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.