Summer! Time for escapist reading at the beach, rose geranium lemonade, soaking up as much sun as possible before the winter frosts creep back in. Some of these I’ve read and liked – I stayed up until 2 a.m. last night finishing The Flight of Gemma Hardy, others are just on my list for the rest of the summer. I seem to be leaning heavily toward old New England & Downton Abbey time periods. What are you reading this summer?
click on the covers for info!
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Because I see a NYRB book on bottom right corner, and because of summer, you should read Tove Jansson’s “The Summer Book.” It’s short vignettes between a grandmother and a grand-daughter on a Scandinavian island in the summer. It’s pretty, kind of sad, very sweet.
I’m on a magical & Russian kick, I guess, because I’m right now at the same time re-reading “Master and Margarita,” and also half-way through Catherynne M. Valente’s “Deathless.”
Oh, i have Deathless on my iPad but haven’t gotten into it yet. How is it?
I like it! She makes my cultural folklore seem interesting and more updated. She weaves the stories of the folk tales with a sarcastic look at people’s ideologies during Communist times. Her prose is interesting, she writes like a poet rather than a novelist. I have a few nitpicky things about the book but they’re all because I’m a Russian reading about my folklore written by an American. She definitely gets “honorary Russian” status.
Very much second the Summer Book!
Oooh, Wild Life sounds amazing – thanks for the heads up! My summer reading list includes: Witches on the Road Tonight, The Physick of of Deliverance Dane, Hunger Games trilogy (yes, I’m waaay behind the curve on this one. Resisted for so long, but the Dianic warrior heroine trope appeals to me, I confess. Same re: BRAVE!), and lots of Nicholson Baker (The Anthologist became an instant favorite, need to read more by him). I recently finished Jonathan Carroll’s Land of Laughs, which I loved – need to read more by him, too. Happy Solstice! XO
I’m not seeing any covers??
What browser? Try reloading / restarting?
firefox. i tried reloading.
Covers originally didn’t show up for me in FF either, turns out Adblock Plus blocked them.
Ah thanks! I used the Amazon widget maker to save time and I think it adds a little weird thing. I deleted that so maybe it’ll work now?
Adblock Plus is still blocking them. However it’s really easy to disable on specific sites when needed so it’s not too much of a hassle.
Maybe you could add a little note about that?
Oooh! What a list! I just finished Arcadia. So, so beautiful. I think I wept through a good half of it. Next up will probably be Into the Forest as its been on my to-read list for ages. I also need to catch up on Lauren Groff’s short stories which I somehow managed to miss before now… Have you read Prodigal Summer? I read it several years ago and thought it was such a perfect summer read…
I REALLY liked Into the Forest, & the fact that I was living around where it was set when I read it made it come to life even more.
I haven’t read Prodigal Summer, I’ll add it to the list!
can i be annoying and ask for a printed list? i don’t need links or anything
right now i am reading “the dud avocado” by elaine dundy, which is very cute.
i am reading Arcadia next, and many graphic novels.
nevermind i just did a page source and copy + pasted links. still baffled why they aren’t showing up in my browser (tried IE, too).