What Are You Reading?

 LUCY BURDETTE: Can you believe we’re into August already? It’s been a very busy summer with lots of family visiting and new worries about the virus and what it will mean for our futures. The one thing that stays steady and calming is books of course! Here are a few I’d recommend...

Katherine Center is a reliable must-read for me and last night I finished WHAT YOU WISH FOR. She has a way of describing the most endearing characters and communities--this time it’s a school librarian in an elementary school on Galveston Island in Texas. Can you be charming and light even while tackling heavy issues? This writer definitely can.

Many of you know our JRW pal Sarah Stewart Taylor. I loved her Sweeney St. George series, back in the early 2000's. After a break from mystery, she is back with a wonderful new series taking place in both Dublin and Long Island, and featuring detective Maggie D'arcy. The Mountains Wild follows two timelines, two countries, and two cousins as Maggie tries desperately to solve the cold case of her beloved cousin Erin's disappearance 20 years earlier. Highly recommended.

And finally, one of the events with John’s family last week was a lunch I arranged for the sister-in-laws where Jacques Pepin was the speaker. He’s so lovely and full of funny stories--especially about Julia Child. Of course I bought his beautiful new cookbook, QUICK AND SIMPLE. 

JENN McKINLAY: I just picked up that Katherine Center book! Very excited to read it. I’ve been on an awesome book bender, where I haven’t had a clunker yet. Here are the highlights: 

Circe by Madeline Miller - brilliant! Especially if you love tales of Greek gods. Unlike anything I’ve ever read and I couldn’t put it down.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - also fabulous. An opportunity to see the paths not taken in life and to confront regret. I loved it.

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson - what a trip! I’ve been listening on audio and I may have to give up writing because he’s just soooo good — I feel like a fraud. 

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes - lovely. I had to take a second run at this one as I wasn’t in the right headspace the first time. I’m so glad I did. 

So far it’s been a summer of great reading! 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, I read The Midnight LIbrary, too, Jenn. Loved it--and it really does make you rethink regrets. 

Do you all remember the fabulous Sarah Strohmeyer, who wrote the Bobbles series, and The CInderella Pact? She’s written a thriller, DO I KNOW YOU? About a woman who is a super-recognizer. It’s amazing,really riveting, and I am urging you all to look for it. We’ll have her here, too, of course.

And E.V. Adamson’s FIVE STRANGERS.  The name is a pen name for my fave, ANdrew Wilson, and this book is a terrific Rashoman-y thriller. But everyone sees exactly the SAME thing!  So good.

And please please please do not miss Wanda Morris’s EVERY LAST SECRET.  Go, right now, and look for it. A debut thriller, very powerful, wry and bitter and fearless. Sort of John Grisham meets The Other Black Girl.

 And Amada Jayatissa’s MY SWEET GIRL.  I say--whoa. Incredible. She’s one of the first Sri Lankan women to get an international book deal, and as my blurb says: “Ridiculously good. Crazy good. Scary good.” 

 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Jenn, Matt Haig is always a good read. Last time we talked books, I was reading some excellent science fiction; now I'm in a bit of a literary fiction (just plain novel?) mood. I have two books about finding meaning in the second (or third) act of life - HER TURN by Katherine Ashenburg and MEET ME AT THE MUSEUM by Anne Youngson. The former features an anonymous advice columnist who receives a letter from her ex-husband's newer, younger wife... and she answers back. Just came out today. The latter book also features letter writing between a widowed Danish professor and a lonely English farm woman. 

 

And of course, I can't NOT have a thriller on the pile: NOT A HAPPY FAMILY by Shari Lapena. It's the Mendez Brothers meets KNIVES OUT - how could I resist? I love stories of rich people behaving badly. 

 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Lucy, I am so envious of your seeing Jacques Pepin!! What a treat that must have been. And we've both been reading Sarah Stewart Taylor, but for me it was the second Maggie D'Arcy, book, A DISTANT GRAVE, and it was wonderful, too. Then the new Charles Todd, AN IRISH HOSTAGE. It is so good. If you've loved the Bess Crawford books so far, this is a MUST!

 

On the non-fiction side, a friend recommended Barbara Kingsolver's ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE, which is about the year she and her family committed to eating only what they could grow on their farm or buy locally. So eye-opening and fascinating.

And last but certainly not least, I've just finished Glen Erik Hamilton's new Van Shaw novel, ISLAND OF THIEVES, and it is an absolutely un-put-down-able roller coaster of a book. I highly recommend, AND I'll be chatting with Glen at the Poisoned Pen today, so do join us on the Pen's FB here, 6 p.m. PST.

Reds, fill us in, what are you reading these days?