| Article Index |
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| Shining Summer Stories |
| Rachel Pauls, Youth Librarian |
| Rosemary Mirsky, Adult Librarian |
| Matthew Day, Head Librarian, Support Services |
| Sarah Nagelbush, Adult Librarian |
| All Pages |
One of the great pleasures of summer is reading. Whether it's out on your backyard deck, up north at the lake, or even in a pup tent, it's the perfect time to indulge in a great read. Our staff has come up with an eclectic range of suggestions because it's not only the perfect time to throw a romance or a mystery in the beach bag, it's also a great time to tackle some challenging titles. Of course, let us know about the great titles that you have discovered. And don't miss the timely reads list that will be updated regularly as an eNewsletter.
“This novel is so well written. I felt for the characters as if I knew them personally,” Rachel writes.
The Lake, the River & the Other Lake by Michigan’s Steven Amick, examines the lives and loves of townies and tourists in Weneshkeen, a resort town on the shore of Lake Michigan.
“This novel takes place in northern Michigan,” Rachel writes, “The author refers to tourists as ’fudgies,’ which is quite comical.”
Sometimes Mine by Martha Moody tells the story of divorced cardiologist whose 12-year affair with a married man takes a decided turn when he is diagnosed with cancer.
“Martha Moody is an excellent author. She weaves emotional tales that are truly engaging,” Rachel writes.
Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
In her latest novel, Brooks takes a nugget of history and weaves a complex, character-driven tale that gives us an intimate look at life on Martha's Vineyard in the 1600s. The trigger for the novel was the author's discovery of the first Native American to graduate from Harvard. What the reader gets is an astonishing story of the culture clash faced by a young Native American man who is willing to forsake his own people and culture to enter a new world, and the price he pays for that passage. But the novel is made even richer by its narrator, Bethia Mayfield, a young girl who befriends Caleb Cheeshahteaumauck and who must confront the limits imposed by her gender at the time and by her minister father's work trying to bring Christ to the island's Wampanoag tribe. Caleb goes to Cambridge as a student and she goes as a servant, craving the kind of learning she can only receive by secretly listening in on the lessons only open to males. A lesser novelist would have made their relationship a romance, but Brooks delivers something much more moving and insightful. Bethia might just go down as one of the great young female narrators in fiction. This book is reminiscent of the author's fine 2001 historical novel Year of Wonders. In short, Caleb's Crossing is not to be missed, and would be a great read for book groups.
The Surrendered by Chang-Rae Lee
This novel has bedeviled me. I finished it two weeks ago and am still thinking about the three main characters and what the author is trying to tell us about the lasting impact of war and suffering. At the center of the novel is June, Hector and Sylvie, all flawed characters who have disappointed others and themselves. June Han is an orphan of the Korean War who is brought to an orphanage by GI Hector Brennan after witnessing the death of her mother and siblings. There June and Hector meet Sylvie Tanner, the flawed, fragile wife of the orphanage's director. She herself witnessed her own missionary parents killed brutally by Japanese soldiers in China years before. As June and Hector re-unite many years later trying to find June's son in Europe, they re-live their war experiences and how it has influenced their lives and relationships since. The novel is powerful, emotional and even disturbing in places, but it forces the reader to wrestle with the larger questions of surviving loss, betrayal and the limitations imposed on us not only by outside forces, but from within ourselves. Lee's other fine novels are now on my short list. I will begin with Aloft.
Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb
One of the theme's of this year's adult summer reading program is the many journeys we make in a lifetime, particularly if they involve experiencing a new world or culture different from our own. In this moving novel, Gibb gives us the story of the British-born Lilly who is orphaned in a Sufi shrine in Morocco following the death of her hippie parents. Her upbringing in the Muslim shrine and her extensive instruction in the Qur'an makes her a part of that world, but a stranger in a strange land when she flees to Harar, Ethiopia years later. Gibb does a wonderful job drawing a wide cast of characters and making the everyday events and religious and political views influencing Lilly's life come alive. Lilly and her white skin make life in Ethiopia a challenge, and her Muslim upbringing and religious instruction make her return to her British roots a contest as well. A great tale of someone caught between two cultures. Next on the list, Gibb's new novel The Beauty of Humanity Movement.
Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes
This debut novel is a great addition to the list of novels that depict life in war. In this searing novel, Marlantes has us follow the daunting journey of Marine lieutenant and platoon commander Wainos Mellas as he leads a squad into the jungles of Quang-Tri province. Named after the remote jungle base of the operation, Matterhorn depicts all the horrors and challenges of the daily grind of war by an author who himself is a decorated Marine who fought in Vietnam. This title is reminiscent of Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead.
City of Veils by Zoe Ferraris
No summer reading list would be complete without one or two compelling mysteries. This is the second title by Ferraris set in Saudi Arabia. In this book, Detective Osama Ibrahim is investigating the death of a woman whose body is found on a beach near Jeddah. The mystery not only has an intricate plot, but a great twist in exploring daily life for Muslim women, be it the victim of this killing, or Katya Hijazi, the forensic technician in the coroner's office who has a difficult time navigating the limited role of women in Saudi Arabia as she tries to help Ibrahim solve the crime. The author does a great job showing the daily life of devout women and men in contemporary Saudi Arabia and the challenges they face. At the heart of the story, too, is the American couple who is brought to Saudi Arabia by the young husband's overseas job, and the dilemmas they face in negotiating the local culture.
Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst
Spy fiction makes for great summer fare, so why not sample some from a respected author in the genre. Furst's eleventh novel is set in the Greek port city of Salonika in 1940, where senior police official Costa Zannis is busy ferrying German Jews from Berlin through Greece to Turkey. Furst is strong at depicting the Balkans setting, the time period and the intricate maneuvers of Zannis, who not only handles all the intrigue with great skill, but falls in love along the way. A strong spy read and a love story -- who could ask for more.
The Emmaus Readers: More Listening for God in Contemporary Fiction, edited by Susan M. Felch and Gary D. Schmidt
A few years ago the Library had the opportunity to have three of the authors in this anthology hold book discussions on three great novels. The three sessions made for lively book group discussions, and the earlier volume of The Emmaus Readers became a great source for books that are particularly well-suited for book groups. The contributors to the two volumes are from Michigan's Calvin College and are regular members of a book discussion group where they have wrestled with many of the insights about the 12 titles detailed in this latest volume. These well-written, insightful essays discuss how novelists use their craft to explore "significant" spiritual questions. This is a great tool for both individual readers and book groups.
Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East, edited by Reza Aslan
The relaxed pace of summer is perfect for my pursuit of poetry, essays and short stories. I am the first to admit that I often struggle to extract as much meaning from poetry as I should, but I find poetry soothing. To me, it is to be savored in small bites, and this volume fits the bill perfectly. I am still browsing it and am learning about a world of literature that is very much new to me. As the headlines are filled with news and analysis from the Middle East, this volume has poetry, short stories, essays and memoirs that offer another view – many in an English translation for the first time. Spanning many countries in the region and produced in lands scarred by colonialism, it is an intriguing volume.
It's summertime and to counterbalance the kind of light easy reading many people prefer in this season, I recommend two titles that are anything but light or easy. In keeping with the theme of the reading program, both are journeys, be it of a vertical kind -- one through deep time and the other through realms of the spirit. Use the season to exercise your mind and expand your understanding.
The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution by Richard Dawkins
Using a format based on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the author traces humanity's ancestral tree all the way back to the beginning of life on earth some 4 billion years ago. Dawkins' pilgrimage consists of 40 tales each one based on a particular organism that has an evolutionary role in the epic story leading up to us. Each tale employs a wealth of detail drawn from fossil evidence, genetics, morphology, and ecology to demonstrate evolutionary principals such as how sexual section in peacocks pertains to our standing upright or how the nervous system of the platypus relates to the mind-body connection in humans. These kinds of apparent digressions take the reader into fascinating side stories before bringing him back into the main flow of the book backwards through time. This thick book, densely but extremely well written and encyclopedic in scope, is science writing at its best, at once authoritative and conversational in style. Your investment of time and effort in Dawkins' magnum opus will be richly rewarded.
The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why it Endures by Nicholas Wade
As the subtitle implies, the book attempts to answer two related questions but is really successful only in explaining the former one. The author's perspective is that of evolutionary biology, and religion is therefore the result of natural selection which enhanced the survival of early humans because religious beliefs and rituals promoted group cohesion, cooperation and the like. The author then further maintains that group cohesion and bonding are also why it endures but overlooks the fact that in large developed societies there are a variety of other institutions which have taken over that social function just as he overlooks the value of religion to individuals. That of course would go a long way to explain the latter question but because of the primacy of visionary and other interior states it also points to the difficulty of understanding religion at all. But perhaps I am expecting too much from the book. All in all, the author is writing for the general public and provides a good starting point for going further into what is a strange and very human landscape.
Young adult suggestions with descriptions provided by NoveList, a database covering novels and non-fiction titles.
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
When Anna's romance-novelist father sends her to an elite American boarding school in Paris for her senior year of high school, she reluctantly goes, and meets an amazing boy who becomes her best friend, in spite of the fact that they both want something more.
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly
An angry, grieving seventeen-year-old musician facing expulsion from her prestigious Brooklyn private school travels to Paris to complete a school assignment and uncovers a diary written during the French revolution by a young actress attempting to help a tortured, imprisoned little boy--Louis Charles, the lost king of France.
Bad Kitty by Michelle Jaffe
While vacationing with her family in Las Vegas, seventeen-year-old Jasmine stumbles upon a murder mystery that she attempts to solve with the help of her friends, recently arrived from California.
The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart
A Seattle fifteen-year-old explains some of the reasons for her recent panic attacks, including breaking up with her boyfriend, losing all her girlfriends, tensions between her performance-artist mother and her father, and more.
Heist Society by Ally Carter
A group of teenagers uses their combined talents to re-steal several priceless paintings and save fifteen-year-old Kat Bishop's father, himself an international art thief, from a vengeful collector.
My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger
Three teenagers in Boston narrate their experiences of a year of new friendships, first loves, and coming into their own.
Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohen and David Levithan
High school student Nick O'Leary, member of a rock band, meets college-bound Norah Silverberg and asks her to be his girlfriend for five minutes in order to avoid his ex-sweetheart.
Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
When Paul falls hard for Noah, he thinks he has found his one true love, but when Noah walks out of his life, Paul has to find a way to get him back and make everything right once more.
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
When two teens, one gay and one straight, meet accidentally and discover that they share the same name, their lives become intertwined as one begins dating the other's best friend, who produces a play revealing his relationship with them both.
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
Having been recently dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, recent high school graduate and former child prodigy Colin sets off on a road trip with his best friend to try to find some new direction in life while also trying to create a mathematical formula to explain his relationships.
Rose Sees Red by Cecil Castellucci
In the 1980s, two teenaged ballet dancers--one American, one Russian--spend an unforgettable night in New York City, forming a lasting friendship despite their cultural and political differences.
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