Summer reading list

Enjoying the sun at the beach?  Waiting to board your delayed flight?  Just soaking up a late afternoon, refreshed by a light breeze?  Here is a short reading list:

Non fiction

The Smartest Kids in the World: And how They Got That Way, by Amanda Ripley.  Best book on education; how three countries improved their educational system and how the US could learn from their experience.

The Euro Trap: On Bursting Bubbles, Budgets, and Beliefs, by Hans-Werner Sinn.  A prominent German economist looks at the history of the Euro, what went wrong and what could make it right.  Very well researched yet easy to read.

Beyond Words: What Animals Feel and Think, by Carl Safina.  Do animals feel, communicate, and even think?  A leading scientist in his field addresses questions we all have asked ourselves.  Fascinating.

The Accidental President, by Fernando Henrique Cardoso.  The autobiography of the most successful Brazilian president in decades.  Modest, humorous yet very informative.  Perhaps the best introduction to Brazil, its political history and challenges.

Fiction

The Laughing Policeman, by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö.  Best procedural crime novel by the famed 1970s husband and wife team.  Sweden has changed since then, but the story hasn’t aged.  The Fire Engine That Disappeared and Roseanna are very good too.

Black Run: A Novel, by Antonio Manzini.  For those who are tired of neurasthenic Scandinavian detectives.  Deputy Police Chief Rocco Schiavone, originally from Rome and now transferred to Aosta, is very different.  Original and funny.

Epistolario de Un Joven Pobre, by Klim (aka Lucas Caballero Calderon).  For years, Klim delighted readers with his column in El Espectador in Colombia.  Switzerland was never funnier.  Peerless, in a league of his own.  Read Memorias de un Amnésico too, as both volumes are very thin.

Sexe, drogue et natation: Un nageur brise l’omerta, by Amaury Leveaux.  A short autobiography by one of the best French swimmers.  Sincere even when not always truthful, interesting and entertaining.  For swimming fanatics.