Summer is finally here, just when
most of us had lost hope that the long months of winter, followed by a very
inclement spring would ever loosen its hold. We in the Northwest are blest with
long hours of daylight and the beauties of nature around us, so our natural
inclination is to spend as much of summer outdoors as we can. Unfortunately, we
still get rainy days so I love spending some of those precious hours reading,
especially the types of books that I normally wouldn’t choose throughout the
rest of the year. Whether its finding time for that classic that I always meant
to read, diving into a new genre, or grabbing something that’s non-fiction and
topical in an area that I’m unfamiliar with; summer is the time to experiment.
Suggestions on what to read are everywhere, from Oprah to Entertainment Weekly,
everyone has a list of “must-reads” for the summer season, and so I’ve
collected some of the most popular works most anticipated by the patrons at
TBPL as a starting point. If you’re curious, I’ll be spending most of the
summer reading George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, on which
the television series “The Game of Thrones” is based. It’s the first real
fantasy series that I’ve read in about 15 years.
One plus One by Jojo Moyes
This is the first book by Moyes
since her heartbreaking novel, “Me before You”. This time the story focuses on
a crazy road trip by single mother, Jess and her two children on the way to
Scotland to compete in a math Olympiad. Her daughter, Tanzie is a math whiz and
Jess needs the money to afford her school fees. Unfortunately for Jess, (and
fortunately, for the reader), their car breaks down so they are forced to take
a ride with a stranger and the fun begins.
Bittersweet by Miranda
Beverly-Whittmore
This is one of the most talked
about thrillers of the summer. When unlovely and unpopular Mabel is invited to
the summer home of her upper-class college roommate Ev’s summer home in
Vermont, she gets a look at the life of the superrich and the danger and dirty
secrets that accompany money and power.
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
In her guise as Galbraith, famous
children’s author J.K. Rowling is back with another of her Cormoran Strike
mysteries. This time Strike is faced with solving the mutilation murder of a
third rate novelist and the suspects are from the publishing world. Rowling
combines in her mysteries a classic sense of sleuthing and the sensibilities of
the modern world.
Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
What is summer without a book by
Stephen King? In a departure from the horror genre, King gives us a fast paced
psychological thriller about a retired police detective named Bill Hodge and
his attempt to catch a killer who ran down 23 people in a stolen Mercedes. The
killer has sent him a taunting letter that threatens the death of thousands if
Hodge doesn’t catch him in time.
Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid
The classic novels of Jane Austen
are updated for the modern world by a group of famous British authors. This is
the second in the series, following Joanna Trollop’s take on “Sense and
Sensibility”. Crime novelist McDermid approaches the darker elements of
“Northanger Abbey”, that were only touched on by Austen, as she translates the
story to modern day Scotland.
All the Light We Cannot See by
Anthony Doerr
An instant bestseller on both the
popular and literary charts, this historical novel is the story of a blind
French girl and a German boy in Occupied France whose lives intersect as they
try to survive the horrors of the Second World War.
Lori Kauzlarick
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