Summer Reads

Reprinted from auburnpub.com :

With Memorial Day in the rearview mirror, it’s time to turn our attention to summer reading season. There are so many books in so many different genres, what should we read?

For traditional beach reading, while fans of the Amazon show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel are patiently awaiting the next season, Elyssa Friedland’s novel, The Last Summer at the Golden Hotel with its Catskill vacation hotel setting and family dynamics will fit the bill. 

In Mary Kay Andrews’ The Newcomer, a woman flees to a small beach town motel in Florida with her young niece after her sister is murdered. The retirees and snowbirds of the small town are suspicious of them, and a handsome cop becomes a romantic entanglement. (The hotel/motel setting is popular this season). 

Taylor Jenkins Reid, who scored big with Daisy Jones and the Six two years ago, is back with Malibu Rising, another rock’n’roll affiliation. The four adult children of famous rocker Mick Riva are throwing their annual summer blowout at their Malibu mansion. Everyone wants to be there, and the craziness that begins ends with the home burned down by morning.

The Queen of Beach Reads, Elin Hilderbrand, has Golden Girl as her annual entry. When a popular female novelist is killed in a hit and run accident while jogging, she ends up in the Beyond, where her guide allows her to follow her family for one last summer, and give her three adult children each one “nudge” to guide their behavior. 

If mysteries and thrillers are more to your taste, Laura Lippman channels Stephen King and the #MeToo movement in Dream Girl, as a famous novelist, laid up in his apartment after an injury, receives disturbing phone calls from a woman claiming to be the protagonist in one of his novels. No one believes him. Is he losing his mind or is he in trouble?

Fans of John Grisham’s legal thrillers will like Stacey Abrams’ While Justice Sleeps. When a Supreme Court justice mysteriously slips into a coma, his law clerk discovers that she has been named his legal guardian. She uncovers that he has been researching a controversial case before the Court, and now she is the middle of danger. 

Good historical fiction abounds this summer. Alka Joshi’s The Secret Keeper of Jaipur follows the characters from her brilliant 1950’s India-set novel, The Henna Artist as they move into the 1960s and try to find their way in the changing world. 

Chris Bohjalian goes back to 1662 Boston in Hour of the Witch.  Mary fears for her life after her husband’s violence towards her escalates. When a young boy she treated with herbs dies, Mary is accused of being a witch, and must fight for her life. It’s The Crucible meets The Handmaid’s Tale.

Beatriz Williams takes on Cold War spy novels in Our Woman in Moscow. In 1952, Ruth McCallister receives a postcard from her twin sister Iris who disappeared with her husband and young children four years ago after Iris’ husband defected to Russia when he was uncovered as a spy. FBI agent Sumner Fox convinces Ruth to travel to Moscow to help extract her sister. It’s a tension-filled narrative with twists and turns that will keep your turning the pages.

Nonfiction fans have many choices as well. Continuing with the Cold War, Anne Sebba’s Ethel Rosenberg- An American Tragedy  takes a fresh look at life and the case against the wife and mother who was executed with her husband in 1953 accused of for spying for Russia. 

Ashley C. Ford’s memoir, Somebody’s Daughter shares her story about growing up as a young black girl in Indiana. She had a troubled relationship with her mother, and her father was imprisoned for reasons no one would tell her. Brene Brown, Glennon Doyle, and Oprah have praised this powerful memoir. 

There are a few suggestions for Father’s Day gifts as well. Popular business/current events writer Michael Lewis’ The Premonition tackles the COVID crisis through people who saw it coming when the CDC didn’t and tried to warn others. 

Sy Montgomery’s The Hummingbirds' Gift takes a deep dive into the world of that beautiful bird, perfect for the nature-loving dad. 

Tom Coyne takes readers on a trip across the country to the best golf courses in A Course Called America. If your Dad spends his weekends hitting the links, he’ll love this one. 

Happy summer reading to everyone!

Friday 5ive- May 28, 2021

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention during the week. The Friday 5ive took a few weeks off because we finally made a trip to our home in Florida after 15 months.

1) Every time I see the calming blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico, I feel so peaceful. It was great to walk along the beach every morning, feel the warm water and sand between my toes. 

2) We had lunch with friends at Columbia restaurant, where our server was an amusing gentleman named Norbert, who put on quite a show as he prepared our sangria and Columbia 1905 salads tableside. 

3) I made a new recipe this week- Joy Bauer's made a healthier Egg Roll Bowl on the Today Show. It was delicious, made with ground turkey, cabbage, chopped mushrooms, and soy sauce, rice vinegar and a homemade duck sauce. We loved it and it moves into regular dinner rotation. 

4) I finished another virtual bike race- 750 miles from Boston to Bar Harbor. The t-shirt for this one is so soft, I think it will be a favorite for awhile. 

5)  I finished nine books in the two weeks we were away and there were a few standouts.

Chris Whitaker's novel We Begin At The End had me gasping out loud at a few points. Walk is the chief of police of a small tourist town. When he was a teenager, he testified against his best friend Vince in the hit and run case where a young girl was killed. Thirty years later, Vince is released from prison. Star, the sister of the young girl killed, was Vince's girlfriend. She now has a teenage daughter, Duchess Day Radley, who fancies herself an outlaw, and cares for her younger brother Robin, and Star, who is an alcoholic and can't hold a steady job. All these lives collide in ways that bring more misery to everyone. It's a remarkable story about the family you're born with and the one you create. It's a powerfully emotional novel. 

Beatriz Williams' spy novel, Our Woman in Moscow, takes place at the beginning of the Cold War. Iris Digby's husband is accused of being a Russian spy, and her family defects to Moscow. When she sends her estranged twin sister Ruth a postcard asking her to come to Moscow to help her when she gives birth to her fourth child, FBI agent Sumner Fox convinces Ruth to help him extract Iris from Russia. It's a real page turner, with twists and turns you don't expect.  

I hope you all have an enjoyable and safe Memorial Day weekend.