Put down the BlackBerry and slowly back away. Summer is that time of year when the onslaught of tweets and emails diminishes, allowing our battered attention spans to stretch across pages and pages of good writing.
To help you choose your summer reads, we've compiled a handy list of highly recommended books this season -- all of which you can even read on an electronic device, if you insist. And for those executive types who can’t justify spending the dog days dog-earring pages, we've included some books about high-powered people just like you -- as well as a few titles you might want to option.
"The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of 'Little House on the Prairie'"
By Wendy McClure
Wendy McClure's very funny examination of "Little House on the Prairie" finds the author rekindling her childhood love of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books and traveling to their midwestern settings to see the land where the homesteader family struggled to survive.
McClure, a children's book editor and memoirist, churns her own butter, considers whether the TV show based on the books is tribute or sacrilege, and explores the reasons for her own devoted fandom.
Think of it as a prairie home companion to "Julie & Julia."
"Three Chords for Beauty’s Sake: The Life of Artie Shaw"
By Tom Nolan
Other than Keaton vs. Chaplin, the biggest show-business rivalry of the 1930s and '40s concerned a couple of clarinetists: Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw.
Nolan's fascinating book looks at the entire Big Band era, as well as Shaw's complicated romantic entanglements. (His eight wives included Ava Gardner, Lana Turner and Evelyn Keyes, and he spurned a young Judy Garland.)
In his late 40s, as Sinatra and other singers eclipsed the Big Bands, the cantankerous Shaw got disgusted with his genius going unrecognized and turned to writing novels (sometimes under other names), going on talk shows and producing movies.
"Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN"
By James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales
The authors of "Live From New York," the essential "Saturday Night Live" oral history, return to the format for surprisingly revealing interviews with the people who made ESPN one of the most successful networks in cable.
The book offers up anecdotes about Keith Olbermann's squabble-filled tenure with the network. But it's the unexpected detours, such as a look inside the Getty family (Getty Oil was a crucial early investor), that ensure there's something here even for people who don't know a hat trick from a ground-rule double.
The book also offers a fascinating look at the early days of cable -- and there's some sports, too.
