked prostitutes. All in all, a great beach read.
Love All The People
by Bill Hicks
We’d always wondered what it would be like to read multiple drafts of our favorite books or watch early edits of our favorite films, or pornographic VHS tapes. This book affords the
opportunity to track the evolution of one of the greatest (if not the greatest) stand-up sets of all time. Bill Hicks is a goddamn hero of comedy and listening to him build confidence as well as material is a fucking inspiration.
Please Kill Me
by Legs McNeil
Written by Punk magazine’s (the first ‘zine) co-founders, Please Kill Me is an oral history of punk rock music. From The MC5, Stooges and The Velvet Underground all the way to Sid Vicious’ sketchy death in the wake of the Sex Pistols breakup, this book is told by the people who were the first casualties of punk rock. It gives an honest account of New York’s Lower East Side in its depraved, drug-ravaged heyday in the voices of Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, Tom Verlaine, Iggy Pop and others that were cooler than you, and some that still are. It’s an entire book of shit-talking and it’s fucking awesome.
The Stranger
by Albert Camus
This is a book about a guy that doesn’t give a shit about his mom dying. In fact, he doesn’t really give a shit about anything. Apparently that’s a crime and he sort of gets arrested for it. I promise that we haven’t given anything away by telling you this. Also, It reminds us of the final episode of Seinfeld, which is why we liked the final episode of Seinfeld.
Tunnel Vision
by Keith Lowe
This is an MTV book. Remember? They publish books. But don’t let that stop you from reading this. It’s about a guy who loves the London Tube who makes a drunken bet that he can beat the world record for visiting every single Tube station on the night before his wedding in Paris, but HERE’S THE CATCH: if he doesn’t do it, he can’t get to his wedding. We love subways, and that’s why we love this book. So if you love subways, you might just love this book too. It’s a quick read. Check it out.
The Violent Bear It Away
by Flannery O’Connor
A short book about a young Southern boy who believes himself to be a prophet on a mission to save a mentally handicapped boy from eternal damnation. It plays with themes familiar in Flannery O’Connor’s work such as young Southern boys, false prophets, the mentally handicapped, eternal damnation and shortness of length. We find those things to be charming.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
by Haruki Murakami
A missing cat, an underage girl sunbathing in her backyard in a tiny bikini, tortoise shell sunglasses, a chilling and secret historical account of WWII, a man finding cosmic knowledge at the bottom of a well. The working definition of Contemporary Magical Realism is 607 pages long, and we think that by the end you’ll wish it were longer.
