Shine Up Your Library Card

We invited readers to reply to Laura Bush's reading list with your own suggestions last week. Here are a few of your favorites:

"Prodigal Summer" by Barbara Kingsolver is described as wonderful and engrossing by its recommender. (If I may add to that, all of her books are great summer reads, especially "The Bean Trees" and "Pigs in Heaven.")

An apparent World War II buff recommends "A Mind in Prison: The Memoir of a Son and Soldier of the Third Reich" by Bruno Manz, "Wolfsangel : A German City on Trial 1945-48" by August J. Nigro and "In the Skies of Europe : Air Forces Allied to the Luftwaffe 1939-1945" by Hans Werner Neulen.

For politicos looking for background reading, try Jimmy Carter's childhood memoir "An Hour Before Daylight." And the love-it-or-hate-it attack on the Clinton administration's approach to China, "The China Threat: How the People's Republic Targets America" by Bill Gertz" was sent in by a reader who also recommends "Absolute Power: The Legacy of Corruption in the Clinton-Reno Justice Department" by David Limbaugh.

In fact, political books appear to be your favorite genre. Others write-ins included "The O'Reilly Factor" by Bill O'Reilly, "Barry & 'the Boys' : The CIA, the Mob and America's Secret History" by Daniel Hopsicker, "The Betrayal of America : How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose Our President" by Vincent Bugliosi and "At Any Cost : How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Election" by Bill Sammon.

For those who prefer novels, recommendations include "The Fourth Hand" by John Irving, "The Songcatcher" by Sharyn McCrumb, "Best Friends" by Martha Moody, "Never Change" by Elizabeth Berg, "Anil's Ghost" by Michael Ondaatje and both Bridget Jones books by Helen Fielding.

Finally, several readers put the Bible at the top of their summer reading list. "Psalms, Proverbs, John. There are 66 books in God's word; read these three first and then continue until you've read them all," was the recommendation of one couple.