On summer days in New York City, there are few things I love to see more than (1) grown men wearing suits eating ice cream cones and (2) zany locals on park benches, engrossed in their paperbacks.
Maybe it is because both images symbolize a momentary pause from the hectic street scenes of Manhattan.
Maybe it's just that ice cream eating and leisurely reading are favorite pastimes.
I'm happy to see an uptick in both activities during the season and have compiled a summer reading list to help with the latter. I'll work on getting through all the NYC ice cream trucks next.
'Eating Viet Nam: Dispatches From a Blue Plastic Table' by Graham Holliday
A lip-smacking memoir about the Brit expat's street food exploits in Vietnam — and the cult food blog that followed.
Quirky descriptions of savory bun cha, pho, and bahn mi sate the voracious reader and eater alike. It's fun, easygoing, and sure to make you want to book a trip.
'The Sunlit Night' by Rebecca Dinerstein
A novel about a place where the sun never sets — in an archipelago in the Norwegian Sea — and two characters who flee old lives for solitude only to find themselves bound together in desolation.
Quirky and dark despite the light, with vivid descriptions of the crisp air, barren landscapes, and seductive silences.
'The Fault Line: Traveling the Other Europe' by Paolo Rumiz (translation by Gregory Conti)
By: Paolo Rumiz (translation by Gregory Conti)
From the Arctic Circle to Odessa, an Italian journalist traces the path drawn by the Iron Curtain, shedding light on regions of the world that are rarely reported on.
Lush descriptions of Karelia, Estonia, and Belarus are told through conversations with Carpathian foragers and Moldovian farm women.
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