Lives Unlike Our Own

When vacation just isn't an option, I often like to get away with a book that takes me somewhere exotic, and walk in someone else's shoes for a little while. I've found memoirs an excellent way to do this, and I wanted to highlight a few that might have slid by your radar.

Elif Batuman is a regular New Yorker contributer, and once upon a time also studied Russian literature at Stanford. The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them is a fun collection of essays recounting her experiences as a grad student. She takes us from Stanford to Tolstoy's estate in Russia all the way to Uzbekistan. This humorous take on a life with books is a delight for anyone who survived grad school or has a soft spot for Russian literature.

In the mood for something less light-hearted? Try Alexandra Fuller's stunning Scribbling the Cat. Fuller grew up in what was Rhodesia, and then Zambia. Though living in the US, married, with two small children, she returns to her parents' home in Zambia. There she meets this man, who she calls K, a veteran of the wars in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and Mozambique. She hatches a plan that they will travel back into Zimbabwe and Mozambique, that through this he may exorcise the past, and she will understand it, understand this war that was the backdrop for her childhood. The result is an intense look at the scars of war, and of a section of the world that all too often flies below our radar.

It's not quite the same as getting on a plane yourself, but a great way to take yourself away for a few hours at a time.

A little bit of fun

Summer months often bring about a desire to read something a little more light and fun than the more serious books we read the rest of the year. It doesn't always work this way - last year I tackled War and Peace. But this year, I just want shorter, cheerier novels. And the people I have been talking to seem to feel the same.

I've found myself drawn to books both new and old about groups of girlfriends. In Kim Gruenenfelder's latest, There's Cake in My Future, Nicole attempts to shape the destiny of her friends through a cake pull during her bridal shower. Each attendee will get a charm, which holds the key to their fate. And Nic has all the seating figured out, so that each friend will receive the appropriate extra help in love, family, or career. But when things get twisted around, Nic and her friends are forced to wonder what fate really has in store for them.

Another fun group of ladies are "las sucias," the college friends who reconvene twice a year in Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez's The Dirty Girls Social Club. Chapters alternate among the six friends, each of whom is dealing with crises of love, family, and career. (Notice a theme?) They complicate stereotypes about what it means to be a Latina in America, and even what it means to be a good friend. But when the chips are down, they are there for one another.

Spend some time with your friends this summer, but when you can't be with them in person, check out some of these other friends.