Feed your head

It's summer: You're sitting on the porch, ankles crossed on the railing. You're swaying under shade in a hammock. You're splayed out on the beach, propped on your elbows, toes in the sand. You're in bed. You're at the bar. Maybe you're even at work. In any event, your nose is in a book. But what book? It's a tough call. We asked some Detroit lit-lovers what they were reading or what they'd recommend.

I'm going to be reading two books: The first is The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak, a coming-of-age novel centered around World War I that got some really nice reviews from the L.A. Times and the Christian Science Monitor. I'm also going to read Adam Hochschild's To End All Wars as a nonfiction counterpoint on the same subject, because Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost is one of the best histories I've ever read. So, if you're around me this summer, prepare to hear a lot of poetic anecdotes about Passchendaele and Verdun. Oh, yeah, I'm gonna be fun! —Toby Barlow, co-president and executive creative director of JWT Team Detroit and author of Sharp Teeth.

I am staking out the summer for a long-delayed reckoning. After falling in love with the lessons afforded by failure, I have returned to a book that transmutes despair into longing, The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos by Anne Carson. Appropriately, I am reading an uncorrected proof. Turn out the lights. —Leon Johnson, professor and chair of fine arts, College for Creative Studies

Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks is an all-time favorite summer read. The story, told in first person, follows a 14-year-old high school dropout and misfit named Chappie. Through a series of events, he is led away from his home in the Adirondacks, reinvents himself as "Bone," and meets his destiny in another country. It's a brilliant, modern Huck Finn. Read this book if you want to find the next best thing to Catcher in the Rye. —Torya Blanchard, restaurateur (Good Girls Go To Paris, Rodin, Ootie's) and host of Tonight at the CAID.

I'm super-excited about Amy Martin's new children's book, Symphony City, published by McSweeney's. We're planning a book-signing at Bureau of Urban Living when she returns home in July. Amy is such a talented illustrator, I can't wait to see it. It's about a young girl lost in a big city who makes her way home by following the rich and vibrant music of the streets. An exciting adventure for children and parents who love music, art and big imaginations. I'm also rereading The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs and The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald C. Shoup, both super-relevant for some projects I'm working on in Detroit right now. And, for fun, I'll check out Tina Fey's Bossypants. —Claire Nelson, Bureau of Urban Living, Open City

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