The summer is here; textbooks are getting shuffled into backs of closets, the imposing light of the computer has faded from students’ eyes and the sun’s rays are persuading students out of their finals daze. Even though the summer is a time when students' academic minds can rest, reading can still be calculated into summer fun.

According to The Association for Psychological Science’s brain and behavioral journal, when reading a good book readers create vivid mental simulations of the sounds, sights, tastes and movements described in a textual narrative while triggering brain regions used to process similar experiences in real life. The study said reading not only keeps your brain active, it enhances your vocabulary and understanding how words are spelled.

The following books are “Summer Reads” chosen by Western students, professors, librarians and booksellers at Village Books in Fairhaven. The books chosen will surely enlighten a student’s summer, said Western Book Store book buyer Leigh Giles.

“A summer read is engaging and breezy,” Giles said. “It is a book that will take you away and keep your interest while lounging in the sun, or relaxing on the couch.”

Top-ten books for the summer of 2009

Rosina Lippi lives with her husband and daughter in Bellingham and has written six books. Lippi said students would like her book “Tied to the Tracks” because of the interesting plot that involves the craziness of English departments, university bureaucracy and sexually repressed faculty.

“I bet students do not have any idea what their professors get up to when school lets out for the very hot and humid summer,” Lippi said. “This book will allure you.”

Lippi’s newest novel is an effervescent tale of a trio of offbeat Yankee filmmakers who run a provocative film company in New Jersey called Tied to the Track. A new project brings them to a small southern town in Georgia to produce a controversial documentary about Miss Zula Bragg, a prominent literary genius of Georgia’s Ogilvie College. Tied to the Tracks’ owner, Angie Mangiamele is thrilled to get the work, but not so thrilled to see old flame John Grant, chair of the College’s English department. John is brilliant, handsome and well connected. He is also about to marry Caroline Rose, the youngest daughter of an important local family. Angie and John try and fail to convince themselves there is nothing left between them, all the while the town is keeping a close eye on the two star-crossed lovers.
 

Lauren Groff’s first book “The Monsters of Templeton” is a New York Times best seller and was short-listed for the Orange Prize for New Writers. She lives in Gainesvill, Fla. with her husband and son, according to the biography on her Web site.

“I think my fellow students will love this book as a break from their academic textbooks,” said Western senior Heather Fontenot. “It is a comedic mystery that has surprises you won’t see coming.”

According to the inside flap, when Willie Upton grudgingly returns home, looking for a place to hide after a disastrous affair with her married professor during an archeological dig in Alaska, a 50-foot-long prehistoric monster surfaces in Lake Glimmerglass.

The discovery changes fabric of the town in which Willie grew up. Willie’s hippie-turned-born-again-Baptist mother, Vi, tells her a secret she’s been hiding for nearly thirty years; that her father was not a nameless hippie from Vi’s commune days, but a man living in Templeton. With a clue to the mysterious identity of her father in hand, Willie turns her research skills to unearthing the secrets of the town in letters and pictures.

Reif Larsen went to Brown University and is currently teaching at Columbia University where he is finishing his Master of Fine Arts in fiction, according to the biography on his Web site. Joan Terselich, book buyer at Village Books in Fairhaven, suggests this book because of its creative drawings and genius narrative.

“I have never read something so wonderful,” Terselich said. “The drawings done by the main character, a 12-year-old boy, are remarkable. The narration is done beautifully and will keep your interest until the finish.”
According to the book’s inside flap, when twelve-year-old genius cartographer T.S. Spivet receives an unexpected phone call from the Smithsonian announcing he has won the prestigious Baird Award, life as normal is interrupted. T.S decides to set out alone to the capitol in Washington D.C. to claim his prize.

He leaves before dawn with a plan to hop a freight train and travel east. His adventures step into high gear and he meticulously maps, charts and illustrates his exploits. He documents mythical wormholes in the Midwest, the urban phenomenon of “rims” and the pleasures of McDonalds. Through this story readers see the world through T.S.’s eyes and also learn how the journey brings him closer to home.

Kerouac’s other books include “On the Road,” “Big Sur,” “The Subterraneans,” and “Visions of Cody.” Kerouac entered Columbia University and wrote for its student newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator. His fellow writers considered him to be the voice of the Beat Generation, a term used to describe a group of American writers who came to prominence in the 1950’s and whose literary themes focused around a rejection of mainstream American values.

Western senior Travis Brown said this book is his favorite of Kerouac’s because of its brilliant descriptive narrative. It makes the perfect summer read, he said.

“This book is easy to get into and will truly enhance your mind and spirit,” Brown said.

“The Dharma Bums” is an autobiographical novel published in 1958. The story’s narrator, Raymond Smith, is based on Kerouac himself, and the poet woodsman Buddhist, Japhy Ryder, is a thinly disguised portrait of the poet Gary Synder. The plot unfolds when Smith, who is suffering spiritual conflicts amid the emptiness of middle-class American life, meets Ryder, whom he immediately recognizes as a spiritual model. The story represents a time when the “beat” culture flourished.  

Parzybok received a Bachelor of Arts in creative wiring from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. He has lived in Central America, Ecuador and various places within the Pacific Northwest. He now lives in Portland, Ore. according to his Web site biography.

“This is a Village Books staff favorite,” Terselich said. “ Parzybok is a great writer with tremendous comedic humor; this book has enormous characters with quite interesting lives.” 

An apartment flood destroys almost everything owned by mismatched roommates. Thom is a computer geek whose hacking of a certain Washington-based software giant has won him a little fame and no job prospects. Tree is a confused telepathist whose dreams and prophecies may not be completely off-base Eric is a small-time con man who never quite quick enough on his feet. The flood left only a handmade orange couch, which the landlord demands they remove. Broke and homeless, the roommates begin carrying their couch through the streets of Portland discovering the couch won’t let them put it down. Soon Thom, Eric and Tree find themselves heading far out of Portland by sea, according to the book's inside flap.

“The art of Racing in the Rain” is a New York Times best selling novel and is published in 23 languages. Stein graduated from Columbia University and lives in Seattle with his wife and three sons, according to the biography on the inside flap of his book.

Western Bookstore book buyer Leigh Giles recommends “The Art of Racing in the Rain” to any student who loves dogs. Giles said this book manages a great story without being too corny.

“Readers will fall in love with the main character and narrator, the dog,” Giles said. “The way the author incorporates many different elements such as NASCAR, Seattle and an emotional dog, is brilliant.” 

Enzo knows he is different from other dogs. He is a philosopher with a nearly human soul and an obsession with opposable thumbs. Enzo has educated himself by watching television extensively and listening very closely to the words of his master, a racecar driver. Enzo is a lab terrier mix plucked from a farm outside Seattle. Through his owner Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, is not all about going fast. On the eve of Enzo’s death he looks back at his life’s ordeals, everything he and his family have been through. Having learned what it takes to be a compassionate and successful person, the wise canine can barely wait until his next lifetime, when he is sure he will return as a man, according to the book's inside flap.  

Australian-born Geraldine Brooks worked for the Sydney Morning Herald for three years as a feature writer with a special interest in environmental issues. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 2006 for her novel “March.” Her first novel, “Year of Wonders,” is an international bestseller. Brooks divides her time between homes in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts and Sydney Australia, according to the biography on her Web site.  

Western adjunct professor Jeanne Armstrong said this book appeals mianly to  women. “Year of Wonders” is a historical novel that describes significant relationships between women, and it would make for a great summer read, Armstrong said.

“Year of Wonders” is a fictionalized account of the plague in an English village during the 17th century. Based on historical evidence,  the story tells of an English village whose minister convinces the villagers to voluntarily quarantine themselves. A woman whose husband died in a mining accident and children died from the plague is befriended by the childless minister’s wife. The wife is an educated upper class woman who shares the other woman’s interests in herbs and teaches her to read, according to Armstrong’s review.

Chuck Palahniuk has written 11 novels, including two that have been turned into motion pictures, “Fight Club” and “Choke.” Palahniuk was born in 1963 in Burbank, Wash. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Oregon and now splits his time between Oregon and Washington state, according to the biography on his Web site.

Palahniuk’s tenth novel is a cartoonish cultural satire about a gang of adolescent terrorists trained by an unspecified totalitarian state the boys and girls are guided by quotations attributed to Marx, Hitler, Augusto Pinochet and Idi Amin and infiltrate America as foreign exchange students. Their mission: to bring the nation to its knees through Operation Havoc, an act of mass destruction disguised as a science project. Palahniuk depicts Midwestern life through the eyes of these thoroughly indoctrinated little killers.

William Dietrich grew up near Puget Sound and attended Western’s Fairhaven College as an experimental liberal arts major. In 2006 he took a half-time position as an assistant professor teaching environmental journalism and writing at Western, according to the biography on Dietrich’s Western professor homepage.

Dietrich said he has long been fascinated by both the exotic color of ancient Egypt and clashes between Western and Eastern civilization.

“I worked on the book during the build-up to the Iraq War, so I also thought it timely because Napoleon faced many of the same difficulties in Egypt that we’ve encountered in Iraq,” Dietrich said. “It’s meaning is that history repeats itself.”

Dietrich calls his book intelligent entertainment, meaning it is a rousing love-and-war adventure story that also provides a lot of information about Napoleon, his 1798 invasion of Egypt and mysteries surrounding the Great Pyramid. It’s an easy, inviting book that teaches too, Dietrich said.

At the start of Dietrich’s historical thriller, his boasting hero, American Ethan Gage, is living in Paris during the weakening days of the French Revolution. He wins a curious Egyptian medallion in a card game and is soon after thrust into adventure. Chased after by thieves, and the police, attacked by bandits, befriended by Gypsies, and saved by a British spy, Gage eventually ends up among Napoleon’s army as it embarks on its ill-fated Egyptian campaign. Once in Egypt, Gage finds himself plagued by evildoers bent on stealing the mysterious medallion, according to the book's inside flap and Amazon Publishers Weekly.

Brenda Miller is an associate professor of English at Western and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Bellingham Review. Miller’s work has received five Pushcart Prizes and has been published in many literary journals, according to her Western professor homepage biography.

Miller said her book “Blessing of Animals” would be a good summer read because the essays are short glimpses that could be read in between all the other activities one enjoys in the summer.

“They are meditative pieces that allow readers to slow down and think about the blessings, connections and graces that fill your own life,” Miller said. 

“Blessing of the Animals” is a collection of essays that were composed over the last six years, Miller said. Miller wrote the title essay, which is not only about her dog Abbe, but also about the connections she was able to experience more fully through her dog: connection to family, connection to community and connection to friends, Miller said.

In Brenda Miller’s second collection of award-winning essays, readers witness conversations of topics ranging from new dogs to old stained glass. A walk though Portland’s Japanese Garden segues to a sojourn in Jerusalem and then to model airplanes and Magic 8 Balls, according to the book’s inside flap. 

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