The TLTO Summer Reading Challenge
Katherine Makes You Read Her Favorite Books This Summer
Hi Bestie!!
No preamble necessary: it’s summer, and several mental rambles have led to creating the first Too Loud and Too Old Summer Reading Challenge. An unrelated trivia round inspired me in May; two answers were Anne of Green Gables and The Golden Compass.
The steez of these reads is that everything and nothing happens, save for the authors, where it’s a choose-your-own-adventure of high-brow literature.
You don’t have to read any of these books. You don’t have to read any books at all! I am constantly putting books on hold and not reading them. (We’ve talked about this!) If you’d like to play your Nintendo at the end of the day or watch Girls Next Door while drinking a Sprite, that’s fine! The world we live in is already so hard.
The books are:
All of A Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
Sequels are optional but strongly encouragedAnne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Anne of Avonlea is optional but strongly encouragedPride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick (NOT by Wonder R. J. Palacio)
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand
Audio format preferredAny title of your choosing by Alice Munro, Jesmyn Ward, and Louise Erdrich
I have a separate reading list I made while putting this together – including Camera Man by Dana Stevens, which is about Buster Keaton. I added Striped Ice Cream by Joan Lexau. It doesn’t fit the theme; it’s about a little girl who knows her family is too poor to buy her birthday presents. Please pass me a handkerchief. I might have added it anyway, but the Brooklyn Public Library does not own it (though Princeton and a New Jersey branch do). If you want to borrow it, my mom found a copy from Thrift Books before I could and sent it to me. For that same reason (and because a lot happens, “the underlying themes are death and adultry”) I didn’t add Back Street by Fannie Hurst (which I also own). We’ll revisit Back Street, soon.
This led to further curiosity and I texted you while walking around my neighborhood looking for strawberries (highway robbery!) and plants. Have I read your favorite books? Do I know what they are?
They are:
The Farthest-Away Mountain by Lynne Reid Banks
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Wool by Hugh Howey (nb: defined as “the book I think about the most” which is an important distinction)
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
Nightwood by Djuna Barnes
Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan
We Were Soldiers Once…and Young by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and war journalist Joseph L. Galloway
Matilda by Roald Dahl
I asked five besties who aren’t subscribers. Their answers were Lirael by Garth Nix and The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, “mostly mystery fiction,” Coraline by Neil Gaiman and I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane, Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae, and Harry Potter. We’re not reading Joanne this summer!
If none of this works for you – but you thirst for inspiration, I have piles of lists:
Vulture picked 22 books it can’t wait to read this summer. I’ve put a few on hold. Which of these will be this summer’s The Guest (Emma Cline writes my favorite summer reads)?
Brooklyn Public Library published lists for K-12 and adults. (Do not miss out on the Culture Pass!!)
NYPL has a whole ass program for kids, teens, babies, and adults. It includes a reading adventure with prizes for adults.
The Los Angeles Public Library (the best system in the country, I said what I said!!) is prepared for summer, too. Their program begins June 10. Last year there was a special tote bag.
Frederick County Public Schools published its list. The libraries have their reading challenge prepared, too, with lists for all ages. (The lists for 2021, 2022, and 2023 are available, too!)
Per the ALA, summer reading lists go back as far as 1890: “Summer reading programs began in the 1890s as a way to encourage school children, particularly those in urban areas and not needed for farm work, to read during their summer vacation, use the library and develop the habit of reading.”
If you want to treat yourself to the cinematic adaptations, may I recommend the BBC miniseries of Pride and Prejudice over the 2005 adaptation? May I recommend the BBC miniseries of His Dark Materials over the Nicole Kidman film (it’s notoriously awful)? May I suggest someone adapt All of A Kind Family the way Alfonso Cuarón directed 1995’s A Little Princess? Any Anne adaptation is fine (Anne with An E on Netflix is beloved), though I prefer the 1985 films and miniseries, and I cannot see Anne reuniting with Gilbert after the war without ugly crying. Wonderstruck was adapted in 2017 by Todd Haynes; he did a wonderful job and you can see my block in the flashbacks. It’s a crime the film didn’t reach a larger audience. We will not be watching Mel Gibson’s We Were Soldiers.
If it hasn’t been discussed, it shouldn’t surprise you that I love Buster Keaton. Was he a great man? Not really! I prefer him to Charlie Chaplin. (Odd because City Lights is a favorite film!)
Always your friend,
Katherine
Sources (MLA 9)
Join NYPL and the National Book Foundation’s summer reading adventure for a chance to win prizes! The New York Public Library. (n.d.). https://www.nypl.org/blog/2024/05/29/national-book-foundation-summer-reading-adventure
Libguides: Summer reading programs: Home. Summer Reading Programs - LibGuides at American Library Association. (n.d.). https://libguides.ala.org/summer-reading
Los Angeles Public Library. Summer With the Library. (n.d.). https://www.lapl.org/summer
McElroy, I., Alpern, E., Vojdani, J., Squires, B., Gould, E., Chaney, J., Sanchez, B., Stanton, C., Coleman, M. L., VanArendonk, K., Wright, T., & Praturu, A. (2024, May 22). 22 books we can’t wait to read this summer. Vulture. https://www.vulture.com/article/new-books-releases-what-to-read.html
Prince, A. J., Bernstrom, D., Hoang, Z. G., OHora, Z., Maclear, K., Thong, R., Lobel, A., French, V., Hansson, J., Reed, D., Adams, J., Cousins, L., Rodru00edguez, P., Savage, S., Sze, G., Fishman, C. G., Green, H., Marley, C., Ware, K., … Ortega, C. A. (n.d.). Summer at the library. Brooklyn Public Library. https://www.bklynlibrary.org/summer-reading
Reading recommendations. Frederick County Public Libraries. (2024, May 24). https://www.fcpl.org/programs-events/summer-reading/summer-reading-booklists