Goodreads asked Julie Demboski:

What books are on your summer reading list this year?

Julie Demboski Good question, that elicits a confession: I am a book hoarder. And I still buy. I have had, and carried from one continent to another, books for forty years and more, my shelves are packed and books are in stacks on the floor, and many/ some are unread. I keep the ones I love, and that I will re-read at some point or loan or give to others, and give away what I've fallen out of love with. Having lots of unread books is a treat for me, because when I'm ready to start a new one, I browse and something intriguing jumps out--it's like getting a present every time, something I'd bought with anticipation and half the time have forgotten about. I even have a particular shelf where I line up the potential picks, the 'next in line' choices. So I'll be choosing from those this summer--unless I choose something else. I like to read several books at once, a biography, a non-fiction or history (I'm a fool for real-life shipwrecks and lost-at-sea stories--and in this category I include astrology and mythology/ cultural history books), and one or two works of fiction (I am especially fond of Scandinavian crime fiction, science fiction, and dip into both classic and modern literary fiction, and I love short stories, a neglected Art form, I think). What am I eyeballing for summer? Here's a short list: Neil Gaiman's 'Norse Mythology', Richard Yates' 'Disturbing the Peace', Antonia Fraser's 'Marie Antoinette', Dedman and Newell's 'Empty Mansions', Hilary Mantel's 'Bringing Up the Bodies', Tom Perotta's 'The Abstinence Teacher', Dan Simmons' 'Black Hills', Patricia Highsmith (I read everything by her I can find) 'The Glass Cell', and I may re-read Cheever's Collected Stories (a perennial favorite), as well as re-reading Sasportas and Greene's 'Dynamics of the Unconscious'. I'll read those, if I don't get distracted by something else. So what about you, kind questioner, what will you be reading?

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