My Top Summer Reads

Well, I’m back from vacation in Ireland (absolutely gorgeous, and, yes, very green, and totally worth visiting), so I’m ready to roll with summer reading. I can tell you the books I am most excited about reading this summer, none of which have been published yet. All of the books on the top of my list are a little off-beat, supernatural even, because that is what I like best to while away the lovely, languid summer days.

First up is The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker, coming out August 1. I honestly don’t know if I can wait that long for this book as it has been described as a cross between Lev Grossman’s The Magicians and Deborah Harkness’ A Discovery of Witches, both of which I loved. Nora Fischer is a grad student whose life has come to an impasse. Her dissertation is stuck, and her boyfriend has dumped her for another woman whom he is about to marry. During a horrible weekend at a friend’s wedding, Nora stumbles through a portal into an alternate world of magic where she is transformed from a plain Jane grad student into a gorgeous beauty with glamorous friends and an incredibly handsome boyfriend. Is this too good to be true? In this case, the fairy tale does not have a happy ending as Nora’s world turns terribly dark, making it imperative that she learn magic to survive.

I have heard a lot of buzz about Jason Mott’s Returned, coming out on August 27, including that Brad Pitt has already bought the rights to film the book as a TV series to air in 2014. The book opens with our introduction to an elderly couple, Harold and Lucille Hargrove, leading an ordinary, quiet life right up until the moment they open their front door to find their son, looking exactly the same as he did on the day he died by drowning on the occasion of his eighth birthday in 1966. He is the first of the returned, the dead who are returning to life exactly as they were the day they died. How the Hargroves react and how their town and the country and then the world react to the phenomenon of “The Returned” is a fascinating prospect for any reader to contemplate. I can imagine the book discussion possibilities inherent in this book.

To be fair, my last book is not due to be published until September, but I am still excited at the thought of reading it – maybe I can get an advance reader’s copy. Help for the Haunted by John Searles has all the right ingredients to intrigue me – mysteriously murdered parents, lonely, orphaned sisters, creepy, possessed dolls. Plus Chris Bohjalian, an author whose opinion I value, said he was afraid to go in the basement after he stayed up all night reading it; what better recommendation do I need? 

Sylvie Mason, the 14-year-old narrator of Help for the Haunted, comes from an unusual family; her parents help “haunted souls” find peace. Late one winter night the Masons receive a call, but this call is not from a client but from Sylvie’s older runaway sister. Sylvie accompanies her parents to the church where they are to meet but stays in the car drowsing until she is awakened by the sound of gunshots. Fast forward a year, and Sylvie is living with her sister, trying to come to terms with her loss while hunting for the solution to the mystery of her parents’ deaths, uncovering family secrets from the past.

These are only a few of the many wonderful books coming out this summer that I will add to my reading list. Next time I promise I will mention some of the less fantastical books that will make great beach reads this summer.