by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian
Now that we’re past Memorial Day, it’s summertime – at least
by one definition. If your idea of
summer fun is reading a good book, you’re in luck: the summer book lists for
adults are coming out in one publication after another, and they look
intriguing. Let me tell you about some
that the Litchfield Library has in the collection or will be getting this
summer.
“City of Girls” seems to be on everyone’s list. Author Elizabeth Gilbert made a splash in
2006 with “Eat, Pray, Love” and has had other hits since then, both fiction and
nonfiction. This new novel, coming out
in June, is told from the perspective of an 89-year-old woman looking back on
her time in a New York City theater company in the 1940s when she was young. The theme of the book is that a woman can get
tired of carrying shame with her through life, and that you don’t have to be a
“good girl” to be a good person.
Pulitzer Prize and National Book award winner Colson
Whitehead has a new novel coming out in July, called “The Nickel Boys,” his
first since “The Underground Railroad.” Taking
on another portion of difficult American history, this novel is based on events
in an awful real-life reform school in Florida that operated for over one
hundred years. In the novel, an
idealistic black boy about to start college makes a mistake and gets sent to
Nickel Academy, which claims to train delinquent boys to become honorable men
but where the boys are actually abused, starved, and sometimes even
murdered. He makes a friend who has a
cynical view of the world, and both of their lives are changed by their
experiences at the reformatory.
Looking for something lighter? “The Wedding Party” by Jasmine Guillory is a
highly-anticipated romance. It’s set
within the same set of characters and events as two of Guillory’s other books,
“The Wedding Date” and “The Proposal,” but it’s not necessarily a series that
needs to be read in order. With a
classic romantic comedy set-up, the two main characters hate each other but
have a powerful attraction. As they work
together on responsibilities for their mutual best friend’s wedding, they keep
succumbing to the attraction, which they keep secret from everyone else. “The
Wedding Party” comes out in July.
You wouldn’t expect a collection of science fiction short
stories to be a bestseller, but it is.
“Exhalation” by Ted Chiang was published this month to critical acclaim
and strong sales. The movie “Arrival” was based on one of his stories, so he is
kind of a big deal. This new collection of nine stories includes tales about
time portals, alien scientists, and alternate universes, but he explores deep
questions about humanity. His writing
has been compared to Philip K. Dick, George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, and Edgar
Allan Poe.
It’s got quite the title, but the book “Stay Sexy and Don’t
Get Murdered” is on many a list of the anticipated books of this summer. Authors Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstack
are known to many from their hugely popular podcast “My Favorite Murder,” which
is described as true crime comedy. Kilgariff
and Hardstack are both comedians, and on the podcast they cover true stories of
murder, which they say is a way for them to deal with their own anxieties about
danger. The brand-new book addresses
their own life histories, and they advocate for women to put their personal
safety above being “nice” or “helpful” at times when that can be
dangerous. Author Jenny Lawson describes
it as “All the best advice your mother never told you.”
This summer will bring many other interesting new books,
including ones from Jennifer Weiner, Ruth Ware, Beatriz Williams, Laura
Lippman, and Pierce Brown. Stop in to
pick up an issue of BookPage magazine to get more ideas, or take a look at the
library’s shelf of new additions. You’ll
be ready to relax in a lawn chair with a good book.
