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Goodreads asked Nathan Swain:

What books are on your summer reading list this year?

Nathan Swain Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David Blight. I've started this incredible book. It deserves my time and attention, so I am reading in fits and starts. Each chapter is a window into a fascinating, sometimes disturbing and familiar time and place. Each chapter is immensely thought provoking, drawing on Douglass' life as it was lived and as he himself portrayed it, sometimes differently over time.

Smiley's People by John le Carre. As the title makes clear, this is another of le Carre's novels centered on British spy George Smiley. Le Carre delivers intricate plots and classic thriller pacing, but his writing is sui generis - hard to pin down, quirky, intelligent, always holding something back.

Pagan Regeneration by Harold Willoughby. This is an academic work written about a century ago I believe. This is research for my next Will Eastgate novel. It focuses on the pagan religious practices of the Mediterranean world primarily before the dawn of Christianity. The book can be difficult to penetrate, clouded with academic-speak and archaic writing conventions of the early 20th century. But the information is very interesting.

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