Mind you, this is only a partial list of what I plan to read this summer and my starting point is going to be the Sci-Fi Summer readathon in June(not to mention My Year of Hemingway project, for which I will have an update soon). However, I thought it would be fun to share some of my literary mental vacation spots for the upcoming warm weather days:
A FINE IMITATION: Thanks to Blogging for Books, I have a chance to check out Amber Brock's debut novel which is set in New York during the decadent days of the Roaring Twenties. Vera Bellingham has the seemingly perfect life that many in her social circle would desire but her joyful,carefree lifestyle is just a hollow shell that conceals her boredom and loneliness.
When a French artist named Emil Hallan is commissioned for a mural to be painted above her fabulous underground pool, Vera finds herself not only in love but involved in a web of secrets and lies about more than one person's past that could change her life forever.
The story sounds intriguingly stylish and a good blast from the past with mystery and romance feels like a great recipe for a cool and classy literary cocktail:
HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE BACK: Speaking of a blast from the past, I decided to take up this previous work by Terry McMillan due to currently reading an ARC of her upcoming novel,I Almost Forgot About You, which also deals with a mature woman looking for a fresh change to her dull daily routine.
Now I know that the real life romance that the author had which helped to inspire this story didn't turn out too well(to put it mildly) yet seeing how well this tale of May-December romance holds up today ought to be interesting. Not to mention that some old dance steps never do go out of style:
THE BRIDGE LADIES: For something a bit more Golden Girls, I plan to engage with Betsy Lerner's memoir about the time she spent with her mother's bridge group. Upon moving back to her home town of New Haven,Conn in order to aid her widowed mom, Betsy slowly became a part of that inner circle of card playing women who she thought were simply outdated in their ways.
However, she soon learned that there was more to this group than sharing a game together. Upon interviewing each of the members, Betsy heard their stories of life,love and how women learned to cope with many of the situations that the younger generations are still facing today, only with much different methods and means.
Betsy does learn how to play bridge(something I've never done,although I can play some poker) and learns so much more about her own mother and her generation of women. This may sound like a rather sedate summer read but I think it can just as compelling as any fast paced fiction,even more so perhaps:
Miller is an author and editor who ,upon turning forty, decided to tackle some of the titles that he had neglected in the past. He didn't set up a strict timetable but did intend to read fifty books within a year. Some of his reads included Middlemarch, War and Peace and Moby Dick, which he found could be rather well compared and contrasted with The Da Vinci Code.
Books like this often have inspiring recommendations and while I don't know if TYORD will get me to try Moby Dick again or something completely different like The Master and Margarita,I am eager to look over his reading shoulder for a little while there:
I have several more books set aside for the summer(my list is a bit work in progress at the moment) and am happy to be on the look out for more. The best thing about summer reading,in my opinion, is that it's a great excuse to stay indoors. I know,I know, reading outside is considered the best by many but what with the heat, bugs and limited comfy seating, sitting by the fan with a cool drink and a good book is my ideal arrangement for summertime reading:
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