I have been remiss in writing a summer reading post this
year. My intentions were good, as usual,
but the last few hot days have served as a reminder that I can’t ignore. I always start with a summer/beach trilogy
and Mary Alice Monroe’s Low Country Summer Trilogy is just right. When
the first book, Summer Girls, ended with a cliff-hanger, I was
anxious to see how the second book, Summer
Wind, would start. Well, it started
the next day. No flashbacks or
explanations, the action picked up right where it ended. The last book, Summer’s End, ties up the loose ends and almost everyone lives
happily ever after.
Next, several staff members were excited about Cynthia Swanson’s The Bookseller. I was a little reluctant after Gabrielle Zevin’s The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry and
Sarah Jio’s Goodnight June. Really, how many good books can you expect
about bookstores? The Bookseller surpassed my expectations
and returned me to an earlier time in the 1960s.
To turn the clock back one more decade, Judy Blume’s In the Unlikely Event takes us back to the early 1950s in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Three plane crashes and many deaths brought the city to a standstill. You couldn’t live in Elizabeth without knowing someone who had suffered a loss or been somehow impacted by the tragic accidents. Newark Airport was closed during the investigations. In the Unlikely Event offers a precisely cut slice of life in 1950s Elizabeth in the same way that Blume’s Wifey offered a slice of Plainfield in the 1970s.
To turn the clock back one more decade, Judy Blume’s In the Unlikely Event takes us back to the early 1950s in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Three plane crashes and many deaths brought the city to a standstill. You couldn’t live in Elizabeth without knowing someone who had suffered a loss or been somehow impacted by the tragic accidents. Newark Airport was closed during the investigations. In the Unlikely Event offers a precisely cut slice of life in 1950s Elizabeth in the same way that Blume’s Wifey offered a slice of Plainfield in the 1970s.
Many people know that TheGuernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society is one of my favorite books. I found
it so charming that I couldn’t decide if
I had high expectations or no expectations for The Truth According to Usby Annie Barrows, co-author of TGL&PPS.
Once again I was speeding back in American history and, this time, I
landed in the late 1930s. The characters
are as quirky as the small town is pretentious. The federal government is busy
employing people through the WPA (Works Progress Administration) to move the
economy forward at the same time a local factory is squashing any attempts to
unionize. I enjoyed the fictionalized
history lesson; I enjoyed the main characters; I laughed when appropriate; I
pondered the mysterious fire at the factory; I enjoyed the parts of the story
told by letters to people we never met; and, I sympathized with any and all
affairs of the heart. However, I was
more confused than charmed by the story as a whole. Although my praise is so faint it may
disappear from the screen, I am glad I
finished the book.
Although I never want summer to end, I am looking forward to
The Girl in the Spider Web (David
Lagercrantz continuing for Stieg Larsson) and The Secret Chord (Geraldine Brooks). Fall always brings books to
remind us that lazy reading is over and it’s time to get serious again.
- S. Bakos
