Life > April 27, 2006

By Meg Smith

Staff writer

Since you may soon have a chance to read something unassigned for once, a list of summer reading suggestions seems timely.

The following books are contemporary, popular novels. You’ve most likely heard about most of them.

A friend told me while I was compiling this that most of my choices sounded “girly,” so I wanted to include a disclaimer. I truly believe these books are for both genders, so don’t be deceived by the titles or subject matter.

They’re all intelligent, well-written, and by-and-large, wickedly sardonic books that make great beach reads.

1) A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

In voice both ironic and achingly sincere, Eggers tells of his life as the 21-year-old guardian of his young brother after the deaths of both of his parents from unrelated cancers.

Eggers is a wonderfully funny story-teller. In one section, he tells of the routine he and his brother enact for the benefit of the neighbors involving Dave snapping a belt and Toph screaming wildly as if being beaten.

Eggers plays with a series of fresh literary devices that further the postmodern tradition of self-conscious experimentalism.

This thoroughly modern, loose autobiography actually lives up to its self-deprecatingly grandiose title.

2) The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

On a recent trip to Manhattan, my friend and I played a game inspired by The Nanny Diaries.

We ever-so-inventively called our game, which consists of counting the nannies spotted on the streets of the Upper East Side, “Nanny Count.” Our final count after one hour: 24.

Written by former nannies, The Nanny Diaries is a bitingly satirical look into the surreal world of the incredibly wealthy, who treat their children as simply another accessory that completes their perfect, prestigous image.

The Nanny Diaries is narrated by Nanny, a senior NYU student, who cares for the ignored four-year old son of the Upper East Side X family.

While she raises Grayer, Mr. X adds to the family fortune and pursues affairs, while Mrs. X chooses to occupy her days with manicures and vapidity.

McLaughlin and Kraus’s novel forces its reader to examine the vacuity within the pinnacle of the modern American Dream. It is a novel both uproariously funny and tragic.

3) Enchantment by Orson Scott Card

This is a clever re-imagining of the Sleeping Beauty story