Ad

Off the Shelf: Tackling the Summer Reading Animal

By Sharon Saye on July 08, 2020 from Off the Shelf via Connect-Bridgeport.com

Summer reading is a different animal for every reader.  Some take advantage of vacation and time off from school to read classics; others just want light and fluffy books while others see this as the time to dive into a 900-page work.  Some readers plan their summer reading with lists; others have post-it notes from the previous months; some join groups while others use serendipity as their method of choice.  However, you do it, summer reading is personal; just don’t make it into a chore.
 
Here are some suggestions for summer reading.   “This Tender Land” by William Kent Krueger has received some great reviews promising it will be a classic.  It is set in the summer of 1932 in Minnesota where an orphan escapes from the Lincoln Indian Training School with three of his friends heading for the Mississippi and a home of their own.  With words like “enthralling, big-hearted epic,” this book belongs on summer reading lists.
 
“Normal People” by Sally Rooney was named one of the ten best novels of the decade by Entertainment Weekly.  It is the story of Connell and Marianne whose roles in life keep changing as they move from high school to college.  “City of Girls” by Elizabeth Gilbert follows a wealthy socialite who is sent to live with her aunt in New York City after she flunks out of Vassar.  Set during World War II, Vivian Morris gets to experience the flamboyant theater life until scandal sets her on a different path.
 
“The Bookshop of Yesterdays” by Amy Meyerson follows a young woman who inherits her uncle’s bookstore back in LA.  Determined to sell it and get back to her life in New York, Miranda soon finds the bookstore, its staff and patrons will lead her to a new path. 
 
“Inland” by Tea Obreht is a western set in 1893 in which one woman struggles to keep her land after the disappearance of her husband while an older story intersects with hers from another time.  “News of the World” by Paulette Jiles shows another side of the West in which a survivor of the Civil War makes his living reading newspapers to citizens starved for news.
 
Other books to check out as possibilities for your summer reading lists are:  “Lady in the Lake” by Laura Lippman,  “The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead, “The Great Alone” by Kristin Hannah, “The Hunting Party” by Lucy Foley, “The Ten Thousand Doors of January” by Alix E. Harrow, “Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel, “The Secrets We Kept” by Lara Prescott, “There There” by Tommy Orange, “The Most Fun We Ever Had” by Claire Lombardo, “Gods of Jade and Shadow” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, “A Bend in the Stars” by Rachel Barenbaum, and “Big Sky” from Kate Atkinson.

 


Connect Bridgeport
© 2024 Connect-Bridgeport.com