So...welcome Summer. It has been crazy hot, steamy, humid and peppered with wicked thunderstorms. It's the kind of weather where you either want to stay inside with a tall drink and lots of air conditioning or be laying on the beach with the breeze blowing and the water just steps away. Both require books.
I want to put a few items on a recommended reading list.
First, check out Elin Hilderbrand's books. I liked "Barefoot" but there are a number of summer and island life books including one just released. She also wrote a nice article about how to survive summer! Take a look at this... http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/ElinHilderbrandArticle.aspx.
Mark Childress also has a new book..."Georgia Bottoms." Check out his page http://www.crazyinalabama.com including an essay for Kindle called Looking for Harper Lee.
Joshilyn Jackson has many books that I have enjoyed and one new one, "A Grown Up Kind of Pretty," which I am planning to read. I loved her first one, "Gods In Alabama" and chose it as a selection for my book club, back when NPR picked it as their fav summer read (that was several years ago now.) I sent an email before our book club meeting and she was kind enough to write back. She also has a blog and the name is great but even that isn't the best part! Read her blog Faster Than Kudzu at http://www.joshilynjackson.com/ftk.
A writer that I have had on my list for a while is J. Courtney Sullivan. I'm wanting to read "Maine" although I am interested in "Commencement" as well. Check out this New York Times piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/books/review/book-review-maine-by-j-courtney-sullivan.html?pagewanted=all.
How excited am I that Claire Cook ("Must Love Dogs") has a new book! It's called "Wallflower in Bloom." She has a couple beach novels to keep with the theme--"Life's A Beach" and "Summer Blowout" -- which I have enjoyed. She has an informative web page and a blog too http://clairecook.com/author/blog/blog.html.
Richard Russo writes about Maine. I loved his Pulitzer prize winning book "Empire Falls" but only got about halfway through the next one. He has a great list to choose from and wrote a nice article about small towns: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14806290. Find his other books here: http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/authors/russo.
Finally, NPR always writes a summer list. Here is a nice list with a few other recommendations from Indie bookstore owners: http://www.npr.org/2012/05/25/152681721/15-summer-reads-handpicked-by-indie-booksellers. There is one on the list called "Glaciers" that I think would be great (http://www.npr.org/books/titles/153598556/glaciers). Isabel is a collector of vintage items looking through items in a library basement and thinking about the melting glaciers in Alaska, where she grew up.
Enjoy!
