Summer Reading

I haven't been doing as much recreational reading since I opened the store last February. The main fare has been business books relating to retail and perusing catalogs, but lately I have gotten back into reading to relax. Here are a few of my favorites.

Lisa See's book about her family's immigration and their story of living in the US. It is a fascinating book. I highly recommend it.

1491 is a scholarly book that paints a vivid picture of the Americas before the white man came and how the original explorers and settlers decimated the existing tribes. Everyone should read this.

I have always been interested in reading about the American writers and artists who lived in Paris in the mid 1800s through the early 1900s. I love this book, The Greater Journey, with all the stories and references. It made me look up paintings, books and so many other things online.

I seldom, if ever, read formula books like Nora Roberts writes, but this one was about restoring an old Inn. Ms Roberts' descriptions of the restoration and the decorating had me from the first page.

What would you recommend to read this summer?

Comments

[Tuscan Rose]

I just finished 11/22/63 and loved it. It was one of the best reads in a long time. I have just started Gone Girl which so far is also good.

patty

[Tracey Truly]

I'm going to admit something....I read ALL of Nora Robert's books.....all of them. Own all of them, in fact when a new book is released I'm the geek purchasing it online in e-book format 1 minute after midnight (the soonest it's available) so I can have my fix..er...start reading right away.
When I first met Alan in person I had 2 luggage bags to take back with me to the states with him and I kid you not half of the stuff packed were my Nora Roberts books. haha We joke now about how dang heavy all those books were lugging through the airport..haha
Anyhoo, they are formulaic but they are like water for my brain..sort of easy to gulp down and she can paint a picture words that I see very easily in my mind.
I enjoyed the Boonsboro Inn books, I enjoyed googling the actual Inn she built (the books are based on real businesses that she and her sons have in Boonsboro, pretty cool, fictional stories woven through her actual Inn, restaurants etc)
I agree her descriptions of renovating etc are a lot of fun, it's like tagging along inside someone else's brain when they are shopping or deciding colours...no big mind bending, earth shattering fiction, just light and fun. Like being a tourist in someone else's profession from their perspective...
I am re-reading one of hers at the moment where the main character is a baker and setting up a catering business and running a little cafe and I've said to Alan a zillion times that Nora Roberts could just write an endless stream of that stuff...no plot, just day in and day out mind buzzing details of cakes and paper doilies and big espresso machines and menu creation and I'd just suck it all up...
Which...come to think of it are sort of like blogs right?
No plots exactly, just these satisfying descriptions of other people's lives and work and stuff...
Ok, gonna stop gushing now....
:D

[Debra Terry]

Ha! Reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley! Yum!