Chapter 14 - The Book of Summer

After a few weeks away crossing Provence, France from my life list, (see The Life List by Lori Nelson Spielman), I'm back and starting to create my summer reading TBR pile. There are a lot of books coming out in the next few months which have caught my eye and although my current pile has taken on a life of it's own - well almost a room of it's own really, I am always on the hunt for a few more good books.

Typically in the summer I read a variety of genres, although I usually skip True Crime or other non-fiction during this time. Summer to me has always been a time for nice, easy reads by the pool or on the beach. I tend to go for more character driven stories leaving my plot driven books to fall and winter reading. Of course I plan to indulge in Daniel Silva's next Gabriel Allon book, An Inside Job which will have a mid-July release.

Here then are some books which I think will be interesting this summer. You'll notice that some of them hit a few themes which I particularly favor.

Insignificant Others: A Novel by Sarah Jio - This book will check a lot of boxes for me. It has themes of time travel, second chances, and what if you chose the "road not taken". On the night when Lena expects her boyfriend of two years to propose, he breaks up with her. She goes to see her aunt in Seattle to pull herself together and when she wakes up she is in France, in bed with a man who says he is her husband. As she is given more glimpses of how her life could have been, Lena wonders which of her past romantic encounters was really "significant".

The Gatsby Gambit by Claire Anderson Wheeler - As this is the 100th anniversary of the publication year of The Great Gatsby I am not surprised that there are a few books which expand the story a bit. In this novel, Greta Gatsby fresh from boarding school, has come back to spend the summer at her brother Jay's house in West Egg. Meeting all Jay's friends - the elegant Daisy, handsome Nick Carroway, and angry Tom Buchanan - Greta is expecting a good time. When murder comes to the Gatsby home however, the last thing Greta expects is to become a sleuth.

The River Knows Your Name by Kelly Mustian - In The Stilt Girls, Mustian's debut novel, she captured the coastal south in the 1930's. Her latest book takes place in North Carolina and travels between the 1930's and 1970's. Sisters Nell and Evie have never mentioned what they found tucked inside their mother's copy of Jane Eyre. It was Evie's birth certificate naming another woman as Evie's mother. In 1971, 42 year old Nell begins to dig into the mystery of her sister's past and uncovers more than she bargained for.

The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner Jennifer Weiner's books are always great summer reads. In the early 2000's the Grossberg sisters, Cassie and Zoe, became the Griffin Sisters pop duo. Together they made it to the top, performing concerts and appearing on MTV. After one particularly turbulent year, the duo fell apart and the sisters became estranged. Now Zoe is a soccer mom and her daughter Cherry has decided she wants to get into the music business too. Zoe tries to warn her off but Cherry, like a dog with a bone, is digging into the past determined to find out what happened to this once popular duo.

Strangers in Time: A World War II Novel by David Baldacci - Of course my summer reading list would not be complete without a historical fiction book and Baldacci's latest sounds like a winner. Set in London in 1944, it is a story of 14 year old Charlie a poor boy who gets by with thievery and speed, and Molly who has just returned to London to find out her parents are not there. Taken in by a kindly and eccentric bookshop owner, Ignatius, the children find some comfort. But bad things are happening around them. Charlie's actions haven't gone unnoticed, someone's following Molly, and Ignatius? Well he has secrets of his own.

Which of these sound like a good summer read to you? Let me know!