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Did I buy books just so I could write this blog post? Yes. I'll use any excuse for book shopping. Here's what I'll be reading in the next few months.
Books To Read In Summer
Notes On A Scandal by Zoë Heller
Adult Literary Fiction
Schoolteacher Barbara Covett has led a solitary life until Sheba Hart, the new art teacher at St. George's, befriends her. But even as their relationship develops, so too does another: Sheba has begun an illicit affair with an underage male student. When the scandal turns into a media circus, Barbara decides to write an account in her friend's defense—and ends up revealing not only Sheba's secrets, but also her own.
Why I want to read it: "Want" is the wrong word because the subject matter sounds awful. However, I feel like this book has been popular for most of my life. Everybody else has read it. I feel left out.
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Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Adult Speculative Fiction
What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?
On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.
Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can—will she?
Why I want to read it: I love historical fiction, but I've somehow never read a Kate Atkinson book. It's time to fix that! I'm interested in the speculative elements of Life After Life.
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Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Adult Historical Fiction
Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.
Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.
Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.
Why I want to read it: Taylor Jenkins Reid is brilliant at developing characters. I've heard good things about this book.
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One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
Young Adult Mystery
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.
Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose?
Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.
Why I want to read it: I don't usually read mysteries or thrillers, but I need a fast-paced page-turner to get me reading again. I've had a hard time concentrating on books recently. I read 5 pages and then fall asleep.
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The Last Season by Eric Blehm
Nonfiction Biography
Blehm narrates this true account of the disappearance and search for Randy Morgenson, a National Park Service ranger who, one morning after 28 seasons on the job, failed to answer his radio call.
The introverted Morgenson was more comfortable with the natural world than with people. A gifted photographer and a lyrical writer, he dropped out of college to begin a career that would send him into the remote parts of California's Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Passionate about the mountains, he excelled at his responsibilities, which ranged from clearing away garbage left by careless campers to rescuing injured hikers. Dedicated to keeping the wilderness undisturbed, he was proud of his ability to leave no trace of himself wherever he camped.
That skill would prove costly when, at age 54, he went missing.
Why I want to read it: Stories about missing people will always intrigue and terrify me. How do they just vanish? Also, how did this guy survive 28 seasons as a park ranger? I'm on my 7th season, and my mind and body are falling apart.
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An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth: What Going To Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, And Being Prepared For Anything by Chris Hadfield
Memoir
Colonel Chris Hadfield has spent decades training as an astronaut and has logged nearly 4000 hours in space. During this time he has broken into a Space Station with a Swiss army knife, disposed of a live snake while piloting a plane, and been temporarily blinded while clinging to the exterior of an orbiting spacecraft. The secret to Col. Hadfield's success—and survival—is an unconventional philosophy he learned at NASA: prepare for the worst and enjoy every moment of it.
In An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, Col. Hadfield takes readers deep into his years of training and space exploration to show how to make the impossible possible. Through eye-opening, entertaining stories filled with the adrenaline of launch, the mesmerizing wonder of spacewalks, and the measured, calm responses mandated by crises, he explains how conventional wisdom can get in the way of achievement and happiness. His own extraordinary education in space has taught him some counterintuitive lessons: don't visualize success, do care what others think, and always sweat the small stuff.
Why I want to read it: Chris Hadfield is an entertaining dude. I love watching him talk about science. He's funny and passionate.
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The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Adult Fantasy
Told in Kvothe's own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen.
The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.
Why I want to read it: I'm in the mood for a good fantasy series. I need something chunky that I can get lost in. This series looks promising. It sure is chunky.
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You Like It Darker by Stephen King
Adult Horror Short Stories
“Two Talented Bastids” explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills. In “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,” a brief and unprecedented psychic flash upends dozens of lives, Danny’s most catastrophically. In “Rattlesnakes,” a sequel to Cujo, a grieving widower travels to Florida for respite and instead receives an unexpected inheritance—with major strings attached. In “The Dreamers,” a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored. “The Answer Man” asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.
Why I want to read it: I'm on a lifelong quest to read every Stephen King book. This one is next. I'm excited because I love a good short story.
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What are you reading this summer?
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