Summer Book List 2009

Eva Ibbotson has recently gained recognition for her light-hearted fantasy fiction for grade school children but she started out writing romantic novels for adults.  A favorite of this genre is A Song for Summer.  Set in Austria just before the start of World War II, Ellen is a housekeeper at an eccentric boarding school.  The summer that she falls in love with Marek (the mysterious groundskeeper at the school) seems enchanted—just like the natural enchantment that summer brings to the Alps.

Another author known more for her novels for young people, Judy Blume has written a fast paced story of family and friendship in The Summer Sisters.  The novel features the six summers that wild, wealthy Caitlin and quiet, dull Victoria spend together on Martha’s Vineyard from the time they are in middle school through college.  As breezy as a summer day, this is a perfect beach read.

One teenager’s summer on Long Island is the focus of Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead. Benji and his family are middle class African American New Yorkers who spend every summer at their beach house in Sag Harbor.  The author admits that this book blurs the line between fiction and memoir as he himself was just such a teenager in 1985 when the book is set.  Any reader can relate to the teenage escapades and emotional dramas of this humorous and thought provoking book while also appreciating the glimpse it provides of this particular community.

A sun drenched summer in Tuscany with a group of eccentrics awaits the reader of Love Falls by Esther Freud. Seventeen-year-old Lara accompanies the father she rarely sees to visit an old friend with an Italian villa.  A neighboring villa houses a disgraced British aristocrat and his family. Lara is immediately attracted to the handsome Kip but is charmed by the whole family.  This coming-of-age novel is not always happy and light but it is fascinating and intelligent.

An old woman and her six-year-old granddaughter spend the summer together on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland in The Summer Book by Tove Jansson.  Sometimes cranky, grandmother is also wise; sometimes impetuous, young Sophia is also attentive to her grandparent’s needs.  Together they explore this small, complete world as they discuss the important things in their life: family, love and the nature that surrounds them.

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Stephen King Suggests 7 for Summer

Perennially popular author Stephen King, writing on Entertainment Weekly’s website, offers seven fiction titles to try this summer.  All are owned by Spokane Public Library and range from contemporary to classic.  As could be expected from this master of suspense, they are mostly mystery or adventure titles.  Click on the titles below to find out if a copy is available today or could be reserved.

Shatter by Michael Robotham–”an exceptional suspense novel”

Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson –”told with a sense of humor. Very cool.”

Tourist by Olen Steinhauer –”best spy novel…not written by John Le Carre.”

Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens –”his most sentimental, absorbing, delightful novel.”

Drood by Dan Simmons –”a masterwork of narrative suspense.”

Dog On It by Spencer Quin  –”a new genre–call it canine noir.”

Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult –”a medical/legal thriller” that ” never descends into soap opera.”

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Recent Award Winners

The American Booksellers Association recently announced the winners of the inaugural Indies Choice Book Awards. An expanded version of the ABA’s Book Sense Book of the Year Award, the winners this year include Sherman Alexie who was chosen as Most Engaging Author.

The Best Indie Buzz Book for fiction went to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Written as a series of letters, this historical novel is both humorous and poignant as it tells a story of the German occupation of one of the Channel Islands during World War II.

Chosen as Best Conversation Starter was the non-fiction book about the Puritans, The Wordy Shipmates, by Sarah Vowell.

Mystery lovers will welcome the recent announcements of both the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar awards and the Malice Domestic winners for books published in 2008.

The Edgar for best novel went to Blue Heaven by C. J. Box, described as an adrenaline producing adventure featuring two children on the run in the woods of North Idaho.

The Agatha goes each year to a traditional, or ‘cozy’ mystery and is this year awarded to The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny. When a seance in a small village in Quebec turns deadly, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is called to investigate.

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Novels from Indian Authors

Q and A by Vikas Swarup, the book upon which the Academy Award winning film, “Slumdog Millionaire” was based, has a short waiting list. Here are half a dozen more novels by Indian writers that you might want to try.

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth is a sprawling multi-generational story about a Hindu family in 1950 India trying to find a suitable husband for their daughter.

The language in The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy is as lush as the landscape of Kerala, the southernmost state in India, in which this family drama takes place.

Written in the mid-fifties, Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya is a poignant portrait of a peasant woman finding solace and joy amidst the tragedies and disappointments of her life.

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, set in the heyday of the British Raj, tells the amazing life stories of half a dozen or so people whose destinies come together on a ship bound for the Seychelle Islands.

Oprah picked A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry for her book club.  Set in 1975 in a city by the sea, it is the story of four strangers who are forced to live together in a small apartment during the nerve-wracking time of a national emergency.

In Padma Viswanathan’s The Toss of a Lemon a young Brahmin widow shocks her orthodox family by moving back into her husband’s house. This decision has ramifications for generations to come.

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Candy’s Favorite Books

We feature a staff favorites shelf every month at the Downtown Library.  This month one of our reference Library Assistants, Candy Huddleston, chose her favorite books for the shelf. Here are a few of them but stop by to see the rest (and check them out!).
Quilter’s Recipe Book by Celia Eddy
I Sing the Body Electric by Ray Bradbury
Assiti Shards Series by Eric Flint (“1632” is the first book in the series)
Chet Gecko Mysteries by Bruce Hale (14 of them currently – “From Russia with Lunch” is the newest)
Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand

Check back each month for new “favorite books” - these are all available for check out.

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Book Club Recommendations

Many book clubs will be choosing their 2009 list this month and next.  Here are some suggestions that are different from the usual.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell
Iris Lockhart’s life is further complicated when she learns her great-aunt Esme, whom she never knew existed, is being released from a mental hospital after 61 years.

My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
Told concurrently by Jane Takagi-Little, a Japanese-American documentary filmmaker, andAkiko Ueno, the wife of Jane’s boss (in Japan), this quick read about the American meat industry is serious and well written.

Away by Amy Bloom
When Lillian Leyb’s family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, she comes to America alone and embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater in New York, to Seattle’s Jazz District, and up to Alaska toward Siberia.

Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan
Managing a failed seafood restaurant in a run-down mall, Manny DeLeon coordinates a final shift of mutinous staff members, an effort that is complicated by his love for a waitress, a pregnant girlfriend, and an elusive holiday gift.

The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
In a novel that moves back and forth between the Soviet Union during WW II and modern-day America, Marina, an elderly Russian woman, recalls images of her youth during the height of the siege of Leningrad.

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What’s your reading mood?

There seem to be at least as many suggested reading lists these days as there are websites for avid readers. Plenty of books full of suggestions too, but here’s a new one with an interesting and fun approach to choosing your next reading adventure–1001 Books for Every Mood.

Author Hallie Eprhon provides short lists for over 90 moods, from ‘a good laugh’ to ‘reinvent yourself.’ Each title has a short annotation plus a star rating and an icon that gives you a little more information such as ‘page turner’, ‘easy read’ or ‘family friendly.’ You’ll have so much fun reading about the books, you won’t have any time for the books themselves!

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12th Century England

When I returned to work after a recent ’staycation,’ I told people that I had been to Europe. After their look of surprise, I would add, “I went to 12th Century England. I read The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.”

I had heard about this book since it was published in 1989 but had always been put off by its 1000 pages.  Although the library request list for the book was long since it had been selected for her book club by Oprah, I got my copy just before my time off from work started. It was the perfect book to enable me to slip back into that lazy, luxurious feeling that summer vacation provided when I was a kid and was able to spend an entire summer day doing nothing but read.

Within the narrative framework of the building of a cathedral over the span of many decades, Follett has managed to create an extensive cast of fascinating characters whose lives intertwine over many decades. Priests, masons, bishops, outlaws and merchants are among the people we meet. Building a cathedral might not sound like the most exciting event around which to build a novel but within the first few pages a reader will become fascinated with the characters, setting and plot.

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From Support Services Library Assistant, Joan Medina

I recently finished Eclipse, the third book in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga. After I devoured Twilight (the first book in the series) last year, I found myself eagerly anticipating my turn to check out the next installments. The popularity of this series seems to have snuck up on book providers who originally under-anticipated demand. And I suspect that numbers for the request queue will only continue to swell as the author is currently listed number one for NY Times bestseller fiction and the movie-version of Twilight nears its holiday season release date – so place your request now before the queue gets any longer.

I must disclose that I am a huge fan of the paranormal fantasy fiction genre, specifically stories that feature action and suspense more than superficial romantic fantasy fluff. Series featuring the characters Rachel Morgan, Riley Jensen, Joanna Archer, Detective Inspector Chen, and early Anita Blake are among my favorites. I tend to avoid anything that says “paranormal romance” at the top of the spine. That being said, I had not heard anything about Ms. Meyer or her books before I checked out Twilight on a co-worker’s recommendation: “I don’t want to tell you anything about it, just trust me, you’ll LOVE it.” She was absolutely spot-on and I would recommend this series to any other fans of paranormal fiction.

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From Karen Nielson, Library Assistant at Shadle Library:

I just finished “Collateral Damage” by Fern Michaels. It is the latest of the ‘Revenge of the Sisterhood’ series.A fun and quick read, it has just the right amount of male bashing and intrigue with a dash of romance. Seven women find that Justice is often blind and that bad things happen to good people. They take it upon themselves to serve up justice outside the bounds of the law. Things get dicey and intense when seven women go after their prey. I would encourage interested readers to start at the beginning of the series with “Weekend Warrior” to get the full effect of this latest entry.

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