Bookseller Summer Reading: Part 2

Diane Grenkow is the second bookseller to ring in with an answer to our "back to school" question: What did you read this summer? 

Here are some of the books I've read this summer.  I really did read The Pickled Pantry even though it is about pickling and doesn't really tell a story exactly.  Except maybe the story of summer.  I read it cover to cover anyway and stuck slips of paper in where there are recipes I want to try.  It turns out, it would have been easier to mark the ones that I DON'T want to try.  I have been reading Anne of Green Gables books to my daughter and wishing we could run off to Prince Edward Island.  My son suggested I read the Ranger's Apprentice series and I'll admit I picked up the first one just to be nice because he asked me to.  Then I couldn't put them down and neglected the things that should have been pickled because I was too busy reading the whole series.  Whoops!  The Man Who Quit Money provided food for thought about how to live one's life and how to relate to money and what we do to get it and keep it that might not be in our best interest.  I love Archer Mayor and Toni Morrison, whatever they write.  Birds of a Lesser Paradise, a collection of stories, and Wild took me places the way you want a good summer read to take you.  Right now I am reading Louise Erdrich's forthcoming novel, The Round House.  It tells a brutal story but I'm completely taken with it so far.

Bookseller Summer Reading: Part 1

Hey! We're back! And we're turning a (virtual) fresh page on the blog with a new series of bookseller Q&A.

For the first question, we're tweaking the quintessential "What I did on my summer vacation" a bit and asking, "What did you read this summer?"

Our first answer comes from Edgar Davis, who has two books to recommend:

Blonde Faith, by Walter Mosley, is part of the Easy Rawlings Detective Series which includes Devil in a Blue Dress and Little Yellow Dog. This installment deliver the same detailed, imaginative and introspective narration from the story's hero, Ezekial Rawlings, a private-eye and Korean War veteran who makes his home in the L.A. of the 1950's, 60's and 70's. While using his detective's skill  to aid a member of of his close-knit African-American community, Easy's own life becomes complicated when he's abandoned by Bonnie, the love of his life.

The Devil's Storybooks, by Natalie Babbitt, is a delightfully collection of fables written with a rare combination of light-heartedness and sharp wit. The tales are both funny and profound. A good book for anyone from 13 to 30.