Summer Reading

OTR's summer reading ended today just three days before the end of summer--Friday, September 23--in the northern hemisphere. He hasn't shared past lists with his Internet readers, but this season's mix has been especially satisfying. Here are the titles listed in the order in which they were read:

Ronald Reagan: How An Ordinary Man Became An Extraordinary Leader, Danesh D'Souza, 1997

Berlin Stories, Christopher Isherwood, 1945

Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson, 1919


Memoirs of An Amnesiac, Oscar Levant, 1965

The Unimportance of Being Oscar, Oscar Levant, 1968

Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller, 1934

The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken, Terry Teachout, 2001

A Man in Full, Tom Wolfe, 1998

Witness, Whittaker Chambers, 1952

OTR has no intention of providing tight little reviews here. He will say that reading D'Souza's favorable portrait of Reagan helped fill some knowledge gaps incurred during his "childbearing" years. The Mencken book confirmed Terry Teachout as an outstanding writer. And reading three autobiographical novels--Isherwood, Anderson, and Miller--helped fill a long-standing literary gap. Wolfe was a most interesting read for an Atlanta resident. Chambers's "autobiography" was a difficult read for its detail, frightening revelations, and credibility, As for Oscar Levant, he remains the most under appreciated wit--perhaps entertainer--in 20th century America.