We’re heading into summer reading season and there are some wonderful books waiting to be added to beach bags.
Amy Poeppel writes delightful novels that make me laugh, filled with characters I wish were my friends. Her latest, Far and Away takes readers to Dallas and Berlin as two families swap homes for a summer.
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Lucy is preparing a big celebration for her son Jack’s high school graduation in Dallas when she receives a call from his principal asking her to come in for a meeting-now.
Jack is accused of doing something ‘sexist’, something that is out of character for her nerdy hardworking son. The whole situation spins out of control and Jack will not be participating in graduation ceremonies, and his college acceptance may be rescinded.
After the family is ostracized and their house egged, Lucy decides to take her children to Europe for the summer to let things die down. She goes online and finds someone in Berlin who is looking for a house Dallas for the summer. Perfect- a house swap solves the problem.
In Berlin, Greta is celebrating a big win- she purchased a Vermeer at auction for a client and everyone is talking about it. When her husband Otto comes home and tells her he took a job in Dallas for the summer, Greta is concerned her career achievement is in jeopardy.
Lucy enjoys showing her kids the Berlin she loved spending time in years ago, and while Greta is having a more difficult adjustment in Dallas her husband Otto is thriving.
Once again, Poeppel creates characters that are so fully developed from Lucy and Greta to Lucy’s neighboring in-laws, Otto, and Greta’s American neighbor who befriends Lucy. You feel like you know them well.
Any mom of teens will relate to Lucy as she tries to navigate Jack’s predicament in this atmosphere of piling on before getting the whole story.
And only Amy Poeppel can connect a possible fake Vermeer painting, a missing husband participating in a Mars biosphere experiment (or is he in jail?), and a complicated math formula and make it work so brilliantly. Take a trip to Dallas and Berlin this summer in one funny and sweet story in Far and Away, you’ll love it as much as I did.
Grab your beach towel and sunscreen as author Jane L. Rosen takes readers back to Fire Island in her third novel in the series Songs of Summer.
When record store owner Maggie May leaves her Ohio home in search of her birth mother on Fire Island, she may end up with more than she bargained for.
She discovers that her birth mother is attending a wedding on Fire Island, but when she finds the woman, her mother is the middle of a very public screaming match with the sister she hasn’t spoken to in years.
Before Maggie decides whether she wants to be a part of this family, she is befriended by a handsome man which leads her to question her own relationship with her childhood sweetheart.
I loved the first two books in the series, On Fire Island and “Seven Summer Weekends” and was so happy to reunite with many of the characters from these two books, including my favorite Shep, an elderly widower. Nobody writes older gentlemen better than Jane L. Rosen.
You don’t need to have read the first two books to enjoy Songs of Summer, but you will appreciate it more if you have. It's filled with humor and heart and I highly recommend all three.
You may recognize Vicky Nguyen from her work as a correspondent on the Today Show. She tells her story as a Vietnamese immigrant in her fascinating memoir Boat Baby.
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Vicky’s parents were fearful for their lives following the end of the war in Vietnam. They escaped on a boat to Malaysia and, after finding an American family willing to sponsor them, they settled in Oregon.
Her parents worked hard to build a good life for their only daughter and Vicky wanted to be a typical American teenager. But she still had to face prejudice from her peers. It's an eye-opening look at the immigrant experience.
Vicky became interested in a career in television journalism in college. She worked long hours and moved from station to station to advance her career. She married her high school sweetheart and they faced challenges as they tried to start a family.
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