Summer Reads
Ah, summer when we supposedly have more time to read. Is that true for you Wickeds? What are you currently reading and what are you looking forward to?
Liz: I have SO MANY BOOKS to catch up on that I have no idea where to start. I’m finishing up this great find called Midnight on Beacon Street, a debut by Emily Ruth Verona that’s very suspenseful and creepy – so good. Next on the list I have an arc of Chaos at the Lazy Bones Bookshop, the first in a new series by Emmeline Duncan that I’m super excited about. And also The General’s Gold by LynDee Walker and Bruce Robert Coffin!
Julie: Liz, LynDee and Bruce’s books are on my Kindle. They are joined by Rachel Howzell Hall’s What Fire Brings, Rob Hart’s Assassins Anonymous, and Delia Pitts Trouble in Queenstown to name a few. I devour books in the summer, and can’t wait to also reread some old favorites.
Jessie: Julie, I’m intrigued by the title Assassins Anonymous! As for me, I’m currently reading Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman and Seafaring Women by David Cordingly. I also plan to reread some of the #1 Ladies Detective Agency books as a delicious summer beach read!
Edith: Ooh, I want to read Delia’s new book, too. I’m currently reading last week’s guest John Copenhaver’s Hall of Mirrors. SO good. Next up is Rob Osler’s Cirque du Slay, and then Jaqueline Winspear’s last Maisie Dobbs (sniff), The Comfort of Ghosts.
Sherry: Edith, I just picked up The Comfort of Ghosts for my mom. She’s so sad the series is ending! I just finished Fall by Tracy Clark. It’s one of those mysteries that kept me guessing. It’s him, it’s her, it can’t be that person, they are too obvious. I loved it. I started reading Broken Bayou by Jennifer Moorhead who is our guest on Thursday. It’s a June Prime Reads book. I’ve only read three chapters, but Jennifer makes you feel things! And I’m also looking forward to Trouble in Queenstown.
Barb: After I posted about the Thursday Club my mother belonged to, in the blog comments, Sherry and April recommended the book …And the Ladies of the Club by Helen Hooven Santmyer. It’s a sprawling, 1000+ page book, covering the years 1868 to 1932. It was originally published in 1982 by a small university press, when Santmyer was 87 and already living part-time in a nursing home. By complete chance the novel was discovered by an executive in the movie industry, which led to it being republished by Putnam, being a Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection, and becoming a national bestseller. Conceived as an antidote to Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street, which Santmyer thought too negative about small-town life, the book is a deeply immersive journey through a period of US history often forgotten. It is also frequently problematic and has a narrative style that is both clever and vexing. I so wished I was reading it with a book group, because I desperately wanted to discuss it with others.
What about you, readers? What are you reading and looking forward to?
